Founder of StrategyBreakdowns.com

TLDR: Worked in strategy consulting → Joined strategy team at Atlassian → Started writing strategy case studies → People liked them, so I left my job and went full-timeCheck it out → StrategyBreakdowns.comFor Partnerships Inquiries → passionfroot.me/strategybreakdowns

Tom Alder

This cheeky ad campaign is a masterclass in making people stop and laugh.

Airport billboards plastered with uncomfortably close faces and... features. 

Imagine touching down after 20hrs of international travel and seeing a 20ft nostril.

You'll probably chuckle, jump in an Uber, and remember that nose for weeks.

This is how you win the attention economy in 2026.

—

📌 P.S. I originally came across this campaign because it was going viral and came up on one of my ‘outlier trend’ dashboards. 

Lots of people asked me how I set this up, so I made a free tutorial teaching you exactly how I spot these trending topics / content / products in a few seconds (using free tools): https://lnkd.in/dnxsxJRm

In 2025 I went from $13k/mo to $24k/mo.

In 2026 I'm chasing $50k.

But honestly, my biggest wins were outside of work:

→ Packed up my cosy life in Australia
→ Donated/sold 90% of my physical possessions
→ One-way flight across the world

I've spent the last few months living in: Manhattan. Brooklyn. Barcelona. A tiny beach town called Torredembarra about an hour south of Barca. Valencia. Granada. Madrid. New York again. And now, East London.

2 years ago this was literally a dream I scribbled in a journal. 

Still feels totally surreal when I stop and think about it.

Thank you for reading this past year.

Let's win in 2026.

Anyone in London - hit me up!

—

👉 P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you'll love my newsletter - a 3-minute breakdown of the strategy playbooks and growth hacks behind the world’s greatest companies.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

The Xbox website in 2004.

Bring back the weird and wonderful web.

—

👉 P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you'll love my newsletter - a 3-minute breakdown of the strategy playbooks and growth hacks behind the world’s greatest companies.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

Summer 2009: Airbnb was stuck at $200 per week (!) in revenue… for 8 months straight.

Founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were running out of money and hope.

When they looked at their worst-performing listings, they all had something in common: "The photos sucked."

People were using flip phone cameras or blurry unedited photos. 

Properties were being undervalued because potential guests couldn't properly assess what they were getting.

The solution: doing something that seemed "unscalable".

The founders:

→ Flew from Mountain View to New York
→ Borrowed professional cameras  
→ Personally photographed 24 hosts' apartments

Result: Revenue doubled to $400 in one week.

This wasn't just about prettier pictures. It solved Airbnb's fundamental marketplace trust problem:

• Guests buying an experience they can't return
• From strangers they've never met
• With no way to verify quality beforehand

Professional photos provided instant credibility, visual proof, and increased perceived value.

The strategy didn’t stop there.

It sparked Airbnb's global Photography Program:
→ Network of 2,000+ freelance photographers
→ 35,000 listings shot across 5,000 cities
→ Listings with pro photos earn 2.5x more bookings

The lesson: Sometimes winning means stop coding and start knocking on doors.

—

💡 If you enjoyed this, it originally appeared in my free 3-minute newsletter, 'Strategy Breakdowns'.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

The value of $1,000 invested 10 years ago:

Amazon (AMZN) → $4,430
Netflix (NFLX) → $5,110
Apple (AAPL) → $8,170
Tesla (TSLA) → $33,630
AMD (AMD) → $123,010
Bitcoin (BTC) → $138,460
Nvidia (NVDA) → $157,870
XRP (Ripple) → $263,160
Dogecoin (DOGE) → $367,590
Ethereum (ETH) → $2,013,020

—

👉 P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you'll love my newsletter - a 3-minute breakdown of the strategy playbooks and growth hacks behind the world’s greatest companies.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

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Founder of Strategy Breakdowns

I'm hiring a writer!

But not just a "writer."

A Superwriter.

Here's how to know if that's you:
→ You're subscribed to like 20+ newsletters
→ You compulsively screenshot great emails, ads, charts etc
→ You can write about complex business concepts in a simple and engaging way
→ You use Claude/Perplexity/Deep Research/Zapier/Notion better than anyone you know

The job: Produce the best strategy case studies on the internet.

