This week’s Founder Finds includes:

• The School of Life
• A sales framework
• 6 lessons for building an MVP
• An AI powered podcasting tool
• A collection of JS letter animations
• A categorized list of the latest AI tools
• And more…

🪶 Remember This

If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter.

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

🎙️ Deciphr.ai shared by Sean Hua
An AI powered tool that timestamps and summarizes your podcast transcript or audio file.

🔤 Moving Letters shared by Yuyu
A collection of letter animation code to create beautifully animated text in JavaScript.

🤖 AI Tech Master List shared by Stewart Townsend
A categorized list of the latest AI powered tools, models and applications.

🔧 Try This

6 Lessons for Building an MVP

Tips on how to get started and build an MVP from KP. Host of the Build in Public Podcast.

🌟 Founder of the Week

Stanislav Bodiagin

“Trends Pro Masterminds help me find new ideas, support and stay motivated. It’s inspiring to be around founders who are doing what I dream of.”

Stanislav is building ExpertVill.com. A platform for hosting courses with a built-in funnel. He is also a member of Trends Mastermind #0004.

What’s your most important habit?
To not take up tasks immediately. 

Instead I write it down and place it into a queue. Which helps me to stay focused.

What are you reading right now?
SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham

I consider sales to be an important skill for entrepreneurs. I recommend the book to those who have not worked in sales before and need a framework.

What product or service do you wish existed?
A service that would help to sell through DM. 

It should help filter information and generate relevant questions at each stage.

What product are you obsessively using right now?
I use a Pomodoro timer to be more productive.

What are you bullish on?
I believe that artificial intelligence will replace low-skilled human labor in the digital world. Like machines once did in manufacturing.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🧪 Conversion Rate Optimization

I love everything about business mathematics and funnels.

👀 Watch This

The School of Life

This came up in a recent mastermind as someone made a “Request for Product” for a way to learn life skills. I shared The School of Life which teaches us about relationships, money, stress, anxiety, aging and more. The important things that you were never taught in school.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

🆕 Dana R and Bernardt J. Vogel became Trends Pro Members

👥 Jayant Rao and James Renouf unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

📰 Mark Moore relaunched his weekly digest of Product Hunt products

📷 Fausto Sá Teles shipped his first No-Code product

🎙️ Simon Daley launched Bootstrapper Podcast on Product Hunt

🌴 Fausto Sá Teles’ tweet went viral

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🧠 Founder Mastermind Groups • To share goals, progress and solve problems together, each group is made up of 6 members who meet for 1 hour each Monday.

📈 100+ Trends Pro Reports • To make sense of new markets, ideas and business models, check out our research reports.

💬 1:1 Founder Intros • Make new friends, share lessons and find ways to help each other. Keep life interesting by meeting new founders each week.

🧍 Daily Standups • Stay productive and accountable with daily, async standups. Unlock access to 1:1 chats, masterminds and more by building standup streaks.

💲 100k+ Startup Discounts • Get access to $100k+ in startup discounts on AWS, Twilio, Webflow, ClickUp and more.

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

• Seeking critical feedback
• Newsletter sponsors statistics
• A study guide for visual design in UX
• How stories and symbols are used to program us
• A list of the most often recommended books on Reddit
• And more…

🪶 Remember This

Perfect is a myth.

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

💌 Newsletter Sponsors Statistics shared by Breno Ferreira
An overview of brands buying ads and sponsorships in newsletters.

👩‍🎨 Visual Design in UX: Study Guide shared by davidacreates
A collection of articles and videos to learn about visual design in UX.

📚 Reddit Reads shared by Kevin Deol
A list of the most often recommended books on Reddit, categorized by subreddit.

🔧 Try This

Red Team

Feedback is a gift. You can sharpen your ideas and avoid blindspots by seeking critical feedback. I affix requests for feedback with “Be as blunt as possible.” 

This gives my friends a chance to be completely honest and helps me build better products. Expose yourself to short-term discomfort for long-term gain.

