What’s up! The 35 day sprint is rocking and I’ve been cranking away on a few projects.. some of which are outlined below, with more coming next week. And I even missed last week’s issue, whoops!

In this edition:

1. How to Increase Team Productivity by 3x (Part 1 of 3)

2. Global Wellness Market: Insights from McKinsey & what's next

3. Working b2b2c, Franchise, or offline business? Read or listen up

4. The intelligent web. My candid week 4 builder update

5. Top Shares: Plant Tamagotchi, Fb marketplace for used Firetrucks, and more

Thanks for being here. Let’s go!

Featured

🔸 The Trends Defining the $1.8 Trillion Global Wellness Market

Keep scrolling to see select screenshots from the report, along with key takeaways.

Five Major Wellness Trends

Here's what's bubbling up or about to take off

1. Health at home. Convenience is everything, specifically at home diagnostic tests

2. Biomonitoring and wearables are on the rise.. duh, but it’s hilariously early still

3. AI Personalization. Build product recommendations using AI.

4. Clinical over clean. The words "ethical," "purpose," or "clean" have lost their meaning due to overuse in dtc marketing.

5. The rise of the doctor recommendation. Everyone can see through your fake ‘healthwashing’, what does my doctor say

What does it mean, why does it matter? 

Global wellness industry is still in its early stages, but it’s about to take off in a big way. These same patterns will likely show up in other industries too. In an AI-powered world where everyone vies for attention and claims expertise, trust will come from data, science, and personal recommendations. The companies that succeed will be those that help consumers make sense of wearable data and provide personalized, scientifically grounded solutions. Trust, or what i’m calling Signal, bolstered by community, will be the key to long-term success. Signal over distribution hacks.

Withdrawn or absent from this report, I foresee a massive surge in DIYH (Do It Yourself Health). This shift won't be limited to fitness enthusiasts or biohackers but will empower everyone to take control of their own health journey. While we still trust doctors for diagnosing and treating issues, the focus on maintaining overall health will increasingly fall on individuals themselves. No one is coming to save you.. Or perhaps we'll see the emergence of a new kind of always online doctor without wait times - one who integrates seamlessly with Apple Health, AI, and other advanced technologies to support proactive health management.

As biometric data becomes more accessible, the first country to reinvent healthcare will lead a global shift. This change could boost well-being, happiness, productivity, and efficiency while easing the strain on healthcare systems.

🔸 B2B2C Resources

If you're involved in B2B2C, franchising, omnichannel retail, or business model innovation, check out these book and podcast for inspiration. They could spark fresh ideas for your venture.

I'm working on a new blog post about the intersection of franchises and social consumer B2B2C. By 2025 or 2026, we might see a new category emerge that transcends traditional B2B2C definitions. And remixes, or takes inspiration from traditional franchise chains.

Or if you prefer the full book; Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time

🔸 Product Management & Marketing Land

Team leaders: Maybe pause on building AI tools and do this instead

How to Increase Team Productivity by 3x > Part 1 of 3

Last week, I was chatting with several founders, and something really stood out; teams are all over the place when it comes to getting the most out of AI, especially for boosting productivity.

While there’s been a lot of buzz around building tools, chatbots, or coding co-pilots, not many are really digging into using AI as a teammate within day-to-day operations. Some folks are just starting to explore it, while others have it as part of their daily routine, and that gap within teams and teammates is pretty noticeable. Take a team of six, for example - maybe one or two people are fully onboard with AI workflow tools, but the rest haven’t quite figured out how to jump in yet.

Each newsletter, I'll share practical strategies to boost productivity across your Product, Marketing, Operations, and CS teams. This isn't a one-time fix.. It requires consistent effort. But stick with these steps over the next few months, and you could see your team's productivity triple. Get a benchmark.

Assess Your Team's AI Skills in Under 30 Minutes

Want to test your squad's proficiency with Generative AI? Try this:

• Assign a Simple Task: Give them a straightforward, time-sensitive task that requires using GenAI. (If stuck here, hit reply for a few ideas.)

• Observe the Outcomes: Pay attention to the varying levels of quality in their responses.

• Gather Insights: Ask each team member to share the prompts they used and whether they have any prompt resources.

This approach will not only help you evaluate their skill levels but also encourage a discussion around effective prompting techniques. I’m willing to bet that many of your team members are either struggling with this or not leveraging it to its full potential.

If that sounds familiar, you’re definitely not alone, but it’s also a space worth watching to make sure you don’t fall behind. The great thing is you can start small without needing to make a big investment.

More ideas are coming your way. Stay tuned for Parts 02 and 03.

Already implementing something similar? Reply and let me know how it's going

My 35 Day Sprint

🔸 Week 04 Updates

I’m running as fast as I can, managing all these builds/projects solo. Mostly in the evenings or weekends. No outside developers or designers, and leveraging AI tools as much as possible. Sometimes it’s been backfiring. More below..

App 03 - Unfurls 2.0 - Exploring the Intelligent Web

It feels like the right time to restart Unfurls, so here we are. 🌅 🌅 🌅

Back in 2018, Unfurls went through several pivots, including a rebrand, and we were focused on tools to improve FB Open Graph tags and oEmbed. Or perhaps even replace or help modernize meta tags, setting a new standard.

At the time, we explored dynamic tag creation, generative images, and virtual agents/characters. It was an exciting time, at least from my perspective! While we achieved recurring revenue and had paying customers, the demand wasn’t enough. The tools we built were helpful, but ultimately didn’t fully solve the problem we set out to address. There’s much more to the story that i’ll save for a rainy day, but as a self sustained digital studio, I ultimately decided to sunset and redirect our focus to other opportunities.

