The Connection Newsletter 25 - Life is hard

The Connection Newsletter 25 - The first step is, don’t

September 17, 2018

Hello!

This is edition #25 of

The Connection

, the weekly email I send family, friends, and future friends (hello!) Glad you're here.

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Everytime you move into another phase of life, you’ll find a new set of challenges to solve. This seems to be true in every arena:

  • Career - Every person who’s landed their “dream job” eventually outgrows the dream.

  • Money - At first, you’re just trying to make rent. Then, you want to invest. Later, estate planning and life insurance.

  • Love - The first challenge is meeting someone. Then there are challenges in courtship, then in marriage, and later, in raising children. It’s always love, it’s always different.

Accept that the challenges never go away, but instead evolve. Here are some ideas I’ve been considering to help navigate that world.

Next, onto this week’s article. We’re looking at the food business: how does UberEats fit into the Uber strategy, why you shouldn’t open a restaurant, and how to troll McDonald’s.

…

. Uber’s bundling strategy is why Uber is here to stay.

“The biggest payoff, though, comes from effectively bundling opportunities for drivers. The problem for any standalone restaurant delivery app is that the vast majority of orders come at lunch and dinner, but the driver may wish to work at other times of the day as well. With Uber that is easy: just pick up riders (Uber drivers can drive for just Uber, just UberEats, or both). In other words, Uber has more and more ways to monopolize a driver’s time, to the driver’s benefit personally and Uber’s benefit competitively.” 

…

. Kenji Lopez-Alt of Food Lab fame, opened his restaurant, Wursthall, in San Mateo, California a few years ago. In this podcast (which includes a full transcript) Mr. Lopez-Alt describes the step-by-step process to open your own restaurant:

“So, the first step to opening a restaurant is, don’t. Opening a restaurant is a series of putting out fires every single day. I mean, even once you’re open, it’s still a series of putting out fires. Step one: don’t.”

(H/T - James Yip for recommending this podcast!)

…

. The Chipotle of sushi has established a residency in Alabama. This review is hilarious.  

“...The employees cutting the sushi don't use "knives" or "high-grade Japanese steel" to cut the sushi rolls. No, they just pop it in a sushi cutter box-of-blades thingy and pull down on the lever. It's like a bagel cutter but for sushi. I asked an employee how many times per day the box was cleaned. They don't clean the box daily, he said, but assured me that the blades inside the box were cleaned every night.”

…

. Two students created an alarmingly professional McDonald’s poster featuring themselves and then managed to hang it in their local restaurant. Fifty-one days later, the poster had still gone unnoticed by staff.

…

Quote I’m thinking about:

“My dad used to get super bent out of shape when we get a complaint. I'm like, ‘Dad, I love complaints.’ I want to hear everything because when I'm not hearing it, I'm not in control. “I'm dangerous as a customer. I go to a restaurant, if the waiter fuckin' punches me in the face, I won't say a word. I don't know how to complain but I just will never go back.

“To me, if somebody's saying they're mad at me, it means they care. It means they're still in the circle, means I can learn from it. To me, I worry about the people who just unfollow and never said anything about it.” -

Gary Vaynerchuk

Thanks for reading!

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