Blue Ribbon Sports was on the verge of bankruptcy.

But 50 years and a name change later,

It’s the most successful athletic brand in the world

Here’s the story: 🧵

1/ History

Blue Ribbon Sports had a licensing deal with Onitsuka Co. (Asics) to sell its shoes in the American Market.

In 1972, Blue Ribbon was strapped for cash, it's CEO – Phil Knight wanted to start making its shoes. 

Things took a turn for worse when Onitsuka terminated its contract with Knight's company.

It was this betrayal that pushed Knight to start his own company.

Nike was born.

Nike shared Knight's letter on 2nd May. See below. 

2/ On Nike's 50th Anniversary let's take a look at the brand that brings sports and fashion together like no other.

Some quick facts,

• 20 pairs of sneakers sold per second
• Biggest sports brand
• $37.4 Million in revenue – 2021 

3/ Nike is a brand symbolic of every generation.

Its sneakers have won over billions which propelled it to the pole position when it comes to sports brands.

It leaps lightyears ahead of Puma and carries a safe lead on Adidas as well. 

3/ Timeless Sneakers

Air Force 1, Jordan series, Pegasus, Air Zoom

Nike's flagship sneakers. All of them have set the fashion and sporting world ablaze – sometimes with controversy. 

Correction 

Revenue at the end of fiscal year 2021 was $46 Billion.

4/ D2C Powerhouse

Over the years Nike has capitalized on its in-house expertise to drive growth.

Nike's D2C sales have about quadrupled since 2010.

In 2021, D2C made up about 45% of Nike's revenue – a staggering number for a consumer brand this size. 

5/ Not just a sports brand

Nike has emerged as the world leader in capturing eyes and hearts.

Currently, it's the world's no. 1 apparel brand. 

Nike is followed in a distant second by Gucci which had less than half the revenue. 

6/  In a land of opportunities

Nike has a strong emphasis on R&amp;D leading to groundbreaking products and technologies.

Nike has more opportunities than threats.

With the acquisition of @RTFKT, it is set for a differentiated future in the metaverse.

(Details on my blog)

@RTFKT 7/ Nothing but the best

Nike sponsors the world's top athletes who own their respective games.

🏀 Michael Jordan – Jordan line
⚽️ Cristiano Ronaldo – Lifetime Deal
🏌️‍♂️ Tiger Woods – Annual Deal
🎾 Roger Federer – Annual Deal 

@RTFKT 8/ Future Ready

Nike's CFO suggested Nike is expecting over $50 Billion in revenues a 33% jump over 2021.

Nike has been the fastest to adopt technologies both for its business and for consumers.

@RTFKT 8.1/ For the future, Nike is gearing the best weapon in its arsenal – the community.

Every sports fan has to go through Nike to showcase their loyalty.

Every sneakerhead comes to the SNKRS app, waiting for the next Dunk to drop.

SNKRS app saw a 90% jump in users y/y in 2021.

@RTFKT 8.2/ The Web3 Game

RTFKT's acquisition has given Nike an upper hand – very early.

The cult-like following has just been waiting for this opportunity.

For example, This Nike RTFKT "Cryptokicks" sold for over $130,000. 

@RTFKT Nike is just setting the stage for the future. The Nike community is ready, are you?

Thank you so much for reading.

If you liked this, do retweet the first tweet – more people deserve to know Nike's story and growth.
https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1522556290425315329

@RTFKT Would you like to read or talk about,

• Startups
• Growth
• Brand Stories
• Humans in general

Do join @adltyagaur and drop me a DM!

