BC STARTUPS
Saved by @vasantsri_

I shipped all these apps in 2020. Most of them generated $0.

🎬 https://t.co/JAhXqsuu6h $0
🌍 https://t.co/BrNUAhfiIT $0
πŸ’‘ https://t.co/ZWcLfOH4aI $0
🐞 https://t.co/aghOxYEcPI $1.99
πŸ‘ https://t.co/2JhJLe27pW $3,025 in 10 days.

But that's ok, just keep shipping! My storiesπŸ‘‡

 🎬 https://t.co/wuiBp1XsYD is the first thing I created. It's a community for indie makers. The different thing is we post updates in videos. I created it for fun as I think the world doesn't need one more text-based forum, so I make a video one. No monetization plan so far.
🌍 https://t.co/fiwjgCWho5 is a social app. The idea is from Linktree, an app to share your social links. I thought it would be cool to add more visuals to it, and meanwhile we can explore others around. I also have no monetization plan for it. Make it for fun too.
πŸ’‘ https://t.co/fZfL45uvVX is a platform to connect influencers with their fans. People says it's like @superpeer. But the only difference is it's all sync. Influencers don't need to commit their time to fixed slot. Fans pay to ask questions, influencers can answer at anytime.
Continuing Influenswer... I think the product has its potential. But for now maybe I didn't find the right niche to serve. Will re-evaluate it in future.
🐞 https://t.co/RkDgmOLs3a is a tool I created for tracking backlogs for IndieLog (This is IndieLog's public page https://t.co/z5k6jhwiEt). Of course the inspiration is from @cannyHQ, but that's too expensive for solo like me. So I decided to create a light-weighted one.
Continuing Backlogs. Why I earned $1.99? Haha, it's because my silly bug. In my code, I put 199, but on Stripe side, the unit is cent, so my price becomes $1.99 πŸ˜… The price is really friendly for indie makers. But I didn't put too much effort on marketing it, then the πŸ’΅ stops.
πŸ‘ https://t.co/F5tXTxFwfD is the only one that makes some money. I said it took me 4 days from my 1st commit. But I won't deny, lots of code is re-used from my previous projects. Without previous cumulative effort, I have no way to make a profitable product in just 4 days.
I told some of my friends but I never shared it publicly that I learnt the whole web dev thing from a Udemy $9.99 course. Well, I still haven't 100% completed the course, but at least I got the idea. It totally opened up my world to create my side projects.
Luckily I have my full-time job, so I didn't mean to make any money in the beginning. I just started for fun, for solving some problems that I have, and others may have. So if you are creating your 1st app, don't expect to make even $1. If you make it, you're super lucky!
I never regret that I made several apps that didn't even generate any revenue. My core is a developer, along building those app, I am building my own tool belt. The same to you. You will learn lots nitty gritty stuff only when getting your hands dirty.
So if your indie journey just gets started, don't worry about making money. Money comes when you have better tool belt to make a better product. Money comes when your idea condensed to be a validated one. Money comes when your passion powers through any obstacles.
2021 can only be better. All the best my friends πŸ‘Š

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Andrey \uf8ff Azimov
Andrey ο£Ώ Azimov
@AndreyAzimov
The best way to know if people like your product is NOT:

- Have a lot of emails in the waiting list
- Become #1 on PH
- Become #1 of HN or Reddit
- Have people that saing "I'll pay"
- Have a lot of free users

The best way to know if they're actually pay for it.

The only thing that matters is your product providing a value, and you can't know this until people will pay money for it.

We can have a first signal of a product/market fit after the launch by check how many sales we've got in the first 24h. Some scale:

200+ This has a high potential.
100+: This has a potential.
50+: Some people need it.
10+: People almost don't need it.
0+: People don't need it.

This is for a single time payment product. For a subscription probably it should be less because people hate subscription.

And obviously, you should have a lot of traffic like 3-5k+.

Here is a stat for my products (macOS apps) for the first 24h after the launch:
STARTUPS
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson
@mijustin
A lot of bootstrappers think they have a marketing problem:

"I need to get better at marketing."

But, it's more likely that you have a product problem:

"Do customers really want this? Do they care enough about this to switch to a new solution?"

☝️ this is why most of my book, @marketingdevs, is about:

1. Choosing the right market
2. Building something they want

"If your product is remarkable, getting noticed is a lot easier." – @peldi


I was reminded of this concept again this morning while reading @pjrvs' book (Company of One):

"Sales increase when you honestly evaluate what someone needs and then teach them the value of what you're selling."


