In a recent sleep study of 5,804 people, researchers observed that those who are married (in a co-sleeping arrangement) showed significantly higher levels of total and relative REM sleep as compared to those never married. REM sleep is associated with better memory, lower stress, better mental health, and longevity.

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Books have the ability to condense and transfer information efficiently. While some things can’t be learned from reading, reading gives you the benefit of other peoples' experience. Even if it’s lossy, building familiarity can turn something that felt opaque and scary into something you feel prepared to encounter.

See also:

• Reading is the transformation of a linked list of ideas into a tree which explains why it can be lossy when not done well
• Flesch Reading Ease Test show that you probably need to get past an 8th grade reading level in order to unlock the power of books

Sales are comprised of three thirds. One third of sales you will get no matter what as long as you talk to enough people. Another third are sales that will never be made. The last third is up for grabs and that’s what makes a good salesperson.

Three calls is all you should spend to make a sale. If you can’t close on the third call you are not going to make the sale and worse, they lead may run you around.

Factoring in the sales cycle length, you’ll see that sales you make now are from prospecting months earlier.

Scheduling the second appointment during the first appointment reduces the sales cycle.

Sales is a funnel so you can do better if you understand your ratio of appointments to prospects to sales. Sales people get into trouble when they don’t replenish their prospects fast enough leading to peaks and valleys. Figure out how many calls you need to make each day to meet your sales goals. The length of the sales cycle also contributes to this (e.g. if you stop prospecting and it takes six months to book revenue you’ll end up with a great month six months from now, but nothing before or after).

You need to do prospecting every single day.

Hearing ‘no’ means your are getting closer to a yes. Rather than be discouraged think about the ratios of appointments to prospects to sales. Each no is progress to a sale if you know your ratios.

Cold call scripts

Having a script for the cold call frees you up to think about what the customer is saying rather than what you are going to say.

Get their attention and remember people respond in kind. You want to start a conversation not a yes or no. The best way is simply, “Good morning <name of person>.”

Then tell them who you are and your company briefly. For example, “this is Alex from My Corp, <what you do in one sentence>”.

Give them a reason for your call which is always to set an appointment. You need to give a compelling reason to set the appointment. For example, “I’m calling today is to set an appointment and tell you about <product> and how it can <benefit>.”

Make a questioning or qualifying statement that will result in a favorable response. For example, “<persons name> I’m sure that you, like <reference customers> are interested in <primary benefit>.”

Finally, set the appointment by making a specific appointment time (you don’t want this to be another discussion about whether or not you will meet). For instance, “That’s great! Then we should get together. How about Tuesday at 3pm?” Is better than “what time works best for you?”

Tips

Use a mirror and smile to relax you larynx.

Time how long it takes to get through a call and block out enough time on your calendar each week to do it. This appointment with yourself guarantees your income.

Practice with someone.

Track the number of dials, calls, and appointments you get from them. Know your numbers so you can analyze and improve them.

Stand up when you make calls to sound more natural.

Use a landline instead of a cellphone so it sounds better, doesn’t drop, and isn’t distracting with the environment.

Turning around common responses

“I’m happy with what I have” don’t say “I understand”, say “that’s great you are <action from something you are happy with>, a lot of other companies like <reference customers> said the same thing before they had a chance to see how <thing you do> would compliment what they are doing in-house. We should get together. How does <specific date and time> sound?”. By being happy with what they have immediately qualifies them as a potential customer and rather than give up you create an opportunity to show them.

When someone says “I’m too busy” or to call them back later they are just politely blowing you off. Instead of saying “what’s a better time to call?”, say “the only reason I’m calling is to set up an appointment”. This likely raises another response like “I’m not interested” which you can turn around (as mentioned previously).

If someone says “mail me something” it implies they will take a look and have a conversation with you about it, but that doesn’t happen. In reality they will just forget about it. To respond say, “can’t we just get together? How about next Tuesday at 3pm?”. This will likely raise another response that you know how to handle.

The second response is the one that matters. Once you properly handle the first you’ll get another which gives you more information to allow you to turn it around into an appointment.