Start with 1-2 breakdowns per week.

As a Superwriter, a core part of your role *from Day 1* is building systems, templates, automations, and agents for research, curation, creation, editing, visuals etc.

Note: This role is *not* for you if you don’t know how to (or don’t want to) work with AI/automation to improve your output (more engaging writing, more thorough research, faster graphics, etc)

What you'll get:
- Front-row seat to a fast-growing internet media business
- Work directly with me - I'll teach you everything I know about writing, audience building, sponsorships, and anything else you're interested in
- Freedom to follow your curiosity and shape the role over time
- Access to pro versions of best-in-class tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Notion, Canva, Wispr Flow etc)
- Write + build things that reach hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of people in tech
- Fully remote, work from anywhere in the world

If this sounds like you: Job Description + Application in the comments 👇
If this sounds like someone you know: Tag them!

110,803 people read my weekly strategy essays, but I have 2 HUGE problems:

1. They aren't good enough
2. Not enough people read them

So...
✏️ I'm hiring a writer to produce the best strategy case studies on the internet!

→ I don't care about your CV.
→ I care about your screenshots folder.
+ the newsletters / YouTubers / books in your content diet.
+ how many hours you've spent using Deep Research / Claude Code / Nano Banana.

Important note: this isn't an ordinary 'Writer' role.
I'm looking for a 'Superwriter'.

You won't just write. You'll build systems.
AI research workflows. Notion Templates. Infographics. Charts. Surveys.

Exceptionally high quality bar + thinks in leverage.

This starts at 1-2 articles per week. Will grow into much more.
Fully remote. Work from anywhere.
Reach millions of tech founders + leaders each month.

If this sounds like you: Job Description + Application in the comments 👇
If this sounds like someone you know: Tag them!

Steve Jobs tried his best to acquire Dropbox, but couldn’t (and ended up launching a competitor instead).

In 2009, he made them an offer most startups dream about:

9-figure acquisition.
Plug into Apple’s ecosystem.
Direct access to Apple’s users.
Validation from a Silicon Valley icon.

But Dropbox’s founders declined. 

Jobs doubled down, saying it was "a feature, not a product."
He threatened that if they didn’t agree to an acquisition, Apple would “kill” Dropbox by launching their own storage product:
→ iCloud

But he was wrong.

iCloud was a huge success, but wasn’t enough to stop Dropbox’s historic run:

In just 7 months, Dropbox had accumulated 100,000 users.
Within 18 months, 500,000.
By October 2009, they'd crossed 2 million users.

A single mechanism was driving over one-third of all new signups:
→ Their iconic referral program 
(”Invite your friend to receive an extra 10gb of free storage”)

It was so effective that within 6 months, it was generating 2.8 million referral invitations monthly.
1 invitation sent every single second (!)

The trajectory from there went exponential:
→ 50 million users by 2011
→ 100 million users by 2012
→ 500 million users by 2016

In 2017, Dropbox hit a milestone faster than any other software company in the past: $1 billion in ARR.
The referral architecture powering Dropbox's growth combined behavioural psychology, network effects, and incentive design.
There’s something every builder can learn from what is arguably the most successful customer acquisition program in SaaS history, so I've deconstructed the 3x underlying principles into a free guide. 

🎁 Here’s the guide → https://lnkd.in/gc9-ih8J

Happy Monday. I got in a heated debate over the weekend. Help me settle this:

I've been daydreaming about redesigning the Strategy Breakdowns website for at least a year. 

Picture this:
→ An infinite canvas. Every article as a card in a grid. 
→ A new interactive way for readers to explore the archive. 

But it’s always sat in the embarrassingly long “maybe one day” pile.

Recently I came across a tool that let me prototype it in an evening.

It only took about 2 minutes of "aha" moments and "oh damn that's cool" design decisions for me to realise i had to turn my rainy-night-in into a breakdown.

The tool is called Alloy - it captures your existing product and lets you vibe on top of it

Most tools are fighting over hobbyists and side projects, so Alloy carved out its own niche: professional product teams prototyping on existing apps

Lots of clever product-led-growth mechanics and smart user psychology baked into this tool. 

