Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks all to those who participated in last weeks survey. Many of you seem to like the idea for a collaborative slack channel, meet-ups in Chicago, NYC, SF and elsewhere, but also the clear winner of the survey was a Q&A section.

Q&A Section (new!)

Q: How did you determine the right price to charge customers early on? - Anar

A: Somebody at Techstars said to me “your price isn’t high enough until 20% of customers say no strictly due to the price.” And it’s stuck with me since.

-JB

Elections & The Economy

I couldn’t avoid this week’s election results.

Similarly to you, I’ve been hearing it all across friends, family, and social media, but the one that bugs me the most is this “OMG TRUMP WINNING WILL BE GREAT FOR THE ECONOMY!”

Like c’mon…do you actually think economic sentiment has anything to do with who is actually elected? I’ll make this short and sweet and will use my favorite slide from J.P. Morgan’s Guide to the Markets.

The Pew Research Center asked Americans how they felt about the economy during various election cycles.

Polled republicans were 5x more likely to share a positive opinion about the economy during a Republican president, meanwhile Democrats were more likely to share a positive opinion about the economy during a Democratic president.

That isn’t meant to be a surprising outcome…

During this study, J.P. Morgan’s Asset Management group found that average annual returns (S&P 500) were almost identical.

In other words, despite what people may have felt, the market conditions during each presidency were very similar.

Obama (‘09-‘17): +16.3% average annual returns

Trump (‘17-‘21): +16.0% average annual returns

By the way… those are both higher than the average return over the last 30 years (+10.1%).

And yes you could make the argument against Biden by saying his average annual returns were lower than Trump (+12.7%), but his GDP output was by far the best in all 21st century administrations. 🫡 

Next week we will be back to startup stuff by sharing how we have dealt with good, bad, and conflicting product feedback. It’s a lot harder to manage than you may think.

^{Find Your Financial Advisor}

If you’re somebody on the sidelines or are not sure if a financial advisor makes sense for you or your family, just shoot me an email at [email protected].

Or… visit our website and book time with us!

Thanks for reading, Habits fam. See you back here next week for more.

-JB