🌟 Founder of the Week

Yuyu Salim

“Trends Pro keeps me accountable and it’s very comforting to be surrounded by like-minded people in the community.“

Yuyu is building ClinicGeek. A healthcare listing service that helps you find the right healthcare professional for your needs. He has also joined more than 550 daily standups.

What’s your most important habit?
Reading

What are you reading right now?
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

This quote comes across my mind from time to time: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”.

Communication and building relationships are 2 non-technical aspects that I hope to improve.

What product or service do you wish existed?
Competitor SEO Analysis. 

A good SEO tool is expensive and sometimes you just need a one-time use to validate your idea.

What product are you obsessively using right now?
Copy.ai 

I’m using it to improve copy and publish new articles for ClinicGeek

What are you bullish on?
AI-Generated Art

It opens up new opportunities for non-creative people to start creating their own art.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🧰 Side Project Marketing

I like the idea of building niche/small products to market your main product. It helps you validate new ideas at the same time.

📘 Read This

Virus of the Mind

Bad book cover. Great book. 

I came across this while researching a meme marketing report (that’s still unreleased). It covers how stories and symbols are used to program us. This is what I call a “long-tail book.” It’s insane to think about how undiscovered it is.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

🆕 Sammy Villarreal, Mark Moore and Aurélien Schvartz became Trends Pro Members

👥 Mark Moore unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

🚀 Yun’s newsletter highlighting growth strategies from Indie Founders hit 2,500 subscribers

⭐ Jwalant Patel launched a performance review course on Shadowing.ai

🧲 Cameron McGrane posted a case study of creating and launching a lead magnet. This is a 📈 Trends Pro Exclusive.

🎙️ Swapnil Puranik was featured on the SmartBranding.com podcast

👩‍💼 Lwany got her first consulting client

Get Weekly Reports

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📈 Unlock Pro Reports, 1:1 Intros and Masterminds

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🧠 Founder Mastermind Groups • To share goals, progress and solve problems together, each group is made up of 6 members who meet for 1 hour each Monday.

📈 100+ Trends Pro Reports • To make sense of new markets, ideas and business models, check out our research reports.

💬 1:1 Founder Intros • Make new friends, share lessons and find ways to help each other. Keep life interesting by meeting new founders each week.

🧍 Daily Standups • Stay productive and accountable with daily, async standups. Unlock access to 1:1 chats, masterminds and more by building standup streaks.

💲 100k+ Startup Discounts • Get access to $100k+ in startup discounts on AWS, Twilio, Webflow, ClickUp and more.

​​“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it… Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.” —David Ogilvy

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

• How to scale your talents as a fractional executive?
• How to reduce your time to hire? 
• How to improve your lifestyle with flexible employment? 
• How to find KPIs for fractional executives to focus on? 
• How to save time and money with a fractional executive?
  
  

💎 Why It Matters

You can work with experienced executives on an as-needed basis.

🔍 Problem

You need expert help. But can’t justify the cost of hiring for a full-time role.  

💡 Solution

Find a fractional executive and only pay for what you need.

🏁 Players

Fractional Executives

• Maciej Cupial (Trends Pro Member) • Fractional CTO at Podcast Hawk which is run by Stewart Townsend (also a member).
• Kevin Whelan (Trends Pro Member) • Fractional CMO who teaches about how to become an advisor. 
• Jeffrey Fidelman • Fractional CFO specializing in fundraising.
• Neil Portus • Fractional CFO for growth companies.
• Michael Truog • Fractional CTO with decades of experience at every level.
• Tomislav Capan • Fractional CTO who specializes in cloud architecture.
• Alex Kurkin and Andrii Gikalo • Runs a fractional CTO agency.

Hiring Platforms

• byDesign • On-demand marketing subscription-based platform.
• Shiny • Fractional talent marketplace.
• Business Talent Group • Hire fractional executives.
• Passionfruit • Hire a world-class fractional CMO.
• Continuum • On-demand executive talent.
• The Free Agent • Fractional strategic leadership recruitment firm.
• Fractional Executive Solutions • Fractional executive agency.
  