Lastly, a big thanks to @nathanbaugh27 for helping add the finishing touches. 🙌

@RTFKT @nathanbaugh27 If you liked this thread, here's another one.
https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1506628080554717187

@RTFKT @nathanbaugh27 You'll find the sources and extra resources for this thread on my blog.
https://blog.adityagaur.xyz/nike

@RTFKT @nathanbaugh27 TLDR;

1. History – Phil Knight's Letter
2. Quick Facts – Nike's Growth
3. Nike vs Adidas vs Puma (Revenue)
4. Timeless Sneakers
5. D2C Powerhouse
6. Most valuable fashion brand
7. Lots of opportunities
8. Best Athletes
9. Future Ready

Again, thanks for reading. ✔

A couple of typos/errors

• Nike’s revenue in FY 2021 was $44.5 Billion (in-house)
• This means the projected growth to $50 Billion is 12.3%

Nike. From almost bankruptcy to the most successful fashion brand.

You’ve probably been coming up with ideas your whole life.

Have you ever asked what are ideas? 

And, how do they come about?

🧵 on ideas:

1/

What are Ideas?

Simply put, Ideas are new ways of linking problems with solutions.

They could also be a recombination of multiple existing solutions to create solutions that “look like new”.

2/

The general conception is that ideas are hidden in a special, closed space.

This leads us to continuously search for ideas.

3/

Creating three frequent behavioural patterns,

1. Waiting to be lucky: “I’ll just watch this TV series until a great idea comes to me” – It won’t!
2. Genius: Problem at hand → Excellent skillset → Idea for a solution (or directly a working solution - rare)

4/

3. Exploration: Know the problem + Don’t know the solution → Let’s search for an answer

5/

Ideas are not found in nature. Inspirations and Problems are.

Inspiration will give you probably directions that might lead to an idea.

And, problems will seek the curiousness inside you to look for ideas that solve that problem.

6/

The best source of ideas is you yourself. (Thought Leader alert. 👀)

That’s only half the truth though.

The ideas you can have are defined and limited by your experiences.

7/

You can put a great marketer in front of a code problem – won’t solve the problem. 

Best case, you’ll give the devs some laughter fodder.

8/

You may ask, if “I’m” the best source of ideas why am I sitting blank?

Good question!

The answer is – to ask questions.

The next time you find yourself in a peculiar situation, without any idea of how to move forward.

Play around and ask “WHAT IF?” – time and again.

9/

Ideas are also largely derived from the usual “Trial and Error” approach.

Do marketers always have the best idea on how to sell a product in the first go?

In most cases, no.

So, what do they do? – Trial and Error.

10/

So you see, it’s difficult to come up with ideas.

But, not for “creative” people – who find it very easy to look for new.

First, let’s try to define "creative".

11/

We tend to call someone creative if it's easy for them to create new ways of linking problems and solutions.

Not everyone is creative, but they can be.

Creativity and the ability to innovate goes up exponentially when one is exposed to more “inputs”.

12/

Consume rich and high-signal "inputs". 

This would expose you to new types of comprehensible information.

Thus creating new thinking networks in your brain.

I’ll just say one thing – choose your information diet carefully.

13/

Lack of reading, listening and watching are not the reasons we struggle to be creative.

Comprehending what you read, listen and watch is.

How to comprehend – as mentioned above – ask yourself “WHAT IF?” questions.

Challenge the reasoning and see what comes about.

14/

• Reading one thread is enough if you can comprehend it
• Listening to one podcast is enough if you can find the core message
• Documentaries are dramatised real-life scenarios – watch them for fun, not for life lessons

15/

For Teams:

Bring people from different backgrounds together to increase complementarity. But, not too different – that’ll create communication gaps.

This way creativity becomes a team sport. A positive-sum sport.

16/

For Individuals: Add external inputs.

• Education
• Network ✨
• Content – remember to choose information over hooks

17/

You need to know ideas are often very different from what the eventual result is.

A few famous examples – original ideas;

• YouTube: First meant to upload videos for a dating website
• Shopify: Was an online snowboarding gear store
• Coca-Cola: Originally a medicine

18/

Wait a minute!

Does this mean ideas aren’t necessarily the trigger for innovation? – Damn right, they’re not.

Ideas just like humans evolve before they take their final. In fact, ideas that evolve are more likely to grow faster. (Source: Startup Genome)

19/

The most important external source of ideas is feedback.

• Feedback from customers – existing & new
• Internal feedback – teammates & company
• Your interpretation of feedback – varies from person to person

( Ideas ↔ Feedback ) ➡️ Ideation ➡️ Implementation

20/

Eric Von Hippel at MIT said,

“Many of the groundbreaking ideas didn’t come out of R&D departments but from user feedback on products and services.”

That's the reason products aren't born with product-market fit. 

They find it gradually as they evolve with user feedback

21/

TLDR;

• An idea by itself is an insight that “might” link a problem with its solution
• Generating ideas = Creativity
• More Inputs = More Creativity
• Ideas become better with continuous feedback


22/

If you liked this thread, you'll love this one as well.

23/
https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1501923102074286080


You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/adltyagaur/RsthDjW

On Ideas

For startups and for VCs, money isn't money and not all money is the same.

Founders and Investors have different expectations of what they wish to achieve from the "funding".

A reflection on investors and investments:

Founders want to:

• Cover operational costs
• Invest in growth
• Hire the best talent
• Build their brand
• Attract and retain customers

On the other hand, Investors want their investment to provide:

• High returns
• Potential exits
• Enhance their rapport with LPs
• Build their brand to attract great founders and bigger LPs

And that's not all.

Even the investors who're investing in the same company would have different expectations from the startup.

One investor might be here only for "monetary reasons" while the other is here due to their "personal aspirations".

Each investor will focus on different investments for different reasons.

But one thing is common, they're all looking to generate "value" for themselves and their stakeholders.

Since you made it here.

After being inactive for a while, I'm back and will be publishing more threads on,
• Startups &amp; VCs
• Finance
• Humans at work

Do join in @adltyagaur

When it comes to startups and VCs – money isn't money.

The Dumb Idea Paradox

When an idea sounds dumb and yet there's a small (but growing) group of individuals highly engaged in it.

The "amazing" product is simple and for the general audience.

Look at some examples 👇 

You can check @andrewchen's original thread here 👇
https://twitter.com/andrewchen/status/1132459983876939776

The Dumb Idea Paradox

Growing a brand, business or yourself has never been easier.

But, it comes with some peculiar challenges.

A quick thread on 3 common mistakes you must know about.

🧵

1. Communication Debt

You'll always be catching up with what you set out to do.

In a team? Share updates, progress and results

Working on yourself? Document the journey

2. Running away with a tangent

You're building, fast!

You see something that looks very interesting at the first glance.

For example, a new book with a flashy title when you're half-done with a book you've been enjoying.

2. Running away with a tangent (contd.)

Stick with the process – it is as easy to get distracted as well.

But, don't limit your scope.

Be open to newness ⤵
Prioritise it for existing workflows

3. Half-ass a bunch of things

In a bid to explore, find your niche or just learn different things...

You can find yourself with a few half-filled or half-empty cups (depending on your perspective).

3. Half-ass a bunch of things (contd.)

A better way would be to add them to your "ideas list".

Circle back when you're done with the existing tasks at hand.

If you liked this thread, do follow me @adltyagaur – there's more coming.

Also, I'd really appreciate a retweet. 🙌
https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1510890674706694148

Fast hands can lead to common growth fallacies, here are 3 of them. 

Many startups with an "okay" product grow smoothly and scale quickly.

Meanwhile, some with great products fail to survive.

Efficient frameworks to grow startups at scale:
▼

But first, wait a second.

These frameworks are no hacks.

Each of these requires resources
• Human capital
• Tech and tools
• Strategic planning
• Performance analysis → Optimization

All of this to get an early-stage PM-fit.

What is PM-fit? 👇
https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1501923102074286080

Let's begin...

Build what matters

It puts quantifying results at each step at the core of the process.

Experimentation, Research and Outcomes are the 3 main stages of growth here. 

Build what matters is a combination of,
• Vision
• SMART Goals
• Success Measures
• Roadmap
• Business Outcomes

which helps in defining the optimal product roadmap.