‘The ledge’ is a question that helps you regain control of the conversation. For example, if they say they are happy with what they have, ask them “are you using <company>?” They will naturally correct you so you can follow up with “we really should get together then.” If they say they are the wrong person (as long as you are sure they are the right person) ask say, “I’m just curious, what is it you do?”. This will either raise a new objection (which you can turn around) or lead to them telling you who the right person is so you can get a referral.

Third party and referral calls

A variation of the script is to use a reference in the opening. When you state the reason for your call (to get an appointment) include a third party reference like, “the reason for my call is that I just finished a successful <thing you do> with <notable reference customer>. In fact it <major benefit>. I’d like to set an appointment at 3pm Tuesday to tell you about the success we had with <notable reference customer>.”

Another variation is the referral call for when you cold called someone else and they were definitely not the right person but they told you who was. Instead of giving a long explanation just say “ hi <person>, I’m <who you are what your company does>. The reason I’m calling is that I just spoke with <name of person referring> and they suggested i give you a call to set up an appointment. How does Tuesday at 3pm work for you?”. This will lead to a response or objection you can handle as usual.

Leaving messages

When leaving a voicemail you can use the same third party reference from before. “Hi <person> this is <who you are> from <company> my phone number is <your phone number>. It’s regarding <reference customer>. When they call you back you go right into the reference pitch.

A high probability way of getting a return call is to leave a name. When you leave a message you say, “Hi <name> this is <who you are> from <company> I’m calling in reference to <name of someone who called before>.” They will call back and you can ask if something went wrong (usually a manager does this) this can lead to an opportunity for a ledge (we really should get together…). You can have a colleague make the initial call or you can call back old leads and leave their name. If pressed by a gatekeeper say “it’s a long story”.

If you can’t reach someone only make four attempts in one month once per week. Tell them about the last time you spoke and offer a specific time to meet. Even better, if you have a meeting in the area use that to put the ball in their court. For example, “I’m in <place> meeting with <company> which is 20 minutes away. I’d like to get together. Does <specific day and time> work?”

Cold calling be email doesn’t work. It’s best used as a way to follow up after a call with specific actions.

Follow up calls

“Good morning <person>, this is <who you are> from <company>. The reason I’m calling you today is because when we spoke in <time you last called and they said they were too busy> you suggested that I give you a call <when they told you to call back> to set up an appointment. Does next Tuesday at 3pm work for you?”

If they ask you to call months from now don’t wait. 30 days later say “I was just thinking about you” with an anecdote and “we should get together”. This can lead to a reminder and people respond in kind.

You can also tell them you will be in their area and you’d like to get together before then.

Around 10% of follow up calls will result in appointments.

The sales process

The objective of each step in the process is to get to the next step. Even if someone says wow that was a great meeting it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t get to the next step.

1. The opening stage - get to know them, short and sweet
2. The information stage - find information you need to make the right presentation. The key is finding out what people do, why, and how you can help them do what they want to do. The most important to understand is, “what are you trying to accomplish here?” which may take a few questions to get to. This stage is 75% of the sales process.
3. The presentation stage - present the case to buy your product using the information you gathered in the previous step. Don’t mistake demonstrations for presentations —the former is for gathering information, the latter is to close.
4. The closing stage - by now you’ve made the right presentation that shows how you can help them do what they do better. Simply say “Makes sense to me; what do you think?”

A book about how to set up a cold calling sales funnel by Stephan Schiffman.

See also:

• Literary Notes

Good salespeople know that a third of their sales come from doing nothing at all. If you talk to enough people, some will buy it. Like the people who sell hats in Times Square, merely asking if you want to buy one results in sales.

See also:

• Just making calls (no zero days) will result in a third of sales
• From Cold Calling Techniques

In physics, calculating a predicted value for gravity at the particle level for a given event is difficult, but there appears to be a relationship between forces that enables a neat hack to simplify the calculation. By doubling the ‘kinematic term’ as if they were pairs of gravitons, you can make accurate predictions without calculating the strong force. When applied to Black Holes this also works—they act as if they were pairs of charged particles.