  

🔮 Predictions

• Fractional executives will launch agencies to scale and focus on high-leverage activities.
  • Trevor Longino spent a decade as a fractional CMO before starting his own marketing agency.
  • Anna Sullivan is a fractional CMO who started her own social media agency called The Creative Exchange.
  • Andrew Deutsch transitioned his fractional CMO service into an agency called Fangled Tech.
  • Daryl Dobrenz is a fractional accountant who is now the CEO of Kranz Consulting.
  • Marissa Goldberg is a fractional Head of Remote who started Remote Work Prep.

• Fractional executives will offer white-label solutions for common needs.
  • Nick and Char offer white-label subscription and referral solutions for e-commerce businesses as fractional CTOs.
  • Mark Preston is a fractional CMO who founded Stopgap SEO to offer a standard solution for link building and technical audits.

• Startups and small businesses will hire fractional General Counsels. Lawyers are an expensive but necessary business tool.
  • 1010 tires CEO Sophia Volpov hired a fractional General Counsel with e-commerce experience. 
  • ParticipACTION saved money on traditional legal fees by paying a fractional General Counsel an hourly rate without a retainer.
  • Northbridge Financial was unsure about the volume of work needed and hired Steve Pasternak as fractional General Counsel on a tight deadline.
    
    

☁️ Opportunities

• Reduce time to hire. Fractional executives can be hired quickly and save months of recruiting time.
  • MVP Health Care Inc. pivoted to telemedicine. They needed to go to market without waiting to find the “right” CMO candidate. Arlyn Davich joined as fractional CMO to develop their marketing strategy immediately. 
  • The CTO of A.T. Cross quit unexpectedly. They hired a fractional CTO to solve critical systems issues and improve projects left in disarray.
  • Joyce Ripianzi, CPA is a fractional CFO who joined a nonprofit in urgent need of a CFO. They realized they didn’t need a full-time CFO in the first place.

• Become a fractional executive to improve your lifestyle with flexible employment.
  • Beejeel Parmar became a fractional COO so that he could gain the independence to travel and homeschool his children.
  • Nicholas Zeisler uses the flexibility of being a fractional Chief Customer Officer to spend time in the Colorado mountains and ski at his leisure.
  • Mark Evans became a fractional CMO and was able to focus more on his writing and storytelling.
  • Amanda Rabideau became a fractional CMO to gain autonomy over her clients and schedule.

• Set specific KPIs for your fractional executive to focus on.
  • Kinley Corp hired Robert Mohr as fractional CFO and reduced the time it took to complete month-end accounting by 50%. 
  • Jason Fehr from Timber Ridge Homes hired a fractional CMO who generated $24mm in quotable business and 158 trackable leads in 6 months.
  • ConnectWise hired Angus Robertson as fractional CMO and increased their pipeline by 118% to $5.7 million.

• Hire a fractional executive to automate workflows to save time and money.
  • Lawline hired a fractional CFO to build an automated forecasting and budgeting tool for the leadership team.
  • Shaun Ericson of Cireson hired Kristy Facchini as fractional CFO to implement automated cash flow processes and NetSuite for ASC606 compliance.
  • Srikanth Vadrevu is a fractional CMO who specializes in automating SaaS marketing processes.
    
    

🏔️ Risks

• Short-Term Mindset  • Make sure that your fractional executive optimizes for long-term success. Short-term incentives harm long-term success.
• Bad Fit • The executive you hire might not be right for you or your business. You may need to try multiple executives before finding the ideal team member.
• Team Buy-In • Your team needs to understand and accept the value of a fractional executive.
  
  

🔑 Key Lessons

• Learn from them. Fractional executives should be knowledgeable executives who have been in your shoes before. Solicit advice and input. 
• Hire specialists. One advantage of working with fractional executives is that you can hire a wider breadth of team members.
• Integrate your fractional executive with the rest of the team. An executive will have a stronger impact if they have visibility into how the team operates.
  
  

🔥 Hot Takes

• Fractional executives will accelerate the overemployment trend. Executives will overwork themselves to maximize income.
• Fractional executives will create niche job titles. In-demand workers will be incentivized to commoditize and sell their best skill to as many businesses as possible.
• Fractional executives will avoid office politics. They will be more focused on getting the job done with limited time.
  