The key is SMART goals,
▪︎ Specific
▪︎ Measurable
▪︎ Achievable
▪︎ Relevant
▪︎ Time-bound

This framework is more effective in early-stage startups and helps in redefining goals from top to bottom.

The Essential MVP

Some startups often misunderstand an MVP.

MVP = Minimum Viable Product

It is a product version built quickly and with fewer resources to gather maximum feedback. 

MVPs help startups evaluate a potential product or feature's performance without actually launching that product.

MVPs help in finding,
• Right set of features
• Wrong/Useless features
• Right consumer segment

And lastly,

SIMPLE Framework

Well, this one is pretty simple. 🤓

▪︎ Speed
▪︎ Innovation
▪︎ Management
▪︎ Pivot
▪︎ Leadership
▪︎ Economics

SIMPLE focuses on how all core aspects of a business function together.

Speed here means,
• Getting off the ground faster
• Including customer feedback quickly

Perfection, Stealth mode, and Procrastination are enemies of speed.

Innovation is a sum of customer desirability, technological feasibility, and market viability. 

Management: The right mix of initiative and delegation to get things done.

Pivots can be of 2 types,
• Change in strategy for the same vision
• Change in vision based on customer/market feedback

Leadership: Making sure the team wins even if the leader loses.

Economics: The money game, the captured value should be higher than the total costs.

That's it for today!

If you liked this thread, do follow me @adltyagaur for more like this.

And, it would be great if you can retweet the first tweet.

Thanks for reading. 🙌
https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1510297730547081219

TLDR;
• Build What Matters
• The Essential MVP
• SIMPLE

Adaptable Startup frameworks (not hacks, sorry!)

About 340 Million PCs were sold in 2021.

But, do you know who actually invented the PC?

Story of how one company invented the PC and the internet.

And then, gave it away.

🧵

In the 60s and 70s, computers were everywhere.

Banks and the big guys were already running on computers which needed 3 men just to keep them running.

In the midst of these changing times, there was a company building the future for the world.

Xerox.

Xerox hired the best brains the US had to offer and put them to work in Palo Alto, California.

This was the birth of PARC – a genius club. 

PARC was pumping out revolutionary tech – one after the other.

This included the first PC ever – Xerox Alto.

IBM had great computing machines but nothing came close to being personal.

Alto was years ahead of its time.

The guys at PARC managed to fit in almost everything in it – in the first go.

Alto was the first PC with a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

It had Ethernet, icons, a keyboard, a mouse, the first laser printer and a coca-cola dispenser (JK!). 

Why did Alto never make it?

The answer is wrong timing and Xerox's management.

Alto came at a time when Xerox was minting huge money off of its 914 printer.

914 was termed as "the most successful product ever marketed in America” by Fortune. 

Xerox's management shrugged off Alto – the first PC ever. 

They said it would kill their printing business.

Xerox was making money from every print and copy made by the 914.

They were short-sighted.

A PC would mean no paper and hence, no Xerox printer money.

And, they didn't see the potential in a PC that could go into every office.

Alto got shelved, just like most of the innovative things coming out of PARC.

At the same time, Apple was working on Lisa.

Lisa would become Apple's first PC with a GUI.

How are Alto and Apple-related?

A bunch of stupid decisions and a lack of foresight.

Xerox saw the potential in Apple and decided to buy 100,000 shares.

Jobs agreed to the deal with a condition.

That, he would get some tours of PARC.

This is crucial to what happened afterwards.

Xerox's management decided to go for the deal.

Jobs visited PARC 3 times. And on his last visit, he found Alto.

PARC Engineer,  Larry Tesler showed what Alto was capable of.

There were no commands you could just use a mouse.

Or, type in a word processor without manually writing lines of code.

Here's what it looked like 

In an interview in 2002 Jobs said

“I was so blinded by Alto's GUI and what it could do. It was the greatest thing. 

It could work with what they called  – a mouse.

In 10 mins it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this one day.”

Jobs knew Alto would be the next big thing.

Now, if you google around – you'll find 100 articles saying Apple store from Xerox.

That's only half of the truth.

Apple did what they do best, innovate. 

