People often ask what we do for marketing, and I don't really have a good answer. You don't have to push your product as hard if you're building for a vocal community of passionate people within a growing market. They'll do most of your marketing for you.
A few things I've learned this year from building a small, profitable internet business from zero to $100k ARR in 8 months.
People often ask what we do for marketing, and I don't really have a good answer. You don't have to push your product as hard if you're building for a vocal community of passionate people within a growing market. They'll do most of your marketing for you.
If you don't experience the problem you've set out to solve, you’ll have a slight disconnect between what your problem actually is, who’s experiencing it, and how to reach them. I’ll probably never do another user test in my life.
The web hosting space may be crowded, but the web hosting space for Notion is not. I used to think a niche would limit the total size of my business, but If we capture 1% of all Notion users, we'd be making at least $720k/month—far beyond what's enough for me.
Some of our record signup days came from one of my side projects. The only mention of it was a link to it in the footer of the page. Your side projects don't have to be clearly correlated in order to still correlate.
Although utility should come first, good design can be a huge advantage. Don't underestimate the power of good fonts, colors, layout, imagery, and white space to provide clear value and reduce friction wherever you can.
Opportunities to scale are everywhere, whether it'd be hiring, taking outside investments, or spending on ads. Either of those would have added more to my todo list which I have no interest in. Don't be afraid to grow at the pace you're comfortable with.
More from Startups
With this, let's get motivated with some curated readings & posts by fellow #24hrstartup participants & indie makers. Check them out below!
✍️ Andrew Parrish wrote - "Why I'm Participating in the 24 Hour Startup Challenge".
@makersup's takeaway - Makers love possibilities, the joy of building. Any aspiring maker should experience the end of lurking on forums & reading @wip's to-dos.
Read:
👩💻 @anthilemoon created a list of @women_make_ members participating in the #24hrstartup challenge. Do let her know if she missed anyone!
More at: https://t.co/zYKVZEq8aq

Creating a list of @women_make_ members participating in the #24hrstartup challenge this weekend \u2013 please let me know if I missed anyone! \U0001f469\u200d\U0001f4bb #womenmake pic.twitter.com/Kh7O7fKv7h
— \U0001d400\U0001d427\U0001d427\U0001d41e-\U0001d40b\U0001d41a\U0001d42e\U0001d42b\U0001d41e \U0001d40b\U0001d41e \U0001d402\U0001d42e\U0001d427\U0001d41f\U0001d41f (@anthilemoon) November 14, 2018
😺 We can't forget one of the key platforms in shipping indie, can we, @ProductHunt?
Check out @ProductHunt's guide to launching at: https://t.co/VB6WgGx6sa.
In addition, it would be wise to prepare for the launch. Fine tune your assets and post at
🚢 Well, we definitely can't leave out the man behind all of this, @thepatwalls!
Launching isn't easy, but know what you'll be facing even before coding. Check out @thepatwalls' "words of shipping" at:
I have been doing individual posts on numbers every week so wanted to one big thread with all updates 👇🏽
Week
Transparency time:
— Sharath \U0001f4e3 (@5harath) February 12, 2021
It's been 24hrs @shoutoutso_ went to public launch \U0001f525
Some numbers:
\U0001f4b0 6 rockstars bought Pro, Pro Annual plans.
\U0001f4aa\U0001f3fd 168 signups.
\u2665\ufe0f 182 Shoutout walls created.
\U0001f465 160K Twitter impressions on launch thread.
Thank you for making it a huge day for us \U0001f64f\U0001f3fd pic.twitter.com/is9Z53trIh
Week
Transparency time: It's been 2 weeks since @shoutoutso_ launched to the public \U0001f525
— Sharath \U0001f4e3 (@5harath) February 25, 2021
Here are some highlights:
\U0001f451 18 rockstars paid customers
\U0001f4b0 $240 MRR
\U0001f4aa 426 signups and counting
\u2764\ufe0f 140 walls published
\U0001f3c6 #3 product @ProductHunt
Appreciate this community so much\U0001f64f\U0001f3fd pic.twitter.com/KmKCZdHqlJ
Week
Transparency time: Week 3 @shoutoutso_ \U0001f525
— Sharath \U0001f4e3 (@5harath) March 4, 2021
Here are some highlights:
\U0001f451 29 rockstar paid customers
\U0001f4b0 $460 MRR
\U0001f4aa 475 signups and counting
\u2764\ufe0f 163 walls published
\U0001f3c6 Launched on @ProductHunt(#3) @IndieHackers
Grateful for this amazing community for all the love and support \U0001f64f\U0001f3fd pic.twitter.com/MVGo0cfZJj
Week
Transparency time: It's been a month we launched @shoutoutso_ \U0001f525
— Sharath \U0001f4e3 (@5harath) March 11, 2021
Here are some highlights:
\U0001f451 36 rockstar paid customers
\U0001f4b0 $610 MRR
\U0001f4aa 516 signups and counting
\u2764\ufe0f 191 walls published
\U0001f3c6 @ProductHunt Maker Grant Award
Grateful for this amazing community for all the love \U0001f64f\U0001f3fd pic.twitter.com/1i7LxLU4Ap
If we are missing any or you want to help improve the data you can edit the topics.
https://t.co/9QGLiEPsn3

2/ Here is the direct public query if you want to check it out:
https://t.co/aqb8qYN4y9
[Note: no off the record cos are in here unless they have been publicly launched already]
3/ Also, here are 2,000+ other YC companies we have generated information
4/ We used the Golden Research Engine to generate this information, which you can find out more about here and ping me if you want a
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https://t.co/9Z4oJmkcKj

@NBA @StephenKissler @yhgrad We adapted a clinical isolate of SARS-CoV-2 by serial passaging in the ... Thus, this mouse-adapted strain and associated challenge model should be ... (B) SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA loads in mouse lung homogenates at P0 to P6.
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