  

😠 Haters

“How is a fractional executive better than hiring an agency?”
Fractional executives take on more responsibility than an agency. They take full ownership and act as a point person for areas of your business like budget-setting, hiring, firing, and building processes. They should be held more accountable than an agency.

“Fractional executives don’t have the same impact as a full-time employee.”
It’s true that they cannot make the same time commitment. In many cases, fractional executives will have a greater impact on a per-hour basis. 

“Fractional executives won’t understand my company as well as I do.”
They aren’t supposed to. Fractional executives have specific skills which can be used in a variety of businesses. You and your full-time team members know your product inside and out. Specialists should be used to leverage that knowledge.

“Isn’t this the same as hiring an interim executive?”
No. Interim executives are hired on a full-time but temporary basis to effect immediate change until permanent leadership is found. Fractional executives are part-time leaders who should be working toward the long-term success of your business.

🔗 Links

1. Examples of Fractional Executives • The tweet behind this report. 
2. How a Fractional Chief Operating Officer Can Help Your Business Grow Sustainably • A guide to hiring and correctly utilizing a fractional COO.
3. What Makes Fractional CIO Engagements in SMEs Successful? – A Research Framework • Academic research on analyzing the success of a fractional CIO.
   
   

📁 Related Reports

• Remote Work • Remote work is accelerating the fractional executive trend.
• Consulting • A fractional executive is similar to but less engaged than a consultant.
• Agencies • Many fractional executives transition to running agencies.
• Productized Services • A fractional executive is an example of a productized service.
• Personal Brands • Succeeding as a fractional executive requires the cultivation of a strong personal brand.
  
  

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Tem, Stewart Townsend, Wit S., Swapnil Puranik, Yarty, Vikrant Duggal, Ron Immink, Maciej Cupial, and David Steinley.We had a great time jamming on this report.

✏️ Harry researched and wrote this report. Dru researched and edited this report.

📈 What else?

Trends PRO #0099 — Fractional Executives has more insights.

What you’ll get:

• 30 Fractional Executives and Hiring Platforms (114% More)
• 10 Predictions (233% More)
• 15 Opportunities (275% More)
• 6 Risks (100% More)
• 4 Key Lessons (133% More)
• 6 Hot Takes (100% More)
• 11 Links (333% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn: 

• (📈 Pro) How to get help fundraising?
• (📈 Pro) How to land a full-time job from a fractional role? 
• (📈 Pro) How to improve employee retention with fractional executives?
• (📈 Pro) How to promote yourself as a fractional executive?
• (📈 Pro) How to buy time to focus on higher-leverage activities?
• (📈 Pro) How to expand your client base with referrals?
• (📈 Pro) How to challenge your decisions and assumptions?
• (📈 Pro) How to find budget-friendly, skilled fractional executives?
• And much more…

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🧠 Founder Mastermind Groups • To share goals, progress and solve problems together, each group is made up of 6 members who meet for 1 hour each Monday.

📈 100+ Trends Pro Reports • To make sense of new markets, ideas and business models, check out our research reports.

💬 1:1 Founder Intros • Make new friends, share lessons and find ways to help each other. Keep life interesting by meeting new founders each week.

🧍 Daily Standups • Stay productive and accountable with daily, async standups. Unlock access to 1:1 chats, masterminds and more by building standup streaks.

💲 100k+ Startup Discounts • Get access to $100k+ in startup discounts on AWS, Twilio, Webflow, ClickUp and more.

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

• Slow-mading
• A framework for freelancers
• An integrated productivity app
• A collaborative tool for digital marketing
• How building businesses is like playing a game
• And more…

🪶 Remember This

If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

🧰 Simplified shared by Michael Pearson-Adams
An all-in-one collaborative tool for content creation and digital marketing.

🌌 The Hyper Freelance Model shared by Fausto Sá Teles
A model for freelancers to diversify their offerings and stop trading time for money.

📝 Amie shared by Ruben Dahmen
A productivity app integrating to-do list and calendar functions.

🎧 Listen To

Starting a Profitable Business After a Life-Changing Exit with Laura Roeder of Paperbell

Courtland and Laura talk about asynchronous work, how building businesses is like playing a game, SEO strategies, selling your company and more.

