Quick announcement: I'm trying something new this fall.
Compound Sessions: Incubation.
One day, 15 people, one room, and me at the front of it. We spend the entire day on a single question: how do you actually come up with and start a business? Idea to action, start to finish.
No panels. No badges. No keynote stage. It's a working session—and the reality is you walk out with a real, actionable plan to incubate a business, built in the room that day.
Two pilot sessions: Columbus, Oct 8 and Nashville, Nov 5. 15 seats each. That's the whole thing.
We're opening a waitlist first. Get on it and you'll hear from us before anyone else when spots open.
Crocs are one of the ugliest shoes ever made.
They're also one of the most profitable.
At their peak, they've posted operating margins near 30% and gross margins above 60% — numbers that rival, and in many years beat, Nike in its heyday.
So how does an ugly shoe become a cultural phenomenon *and* a cash machine?
Part of the answer is a strategy they borrowed (maybe without even realizing it) from the software world: they became a platform.
So what is a platform? Basically, it's a business that other people build on top of.
And when people build stuff on top of your stuff, it's got two upsides:
Your stuff becomes more valuable
Your customers get locked in a little tighter
The classic example is Microsoft Windows.
That famous clip of Steve Ballmer screaming, "Developers! Developers! Developers!" — that's him saying, "Developers, come and build apps for Windows!"
The more apps run on Windows, the harder it is for anyone to leave.
The Crocs version of that is much more low-tech: Jibbitz.
They plug into your shoes. I googled "ugliest jibbitz" but the result was too gross to put in an email.
After Crocs launched, third-party companies started making those little plastic charms that snap into the holes. It was all kinds of IP — Hello Kitty, NBA logos, whatever.
And they only fit Crocs.
So everyone who buys a bunch of Jibbitz (that's the official name) needs to keep buying Crocs to put their Jibbitz in, and if you buy more Crocs, then you'll probably buy some more Jibbitz…
And that's a moat, built out of ten-cent plastic.
And while platforms are great, the takeaway here isn't "build a platform".
It's this:
The best moves in your business are often borrowed from an industry that looks nothing like yours.
Steal this
One of my personal heroes is the physicist Richard Feynman.
His whole superpower was dragging ideas across domains: taking what he learned in one field and applying it somewhere it had no business being. It's how he zeroed in on the Challenger O-ring failure within days of joining the investigation — while everyone else was still wading through committees and briefings.
So this week, take your biggest business problem and ask:
Who outside my industry has already solved a version of this?
Pick a world that isn't yours and go borrow.
Feynman was an amazing writer too, and his books are a masterclass in how to think. My two favorites: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman and The Pleasure of Finding Things Out.
Definitely worth your time.
Thanks,
Michael
P.S. Reminder - if you're interested in starting a business, please do join the waitlist for Compound Sessions. I'd love to gauge interest.
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