To succeed, your product has to offer an outcome that is highly desirable to a large group of customers.

The number of sales your product receives is a multiple of these two variables:

1. How big is the target market?
2. How desirable is the outcome you're offering them?
STARTUPS
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Zen Black
Zen Black
@z3nblack
1/ Thread: "A Silicon Valley Ponzi Scheme"

Thanks to @chamath for laying this out in Social Capital's 2018 annual letter.

I've always appreciated his outspokenness.

2/ The hardest thing for most startups today is the path to market: first finding product-market fit & a way to reach customers, then building a ruthless machine to acquire, monetize & retain them.

3/ Because of this, when the VC industry invests capital into fast growing startups today, the plurality (if not majority) of invested capital will go into user acquisition and ad spending, for better or worseβ€”β€Šusually worse.

4/ Todays massive venture-backed advertising, sales, and user acquisition playbook has morphed into one that champions growth at any cost.

This is creating a big bill that will soon come due...

5/ Ad impressions and click-throughs are bid up to outrageous prices by startups flush with venture money, and prospective users demand more and more subsidized products to gain their initial attention.
TECH , STARTUPS , {TEST FOLDER}
Freedom Designer
Freedom Designer
@FreedomDSGNR
5 Micro Skills That Will Improve Your Life Drastically

// A THREAD //


Even the small things compound over time... and become huge.

And they become HUGE.

This is the list of small skills that will improve your life A LOT over time, you can't even imagine how much... before you give it a try.

I'll present the skills in form of mini challenges.


1. Type with all ten fingers 10 days - 10 mins in the morning.

Most of us spend a lot of our time behind the computer typing.

Yet, not many people know how to write with all ten fingers β€”> drastically faster.

You can learn it for free here:
https://t.co/ow2WTHrXBJ


2. Make at least one Zap

Zappier allows you to make micro workflows between the applications you use.

Let's say you have to calendars (work and normal) and you want to sync them all the time β€”> Zappier


2b. You send an email every month remind your customers to pay the maintenance fee + reminder them if they won't β€”> Zappier

You want an email notification every time someone edits a Google sheet β€”> Zappier

Basic version is free. @zapier
STARTUPS
Julian Shapiro
Julian Shapiro
@Julian
14 steps for acquiring your startup's first customers:

1. Pay to interview people who've successfully grown a startup like yours. You can find them via LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

2. Ask them which 3 channels (ads, SEO, etc.) you should prioritize for acquiring customers.

3. Ask for examples of companies who run these channels well.

Some channels to ask about:

β€’ PR
β€’ Ads
β€’ SEO
β€’ Influencers
β€’ Sponsorships
β€’ Organic social
β€’ Word-of-mouth
β€’ In-depth content
β€’ Referral incentives
β€’ Product-led invites (think Slack, Zoom, Dropbox)

4. Reverse-engineer how those companies run their channels well:

A. Map each step the customer takes between the channel and becoming a happy customer.

B. Study what makes each step great: its pitch, its design, and its user experience.

Here's an example of steps.

β€’ Someone sees your Facebook ad ← Channel
β€’ They visit your page
β€’ Enter their email
β€’ Trial the product
β€’ Pay for the product
β€’ Stay engaged
β€’ Refer more users

(Tools like Ahrefs + FB Ad Library show you competitors' ads and landing pages!)
ALL , MARKETINGTWITTER , STARTUPS

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Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
Most software founders, particularly in B2B, need to get radically better at sales. @Steli , who is the best person for explaining the scrappy stages in the beginning and then building out a team with scripts and processes, wrote a guide to:

For technical founders it is irrationally, obscenely hard to reverse years of programming (ba dum bum) that sales is a value-destroying activity. Sales is CLEARLY a value-creating activity, contingent on you have a value-creating product.

The world will not drop what they are doing to adopt your work. This is particularly true in B2B, where simply building a better mousetrap won't overcome the activation energy required to get people with additional non-mice problems to prioritize changing mousetraps today.

This is very non-obvious for founders because founders are not often people who *want* to be sold to. We often come from a background where trying out tools is a bit of a fun hobby. We like looking at all the options, making charts, and ripping out partially complete tests.