Xerox finally launched Alto in 1981.

Alto had unending reliability issues.

• Mouse would break down often
• The software wasn't reliable

Alto eventually failed. 

Enter Apple!

Jobs decided to make a PC that Alto eventually set out to be.

Jobs wanted a “mouse” that wouldn’t break every month.

Jobs wanted a UI that would look as if it was from the future.

Apple already had a PC but it didn't have a GUI or a mouse.

Alto inspired Apple to do what they were already doing better.

Apple set on a path to add a GUI to its PCs - what we know today as MacOS.

And, Alto eventually led to Apple Lisa. 

Alto isn't all that Xerox invented and then just gave up on.

Do you know what else Xerox invented?

The goddamn internet.

If you already know a bit about computer history, you'll know today's internet came from DARPAnet.

But only, DARPAnet was built on Alto machines using Ethernet cables.

Remember, Ethernet was also invented by Xerox. 

Xerox PARC was already using "Internal Network Routing" or InterNet.

Xerox had it all, but some stupid decisions by its management later,

Xerox is a $3.2 Billion company while Apple is at $2.8 Trillion.

Xerox is a great lesson in,

"The only way to save your business from technology is technology"

I hope you liked the read. If you found this interesting do share this amazing story.

https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1506628080554717187

I'm writing frequent threads on,
• Startups
• Business
• Growth Strategies

Join 700 others to read more stories like this @adltyagaur.

If you liked this tweet you'll also like this.

"How Yahoo almost had it all"
https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1499742646016876550

What happened to the company that invented the information era?

9 skills to make yourself irreplaceable at work:

🧵 

1. Keep on Learning 💡

You might be amazing at what you do.

But, you can never know enough to not learn more.

You've mastered marketing a product? Great.

Learn how to build one – it'll only help you market better.

2. Double down on your soft skills 🗣

It's a different world out there when you know how build networks from ground up.

And then, how to use those networks to grow the brand and yourself.

Start by focussing on a few,
• Concise speaking
• Indulgent Writing
• Happy Gestures

Here's something that would help,
https://twitter.com/SahilBloom/status/1459531954446024712

3. Study the market 📈

Learn more about the markets, not only would you be able to bring in more insights but also network well.

For startups I recommend @launchticker 

The more you know, the smarter your strategies would be.

@launchticker 4. Go beyond your responsibilities 🏖

If you have the bandwidth to help your teammates do it.

Do your bit to make their workflows shorter and easier.

Add a little to their free time. 

Not only will you build trust – your team would be there when you need them to be.

@launchticker 5. Monopolise a skillset 🥇

Be really good at one particular thing.

So much so that everyone comes to you for help on it.

This will give you edge – "Oh we can't let Mike go, he's too good at community management."

@launchticker 6. Efficiency &amp; Accuracy over Quantity 🎯

Nobody needs to do twice the work they're supposed to.

Make sure to deliver on all the projects you own, in an error-free state.

@launchticker 7. Share your perspective 💭

Everyone has a different thought process.

Understand how your company/team thinks and bring your fresh perspectives to it.

@launchticker 8. Be Positive ➕

A bit obvious, but it's fairly easy to find people who don't appreciate their work enough.

Be the "happy to be here" person – even if you're not.

@launchticker 9. Make life easy for your boss 

Your boss is there to guide you but you're there to make her life easier.

Wes did a great job breaking it down,
https://twitter.com/wes_kao/status/1451926441239719947

@launchticker Being valued at your job is as difficult as it is to get that job in the first place.

These 10 skills are just a starting point.

@launchticker If you liked this thread, do share it by RTing the first tweet.

https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1505907929521790981

@launchticker Join 700 others @adltyagaur. 

I write 1-2 threads every week about,
• Startups
• Growth and Business Startegies
• Humans at work

Have a great day! ☕️

@launchticker You can check out my other threads here,

https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1500198682934841346

How to be irreplaceable at work!

