We can easily pivot and vastly change a project of ours. We can change as we learn more about our users.
Big companies can take months/years for even the smallest of pivots.
1) Core attributes of a promising founder worth following:
- Progress/trajectory over time
- How well they lead a team &
- Make the vision happen
- Most impressed when someone is way ahead of where you thought they would be when you check up/see them a few months later.
We can easily pivot and vastly change a project of ours. We can change as we learn more about our users.
Big companies can take months/years for even the smallest of pivots.
Then you only have one thing to do: scale, scale, scale.
- listen to every single person who uses your product
- reply to every single person who emails you about your product
- ask them what they like and do not like
- iterate your product, make changes, pivot if necessary
In the early stages of a company just;
- write code
- talk/sell to customers to stress test your idea
Nothing else.
You gain great leverage in making products that make many many people better at their jobs.
This is a vastly under appreciated market that needs to be addressed.
Release as soon as possible. Get feedback. See if it works.
Take your small very enthusiastic user base and keep making the product better for them.
More users will come naturally via word of mouth.
How do you scale? Marketing & Sales.
Don't try to do it all yourself. Get help. Outsource. Hire.
Smart people know when to delegate.
Look for big products with a lot of negative feedback.
Make something better. Even if just a small amount of those agitated users will love it.
- work experience
- projects
- failing
- learning
- trying again
I think that advice is useful for a lot of us!
- spending your time wisely
- working with co-founders who you get on with very well
- sharing your ideas and getting feedback
- slowly but surely learning more about what works and what does not work
More from Startups
The Beatles wrote “Yesterday” in less than a minute.
Led Zeppelin wrote “Rock And Roll” in 30 minutes.
The White Stripes, “Seven Nation Army”, 10 min during a soundcheck.
The Rolling Stones, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”, 40min.
Making a startup in 24 hours is perfectly fine.
I worked on my first startup for 2.5years. It was an events app. Sunk in cost and expectations were so high, that I had to close it, despite getting consistent revenue.
In comparison, I wrote @CryptoJobsList in 2 days. And it's way more meaningful than what I've been doing in my events startup for 2.5 years.
When I let go of my engineering ego and let go of expectations that I need to raise capital and hustle for 4+ years — I started lauching fast and interating fast without any expectations — then I started coming up with something truly meaningful and useful ✨
12 startups in 12 months by @levelsio
24 hour startup by @thepatwalls
— are great challenges that make you focus on the end product value, iterate fast and see what sticks and ruthlessly kill what does not work.
Led Zeppelin wrote “Rock And Roll” in 30 minutes.
The White Stripes, “Seven Nation Army”, 10 min during a soundcheck.
The Rolling Stones, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”, 40min.
Making a startup in 24 hours is perfectly fine.
I really think this idea of starting a starup in 24 hours is bad idea. Gives people thinking that you can do something meaningful in short period of time. https://t.co/l3x2ov33Qn
— Myk Pono \U0001f60e (@myxys) November 10, 2018
I worked on my first startup for 2.5years. It was an events app. Sunk in cost and expectations were so high, that I had to close it, despite getting consistent revenue.
In comparison, I wrote @CryptoJobsList in 2 days. And it's way more meaningful than what I've been doing in my events startup for 2.5 years.
When I let go of my engineering ego and let go of expectations that I need to raise capital and hustle for 4+ years — I started lauching fast and interating fast without any expectations — then I started coming up with something truly meaningful and useful ✨
12 startups in 12 months by @levelsio
24 hour startup by @thepatwalls
— are great challenges that make you focus on the end product value, iterate fast and see what sticks and ruthlessly kill what does not work.
There are some amazing founders and indie hackers that have made 🤯-worthy progress this last year.
The stuff you can do in a year is seriously astounding 👇
👉 @TransistorFM reaching $22k MRR in one year: https://t.co/BuKmXEeEtH
I was one of their first customers and the progress @mijustin and @jonbuda have made working mostly part-time has been crazy.
Now both are full-time. Follow them on @buildyoursaas
👉 @talk2oneup reaching $10k MRR in one year: https://t.co/SOoGkKA19r
@daviswbaer joined as a co-founder and through many different marketing tactics, pricing changes, and product updates, they've managed to carve out a niche market in a really competitive industry.
👉 @hostifi_net $9k MRR in one year: https://t.co/TknroGZWoK
After getting fired from his full-time job, @_rchase_ embarked on a year focused on building products to replace his salary in a year.
The dude seriously SHIPS and even took investment from @earnestcapital
👉 @ClosetTools $11k MRR WHILE WORKING FULL-TIME AND WITH A FAMILY: https://t.co/pKQ7pFvpZY
With a strong product, continuous improvement, and SEO, @unindie has really been inspirational.
There are no excuses.
The stuff you can do in a year is seriously astounding 👇
👉 @TransistorFM reaching $22k MRR in one year: https://t.co/BuKmXEeEtH
I was one of their first customers and the progress @mijustin and @jonbuda have made working mostly part-time has been crazy.
Now both are full-time. Follow them on @buildyoursaas
👉 @talk2oneup reaching $10k MRR in one year: https://t.co/SOoGkKA19r
@daviswbaer joined as a co-founder and through many different marketing tactics, pricing changes, and product updates, they've managed to carve out a niche market in a really competitive industry.
👉 @hostifi_net $9k MRR in one year: https://t.co/TknroGZWoK
After getting fired from his full-time job, @_rchase_ embarked on a year focused on building products to replace his salary in a year.
The dude seriously SHIPS and even took investment from @earnestcapital
1/ "Hardcore Year" (https://t.co/cjx7HfGeEK)
— Reilly Chase\u2601\ufe0f\u2601\ufe0f\u2601\ufe0f (@_rchase_) July 31, 2019
MRR in July:
\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593\u2593 $9,109 of $8,333 goal (109%)
Totals@hostifi_net $8,463@ghostifi_net $361@locklinnetworks $125@captifi_net $147@patreon $13
I reached my goal for the year! \U0001f942\U0001f37e
Details in thread \U0001f447 pic.twitter.com/cUEeiADDAk
👉 @ClosetTools $11k MRR WHILE WORKING FULL-TIME AND WITH A FAMILY: https://t.co/pKQ7pFvpZY
With a strong product, continuous improvement, and SEO, @unindie has really been inspirational.
There are no excuses.
This year is flying by. How am I doing a July report already? Here it is: Closet Tools' July open stats:
— Jordan O'Connor (@unindie) August 1, 2019
MRR: $11106.28 (+11.43%)
Organic Search: 3958 (+20.45%)
New Trials: 154 (-8.33%)
Less trials, more revenue (churn is going down!). The focus for July was feature stability. pic.twitter.com/4YRpkPvKxo
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I'm going to do two history threads on Ethiopia, one on its ancient history, one on its modern story (1800 to today). 🇪🇹
I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 (sub-thread):
The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹
Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹
References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹
I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 (sub-thread):
The famous \u201cLucy\u201d, an early ancestor of modern humans (Australopithecus) that lived 3.2 million years ago, and was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia, displayed in the national museum in Addis Ababa \U0001f1ea\U0001f1f9 pic.twitter.com/N3oWqk1SW2
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) November 9, 2018
The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹
Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹
References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹
