About | Julian Shapiro

About

Julian.com

I use this site to deconstruct how things work:

I pick a skill I want to be good at.
I research and experiment to uncover its principles. I question the assumptions behind its conventional teaching.
"The difference between knowledge and wisdom is experience,” so I get my hands dirty and experiment.
I rewrite until I have a handbook that is interesting, concise, and effective.
I post updates to Twitter along the way.
I release the handbook for free. Each takes around 500 hours. They're read by over one million people every year.

You can read the handbooks, listen to the podcast, or get my newsletter.

Career

I invest in startups across most stages, sectors, and geographies. You can invest with me here.

I also founded Demand Curve, a Y Combinator startup that grows other companies: we train teams in marketing and run a growth agency. Clients include Microsoft, Basecamp, Tumblr, and Zendesk.

I wrote TechCrunch's growth marketing column and occasionally appear on podcasts to chat growth.

I also created Velocity, a web animation engine used by Samsung, Uber, WhatsApp, and thousands more. Velocity was awarded the Stripe Open Source Grant. I was interviewed about my work on Forbes.