Growth is often related to,

• Sales
• Funding
• Team Size

But, a growth-only focus can soon lead to platitudes about optimisation, quality, transparency. 

A thread on platitudes. 🧵

Platitude: A statement or strategy used all too often to be interesting or effective.

Here are some to stop saying and caring about right now, ⤵️

1. Work smarter, not harder

Next time somebody tells you to "work smart".

First, ask them – 'How exactly?'

And second, ignore them and work in the way that has done it for you.

2. We value feedback

Every CEO does.

Every startup is writing jingles about it.

If you truly want some feedback, YOU need to get it.

Ask your deskmate or manager – ask over Slack/Email if that's comfortable. 

3. Do it now, apologize later

Wait, what?!

If you have to go this way, ask yourself (or a friend) – is this really a good idea?

In my experience and most of the seniors', good ideas are rarely stifled.

But,...

If you really think, you've struck gold.

Prove it!

Describe your idea, 

• What you wanna do
• How you'll do it
• How the results contrast

In all likelihood, you'll have more resources at your fancy – to make things work.

4. It is, what it is.

I know genius, that's the problem!

It is, what it is because it's not easy to surf against the tide i.e. takes a mountain to change the status quo.

You probably can't do it alone, but with enough elements working together – it can be done.

5. Data never lies

Well true, but only it does.

Did Apple have the data that people wanted an iPhone?

Did Google have the data that people wanted to search stuff online?

Innovation and data don't work together in a lot of cases.

Platitudes will keep on holding their special and useless place.

I hope you got to learn why these 5 platitudes are not good - to say the least.

There are 100 more, but that's for another time.

Have a great day. ☕️

Do share the first tweet to save your friends.

See you with another 🧵 soon.

https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1504765583463698435

Platitudes — the growth blockers

Asking questions is the best way to induce thought clarity.

Here's a questioning framework to help you make smarter decisions.

The Socratic Method

🧵

Socrates was a Greek philosopher. 

He believed asking questions was the best way to achieve thought clarity.

And, that's how he taught his students.

Why?

Questioning challenges the accuracy and logic of how a person thinks.

The Socratic Method directly explores 6 broad issues,
• Conceptual clarification
• Probe assumptions
• Probe rationale
• Question viewpoints
• Probe questions
• Question the questions

1. Conceptual clarification

To dive deeper into what you're thinking and get to the foundation of the argument.

Ask questions like:
• What exactly does this mean?
• Can you give me an example? 
• What do we already know about this?

2. Probe assumptions

To question assumptions and question reasoning behind an action.

Ask questions like:
• How did you choose those assumptions?
• Please explain why/how ...?
• What else can we assume?

3. Probe rationale

Whenever you give a reason for something.

Don't take it as a given, explore the evidence that can back it.

Ask questions like:
• Why is this happening?
• What evidence is there to support the result?

Socrates would often annoy his students by asking these questions.

But after the fact, they would all be delighted to have results or arguments with solid evidence and a logically sound chain of reasoning.

4. Question viewpoints

There could be no same answers to a question that needs thinking.

Why?

DIfference in perspectives

Ask questions like:
• Is there another way of looking at this?
• What are the pros and cons of...?

5. Probe consequences

Sometimes we tend to forecast results and as a result, they turn out to be subjective.

Ask questions like:
• Does the data and result make sense together?
• Is there an alternative?
• What are the odds that you won't get this result?

6. Question the questions

Bouncing the ball back into the askers' court. This is a common negotiation tactic.

Some good examples of such questions are:
• Why do you think I asked this?
• What's the reason behind your question?
• Is this question really important?

Pretty simple right?

Asking simple questions enables you to, 

• Create an efficient argument
• Win negotiations
• Strengthen and Negate arguments

Simple questions are effective as they question the core of issue directly.

Thanks for reading.

Now you know about the Socratic Method.

Share this thread so more people can know about this simple and easy to use framework.

https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1503292168735240194

There are more good reads where this came from.

Join me @adltyagaur.

You can read more of my threads here.

https://twitter.com/adltyagaur/status/1500198682934841346