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MAXIMALISM IN GRAPHIC DESIGN: EMBRACING BOLD CREATIVITY

Maximalism emphasizes vibrant colors, intricate patterns, and layered elements, creating a rich and immersive visual experience.

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THE RACE TO 150

Reaching an age of 150 years could be a breakthrough point in human longevity, as it would likely mean that many age-related diseases have been cured or managed, and that the body's natural decline has been significantly slowed. Achieving this milestone could lead to an exponential increase in healthy life expectancy, making it theoretically possible to live indefinitely in good health. A fundamental shift, from a "sick care" approach to a true "health care" approach focused on preventing and reversing the underlying causes of aging and disease, is needed to get there.

“DEATH OF A SALESFORCE”: WHY AI WILL TRANSFORM THE NEXT GENERATION OF SALES TECH

Artificial intelligence is poised to revolutionize the sales industry by fundamentally changing the core system of record and sales workflows. Early AI-native sales solutions are enabling new proactive sales motions and evolving to serve multiple use cases, blurring the lines between traditional sales, marketing, and customer success roles. As AI becomes more prevalent in sales, pricing models may shift from per-seat to outcome-based, and go-to-market strategies will become more fluid and adaptable to individual customer needs.

WHAT IS “UNDERCONSUMPTION CORE”?

A new trend called "underconsumption core" is gaining popularity among Gen Z, who are rejecting influencer marketing and embracing minimalism by only purchasing what they need. This shift towards less consumption is partially driven by economic pressures such as inflation, rising costs, and debt faced by Gen Z. The trend reflects a growing distrust in influencers and their authority, as well as a desire for simplicity and frugality in response to financial anxieties.

HOW TO FIGURE OUT METRICS OWNERSHIP

Defining clear ownership of key metrics is crucial for avoiding organizational friction and slowdowns. Metrics can be owned outright by one team, shared between teams, or handed off when a team's ability to impact the metric declines. Mapping out the current and ideal ownership states for each metric, then taking steps to transition metrics to their ideal owners, helps align teams and drive progress.

SO YOUR COMPANY IS PIVOTING – HERE'S HOW TO RESPOND

A pivot may be necessary to achieve growth when a startup's current business model isn't working, but it can be a challenging and chaotic process for employees. To navigate a pivot successfully, it's essential to evaluate the change, commit to the new direction, and focus on the projects that matter. By doing so, employees can not only help the company succeed, but also accelerate their own careers and gain valuable experience in working through a crisis.

WHEN TO JOIN A STARTUP

Five types of risk need to be eliminated to create a successful and reliable business when building a startup: technology risk, market risk, scaling risk, business model risk, and defensibility risk. Understanding and assessing these risks is crucial for entrepreneurs, investors, and potential employees to decide when to join or invest in a startup. Individuals can make more strategic decisions that maximize their potential for success and economic reward by recognizing when a major risk is about to be removed.

READ SOMETHING WONDERFUL (LIST)

A collection of the best essays by the founders of Matter.

FEMALE FOUNDER CIRCLES (PROGRAM)

PearVC announced its inaugural Female Founder Circle AI cohort in partnership with Anthropic. It is seeking applications and referrals from female technical founders building in AI. The deadline is on August 15.

VILLAGE GLOBAL VELOCITY (ACCELERATOR)

Velocity is Village Global's exclusive program for founders at inception. It provides capital (up to $1M), a peer cohort, and AI resources to go from zero to one. Applications are due September 10.

WHY LARGE ORGANIZATIONS STRUGGLE WITH DISRUPTION

ZOMBIECALYPSE IN STARTUPLAND

The current state of the venture capital industry is complex and contradictory, with fierce competition for AI deals coexisting with a large number of unicorn companies awaiting liquidity events. Public SaaS companies are experiencing compressed multiples and slowing growth rates, making it challenging for many growth-stage startups to achieve successful exits through IPOs or acquisitions. Despite these challenges, VCs continue to deploy capital aggressively into AI startups, potentially exacerbating the existing backlog of high-priced companies and creating a risk of a "zombie startup apocalypse" that could impact the ability of emerging VC funds to raise subsequent funds.

“AUTHENTIC” IS DEAD. AND SO IS “IS DEAD.”

Overused phrases and buzzwords have lost their impact and meaning in today's marketing landscape. Companies should strive to be specific, demonstrative, and genuine in their communication instead of relying on tired clichés. Businesses can earn credibility and stand out in a crowded market by embracing authenticity and backing up claims with concrete examples and actions.

MARK ZUCKERBERG'S PLAYBOOK FOR BUILDING THREADS, FACEBOOK, AND WHATSAPP

Zuckerberg breaks down his playbook for product development.

THE RISE OF EFFICIENT, BOOTSTRAPPED SAAS COMPANIES

A new class of highly profitable SaaS companies is emerging, with impressive revenue per employee and founders taking home millions in profits without relying on venture capital.