✏️ Check out the full breakdown on your new favourite vibe-coding tool: https://lnkd.in/dudG8b6G  and here’s the interactive prototype I made: https://lnkd.in/dVy8zaX3

i can't stop thinking about how all software looks the same now

in the early 2000s, winamp let users completely redesign the interface

→ alien heads
→ video game themes
→ animated creations

it sparked one of the internet's first user-generated design communities

there's actually a museum preserving 100,000+ skins from that era (link below)

somewhere along the way, we lost something special:
→ the ability to add personality into the tools we use every day

my secret wish is that AI brings back the 'customisation layer'

software that feels yours

—

👉 P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you'll love my newsletter - a 3-minute breakdown of the strategy playbooks and growth hacks behind the world’s greatest companies.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

Software looks the same 

40 years of enterprise software in one chart:

Ownership → subscription → consumption → autonomous 

We're entering an unrecognisable era.
The winners of the next decade will be defined by AI GTM, outcome-based pricing, and the merging of software and services.

We hear a lot about the ‘one-person unicorn’.
A single operator building a billion-dollar company with new business models unlocked by AI.

Im curious - what do you think that business actually *looks* like?
Whats the product? How is it marketed? How does the company operate?

Something I’ve been wondering a lot about lately. Keen to hear your thoughts 💭

—

👉 P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you'll love my newsletter - a 3-minute breakdown of the strategy playbooks and growth hacks behind the world’s greatest companies.

Join 110,000+ strategy nerds from companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, and Netflix: https://lnkd.in/g2FWfXGR

Luke Tobin

Founder of Unusualgroup.com | Follow for posts on Business, Marketing, Investing & AI

Commercial and speaking: sponsorship@luketobin.com

3 exits, different industries, each one bigger than the last. Turned a £100 investment, into an eight-figure agency exit in 5 years. 

I help founders turn self-doubt into leverage, and leverage into exits.

My last business started with £100 and a lot of imposter syndrome. No funding. No safety net. Just a laptop, a tiny runway and lots of grit. Five years later, we sold for eight figures. It was one of the fastest growth-to-exit stories in the UK at that level.

That was exit number three. Before that, I built and sold a hospitality business and an e-commerce brand. Different industries, same scale-to-exit playbook. Build lean. Price for profit. Systemise delivery. Think like a buyer long before you ever meet one.

Now I back other founders and work on fixing what is broken in the agency world.

Current work:

Unusual Group (Founder)
We take minority stakes in agencies and plug them into the capital, infrastructure and operator support they need to grow margins and become exit-ready.

Tobin Capital (Owner) 
I invest in more than 25 brands, including SpaceX, Atom Bank, and Honest Mobile. When I invest, you do not just get capital. You get an operator in your corner on pricing, operations, hiring and exits.

A-Frame Venture Studio (Partner)
We build consumer brands from scratch. Our first brand, Mirth Water, is now live in the United States at drinkmirth.com.

The Success Method Newsletter
Every week, more than 100,000 founders get my breakdown of how to turn self-doubt into an advantage in their business. I share how I structure deals and exits, the pricing moves and margin levers that work in practice.

Book (Q2 2026)
My first book, on how founders can turn doubt into an asset rather than a drag on growth, is coming in Q2 2026 from a major publisher.

In total, I have started seven businesses. Two failed. Three exited. Two, I am still building. The failures taught me more than the exits. Self-doubt never went away. I learned how to use it as a filter to make better decisions in hiring, pricing, partners, and exits. That is what I teach and invest around now.

Today, I share what actually works with more than 800,000 founders across my channels. The playbooks, the red flags, the live deals and the parts of the mental game most people never talk about.

If you are an agency owner or founder who wants to raise, exit or fix your margins in the next 12 to 36 months, send me a DM.

Newsletter (100K plus subscribers): www.luketobin.com/newsletter

DM me about: investments, agency exits, speaking

Investor

The next‑generation personalization AI for e‑commerce.

Big goals = big discomfort.

Small goals = silent regret.

When you're around people chasing massive goals,
something shifts.

You start to believe bigger is possible.
You become more.

Do this to design your environment for maximum growth:

1. Audit your circle
↳ Who do you spend the most time with? Are they pushing limits or settling?
↳ Surround yourself with fire-starters who make you uncomfortable (in the best way).