🌟 Founder of the Week

Eric Chou

“My experience has been great with Trends Pro. I have only missed one mastermind meetup in the last 6 months because I get a lot of value from talking to other mastermind members. I enjoy reading reports about topics that I did not know existed.”

Eric is building Network Automation Nerds. A learning community where network engineers learn, help each other and get inspired. He is also a member of Trends Mastermind #0005.

What’s your most important habit?
Staying productive using the Pomodoro method: 25 minutes of focused work with 5-minute breaks.

What are you reading right now?
The Right It by Alberto Savoia

What product are you obsessively using right now?
For the past 2+ years, I have been wearing my Apple watch daily. I find it helpful in tracking my health habits and it’s good enough for me to ditch my phone in many instances.

What are you bullish on?
I am bullish on Education Technologies. 

The value proposition is straightforward and most people want to be better at something. So the market risk is lower. This allows us to focus on minimizing product risk i.e. ensuring that the product delivers what’s promised.  

What are you bearish on?
I am bearish on manual computer work. For example, command-line-based network management or human-based monitoring systems. I think it is obvious that most of this manual work will be replaced by automation.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🔑 Token-Gated Communities

It’s something that I have always wanted to explore but found it difficult to narrow the scope. This report saved me lots of research time.

Exclusive Deal: Eric is offering Trends.vc readers a chance to join the Network Automation Learning Community for free. Use this invitation link to claim.

📘 Read This

The Catch Me If You Can

I’ve been slow-mading for nearly 2 years. Someone recently asked why. The shortest truth is that I do hard things to grow. Jessica Nabongo is the first black woman to visit all countries. Each book chapter covers one country and her experience there. It’s a fun read.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

🆕 Ajit Singh and Joel Pickin became Trends Pro Members

👥 Kevin Galang, Paul Jansen, Ajit Singh and Joel Pickin unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

⚡ Simon Daley built Super Tech News as a weekend side project

✒️ Cameron McGrane and his wife performed a test launch of Expert Author Academy

🚀 Maciej Cupial posted the October monthly update for Calendesk

🧠 David K unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching a 30-day standup streak

Get Weekly Reports

Join 65,000+ founders and investors

Subscribe

📈 Unlock Pro Reports, 1:1 Intros and Masterminds

Become a Trends Pro Member and join 1,200+ founders enjoying…

🧠 Founder Mastermind Groups • To share goals, progress and solve problems together, each group is made up of 6 members who meet for 1 hour each Monday.

📈 100+ Trends Pro Reports • To make sense of new markets, ideas and business models, check out our research reports.

💬 1:1 Founder Intros • Make new friends, share lessons and find ways to help each other. Keep life interesting by meeting new founders each week.

🧍 Daily Standups • Stay productive and accountable with daily, async standups. Unlock access to 1:1 chats, masterminds and more by building standup streaks.

💲 100k+ Startup Discounts • Get access to $100k+ in startup discounts on AWS, Twilio, Webflow, ClickUp and more.

​​“Lists are a form of power.” — A.S. Byatt

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

• How to build directories quickly with no-code and low-code tools?
• How to use directories to build communities?
• How to create proprietary metrics to enrich directories?
• How to monetize your directory?
• How to use directories to attract customers?
• How to crowdsource content?
• How defensible are directories?
  
  

💎 Why It Matters

Directories save users time and help you build a defensible business. 

🔍 Problem

Finding useful information can be messy, time-consuming and inaccurate.   

💡 Solution

Directories help you sift through noise to find useful information.

🏁 Players

Directories 

• Startup Stash • Tools and resources for entrepreneurs
• Integrations Directory • Directory of integrations for your no-code product.
• One Page Love • Find inspiration from one-page websites
• Do Things That Don’t Scale • Collection of unscalable startup hacks 
• NoCodeList • Software for your projects
• Page Flows • User design flow inspiration
• Stackshare • Find software for your projects and business
• Side Hustle Stack • Find platform-based work

Directory Tools 

• Webflow • No-code website builder
• Notion • Build and share tables
• Airtable • Build and export databases
• WordPress • Open-source content management platform
• Ghost • Publishing platform
  
  

🔮 Predictions

• Directories will be quickly built in response to world events with no-code and low-code tools.
  • The city of Los Angeles used low-code to build an online application for COVID-19 testing within 72 hours. 
  • Caspio provides a free no-code development to help Ukraine.

