An Uber driver with a New York accent who called himself an “Iranian Jew” picked me up from an airport this week. I rarely feel strong emotions when talking to Uber drivers. But this conversation was different. I wrote down what I could remember. “I used to own a deli. I owned it for 17 years and I loved it. Making bagels. Making chicken salad. And it was a great business, because I had a captive audience. My deli was in an office building, so we were the best option for breakfast and lunch...
28 days ago • 2 min read
I've never made a Bucket List before. It seemed too daunting. But this weekend, it occurred to me that I already have a Bucket List in my mind. It doesn't reach every possible corner of existence—but it does cover my big-picture hopes for Altamira Studio. I wanted to share this with you. If you make one for yourself, I'd love to see it. Here's my Bucket List -- goals within the realm of writing & publishing. 1) Achieve a level of product-market fit that's as good as the one in the Simon &...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
This past week I spent 3 days deeply immersed in a book intensive with my team and an author who’s working with us. By trade, the author is a well-respected executive coach. The work on his book was exciting and powerful. But something else happened. The author had said to me in advance: “Ellen, just a heads up, when we're in Austin together, I'm gonna push you on your business. I think you could be a lot more successful." I had said, "I would love that, because I've been flying by the seat...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Someone asked me: "What joy is worth suffering for in life?" Here's what I wrote back: Perhaps one answer is the joy of seeing a wish come true. It's doubly joyful if it’s the wish of someone you love, and you knew they wished it, and you got to see their wish come true. Other answers… The joy of seeing things come full circle. Ayn Rand wrote the 1,000+ page novel The Fountainhead partly as a tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright, whom she admired and respected as a heroic figure of her time. He...
4 months ago • 1 min read
The legendary Wall Street investor Jim O'Shaughnessy honored me tremendously by hosting me on Episode 220 of his podcast, Infinite Loops. It was a high-energy conversation with the tagline 'Make Art, Not Noise,' and it's now hosted on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. If you end up listening, let me know! Thanks, Ellen
5 months ago • 1 min read
A milestone flew past me in a whirlwind of experimental entrepreneurship: the first $1M in total revenue. This company is the 3rd one I’ve started, but the first to make it this far. It took 3.5 years with my team of 3 full-time people. ~1,000 customers made this possible. Tremendous gratitude to each of you! ❤️🔥 I found a few hours to reflect. Here are 21 lessons from making $1M (also in thread format here): Become the go-to guy for something. Economic turbulence doesn’t change the amount of...
5 months ago • 2 min read
It has come to my attention that some people view my business, Altamira Studio, as a competitor to theirs. I never really thought this day would come. I’m glad it has. Because my team and I are going to benefit from it. My team is in a league of its own. We’re playing a different game—a new & better game that hasn’t even occurred to other media companies. This will become increasingly clear to our non-competing 'competitors' in the coming weeks & months. My sentiment toward anyone who sees...
8 months ago • 1 min read
I keep meeting lifelong readers who can’t find anything they want to read. They walk eagerly into bookstores, only to walk out empty-handed in disappointment, having filtered out everything on the shelves. Maybe they see a compelling title, so they pick up a book. But when they flip it open, they’re quickly disappointed: they see obvious fluff, dumbed-down writing, shoddy research, bad typesetting, and often cheap binding. If you’re a reader and this rings a bell, I’m here to tell you: you’re...
8 months ago • 1 min read
If you’re like me, you don’t own a printer. But you sometimes wish you could print out some of the best online writing and read it peacefully …offline. 🛋️📖 That’s the idea behind Printernet. It’s a one-of-a-kind passion project by Jake Weber, a fintech engineer and fellow Austinite. I ordered my first Printernet edition in September. Since then, I think I’ve begun to get a sense for how to curate for this unique format. I’m ordering another one now. If you’d like your own copy of this...
10 months ago • 1 min read