Five bite-sized snippets of insight and things to explore.

Hey all!

Here’s your latest batch of 5-BYTES. A mix of culture, strategy, and clarity-building tools for founders and creatives trying to stay focused and make good things.

Let’s dive in.

Documentary I have watched

I watched this Louis Thoreau documentary recently, and it really had a big impact. It follows Israeli settlers in the West Bank, some of whom are pushing to reclaim Gaza.

I’m no expert on the politics or history of region, but what struck me was the intensity—how history, faith, and ideology shape everyday decisions.

What affected me most was the human cost of all of this, laid bare on screen. The people losing homes, freedom, and dignity.

It was uncomfortable. Important. And it still lingers.

Watch Settlers

The Uncopyable Playbook

Being copied is flattering. Until it kills your pipeline.

This playbook is built for founders tired of being the bottleneck. It helps you build an uncopyable brand and stand out from the crowd.

Download Now

Product idea I have been exploring

For the last few months, I have been collaborating with a good friend and fellow consultant (Matt Rowe).

We've been exploring the idea of creating value by design for businesses, rather than the slightly haphazard way it happens in many businesses at the moment.

It blends ideas from Jobs-to-be-Done, Strategyzer, and design thinking—but you don’t need to know any of that.

What matters is this: it’s a tool to help founders, product leads, and creative teams get aligned around what customers actually need—so you can build and communicate with more clarity.

If that sounds useful, take a look below.

Try it out here

What I am reading at the moment.

Jake Knapp's follow-up book, Click, is fast becoming recommended reading for the start-up founders I work with. His first book, Sprint, was a NY Times best seller, and with it, Jake built a huge reputation and a VC business.

This second book is a practical guide to getting started with any new venture, tested with years of startups that come through Character Capital's doors.

What stuck was the idea of “Magic Lenses”—customer, growth, money, and pragmatic—used to view your early-stage product or business. Combined with a manifesto, it helps founders get clarity fast.

More about the book

Concept I am playing with

This idea emerged from a newsletter title, journaling and recent coaching experiences and a lifetime of just not being sure. It’s about saying no more often, so you can go deeper on what matters and has an impact.

Strategic minimalism, basically. I have defined Lazy Discipline as:

Lazy Discipline
“The art of achieving consistent progress by focusing on thinking and systems that deliver results with the least effort, but without compromising on quality.”

What I am listening to at work

This Le Belle 1973 cover of Gil Scott-Heron’s "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is strangely perfect for the current Zeitgeist. The AI revolution, much like the one Scott-Heron referenced, won’t be televised. It’s already happening in Slack threads, GitHub repos, and private betas. It’s infrastructure-deep and mostly invisible.

La Belle's vision, though, is so optimistic that its energy is infectious! You wouldn't know it is over fifty years old, it still feels fresh and current, a bit like me!

Listen on Spotify

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