Too legit to quit or is it too much grit to quit?
Grit can matter more than IQ and this article explores the concept of grit and how to develop it. I'm quite intrigued by the concept of grit. I first featured it in this newsletter back in August of last year, with Seth Godin's post on grit & hard work. Angela Duckworth says "Grit is passion and perseverance for extremely long intervals".
Speaking of intervals, this week I'll be continuing my 'comeback' into track racing in Alkmaar at the North Holland District Championships. Race tactics often are the different between winning & losing but grit is what keeps you from getting dropped. What steps are you taking to get grittier and not give up on what counts each week?
As always, thanks for reading!
Cycling
Women's Performance Cycling Clothing - Queen of the Mountains™ launched!
My friend Alicia Bamford has founded a cycling performance brand for women. Their aim is the highest quality cycling apparel that celebrates both beauty and freedom that is at the heart of cycling. Like them on FB. Follow on twitter. Double tap on insta!
All 11,500 'Boris bikes' to be fitted with lasers to improve cyclist safety
The team here at Twotone has been helping TRUE & Speed get the word out about British startup Blaze and their laser lights since last fall. Amazing to see that their awesome lights will now be integrated into London's Santander cycles to decrease blind spots of large vehicles. Chapeau!
Electric bike revolution spinning profits for Dutch firms
Some 1.4 million electric bikes were sold across the European Union in 2014, compared with 907,000 the year before and just 98,000 in 2006. I even read that Dutch teenagers think eBikes are cool. The times are a'changing!
Startups
Why SalesLoft's Second Wind Is Going Strong
A great story about one of my favorite Atlanta startups, Salesloft, and how it revamped itself and how it's now raking in funds. Inspiring to say the least.
UK Startup Ecosystem 2015 Review
Last week I highlighted the €430m Dutch startups raised in 2015. This week Startucus' review of the key events, news stories, and successes which have taken place in the UK startup ecosystem in 2015. Incredibly through in my opinion!
Chill out about your career
Flotation tanks are back, lightsabering is the new boxing, and it’s the year we should be more like Raf Simons and chill out about our careers. Besides, its never to late to innovate!
Sales
Barrel's Framework for Qualifying Inbound Sales Leads
By properly qualifying leads that they continue to pursue , Barrel is able to save valuable time for their team and also for their prospects. I had never heard of this company before it came up in a client call. I really like it now ; )
Enterprise SaaS: If you must hire sales people….
mostly lulz at this post but Kenny Fraser has valid points like: "hat you need is someone who can persuade your customer to buy your SaaS. Not just someone who says they can sell anything."
#SalesTips Noº7 shipped last week.
I co-author a sales focused Revue and last week features two brand new posts from our own internal insights:
We also feature the best of what we read around the web. Like the science of sales operations, 25 sales blogs you should be reading now & how to automate social media lead generation and engagement. Subscribe here.
Radness
My bud Jason Perry is in town and he took photos of the Twotone Amsterdam team Friday and that was particularly rad. Here is why:
1. exactly one year before Jason & I has a coffee at Headfirst Coffee on Westerstraat. I tried to explain how I'd just struck out on on my own and what I hoped to do in 2015.
2. one year later to the day, I commission Jason to photograph the whole team. (Photos on the site soon!)
To me that is pretty rad! He is here in Amsterdam until Thursday morning and still has some time for extra work. If you'd like some portraits of your team or have other photo ideas, reach out: instagram.com/jasonperryphoto
Here's to sustaining your passion and perseverance & developing more grit this week!
p.s. my bud Martijn (@ImageHunters) with Remco of bike-physics.nl are hosting a new weekly Zwift ride. The #WeRideAllWeather Zwift Mondays ride will be at 8:00 PM CET. There are 2 climbs (all wait at the top) & 1 or 2 sprints. The rest of the ride is nice and easy. Hope to see you there! If you're wondering what's Zwift? It's social cycling for the solo cyclist.
