Ali Abouelatta is the creative mind behind First 1000, a popular newsletter that tells the stories behind startups acquiring their first 1,000 users.  To date, he's covered the origin stories of Snapchat, Spotify, Airbnb, Tindr, Doordash, and many others.  We discuss his research methods (he spends an entire week leading up to the Sunday publication of his newsletter), productivity tips, and his killer playlist.