• Online communities will build their own directories as lead magnets.
  • No Code MBA accesses communities within its community.
  • r/FindaReddit has a directory for finding subreddits.
  • IMDB lets you create lists within its site. 

• Companies will create proprietary metrics to enrich directories.
  • See ListenNotes and their “Listen Score” 
  • YouTube releases “Search Insights” for creatives.
    
    

☁️ Opportunities

• Use no-code tools to build directories fast.
  • Nic Touron built Toomeup.io with Softr and Airtable
  • Mohammed Rafy built Uncommunity using Webflow
  • Mia Coleman used Webflow to build Rememory Directory
  • Nicolas built EcommFrame using Airtable, Zapier, and Gumroad.

• Monetize your directory with ads and memberships.
  • Martins Sulcs makes $3,200/mo with Rankd SEO. 
  • Levelsio added membership access to Nomad List.
  • Investor Scout generates $2,300/mo to connect you with investors.
  • TIMS generates $3,000/mo for a list of free tools to build online projects.
  • Page Flows was making $4,500 per month with 500 customers in 2020.
  • Craigslist earned $660 million in revenue last year primarily from job ads.
  • Jade Craven charges $14 for The Bootstrapper Press Directory on AppSumo. 
  • AJ made $417 in January selling 1500+ SaaS Startup Ideas For You That Work.
  • No Code MBA offers a free tool directory and membership for access to other features.

• Build a directory to drive traffic to your main product.
  • Walden built a directory for their coaching services. 
  • Hypercontext shares a directory for OKR and goal examples. 
  • MicroAquire launched a directory of an in-market advisor directory.  
  • Webflow showcases examples of sites built with their product.
  • Super.so shows examples of websites built with Notion and Super in Showcase.
  • Asana shares resources on using their products with Asana Academy.

• Welcome user-generated content. Crowdsourcing helps you leverage the time and knowledge of others to build directories.
  • Pexels lets you upload and find free stock photos. 
  • Yelp lets you create and manage a free listing for your business. 
  • HubSpot lets your business join its directory. 
  • Luc Meijer asks his Twitter followers for no-code resources. 
  • Jessica Gore asks her Twitter followers for resources to help IP attorneys, students, and professors. 
  • Jessie van Breugel asks his followers on Twitter who he should talk to about online marketing, paid ads, and SEO. 
    
    

🏔️ Risks

• Chicken or the Egg • If your directory relies on user-generated content, you’ll need to find a way to get your first contributions. 
• Spam •  Letting users post content opens you up to the risk of low-quality content.
• Market Risk • Avoid building a directory that no one cares about. Do keyword research to find patterns in searches.
  
  

🔑 Key Lessons

• User-generated content with quality controls is a reliable way to source content. 
• Long-tail keywords lead to higher conversions than generic keywords and pages. 
• You can use directories as a marketing tool for a related product.
• It’s easier than ever to create your own directory using no-code tools. Alex Friedman built and sold FounderGigs using Airtable and Softr.  
  
  

🔥 Hot Takes

• Directories don’t have to look great. They need to provide valuable information. See Craigslist.  
• Piggyback on existing directories to source content and improve the experience. Doing this saves time. 
• No-code tools such as Airtable should be used as a quick-and-dirty way to validate your ideas. 
  
  

😠 Haters

“What’s defensible about a directory?”
Very little unless you update content regularly, build proprietary metrics and a brand around your directory.

“Can Google justify rebuilding NomadList? They have a much stronger network to market it.”
No. They would rather route traffic to them. Google curates directories and profits from ad spend instead of creating directories. Unless the potential market is massive. 

“Why would anyone want to use my directory?”
If you pick a topic at random, they may not. Build a directory on a topic that you know well and leverage your expertise to ensure the directory provides real value. Lower market risk by doing keyword research and filling a known gap in available information. 

