Best of 2021

I have prepared for you a selection of the best of the year (plus some novelties) as a Christmas present.

For me it was an intense 2021, at times very difficult. Despite everything, I went through a personal rebirth. How was it for you?

From a professional point of view, however, several innovations, two of which I am very proud of:

1. We managed, with Sweet Ice Cream, to throw the first national e-commerce of products at -20°. Until today, anyone who wanted to order negative temperature products at home had to go through distributors, now there is the possibility of buying directly from the producers. The development of e-commerce has foreseen the digitization of many processes and activities, we are also working on a project to launch a B2B e-commerce and improve the current B2C e-commerce with many new features. If you're interested, one day I'll tell you about the methodological approach I followed to develop the entire ecosystem starting from brand communication and restyling.
2. I started my consulting business, a step I've wanted to take for a long time and from which I expect a lot in terms of personal and professional growth, I've also decided to start writing this newsletter to document what I discover and learn about the world of digitization and innovation. In 2022 I plan to develop more and more interesting and useful content for you.

As I said in Tuesday's post in Italy there is a lot to do for the digitization of SMEs and small businesses for next year I have several valuable projects and collaborations in the works, therefore stay tuned for 2022.

But now no more talk, off to the Best Of 2021! In this first part we will see the most interesting tools, articles, books, ebooks and newsletters of this 2021.

 🛠️ Tool

What are the best tools I discovered this year? Here's what you really shouldn't miss about 2021:

• Splinter site builder (99/100 on pagespeed), powerful and costs two lire [Get it here]
• Alternative to Manychat fast and simple to use [Get it here]
• Alternative to Calendly, simple and ridiculously expensive [Get it here]
• Build your Funnels directly in WordPress with this tool [Get it here]
• AI Copywriting Tool which uses Artificial Intelligence to create texts [Get it here]
• Say goodbye to Mailchimp costs, sending emails in a simple way [Get it here]

 📰 Articles

Don't underestimate them: they're the best of the best I've read all year. Some have really changed the way I see things.

• A serious guide on how to become the best in the world at something [ Get Here ]
• There Greatest ever guide to cognitive bias [ Get Here ]
• Why (in 2021) being curious is even better than being smart [ Get Here ]
• 100 Tips on Growth by really strong people [ Get Here ]
• The article that made me stop reading “Personal Growth” stuff [ Get Here ]
• The article with Best life advice I've ever read [ Get Here ]

📚 Books

This time too I grinded about twenty books, some technical, others more popular, without neglecting even a bit of prose, because it's right to disconnect. However, those that stuck with me had high-minded concepts. Here is my personal top 5 regarding digital innovation:

The return of strategy – Cynthia Montgomery – [ Info and Purchase here ]

Business strategy is one of the key topics of the MBA held at Harvard. Cynthia A. Montgomery also teaches strategy outside of this prestigious Master and draws up the key points to follow and exemplifies them in the numerous case studies, one of the ones I liked the most is related to the strategic relaunch of Gucci in the 90s.

The performance company – M. Gancitano, A. Colamedici – [ Info and purchase here ]

A fascinating essay on our age, between philosophical perspectives, humanism and sociology. The first part is a harsh critique of the unstoppable digital world, the second part offers a fresh perspective. In "The Society of Performance", Maura Gancitano and Andrea Colamedici continue the line traced by Guy Debord with "The Society of Entertainment" and by Byung-Chul Han with "Psychopolitics", revealing how the condition of contemporary man is structured to adapt to a world where the perception of essence matters more and more.

Better business models – Alexander Osterwalder – [ Info and Purchase here ]

Aimed at decision makers, entrepreneurs and innovators, this manual presents the tools to build an invincible company. Strategy Guide: Decide where to compete and which strategic choices to face. Create a disruption-proof business. Business Portfolio: Use the Portfolio Map to manage new ideas and improve your current business model. Create a robust innovation funnel to constantly reinvent your businesses while reducing risk and uncertainty. Culture of Innovation: Use the Culture Map to understand how ready you are to innovate and to build a culture conducive to innovation. Business Model Patterns: Build your competitive advantage on better business models instead of just products, services, technology and price.

The Cold Start Problem - Andrew Chen - [ Info and Purchase here ]

This however is a very recent book (released in the last month, I'm reading it now), that all Growth professionals have been waiting for. Andrew Chen – former Head of Growth at Uber – fills the volume with a ton of anecdotes and strategies. Definitely a Must Have if you are passionate about the world of Growth Hacking and Digital Marketing.

The Game Unplugged - Various authors - [ Info and Purchase here ]

This book is actually a collection of essays written in response to an old book by Baricco who questioned the changes in the current world. What came out of it is one of the major analyzes of the trends that are changing our world. The book came out before the pandemic, in 2019 but this does not diminish it, on the contrary it strengthens the lucid vision of the various authors and many of these trends have come out even more strengthened. A map of the present definitely worth reading.

📱 Free e-books

Amazing how much the level of free e-books has risen. Many no longer have anything to envy to serious editorial projects. Here is my personal selection

• If in 2021 you are not taking advantage of the power of Tiktok, I advise you to fix it as soon as possible: you are losing customers and traffic at ridiculous costs, also (and above all) for the business. With this truly complete e-book you can start or deepen [ Get the Free E-Book Here ]
• A Fantastic new book from the Basecamp team, this time on their working methodology regarding product development. Top value as always [ Get the Free E-Book Here ]
• A wonderful E-Book with 50 practical strategies for launch an early stage project with examples and case studies. [ Get the Free E-Book Here ]

 💌 Newsletter to subscribe to

Newsletters are a tool to extract as much value as possible, many free ones are full of interesting ideas, the best ones in my opinion this year are:

• Silicon Valley Dojos – An incredible source of information on the startup world directly from Silicon Valley, with interviews with CEOs, reports and much more [ Sign Up Here ]
• let me tell it – A nice find this year. Italian newsletter in the digital field that always offers fresh ideas on trends [ Sign Up Here ]
• First1000 – The first thousand customers are considered the milestone symbolic to affirm a product. Here you can find case studies of how big businesses achieved them [ Sign Up Here ]
• BriefInn – The new Minnovo Newsletter dedicated to all the news relating to the world of innovation, to stay up to date with a world that is spinning ever faster. [ Sign Up Here ]
• WAR – The subtitle is Conflicts of a hyperconnected world and it's a Wired newsletter written by a friend of mine, Viola Serena Stefanello, and it addresses the power struggle of big techs over the dominance of their industry. [ Sign Up Here ]

🔝 Bonuses

 Learnn

The holidays are a great time to learn, and Learnn has an ever-growing database of high-quality courses. Take advantage of this offer:

• For everyone: I give you 7 days free to see the countless courses of Learnn, a truly quality platform as well as one of the most interesting start-ups on the Italian scene. [ Get 7 days Free here ]