HOW THE LOOM FOUNDERS PAID $150K FOR LOOM.COM

The Loom founders' wild journey to acquire the Loom.com domain from a public company while fending off other potential buyers.

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DIGICERT REVOKES 83K TLS CERTIFICATES DUE TO DOMAIN VALIDATION BUG

DigiCert announced that it will be revoking 0.4% of certificates issued from August 2019 to June 2024. The CABF baseline domain verification requirement is to publish a CNAME record with the domain followed by an underscore and random value. A bug introduced in August 2019 led to some code paths not appending the underscore which could potentially lead to clashes between the record and subdomains. DigiCert says this is unlikely due to the random value having 150 bits of entropy, but nevertheless has notified customers that it will be revoking affected certificates.

CISA: CRITICAL SERVICENOW VULNERABILITIES BEING TARGETED BY HACKERS

CISA and several security companies are warning that two ServiceNow vulnerabilities that were reported by AssetNote on July 11 are being actively exploited. The vulnerabilities allow attackers to access databases and exfiltrate data as well as read arbitrary files. Researchers warn of between 13k to 42k vulnerable ServiceNow instances ranging across the private and public sectors.

'ERROR' IN MICROSOFT'S DDOS DEFENSES AMPLIFIED 8-HOUR AZURE OUTAGE

Microsoft admitted its defensive implementation worsened the Azure outage on July 30, which was initially triggered by a DDoS attack. DDOS attacks aim to overwhelm systems with malicious traffic. They are becoming increasingly common, so Microsoft should have been able to prevent the outage.

REVEALING THE INNER STRUCTURE OF AWS SESSION TOKENS

Tal Be'ery, co-founder of ZenGo, performed a first ever analysis of AWS Session Tokens to uncover the components that make up a session token. The goal of this research was to discover if the tokens contained sensitive information and if tokens could be edited for forgery as well as other attack vectors. The research found that session tokens are base64 encoded protobufs that store most of the interesting information in a userEncryptedData field. The researchers found that they could forge tokens however AWS rejected forged tokens. The post includes more details about the reversing process and protobuf fields.

SECURING YOUR SECRETS IN AWS

An exploration of how to incrementally improve credentials access in AWS. The post begins with outlining a “vanilla” credentials workflow before detailing how environment variables do not solve the threats inherent with having plaintext credentials. It then outlines how to store secrets in Secrets Manager and have the application dynamically retrieve them to eliminate plaintext secrets from production. The next improvement comes from using KMS to encrypt secrets before using them in CI/CD pipelines to reduce the presence of plaintext credentials. The post then details steps that service providers can use to improve credential management for customers including bringing your own key.

CREATE YOUR OWN CUSTOM IMPLANT

This blog post discusses creating a custom implant for evasive purposes by avoiding detection through customized payloads. It explains the process of building the implant in C and includes details on server setup, interactive features, client functionality, and testing against security tools. The conclusion highlights the advantages of custom implants but also emphasizes the need for caution due to potential limitations and security considerations.

FLEET

Fleet is an open-source version of FleetDM's tool. It is built on Osquery and can be used for vulnerability monitoring, MDM, detection engineering, and other applications.

SOC2 POLICY TEMPLATES

A collection of templates for SOC2 policies and procedures. The templates can be outputted as an HTML dashboard or in PDF.

CLUTCH SECURITY (PRODUCT LAUNCH)

Clutch Security is a platform that gives security teams visibility into all of an organization's non-human identities. The platform allows security teams to understand which NHIs exist within the organization and identify associated risks.

RECORD-BREAKING $75 MILLION RANSOM PAID TO DARK ANGELS GANG

Ransomware attacks are rising, with an 18% year-on-year increase reported by Zscaler ThreatLabz. A record $75 million ransom was allegedly paid this year. The U.S. faces nearly half of all attacks, with a 93% increase. The U.K. was the second most targeted country.

POOR SECURITY LET HACKERS ACCESS 40 MILLION VOTERS' DETAILS

The UK Electoral Commission was reprimanded by the ICO for a security lapse that left millions of voters' data vulnerable to hackers. The breach, which lasted over a year from August 2021, was enabled by unchanged passwords and outdated software.

OVER 1 MILLION DOMAINS AT RISK OF 'SITTING DUCKS' DOMAIN HIJACKING TECHNIQUE

A joint analysis by Infoblox and Eclypsium reveals that Russian cybercriminals are exploiting DNS weaknesses in "Sitting Ducks" attacks to hijack domains without accessing owner accounts. This method, easier and less detectable than other hijacking techniques, has affected over 35,000 domains since 2018.

COST OF A DATA BREACH REPORT 2024

The average cost of a data breach jumped 10% to $4.88 million in 2023.

