Yury Molodtsov

Startups comms, essays on tech and five great links each week.

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August 21, 2025
The Broken Promises of Substack

Substack promised independence, but has evolved into another platform playing the same game as everyone else. The crab always becomes a crab.

July 14, 2025
IMAX is a Superbrand

Superbrands create and control key technology allowing them to break the common laws of branding and put themselves forward. Here's how IMAX put an intro in front of every movie.

June 6, 2024
Can Markets Regulate Themselves?

Sometimes, governments regulate markets. And sometimes, market participants regulate themselves. The outcome can be surprisingly different; thankfully, we have several examples that can serve as case studies.

July 7, 2023
Why Privacy Is Overrated

I’m not against privacy, and I understand why people might not want someone to track web pages or apps they use. But it’s important to remember that there’s a trade-off and be prepared for the outcome.

February 19, 2023
How to Start Your Blog

Running your own blog helps you keep an online journal of your life and thoughts that doesn't depend on unreliable tech platforms like Facebook or Twitter. But this process is still needlessly complicated and certainly not user-friendly for regular people.

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January 12, 2022
Why I Dropped Apple Watch for a Mechanical Watch

I’ve always been into watches and for the last 5 years, since Series 2, I’ve been almost exclusively wearing an Apple Watch. Recently I pulled a trigger on a mechanical timepiece I wanted a long time ago and have been enjoying it since.

March 16, 2021
Mailbrew Review: Get Personalized Email Digests of News and Content

Mailbrew is the only app that allows you to receive news and content from the web in the form of regular digests. The idea behind it is to avoid the anxiety and guilt caused by endless feeds in social apps by doing bulk delivery of content at a pre-defined time throughout the day.

March 3, 2021
Why You've Dropped Your Todo List

I’ve always been one of the people who religiously lives by their task manager – I can’t survive without one. That’s why I’m always surprised when I talk to people who actually get by. For some, task managers only cause anxiety and end up abandoned and forgotten. What if I told you that you were just using it wrong?

February 19, 2021
Feedbin Review: One App to Consume All News

It’s one thing to read a lot of content, it’s another to spend hours jumping between apps trying to get a dopamine hit and then getting caught in them. Feedbin is the best RSS service which collects RSS feeds, email newsletters, Twitter feeds, and YouTube videos.

February 8, 2021
Why Apple Has to Allow Sideloading

I think the lack of sideloading has been a tremendous advantage for iOS and Apple’s ecosystem. I also think Apple should give it already.

December 13, 2020
Browsers Are Outdated And Somebody Has To Do Something

Our browsers are astoundingly outdated and their developers seem to be oblivious to that. We went from basic HTML pages sprinkled with a little bit of Javascript to running full-scale applications like Figma or Descript yet browsers have practically the same UI as they had ten years ago.

December 8, 2020
A Controversial Opinion: Online Ads Are Good

One of my most controversial opinions is that online ads are actually great for the society and the public narrative shifting to paid subscription software, services and content might prevent a lot of people from accessing them in the first place.

October 15, 2020
There Is An Empty Space In Team Productivity

At all of my jobs we used different tools for project management: from Asana to Notion and Todoist Business. I've also looked at Monday, Trello, Flow, Taskade, and others. Still, none of them can match a personal task manager.

October 1, 2020
How to Write Helpful Investor Updates

I've seen hundreds of investor updates and wanted to share the things I learned from them and how you can write a good one.

September 19, 2020
A Comparative Review of iOS Browsers

I compared all third-party iOS browsers to check if they're ready to be used as default ones. Only if you really want to.

September 13, 2020
There's No Such Thing As Crisis PR

Just like a lot of other areas, external communications shouldn't exist on their own. PR is a part of the overall company's strategy and vision. The only way to be properly heard is to be authentic.

August 16, 2020
The PARA Method in Workflowy

PARA is a universal productivity methodology that can be implemented in any app or service. It helps you categorize your notes, thoughts, documents, and files.

July 19, 2020
Google and the Paradigm Shift

The product that will dethrone Google Search won't be a search engine. Instead of links, it will simply provide you with answers.

July 16, 2020
The Ultimate Guide to Workflowy

Workflowy is the ultimate productivity app that closely mimicks the way I want to work. It might be overwhelming at first, so I wrote a guide that covers all the basics.

July 11, 2020
The Evolution of Outliners

Outliners are apps which force you to write in hierarhical bullet points, helping you to structure your thoughts They are are a very curious category of software products that have been mostly used by a small number of geeks but recently captured more attention with the launch of Roam Research.

May 18, 2020
Superhuman and Premium Software

Superhuman with its premium pricing of $30 per month expands the Overton windows for apps pricing and has already enabled higher (and more sustainable prices) for new companies.

May 10, 2020
The Art of Storytelling

Storytelling is an art that is applied in any area by people working in all kinds of professions. You need to understand it in order sell your products, your ideas, and your own time.

January 12, 2020
How to Work With Reporters and Get Publications in Media

Even if you don't have resources for hiring a team or even a single person to handle your public relations that doesn't mean your announcement doesn't deserve to be on TechCrunch.

June 10, 2019
What Are The Chances They Will Replace You As The CEO?

I looked at the list of US-based tech unicorns and tried to find the ones who replaced the founding CEO with an external hire.

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Recent Posts

January 13, 2026
Founders’ Guide to Comms

How to build founder-led comms that actually move the needle.

December 17, 2025
Why Growth Matters

Living in an economy that doesn't grow is a terrible fate.

December 7, 2025
The AI Price Hike

Companies are bundling AI and raising software prices because they don't have a choice.

November 19, 2025
How Startups Get Viral

Viral startups win by being utterly unreasonable about something.

November 13, 2025
Retro Tech Became the New Luxury

People buy retro devices to feel control and do it so much they became luxury products.