2021 wrapped for Jeroen's newsletter
What was my best post? + Bad posts and more.
This is probably my last post.
Of the year. GOTCHA. Silly Jeroen, stop it you.
A little recap with some reflections and numbers on my first year of my newsletter.
🤩 1. Thank you, you are awesome!
In general: you have been quite the audience. Each week more and more people are reading my newsletter.
Thanks for all the likes, (in-person) comments, shares and votes. Each newsletter takes a couple of hours to write, and I'm happy to see that it's appreciated.
My message to you: Keep on reading, responding and voting.
Also, thanks to all the people that have proofread, were guineapigs for article ideas and people that I could interview.
💡 2. Any questions?
Q&A: I wanna hear from you
Can I tackle a problem in a newsletter from our readers? There must be some things that we can learn from. Is there anything you want to know?
Experiment:
Are there any topics that you would like to hear my take on?
Are you stuck with your startup? Open coaching?
Are there any difficulties that you experience when coaching startups?
Do you have a failure or insight we can learn from?
Let me know: email or DM (Twitter) me.
3. Lies, damned lies, and statistics*
My 2021 wrapped. Here we go.
🗞 20 editions in 2021
I mean, I was not cancelled after one episode like some TV shows are. Check out this ‘Television series cancelled after one episode’ Wiki entry.
✍️ 23.500 words
That’s about 47 pages. If you lay these 47 pages in a line, you get 13,1 meters which is roughly the length of the 2nd largest Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever identified.
👀 10.000+ article views
That’s about half a view per word. So, if I would write more words… (This metric purposefully doesn’t make sense)
🥰 NPS of 59
If you don’t know what NPS is, read this. I consider my voters that vote ‘Great’ promotors, and my voters that vote ‘Meh’ detractors.
This gives me an NPS of 59. Pretty good.
This calculation is a bit silly, I know. But only 9% Meh votes seems nice.
Almost 250 Subscribers
Nearing 250 subscribers. Is 250 good? Yes. I think it is, for starting out.
The fact that I'm showing quite steady growth makes me happy. It seems that the growth increases very slightly. So, fingers crossed for that to continue.
I read that getting to 1000 subscribers on substack is worth celebrating, so a quarter down!
Want to help me to get to 250? Share me!
Who are your fellow readers?
I've got a mix of the following subscribers from countries from all around the world:
Founders
People that work with startups (incubators etc)
Students
Researchers
Because I just got emails, I can't give you a distribution, but based on what I can deduct I would say it's a nice mix. My guess would be
30% founders
30% working with startups
30% students
10% researchers and teachers.
Which posts perform well?
New record: the Pieter Pot story has over 1130 views
This was the best post of the year. I got messages that it reached Oslo and Copenhagen!
Which posts perform poorly?
I tried to categorise the things that I write about. I write about
Case studies (PieterPot, ScienceSays)
Mental frameworks (4 types of problem-solution fit)
Practical tips (mental health, feasibility)
Science summaries (VC science, Procrastination science)
One bad apple
Remember these polls at the bottom? It helps me with this.
With the data and the surveys—thanks for voting—I could see how each of these performed.
The science summaries underperform. Also, these articles get in fewer votes in general (not visible in this graph). No engagement → No voting. Makes sense.
This is why I’m planning to stop paying attention to these types of articles. For me, they were not the most insightful to write about as they are very generalistic.
Jeroen’s take
Most of you will rightfully say that most entrepreneurship research is not relevant for practice. To overcome this, a 2019 article advocates for ‘engaged scholarship’. With this, they vouch for the shorter format, actionable type of articles that resonate with practice. Hello!
My newsletter helps me to synthesize fledgeling ideas of my research. It has multiple benefits. It forces me to keep on asking: What can I share with people in practice?
It keeps me sharp and forces me to keep writing, even when I’m not working towards a submission for a journal or conference.
I often use my frameworks in class and mentoring, so it gives me teaching tools. People respond to my ideas, so I can see where my generalisations fall short and learn from that. Slowly building my ideas.
I’m aiming that the pieces of this newsletter will be an official part of my PhD. More on this later.
Newsletter tip: CouranD (Dutch)
A bi-weekly compilation of the latest tech, business and media news
A PhD buddy of mine has an interesting Dutch newsletter. It features new technologies and what happens in the world. It is bi-weekly and packed with all the ins and outs of what big media outlets and weird niches write about. With this newsletter, you can’t miss a beat of tech news.
As part of my growth strategy, I will from time to time feature something here. As exchange, they will feature me too in theirs.
How was this article?
Great - Good - Meh
Any vote helps me, makes me smile like that first day at the disco.