2. Join high-aspiration spaces
↳ Masterminds, growth communities, where big thinkers gather, energy rises.
↳ Proximity breeds possibility.

3. Seek mentors with 10x vision
↳ Learn from those who’ve already gone where you want to go.
↳ Borrow their belief until you build your own.

4. Cut energy drainers
↳ Limit time with people who complain more than they create.
↳ You can’t soar while dragging anchors.

5. Normalise big conversations
↳ Make goal-setting, risk-taking, and growth the default in your daily dialogues.
↳ Big dreams feel more achievable when they’re spoken often.

Big goals aren’t just built, they’re caught.

And the right people make them contagious.

Remember:
The right room changes everything.

♻️Repost to help someone in your network.
🔔Follow Luke Tobin for more professional growth strategies.

cc Colby Kultgen (shout out for the image and powerful reminder!)

3x Exited Founder | Follow me for posts on Business, Marketing, Investing & Success Psychology

Every time you wait for "the perfect moment," someone with half your talent but twice your audacity is moving ahead of you.

The world doesn't always reward the most skilled or the most prepared. 

It rewards the people who show up, speak up, and take the risk of being told "no."

Let's address this..
Missed opportunities hurt more than rejections. 
A rejection is a data point; a missed opportunity is a "what if" that haunts you. 

If you’re waiting for permission to dream big or bet on yourself, this is it.

How to stop hesitating and start acting:

1. The 5-Second Rule: 
If you have an impulse to act on a goal, move physically within 5 seconds or your brain will kill the idea.

2. Audit Your "What-Ifs": Ask yourself: 
“What is the actual cost of a ‘No’?” Usually, it’s just a bruised ego. The cost of a "Never Tried" is a stalled career.

3. Lower the Stakes: 
Stop trying to make your first move a "grand slam." Just aim to get on base. Send the DM, post the rough draft, or book the meeting.

4. Embrace "Good Enough": 
Perfectionism is just procrastination in a fancy suit. Done is better than perfect when "perfect" never leaves your hard drive.

Stop letting your talent stay a secret. 

The gap between where you are and where you want to be is usually just a few moments of audacity.

What’s one thing you’ve been overthinking lately? 
Let’s commit to doing it this week.

♻️Repost to inspire others in your network.
🔔Follow Luke Tobin for more mindset and growth tips.

cc Dora Vanourek (shout out for the image and message)

We are our own worst critics.

I spent years thinking I wasn't doing enough. 

I compared my "behind-the-scenes" to everyone else’s "highlight reel."

But here is the truth: 

While you’re worrying about your mistakes... 
Others are inspired by your progress.

While you’re doubting your worth... 
Others are studying your work ethic.

The "mess" you see in your head? 
To someone else, that looks like a masterclass in resilience.

If you’re stuck in a cycle of overthinking, here are 5 ways to get out of your head and back into the game:

1. Audit your evidence, not your emotions. 
- Your brain will tell you that you’re failing because you feel tired. 
- Feelings aren't facts. Look at your "Done" list for the week. 
- The data usually proves your anxiety wrong.

2. Focus on "B-" work to start. 
- Perfectionism is just procrastination in a suit. 
- Aim for "good enough" to get the momentum moving. 
- You can’t steer a parked car, but you can optimise a moving one.

3. Stop comparing your "Input" to their "Output." 
- You see the 4:00 AM struggles, the deleted drafts, and the coffee-stained notes. 
- You only see their polished final product. 
- It’s an unfair comparison.

4. Change your "Who." 
- Instead of asking "Who am I to do this?", ask "Who am I helping by doing this?" 
- Shifting the focus from your ego to your impact kills imposter syndrome instantly.

5. Embrace the "Spotlight Effect." 
- We think everyone is judging our mistakes. 
- Truth? Everyone is too busy worrying about their own mistakes to notice yours. 
- You have more freedom than you think.

The bottom line: 
While you’re wondering if you’re "good enough," someone else is looking at you for inspiration.

Don't let them down by quitting.

♻️Found this helpful? Share it with your network.
🔔Follow Luke Tobin for more mindset tips.

cc Justin Welsh (shout out for the inspirational message and image)

A hard truth:

Regret = The price of comfort

You don't need more time.

You need more courage.

