Welcome to Edition Nº 08 of Max’s Musings.

Every two weeks I share my learnings building a $100 billion company in public (in <2 minutes).

Today’s word count: 536

Read time: 1 mins 19 sec.

Musings

$1m marketing vs ‘a fucking chocolate factory’

Mr Beast, rather than spend $1m on Facebook ads, built a chocolate factory.

I call this principle “build a fucking chocolate factory.”

Basically, replace Meta or Google ads with something unique instead.

At Superpower one of our most viral moments was World’s Healthiest Hoodie.

10 year and 1 year view

Two horizons matter for company strategy:

1. Where do we want to be in 10 years? Be opinionated. Have vision. Reason backwards from the limit. Aim to be a $100 billion company.

2. Where do we want to be in 1 year? Be market-obsessed. Hunt revenue. Follow what works today. Don’t get distracted by the 10 year view.

Scrolling as a useful behavior

You learn a lot through scrolling.

I actively try to scroll on X, TikTok, and Instagram to understand culture, virality, and storytelling. I notice what ‘stops the scroll’.

Health Protocol Update

Protein powder

86% of collagen powders are contaminated with heavy metals. The healthiest I’ve been able to find is this one. I’ll update you if I find anything better.

Peptides

I’ve started experimenting with several peptides: epithalon, pinelaon, retatrutide, SS-31, and more. I’m launching a formal experiment soon. Let me know any you want me to test & research.

As always, my full health protocol is at maxmarchione.com/protocol

Top Finds

Brand of the Week

To date I’ve focused on lesser-known brands. But this time we’ll swing big with Dior’s subtle ‘rebrand’.

I’ve been obsessed with what tech can learn from fashion. ‘Tech branding’ is a local optima. We should learn from where brand is everything: fashion.

Dior has a new creative director (Jonathan Anderson), and the emotion and aesthetic feels so distinctive. It has so much personality. It feels modern-retro.

Scroll Instagram (22 June to 9 July) and notice the emotions you feel.

Watch Kylian Mbappé fail to tie a bow tie.

Notice the return to the lower case logo.

Observe celebrities arriving at Dior’s event.

This highlights a theme I’m seeing in 2025 — sprezzatura, the Italian word for ‘studied carelessness’.

Notice sprezzatura in:

• Sam Altman’s website

• Steve Jobs’ iPhone launch

• Perplexity’s jaw-dropping marketing video (this one’s a must watch)

You’ll start seeing sprezzatura everywhere.

Space of the Week

One of my favorite homes in the world is The Sheats-Goldstein Residence by John Lautner.

Every angle, every material, every piece of furniture is perfected.

Article of the Week

I was just re-reading “speed matters”.

Some of my favorite parts:

• “If you work quickly, the cost of doing something new will seem lower in your mind. So you'll be inclined to do more.”

• “Systems which eat items quickly are fed more items. Slow systems starve.”

• “If there's something you want to do a lot of and get good at—like write, or fix bugs—you should try to do it faster.”

Quote of the Week

In the spirit of speed, action, and compounding:

A fun ask

We want to turn a doctor or researcher into the next Andrew Huberman, Rhonda Patrick, or Peter Attia.

If you’re interested, email [email protected] and [email protected].

This could be life-changing for the right person, so please do share!

Until next time,

Max Marchione

(P.S. Let me know what you think! I read all replies.)