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On today’s episode of our Equity podcast, the team dives in to ponder whether First Republic’s stock drop is a victim of the SVB’s collapse, or if something else is in the water. It’s worth a listen – as always!
Another not to be missed today is Jaquelyn‘s Chain Reaction newsletter, breaking apart what’s lurking as Binance.US sailed away from its $1.3 billion deal with Voyager.
Have a nice weekend, kids. Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do. So, while we’re kind of weird, you have quite a few options, to be honest. And actually you should do a lot of things we wouldn’t do. For example, go parasailing, listen to the most annoying sound in the world or bake a cake all day. Or maybe create a new bluegrass/funk/j-pop fusion band, written by ChatGPT.
Contents
The businesskinda.com Top 3
- The beginning of the end?: Alex got wind of First Republic Bank’s stock troubles earlier today, writing that shares had fallen 40% on reports that the government could intervene. He writes: “That is not good for the bank or its customers. While the U.S. government, during SVB’s time in barrel, ensured that all of its deposits would be safe and accessible, there’s no clear indication yet that this is a new de facto policy, or that First Republic clients will enjoy similar protections .
- Missing: Manic looked at Amazon’s earnings and saw a glaring omission: the absence of its business in India, which he notes is a first in years.
- Adult: Brave Search no longer uses Bing’s index for its search engine, reports Ivan.
Startups and VC
Dramaaaaa. It’s not often that startup rivals compete in front of others, but that’s the case with mobile messaging provider Postscript, which took to the Twitterverse earlier this month after receiving a cease and desist letter from competitor Attentive, Christine reports. Attentive’s letter was in response to a customer case study that Postscript wrote and posted on its website about food company BUBS Naturals, which stated that BUBS Naturals left Attentive for Postscript after discovering that its list was actually shrinking instead of growing, and then with the company fought to move its listing from its platform.
To make services sharia-compliant, a new wave of fintechs are charging no interest, embracing profit-sharing and avoiding alcohol and tobacco transactions. Catherine reports.
And here’s a nice tailwind to start the weekend with:
How we used data-driven personas to revolutionize the customer experience
Image Credits: Hannah Plonsak (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images
Instead of extracting information from user interactions to create avatars that represent real customers, many teams will substitute their own judgment and guesses about what people like and dislike.
Impartner VP of product Gary Sabin says his company “dove into the numbers” and “looked at 250 data points” to develop “persona-based services in deployment, customer support, and customer success.”
After a year, the company generated higher customer satisfaction scores and NPS scores. “These personas work for us,” says Sabin. “Your customer data can lead you to create the personas that matter most in your customer base.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
businesskinda.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams lead the way. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
Tired of just reading endless posts on Reddit? Ready to get more involved? You’re in luck: Reddit is testing Discord-like channels for community chat. And no, these won’t be the same kind of community chat rooms that Reddit discontinued in 2020. Ivan writes that these new channels “will give moderators more control and will have a dedicated channel for moderators to chat about managing the subreddit. Plus, they can decide if they want to enable this feature for the community in the first place.
Before you go to the weekend, you have five more:
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.