Most people don’t fail from trying. 
They fail from waiting too long.

Here’s how to build the courage to jump.
(Even when it’s scary):

1. Make the fear visible
↳ Write it down. Name it. You can’t fight what you won’t face.

2. Shrink the leap
↳ Break it into one bold step. You don’t need a plan, just a start.

3. Take action within 24 hours
↳ Delay kills momentum. Movement builds belief.

4. Surround yourself with risk-takers
↳ Bravery is contagious. So is settling.

5. Track your jumps
↳ Keep a “courage log.” Let your past bravery fuel the next one.

6. Rehearse your bold move
↳ Visualise the conversation. Confidence builds in repetition.

7. Limit input, increase output
↳ Too much advice leads to paralysis. Make a move then adjust.

8. Set a “no turning back” trigger
↳ Commit with a consequence.

9. Anchor to your future self
↳ Ask: “What would the future me thank me for doing today?”

10. Celebrate courage, not outcomes
↳ Reward the jump, not just the landing. That rewires your risk muscle.

Reminder:
Courage isn’t loud.
It’s quiet decisions made in uncomfortable moments,
that change your life.

You don’t need to be ready. 
You just need to go.

If you wait for certainty,
you’ll miss everything worth having.

♻️Repost to help someone take a leap of faith.
🔔Follow Luke Tobin for more personal growth tips.

cc Eric Partaker (shout out for the image and powerful message)

The way you speak to yourself in private sets the ceiling on your results.

Not motivation.
Not discipline.

But your internal narrative.

Your brain doesn’t argue with your self-talk.
It goes looking for proof that it's true.

Do this to rewire your mindset architecture:

1. Tune your filter (RAS)
- Your brain searches for evidence to proof what you already believe. Feed it better signals.

2. Swap “I can’t” for “How can I?”
- Statements close doors. Questions open search mode in your brain.

3. Add “yet”
- Most limits aren’t permanent. They’re unfinished.

4. Use identity-based language
- You act in line with who you think you are. Choose the identity that serves the outcome you want.

5. Audit your inner critic
- If you wouldn’t say it to a friend, it doesn’t belong in your head.

6. Use the observer technique
- Create distance from the thought. Regain objectivity and reduce the emotional spike.

7. Remove “should”
- Replace shame with agency. “Choose” is a different operating system.

8. Reframe anxiety as excitement
- Same body signal, but a different story. You get to decide the label.

9. Let confidence compound
- Small daily narrative shifts build self-trust over time. Track your proof.

10. Protect your mental environment
- Your inputs become your inner voice. Curate what you consume and who you listen to.

This isn’t self-help.
It’s mindset architecture.

Rewrite the script and the behaviour follows.

Which one do you need most right now?

♻️Found this helpful? Share it with your network.
🔔Follow Luke Tobin for more mindset tips.

Your self-talk sets the ceiling for your growth 

"Service businesses are dead. Why invest in them?"

Three months ago, everyone said I was crazy.

Today, we're proving them wrong.

We launched Unusual Group in October with a clear mission: 

Build the ecosystem of support, founders need to scale-to-sale successfully. 

The industry has been struggling and it's no surprise. 

Traditional rollup groups and network agency models are broken.

So we built something different. 

An industry first membership model that gives founders and their teams the strength and resources of a business 10x their size. 

Support with;

- Strategy
- Operations 
- Sales & Marketing
- Productisation & IP
- Finance, Legal, HR & IT
- AI & Technology
- Exit Planning & Positioning 
- Optional Capital Investment 

After three months, here's how its going;

• 100+ applications received 
• 7 agency partners onboarded (5% acceptance rate) 
• Group valuation approaching £10m 
• 90 pieces of press coverage 
• £400k ARR 

An ecosystem that supports founders in ways the market has never seen.

This isn't about rolling up agencies or stripping identity.

It's about creating the infrastructure that lets great founders do what they do best, without the ceiling that comes with going it alone.

If you're running an agency and you've been watching from the sidelines, 
now's the time to get involved. 

Our next cohort goes live in February.

Apply via our waitlist: https://lnkd.in/exReKAKu

Follow me, Luke Tobin for more building in public content.

3x Exited Founder | Follow me for posts on Business, Marketing, M&A & Success Psychology

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