TWILIO KILLS OFF AUTHY FOR DESKTOP, FORCIBLY LOGS OUT ALL USERS

Twilio has shut down its Authy for Desktop app, logging users out and discontinuing the service.

HACKERS DISTRIBUTING MALICIOUS PYTHON PACKAGES VIA POPULAR DEVELOPER Q&A PLATFORM

Hackers used Stack Exchange to trick developers into downloading malicious Python packages that could steal cryptocurrency.

1,500+ NEW BRANDS JUST JUMPED INTO PODCAST ADS, SPENDING SURGES 22% YOY

Magellan AI's Q2 Benchmark Report highlights a 22% YoY increase in podcast advertising spending, with 1,516 new brands joining the space. This surge is driven by rising podcast popularity, effective ad models, and increased ad loads per episode. Direct response advertising accounts for 44% of spend, while brand awareness campaigns have grown to 54%, with a 15% YoY rise. Top advertisers include BetterHelp, Amazon, and Shopify, with Mint Mobile entering the top ten. The gaming industry, along with jewelry, eyewear, and real estate, saw the highest growth in ad spending.

SEE WHY SNAPCHAT IS A TOP SOCIAL SHOPPING PLATFORM

Snapchat users often start their shopping journey on social channels. 88% of Snapchatters love to shop, 85% discover new products through social ads, and 87% frequently recommend products to friends and family. Snapchatters also significantly influence their networks, with 72% seeking recommendations before purchases. Studies show Snapchatters' purchases are a reflection of their personal style, with 90% agreeing their shopping choices express their identity.

TRY THE ANTI-HYPE CHALLENGE

Hype language in B2B tech marketing often aims to convey excitement, innovation, and novelty, using terms like “revolutionize,” “transform,” “supercharge,” and “leverage.” However, when everything's made to sound exciting, nothing stands out. This post shares examples of companies avoiding buzzwords and hype language in positioning statements.

FOUR TYPES OF STORIES THAT SELL WITHOUT SOUNDING SALESY

Science has shown that well-told stories are more engaging, memorable, and persuasive than many other kinds of content. Four story types that both engage and sell include impressive-detail stories that set a brand apart, founders' stories about the company inception, “how it works” stories, and values stories.

HOW TO LEVERAGE BUYER BELIEFS TO IMPROVE YOUR MARKETING

Leveraging buyer beliefs is crucial for effective marketing. Marketers often assume customers have the same knowledge, which can alienate potential buyers. Use clear language to explain complex concepts, such as the importance of note-taking for productivity. Marketers should map out the customer journey, starting with existing beliefs and guiding them to new, required beliefs. Tactics include storytelling, addressing misconceptions, and providing simple demonstrations to build trust.

POSITIONAL: START, GROW, AND SCALE YOUR INBOUND MARKETING AND SEO STRATEGY

Positional is designed to enhance your content strategy, provide comprehensive analytics, and highlight data-driven optimizations for your channels. It can uncover problematic sections of a page where users are leaving, create user journeys, provide SEO content recommendations, and more. Positional offers personalized demos for those interested in the tool.

6 QUESTIONS TO WARM UP YOUR WRITING

Gain clarity with your writing, never stare at a blank page, and use these 6 questions to write every day: What problem are you solving? Whose problem are you solving? What benefits are you unlocking? What promise are you making? What emotion are you generating? What's the next action your reader should take?

20 LINKEDIN POST TEMPLATES

This post contains 20 templates to use when writing content on LinkedIn. Frameworks include “Impossible vs. Possible”, “LinkedIn Love Stories”, “The Slipper Slide Effect”, and more.

BRAND ASSOCIATIONS: HOW TO PLANT YOUR BRAND IN CUSTOMERS' MINDS

Branding is creating associations in people's minds, as Aston Martin did when it associated its car with the cool and stylish James Bond. Types of brand associations include the experience of the product/service, hard brand attributes like logos or jingles, soft brand attributes like repeated messaging, and news stories that stick with the brand. Build the right brand associations in customers' minds by having an intentional and consistent message, avoiding making negative associations worse with poor handling, and sticking to fewer messages that you repeat often.

MINE CASE STUDY: THE "ALMOST" PERFECT TRIAL CONVERSION

Mine offers customers a way to protect themselves against personal data leaks. This case study examines the brand's product discovery and signup process, highlighting what works and what could be improved for a better customer experience. Its signup flow succeeds by using the "Yes" Ladder concept and pre-validated actions, but fails to show the path forward at a critical conversion step after burying important information in lengthy text.

IOS 18 IS ABOUT TO CHANGE EMAIL MARKETING… AGAIN

Apple's new update uses AI to generate a summary of every email, which for marketers means copywriting becomes even more important in order to display the ‘right' summary message.

5 TEMPLATES FOR WRITING HOOKS

Templates include “How to do X with Y”, “Why X causes Y”, “X ways to achieve Y with Z”, and more.