The best of the FishmanAF Newsletter

All of my articles organized by how they can help you

Dec 26, 2023

Hi there, it’s Adam. 🤗 Welcome to my weekly newsletter. I started this newsletter to provide a no-bullshit, guided approach to solving some of the hardest problems for people and companies. That includes Growth, Product, company building and parenting while working. Subscribe and never miss an issue. I’ve got a podcast on fatherhood and startups - check out Startup Dad here. Questions? Ask them here.

This past year was a “banner year” for the FishmanAF Newsletter. After being pretty oversubscribed (no pun intended) in the first half of the year, and being tormented by Leah Tharin and Elena Verna, I got serious about trying to write something meaningful every week. I hit “publish” on ~30 FishmanAF newsletters and ~26 podcast episodes of Startup Dad in 2023.

But just publishing isn’t enough, especially if you’ve read my thoughts on Motion vs. Progress. A few outcomes I’m particularly happy about from this past year:

I grew the newsletter to 9,000 subscribers (more than 2x YoY) and still maintain a 50%+ open rate with every send.
I welcomed my first newsletter and podcast sponsors. Interested? Get in touch.
In some small way I helped normalize mistakes by introducing Failure Stories on a monthly cadence to share flops and lessons learned from leaders in product and growth.
I got a few Hot Takes off my chest; those sure felt good— everything from JIRA and the role of Luck to Black Friday.
I introduced my first guest post, from my pal Lauryn Motamedi (formerly Lauryn Isford) - congrats on your recent marriage btw!
I helped a lot of people and earned the moniker “Growth Daddy” after my article on experimentation. Then Brian Balfour immortalized it in a song.

Before taking some time off for the rest of 2023 I went back through every one of my newsletters since I started writing and helped organize them for you by how they’ll help. A 🔥 means that it’s in my Top 10 most popular posts ever (interestingly, this doesn’t always correlate with the posts I think people should find the most helpful).

You can bookmark this newsletter and come back to it whenever you need help on one of the topics below. And if you ever want to work with me to implement something I’ve written about or solve some problems you’re experiencing, get in touch.

Know someone who needs help on one of the topics below? Share this with them.

…hire successfully?

…pick the right company or career?

…get better at strategy?

…get better at building products?

…grow faster?

…become more metrics oriented?

…successfully balance career and family?

Thank you for all of your support this year and I’ll be back in your inboxes on January 9th!