Assertion certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Varden: Arcane's margins were hurt by accumulated micro-inefficiencies, not one major bottleneck

Eric Varden · The Eight-Figure Exit Secret: Put $1 In, Get $15 Back · Jan 15, 2021 · at 28:59

Eric Varden describes the internal agency operational friction at Arcane that led him to build his marketing automation software company Morphio.

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“It wasn't one thing that was impacting our margins. It was a whole bunch of things in, in a minute percentage. So it was, you know, too much analysis through analytics and spending too much time on the data. Pulling reports and then making decisions.”

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