Adam Wilkinson
medium.com/@awilkinson · Personal blog · on HN since 2015
Adam Wilkinson of MetaLab and Tiny writes on Medium about startups, product building, company acquisitions, and running a sustainable business.
What HN saysCommenters recommend his 'Unicorns vs. Horses' essay for its perspective and point to 'The Power of Anti-Goals' as the one to read.
43HN people shared it
8linked it in comments
42stories submitted
663story points
6 years agolast shared
2015people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Slack's $2.8 Billion Dollar Secret Sauce11 people · 59 points · first shared 2015 · 2 comments on HN
- 2Tiny Acquired Dribbble11 people · 36 points · first shared 2017 · 1 comments on HN
- 3Unicorns vs. Horses: Why I Want to Be In-N-Out Burger, Not McDonalds5 people · 42 points · first shared 2015 · 1 comments on HN
- 4The Power of Anti-Goals5 people · 6 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 5Berkshire Hathaway of the Internet4 people · 437 points · first shared 2017 · 112 comments on HN
- 6Skateboard, Bike, Car: Building Products the MetaLab Way4 people · 48 points · first shared 2016 · 13 comments on HN
- 7We need to talk about startups3 people · 14 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 8Howard Stern Is Getting Ripped Off2 people · 9 points · first shared 2019 · 2 comments on HN
- 9Designer News 2.01 people · 5 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 10Fire in a Crowded Forest1 people · 3 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 11Lazy Leadership: Why I only see my team a couple times a week1 people · 2 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 12Business Kryptonite1 people · 1 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 13Growth Shouldn't Hurt1 people · 1 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
Unsimplified · 2020-11-25
The Great CEO Within. Free ebook. Popular (1K+ HN points). Good methods.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0…
Unicorns vs Horses. Article. Good perspective.
https://medium.com/@awilkinson/unicorns-vs-horses-f81d8dd61f17
mavus · 2015-07-14
We examined both Kato and Slack for internal use at our company a while ago. I personally preferred Kato's split pane chat windows and handling of multiple team (which Slack still doesn't do right). We also thought it was more competitively priced. After we had made a case internally for team chat, we started a full department trial of Slack, at which point point our users became fairly enamoured with it, and probably unwilling to uproot and change to a new service.
I have a feeling this matches the world at large for Slack. By implementing a very personable interface users seem to grow a positive emotional connection to the service. This reflects in their usage which is also positive and casual, encouraged by features like custom emoji. All this comes together into not the most practical and functional features on paper, but definitely the most enrapturing user experience.
A good read if you want to learn more about Slack's on going world domination: https://medium.com/@awilkinson/slack-s-2-8-billion-dollar-secret-sauce…
tiffanyh · 2019-06-27
For those not aware, Dribbble was acquired by Metalab/Tiny back in 2017 (and is briefly referenced under #20)
https://medium.com/@awilkinson/dribbble-2-0-c2cd1fa184c5#.8k5gezlet
troydavis · 2018-07-16
I know of one company which explicitly has this approach: http://tiny.website/
> We won't try to flip your business in 3-5 years. We won't mess with your team and culture. We won't lock you into golden handcuffs or push complex deal terms. We won't ruin your life with months of unnecessary due diligence. We won't renegotiate and grind you on terms.
> …
> We started Tiny to create the buyer we wish we could have sold to.
Background: https://medium.com/@awilkinson/the-berkshire-hathaway-of-the-internet-…
To my knowledge, no one else makes similar commitments to both keep good things as-is and also to buy and hold indefinitely. At least from the outside, Tiny's model is unique.
rcy · 2017-09-24
Skip reading this article and go straight to one referenced within it https://medium.com/@awilkinson/the-power-of-anti-goals-c38f5f46d23c
bgilham · 2017-01-17
The announcement from Andrew Wilkinson's side: https://medium.com/@awilkinson/dribbble-2-0-c2cd1fa184c5#.8k5gezlet
PersonalDay · 2015-10-02
1.2.: Business model for "horses" is to pay back shareholders by delivering a valuable service to actual customers at a reasonable price. Business model for "unicorns" is to build the largest possible user base to attract the largest possible investment inflows.
More information: Unicorns vs. Horses https://medium.com/@awilkinson/unicorns-vs-horses-f81d8dd61f17
arash_milani · 2015-04-14
Also may be related article, "Unicorns vs. Horses
Why I want to be In-N-Out Burger, not McDonalds":
https://medium.com/@awilkinson/unicorns-vs-horses-f81d8dd61f17