Hi all,
A couple of months ago, I met Danny Giacopelli in London while I was over Mc’ing Brands and Culture. Danny writes For Starters. A super fun newsletter all about starting cool businesses.
Danny is a New Yorker who lives in London (at the Barbican, maybe the coolest place to live ever), and he spent years at Monocle and then ran Courier, so he’s been telling business stories his whole career.
We get into the big word that is “community”, the businesses he’s obsessed with right now, the analog comeback, and his case for buying a business instead of starting one.
There are lessons in here for small businesses, new media folks, and also lots of lessons that bigger brands often overlook.
Enjoy!
Danny Giacopelli is the founder of For Starters, an independent weekly newsletter for the next generation of small business owners, read by thousands around the world every Friday. He got his start hosting one of the podcast industry’s earliest business shows, The Entrepreneurs, at Monocle, then became editor of Courier, the global magazine about working on your own terms (later acquired by Mailchimp). Born and raised in New York, he’s lived in London for 16 years. And yes, his newsletter’s address just says “Barbican.”
02:11 — MEET FOR STARTERS // From Monocle to Courier to his own thing: the best newsletter for the next generation of small business owners.
02:58 — THE BARBICAN FLEX // His newsletter just lists “Barbican” as the address. I mean, come on.
04:36 — THE SMALL BUSINESS BUG // The best stories are the people who failed and kept going, not the ones who raised a fortune.
10:42 — BUILDING IN PUBLIC, ON PURPOSE // Danny mapped the business model from day one. Memberships, partnerships, and products and, yes, community.
13:56 — YOU CAN’T BUILD A COMMUNITY // You can only nurture one. The nicher the topic, the better. And how brands can actually buy communities but they can’t forget to feed them.
16:52 — NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS EASY // You can’t copy someone’s viral playbook, only learn their process. Legacy “5 tips to a billion” media is bullshit.
20:08 — THE BUSINESSES HE LOVES // All Day Goods turning restaurant plastic into knives. Yanaa’s real-food energy pouches. Storytelling like Paynter.
24:56 — WHAT ELSE CAN A PRODUCT BE? // Milkadamia ships oat milk as dissolvable sheets instead of water. Change the format, change the business.
27:02 — THE ANALOG RENAISSANCE // Landlines, vinyl, sweet shops, bookstores. Real sales. And a big response to AI.
38:13 — BUY IT, DON’T BUILD IT // Millions of boomer businesses need a successor. Buy one.
39:33 — BUILD FOR THE SILVERS // Everyone chases Gen Z. Wealthy 65-to-70s are underserved, and every product made for them is cringe.
42:19 — TELL THE BETTER STORY // The bodega owner who came from nothing beats the Wharton-to-McKinsey grad every time. Hero’s journey, learned the hard way.
44:11 — QUICK FIRE // Three things every brand should do. The trend he’s most excited about. And what most brands get wrong.
Huge thanks to Danny for coming on. Read For Starters and find him on Instagram.
That’s all, folx. – Chris
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