"This week I unsuccessfully trialed four software options for automating that thing that has been killing us. Our actual production process remains the same as last week. Don't worry; this was a great use of time." is not a thing you want to write in a progress report to manager.
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KrishnaLeela
KrishnaLeela
@Talesofkrishna
πŸŒΏπ‘»π’‰π’† π’”π’•π’π’“π’š 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓 : 𝑫𝒉𝒓𝒖𝒗𝒂 & π‘½π’Šπ’”π’‰π’π’–

Once upon a time there was a Raja named Uttānapāda born of Svayambhuva Manu,1st man on earth.He had 2 beautiful wives - Suniti & Suruchi & two sons were born of them Dhruva & Uttama respectively.
#talesofkrishna https://t.co/E85MTPkF9W


Now Suniti was the daughter of a tribal chief while Suruchi was the daughter of a rich king. Hence Suruchi was always favored the most by Raja while Suniti was ignored. But while Suniti was gentle & kind hearted by nature Suruchi was venomous inside.
#KrishnaLeela


The story is of a time when ideally the eldest son of the king becomes the heir to the throne. Hence the sinhasan of the Raja belonged to Dhruva.This is why Suruchi who was the 2nd wife nourished poison in her heart for Dhruva as she knew her son will never get the throne.


One day when Dhruva was just 5 years old he went on to sit on his father's lap. Suruchi, the jealous queen, got enraged and shoved him away from Raja as she never wanted Raja to shower Dhruva with his fatherly affection.


Dhruva protested questioning his step mother "why can't i sit on my own father's lap?" A furious Suruchi berated him saying "only God can allow him that privilege. Go ask him"
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asif
asif
@aj_raja
THE LAST PRINCESS OF LAHORE - BAMBA DULEEP SINGH (1869 - 1957)

Thread

Post partition, every morning a weak old woman would board the Model Town bus service headed to the city. The conductor never asked her for money or he would invite anger of the last Queen of Punjab.

1/n


Princess Bamba Sutherland, the eldest daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh and grand-daughter of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was born on Sep 29, 1869, in London.

Duleep Singh, the last Maharaja of Punjab was taken away to England by British after annexing Punjab.

2/n


Since he was still a child he was forcibly converted to Christianity and made to adopt British values in order to prevent him from ever thinking about regaining Punjab.

He was also kept away from his mother Maharani Jindan.
When he finally met his mother years later...

3/n

...he was told about his lost kingdom and religion after which he decided to reclaim it from British treachery.
During his struggle he married and had six children, 3 sons & 3 daughters from the 1st marriage.

Bamba was the most colorful character among 6 and was a rebel...
4/n

...like her father and daring like her Grandfather Ranjit Singh. She married Col Sutherland who later became principal of King Edward Medical College.

When she got permission to bring her grandmother Maharani Jindan's ashes to Lahore in 1924, she saw a huge crowd gathered...
5/n
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Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Due to the pandemic you may not have visited your local library in a while. So come with me on a virtual library tour, courtesy of stock photography, to see what we do for a living...


Libraries are of course information resource centres, but in many ways they are so much more. To get the best out of them you need to really know your way around the stacks.


The enquiries desk is normally your first stop in a library, and this is where you will meet The Angry Librarian! Why is she angry? Because you keep asking her stupid questions!


"Are you open?"
"Do you have a toilet?"
"That chair's wobbly!"
"Why isn't it available in audiobook?"
"Someone else is on the computer and that's not fair!"

On and on it goes...


And that's why in the library we insist on silence. It's the only way to stop us swearing at all the idiotic things you ask us. And we've looked up a lot of old swear words: beardsplitter, bescumber, rantallion, smellfungus etc. We're such muckspouts...
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Suchi Sharma
Suchi Sharma
@Suchi_sharma_
Yantrodharaka Anjaneya Temple, Hampi, Karnataka.

This temple dedicated to pawanputra Hanuman, near the banks of Tungabhadra river was built by dwaita philosopher and rajguru of the Vijayanagar empire, Sri Vyasaraja around +500 years ago.


:It is only in this temple that Hanuman appears in a prayer position. In this image, Bhagwan Hanuman’s crown has been formed by his tail.12 monkeys have been carved around this amulet.


:They represent the 12 days Sri Vyasaraja prayed to Hanuman ji. Each monkey holds the tail of the monkey in front of him but is facing backward. Seed syllables have also been carved around the amulet.


:It is believed that Sri Vyasaraja used to draw a picture of lord Hanuman here on the rocks before offering prayers using charcoal and the sketch disappeared after prayers.This incidence happened for 12 days in a row until he pleaded to bhagwan to appear in front of him.


On the 12th day, Hanuman ji appeared in front of Sri Vyasaraja and blessed him. Hanuman asked Sri Vyasaraja to constrain him in a hexagonal amulet & install him in that place.
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