Kaidi “Ruby” Yuan

You may think Banner seems heading in the direction to be "okay" because we have these two types of people. Not wrong. But importantly, we have a culture where the two types of people can co-contribute and even learn from or think for each other. Don't take that for granted.

I often say two big reasons people join Banner: 1. a non-profit startup trying to preserve journalism in a community that has a legacy local news owned by people they are concerned about. 2. a local news is willing to put financial sustainability at the heart of its existence.

Knowing HOW HARD to make something happen vs. WE NEED to make something happen are often two different things at Banner. Need that "self-delusion" or "ego" from that quote to succeed in these two questions. That allows you to take a deep breath after stress, and then solve it.

We know how many attempts have been made or failed before us. We still try. We don't take our existence and results for granted. Every day, we don't dare to be optimistic AND we also don't dare to be pessimistic. Knowledge can be a curse, so you have to be "The Greater Fool."

It's so interesting that the news industry has been doing subscription model for many years now, while retention/churn became a focus recently. And still not enough people talk about subscriber lifetime value, acquisition cost and LTV/CAC ratio. They are designed as a bundle.