A Year of (Focused) Chaos

What went well and what didn't go well in 2024, and what's to come... (#86)

ChatGPT prompt: “comic book style image representing ‘focused chaos’”

When I launched Focused Chaos two years ago I didn’t have a real plan for what I wanted to do. I wrote weekly for the first year, covering a variety of topics, including:

• Venture studios

• Startups / entrepreneurship (broadly)

• Product management

• And more…

I knew Focused Chaos would be more chaos than focus—and I’m OK with that. Targeting 3 or 4 audiences isn’t ideal. One week I’m talking to product managers and the next week it’s venture studio operators. Etc.

C’est la vie.

This year I’ve posted less, only 29 times. Over the last few months it’s been once a month (after publishing bi-weekly for a bit). Writing is tough! Coming up with useful topics that are meaty and valuable for people is a lot of work. I love writing, but it’s not for the faint of heart.

Consistency and perseverance, ftw.

Work is crazy busy

As I look ahead to 2025, work is great. There’s a lot going on at Highline Beta and I’m excited about the direction we’re pursuing. Eight years in and we’re still figuring things out. It’s wild, but expected. It was not all 📈 — we’ve had incredible ups and downs. Every startup experiences the rollercoaster, Highline Beta is no different. You stare out over the cliff and see nothing but fog, with a few dollars in your pocket, more bills than you know what to do with, and no sense of what’s below…and then you jump.

Work is hectic. Our approach at Highline Beta—being opportunistic, experimenting, scaling our ambition, etc.—lends itself to a lot of, well, focused chaos. 😀

Highline Beta is my priority, but Focused Chaos is an extension of my work. And I’m committed to it.

Focused Chaos in 2025

Focused Chaos won’t get narrower in subject matter. It shouldn’t go broader either, but you never know. A few things I’d like to do:

• Bigger projects & research/surveys: In January I wrote “A Deep Dive into Time to Value (TTV)” based on a survey of users. The goal was to understand how people use TTV as a metric, think about it, optimize for it, etc. It wasn’t a massively in-depth analysis, but I found it interesting.

• More interviews: I spoke with a few people this year including Yana Welinder (From Lawyer to Product Lead, Founder, Investor & Community Builder). Unfortunately these posts aren’t the most popular, but I ❤️ them, because I get to learn from people I admire. A podcast format may be better, but I’m not starting a Focused Chaos podcast!

• Bring on guest writers: There are a lot of smarter, more interesting people than me out there. Not all of them have a huge platform, but they have valuable things to say and stories to share. I haven’t had guest authors yet, but I will in 2025. (If you want to write something for Focused Chaos, ping me!)

• Publish bi-weekly: I’d like to get back to a bi-weekly cadence. We’ll see if I can pull that off. I’m going to do some planning over the holidays.

Ultimately my goal is to create value. If you think I’m accomplish that, please like this post, share Focused Chaos with others and subscribe. If not, don’t do any of those things. 🤣

Most Popular Posts in 2024

So what worked in 2024? Let’s take a look…

1. How to Raise Pre-Seed (and Seed) Financing for Your Startup: Bloody hell that’s a long post (I just re-read it). Fundraising is a popular topic, because it’s confusing, frustrating and everyone wants “the answer”.

2. How to Price an Early Stage B2B Software Product: There might be something in these “how to” posts. 😊

3. The Difference Between Product Management and Project Management: I expected this post to do well. If you’re going to tackle one of the most annoying debates of all time, you’ll get some clicks…

4. The Importance of Business Models to Building Great Products: I’m glad this was popular, because it’s a topic I care a lot about and find super important. I also enjoy busting out my visualization skills…

5. 16 Questions I Ask Founders When Investing at an Early Stage: Again, this is fundraising related (which is always a hot topic), but also personal. I like writing personal posts, because it’s a way to show people who I am. Key data point: My most popular post of all time is about one of my biggest regrets in life. There’s nothing like admitting all your mistakes!

Two things that are interesting from this data:

1. None of my top posts (based on views) are about venture studios. My posts on venture studios do well, but they don’t drive the most views. Views isn’t the real metric that matters though. My primary goal is engagement, networking and building thought leadership.

2. Venture studio content drives subscriptions. Views and new subscribers aren’t completely correlated. In aggregate, venture studio content generated the most subscribers, which tells me there’s a real appetite for that content.

For reference, here are the posts that drove the most subscribers:

1. How to Raise Pre-Seed (and Seed) Financing for Your Startup

2. The Future of Venture Studios is Vertical

3. What Comes Before Zero to One?

4. How to Build the Right Venture Studio Team

5. How to Price an Early Stage B2B Software Product (tied with 4th place)

Two other posts were tied for 4th/5th place (16 Questions I Ask Founders When Investing at an Early Stage and How to Define the Right Vertical for your Venture Studio).

Thank you

I want to thank everyone that’s supported me in 2024 with Focused Chaos. I continue to meet incredible people. Putting myself out there has only been a net positive.

I came up with the name “Focused Chaos” somewhat randomly (“Ben’s newsletter” doesn’t have the same ring to it). The name is growing on me. My life is literally focused chaos. It represents who I am, how I work and how I think. It feels like a place/space/mindset that a lot of founders and others in the startup / venture capital / venture studio ecosystems live in. If you like some chaos, with a dash of focus, and ramblings about venture studios, startups, product management and more, subscribe. 🙏

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