Could this be another type of symmetry in quantum forces?

Read How Gravity Is a Double Copy of Other Forces.

While the exact details are unknown, Godel claimed to have discovered a contradiction in the US Constitution that could allow the democracy to be legally turned into a dictatorship. There is much speculation about what the flaw could be and according to some accounts he told Einstein who had to calm him down.

See also:

• This is an example of Legal Informatics which attempts to formalize legal documents into data and math
• Gödel’s incompleteness theorem

In a recent study looking at the impact of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic found that perception of organizational support for remote work correlates with higher reported productivity and gains in productive working time. This is in contrast to those that perceive low support for remote work as having a negative impact on productive working time and indicating greater depression symptoms.

Study of Los Angeles-based participants by Duke University

See also:

• Two-thirds of remote workers want to continue to work remotely
• Zoom fatigue is real, but perhaps management support of remote work is a bigger issue
• Low psychosocial safety is associated with a threefold increase in risk of major depression

When a founder leads initial sales at a startup they can quickly respond to each scenario, position the product, and answer questions. If a salesperson is the only person doing initial sales they will need a script and training to do it well. If it’s not going well it’s difficult to tell if there is a problem with the product or a problem with the salesperson.

This is why founder-led sales are important in the early days—you don’t yet know if you have product market fit.

See also:

• The number one job of a startup CEO is finding product market fit
• A sales pitch is the opposite of a VC pitch
• Making founder-led sales a repeatable process

91% of companies offer 1-2 PPO medical plans to their employees and the majority contribute over 85% of the premium. PPOs are also the mostly likely to be covered 100% by the company—even for small companies with less than 50 employees, 40% contribute 100% for single coverage.

Companies also, on average, cover dependents in those PPO plans. 38% of small companies with 1-50 employees provided 65-80% contribution towards dependents.

As remote work ramps up, many people are looking for a higher quality webcam to use with video conferencing software. It turns out, the best webcam might just be an old iPhone. Apps like Camo turn an old iPhone into an HD webcam using the rear facing sensors which are already optimized for capturing faces well and having good color balance.

See also:

• Two-thirds of remote workers want to continue to work remotely which makes the webcam market relevant again and new products are likely coming.
• High quality audio makes you sound smarter and I suspect high quality video has a similar benefits.

The SQLite database can be compiled to webassembly and served using static website hosting. SQLite stores data using files so you can avoid downloading the whole thing by making clever use of HTTP range requests which accept a certain byte range as a 204 partial request. That means you can query large datasets and query it with kilobytes of overhead.

SQLite can also be used for full text search using the FTS5 plugin making it a portable static site search engine like stork-search for significantly larger datasets.

Read Hosting SQLite databases on GitHub Pages

See also:

• static.wiki is a searchable 43gb wikipedia that is statically hosted
• An alternative might be a static search engine like Tantivity
• SQLite is adding support for wasm

When you are doing sales, the pitch needs to focus on the customer and helping them solve their problems. This the exact opposite of VC pitches which focus almost entirely on you (especially early on where investment decisions are focused on the team). Therefore it’s important to drop the VC approach when selling to real customers.

Some companies recently tried to separate business from politics so they can better focus on their mission. This has caused some understandable backlash because trying to be non-political is in-fact a political move, whether or not they intended it or not.

Everything is political. Actions and behaviors are deeply influenced by societal beliefs, norms, and biases. That’s why trying to avoid politics altogether is, it it’s own way, a political decision or a lack of understanding of culpability in, for example, social issues.

The best way to acknowledge this in a business context, is unclear, but policies that prohibit political discussions in the workplace probably aren’t it.

See also:

• Coinbase declaring being ‘mission focused’ does not include politics or activism.
• Basecamp made a policy about discussing politics and one third of Basecamp employees accepted a buyout offer and quit the company.
• This is also an example of in-group favoritism and (maybe) belief congruence theory which could lead to even more problems in the organization as employees seek to raise their standing with the in-group.