Fast forward to today, with the rise of AI, LLMs, and agents, what I envisioned back then finally seems possible. Or at least worth experimenting with. Unfurls 2.0 is my playground for exploring just that.

The future of the internet, especially how people share and interact with content (and each other) is evolving. I believe it will remain fragmented and messy, but this space keeps resurfacing… Somewhere to mess around and find out.

Last week, I pushed a temp lander to set sail and I’ve been sketching/plotting out what’s next. The only way to figure it out, as I see it, is by building and writing in the space. There’s a longer rant coming soon with a blog post/thesis.. stay tuned.

If you're interested in funding or have a product, service, or company looking to play in the LLM, AI, or Agent space, reply to this email or slide into my dms

TLDR - restarting Unfurls, more later

App 01 - The niche fitness app

I’m tempted to call this the "never-finished fitness app." But seriously, I missed last week’s update because I was deep into this, working nights and weekends, only to hit a major roadblock. I let Claude 3.5 Sonnet take too much control, and it caused a ton of bugs that led to endless troubleshooting. With limited time for what was supposed to be a ‘quick build,’ that felt especially painful.

After my third refactor (yeah, third... gross), I realized some fundamental flaws in the leaderboard system and onboarding process. Issues that would’ve come up later anyway, so better to catch them now. This app is a niche project I’m building to scratch my own itch, and with the season winding down, I’m hoping to get feedback in time for next year. Or maybe even repurpose it for another sport/activity/concept.

One big takeaway from this build is just how much AI like Claude 3.5 Sonnet can do. Honestly, it’s a love-hate relationship right now. It’s handling tasks that would’ve taken me months to tackle on my own, and some of the work is beyond my current technical expertise. It’s incredible what’s possible today, but there’s a catch… Claude can nail 85% of the work, but that last 15%? That’s where it gets messy. Especially when you’re dealing with edge cases or specific requirements, you have to keep a close eye on it. If you don’t, it can go off into weird places and start breaking things, which leads to unnecessary bloat and a lot of confusion on both sides.

For this build, I’ve been sticking with Sublime and a browser to keep things lean, but in the next version, I might switch to Cursor or another client to streamline things. Progress is solid, but it's all backend work for now. Nothing pretty to show yet. I’ve got the leaderboard system in a much better place, and now I just need to finish up the backend and ship a basic v1. After that, I can move on to the other projects I’ve got lined up.

TLDR - Refactored code, improved the scoring and leaderboard system, and added event processing. Still need to wrap up the backend and ship an ugly-but-working version before moving onto another build. Hopefully, I’ll have something more visual to share in the next update.

App 02 - ABM Magic

Still searching for a name, but calling it ABM Magic for now. I’ve been focusing on setting up databases and avoiding any deep code work, trying to leverage tools like Notion as my main point for db management and content handling. Think contentful.

After creating 8 different relational dbs in Notion, I needed a way to capture input from customers. After some back and forths, Claude Sonnet 3.5 suggested upgrading my Notion, which I did... only to find the instructions were totally wrong.

Next, I asked Sonnet for other recommendations, and it pointed me to Tally. After about 30 minutes of troubleshooting Tally, I realized the instructions I was given for integrating Tally forms into Notion’s relational databases were incorrect. And apparently this integration has never worked the way it was described.

It got me thinking: misinformation in LLMs could create unknown risks or opportunities for brands or products. Could a startup even leverage this by suggesting features that don’t exist yet? 🤔 How do LLMs fact check?

TLDR - Interviewed 3 customers, built databases, ran into integration issues, simplifying v1 features, registered new domain, next update in 2-3 weeks.

Office Hours - Let’s Connect

Got a special project you need help with or want to explore funding opportunities for something I'm working on? I’m currently taking on new clients and special projects. Whether you’re looking for a collaborator, need a hand on a specific task, or are interested in supporting a unique idea, let’s chat! Hit reply or schedule a time.

Other

🔸 Interesting Links

• Subprime AI. This is from a few weeks ago, but it might be timely now, especially with all the recent departures from Open AI yesterday. [Link]

• From the Verge. Mark and Meta's stance on using creators' content to train AI models is that they don't view it as a significant issue. They believe most creator content isn't valuable enough to warrant payment or recognition for its use in AI training. [Link]

• Ivy, the smart plant pot with personality. [Link]

• A marketplace featuring some of the priciest used items I've ever come across, specializing in second-hand fire apparatus and equipment. [Link]

  

  https://www.withgarage.com/listing/2016-SPARTAN-SMEAL-PUMPER-1500-07a7996b-7201-45b2-8032-183d5c9eaf00

• Bad design is profitable [Link]

• Please hold still while we locate your pointer.. [Link]

• And if in town, the Vancouver film festival kicks off today through to Oct 06 [Link]

Qs or Quotes Bouncing in My Brain

During a recent founder meeting about a new wellness app:

Personal Camera Roll

Wrap Up

Just 4 days left in the month/quarter. You can do it!

Thanks for being here! What do you have planned for October? For me, it’s all about engine and outbound efforts, incorporating feedback from founders and people like you.

Let me know if you need help, have feedback, or want to co-create or co-market on a special project. See you next week

Kenny

P.S. Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Ready to grow your startup from 0 to 1 in less time? Let's chat. >> Schedule a call with me.

2. Want an extra pair of eyes on your product or pitch deck?

*5x productivity. Coffee's on me – limited to the first 10 people

Newsletter Vibecheck

How'd I do? Slam dunk or airball? Lmk your thoughts on this issue so I can level up future content.

About

Hi there! I help B2B2C startups go from 0 to 1 with resources, consulting, advisory, and writing, spanning product, marketing, team formation, frontier technology, and the good life. Prev helped 50+ startups and launched 20+ digital products. Although my perspective is universal, I mainly cover the frontier of North America and Southeast Asia.

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