Aleksei Trudov's Substack

What Aragorn and Robb Stark can teach you about being a CEO

Who is right in the Tolkien vs Martin debate on leadership? As usual, it depends

Apr 9 • Aleksei Trudov

1

February 2026

How ecommerce will look in 25 years?

Futurists predicted Wikipedia, but missed SEO, clickbait and personalized ads. Ecommerce forecasts are making the same mistake.

Feb 20 • Aleksei Trudov

1

Everything we know about traffic volume from AI chatbots is inherently incomplete

Which chatbot clicks are disappearing into “direct traffic”? A study.

Feb 16 • Aleksei Trudov

1

1

1

How to count leads from search engines and AI chatbots in Google Analytics 4

The starting point for assessing the business impact of SEO, not just clicks

Feb 9 • Aleksei Trudov

2

1

January 2026

Why SEO results are frustratingly hard to measure and how to deal with it

How to squeeze SEO into familiar business thinking

Jan 30 • Aleksei Trudov

2

1

When product gamification makes sense and when it's just roadmap deadweight

To avoid the deadweight, you need to recognize the two scenarios where gamification actually works and be suspicious of everything else.

Jan 27 • Aleksei Trudov

1

1

Three use cases modern LLMs are surprisingly terrible at

When you shouldn't expect any magic and have to work just like in the past century

Jan 22 • Aleksei Trudov

1

1

The third element of being a boss

What it takes to be a real manager, not just a task-setter and motivator

Jan 4 • Aleksei Trudov

1

December 2025

A New Year’s resolution that survives reality

Five questions to replace wishful thinking with a real-world edge.

Dec 26, 2025 • Aleksei Trudov

2

2

December 2022

Do early-stage startups really need product managers?

Short answer: I don’t think so.

Dec 1, 2022 • Aleksei Trudov

1

August 2021

5 Reasons Why I Have Decided to Invest in Yulife

Recently I have started the process of investing in UK start-up Yulife.

Aug 13, 2021 • Aleksei Trudov

May 2021

How I Stopped Suffering with my To-do List and Really Started Using It

I have been using to-do lists for about 10 years.

May 5, 2021 • Aleksei Trudov