The “Untethered Class” are people with no school-aged children, renters with remote-friendly jobs that tend to skew younger and higher income. San Francisco and the Bay Area have a higher percentage population of untethere which may help to explain why permanent moves from SF increased 23% when the national average was only 3%.

Read More Americans Are Leaving Cities, But Don’t Call It an Urban Exodus.

While the percentage of permanent moves from major metro areas increased an average 3%, permanent moves from San Francisco increased 23%. This is the highest increase in permanent moves nationally. Even when looking at temporary moves, the rate doubled for San Francisco while nationally it increased 17%.

Read More Americans Are Leaving Cities, But Don’t Call It an Urban Exodus.

See also:

• 84% of moves during the pandemic were within the same metro area, in the case of the Bay Area, many moved to LA or less expensive cities like Sacremento

84% of moves in the top 50 metro areas during the pandemic were within the metro area. This is more of a reshuffling than a great migration as most moves are in 100 miles of their origin. Only 6% moved to another top metro area.

Read More Americans Are Leaving Cities, But Don’t Call It an Urban Exodus.

Stork Search is a full text search engine written in Rust that compiles to WebAssembly. That makes it compatible with static websites like notes.alexkehayias.com. The file size is relatively small (less than 1MB) for an index with hundreds of notes and the search results are fast.

I added search for my public notes here.

Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) has special tax rules which can result in no taxes when sold. To qualify, a business needs to be an active C Corporation, less than $50MM in assets, not in an excluded category, acquired directly (not second-hand), and the stock must be held for 5 years or more and have documentation of the stock. The excluded (not taxed) gain is limited up to $10MM or 10 times the adjusted basis of the investment (after that it gets the normal capital gains treatment).

What about vesting schedules? Wouldn’t that make for the holding period starting on each vest?

According to this blog post, filing an 83(b) election would start the 5 year holding period at the time of grant rather than the time of vesting.

A Python dataclass simplifies the setup of a class with many attributes. By adding the `datacass` decorator to a `Class` you can any number of typed attributes and it will generate an `_init_` method for you with default values. This is convenient when you are modeling a data heavy application and using classes (rather than dicts) to get better type check errors.

See also:

• Python type hinting pairs well with data classes to get type errors early
• Python

Unlike Arabic or Roman numerals, a Cistercian numeral can represent any number between 1 and 9999 with a single glyph. This makes for a compact representation which were used for recording dates, indexes, numbering, and even used for labels on an Astrolabe.

See also:

• The low adoption of Cistercian numerals is a reminder to choose boring technology, rather than create your own new numbering system
• Beware of solutions disguised as problem statements (the problem is we don’t have our own numbering system)

A MaxDiff comparison helps reveal the ranking of pairs of features without directly asking users to stack rank them. People have an easier time saying the best or worst item in a set than to rank them so this technique is a way of getting a more accurate idea of the relative priority of a feature.

See also:

• This is one of the techniques described in Monetizing Innovation
• Willingness to pay should be at the core of product design

Próspera is a charter city run by the Honduras Próspera Inc (HPI) in conjuction with the Honduras government ZEDE laws which enable setting up economic zones (i.e. charter cities) governed by a non-Honduran entity (like a corporation). The group established the first zone in Roatan in an area of unused land the size of Central park.

Their planned government is libertarian, emphasizing property rights, low taxes, and small government. The ruling council is composed of 5 elected members and 4 appointed by HPI which keeps it small (although the 4 appointed members would likely vote as a group and elected member would likely not i.e. political parties). 3D property rights would solve air rights issues (e.g. building a tall building) and a property token will be used to finance the development of the land. A 10% tax rate would attract people and busineses and they would cut 1% to the Honduran government.

Read Prospectus On Próspera.

See also:

• Trust is an important factor to economic prosperity, residents would need to place a lot of trust in a corporation and the government not renegging on ZEDE.
• The significance of persistence in predicting economic outcomes, but in this case, the entire institution is imported.
• In April 2022, the ZEDE laws were repealed and constitutional reforms will abolish existing ZEDEs pending confirmation in 2023