“It feels like all the good ideas have already been done. What should I make a directory for?”
Build a directory for the thing you know best. Even if a directory already exists for something, you could curate an entirely different set of resources. Niche directories are on the rise. Try building something for your local community.

🔗 Links

1. Looking for good examples of directories • The tweet behind this report. 
2. How to Find Backlinks (For Any Website) • Blog post from Semrush.
3. How to Launch a Product With No Money and No Customers • A post on Indie Hackers.
   
   

📁 Related Reports

• No-Code • Saves time when building products. 
• The Creator Economy • Creators create value.
• Low-Code • Use less time focusing on what’s important.
• Programmatic SEO • Keywords produce results.
• Curation as a Service • Directories are about curation. Programmatically or manually.
  
  

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Soma Mandel, Camille Cocaud, Darren Travel, Yarty, Peter Duffy, Uwe Dreissigacker, Vishal Srivastava, Krish, Stewart Townsend, Lu, Daniel Berggren, Natwar Maheshwari, Katt Risen, Stephanie H., Lola Ojabowale, and Yun. We had a great time jamming on this report.

✏️ Harry researched and wrote this report. Dru researched and edited this report.

📈 What else?

Trends PRO #0098 — Directories has more insights.

What you’ll get:

• 37 Directories (363% More)
• 13 Directory Tools (160% More)
• 12 Predictions (300% More)
• 12 Opportunities (200% More)
• 6 Risks (100% More)
• 7 Key Lessons (75% More)
• 5 Hot Takes (67% More)
• 12 Links (300% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn: 

• (📈 Pro) How to find a topic for your directory?
• (📈 Pro) How to collect data for your directory?
• (📈 Pro) How to use programmatic SEO to drive traffic to directories?
• (📈 Pro) How to use directories to build backlinks?
• (📈 Pro) How curation can become a career?
• (📈 Pro) How to get businesses to pay to be included in a directory?
• (📈 Pro) How to use directories to bring attention to charities?
• (📈 Pro) How to use directories of directories to promote your business?
• (📈 Pro) How to use directories to build your personal brand?
• (📈 Pro) How to discover communities via directories?
• (📈 Pro) How to use AI to filter directories?
• (📈 Pro) How to build a job board?
• (📈 Pro) How to build your directory to sell?
• (📈 Pro) How can boutique search engines make it easier to parse niche information?
• (📈 Pro) How to use directories as a growth tool?
• And much more…

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📈 100+ Trends Pro Reports • To make sense of new markets, ideas and business models, check out our research reports.

💬 1:1 Founder Intros • Make new friends, share lessons and find ways to help each other. Keep life interesting by meeting new founders each week.

🧍 Daily Standups • Stay productive and accountable with daily, async standups. Unlock access to 1:1 chats, masterminds and more by building standup streaks.

💲 100k+ Startup Discounts • Get access to $100k+ in startup discounts on AWS, Twilio, Webflow, ClickUp and more.

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

• Building Trends.vc
• An AI-powered video editor
• A knowledge base app for notes
• A newsletter of advanced growth tactics
• A deep dive into AI opportunities for founders
• And more…

🪶 Remember This

Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

✨ Generative Tech Begins shared by Stewart Townsend
A deep dive into the emerging sector of generative AI with opportunities for founders.

🎞️ Descript Storyboard shared by Elena Vargas
An AI-powered tool that lets you edit video like a text document.

📈 Growth Marketing Newsletter shared by Tem
A high-signal weekly newsletter of advanced growth tactics.

🔧 Try This

Obsidian

This is my go-to editor for notes. It’s an open-source and extensible Roam Research alternative that I use for everything from storing recipes to mastermind updates.

🌟 Founder of the Week

Michael Pearson-Adams

“Trends Pro has become a part of my day, a part of my life. I’ve made friends, created great contacts, and have access to an amazing hive mind of incredible people when I need it. Trends Pro is one subscription that isn’t going anywhere. I’m very grateful for it.”

Michael is building michaelpa.com. MPA Creative houses my art gallery business, a music production house, course creation, and corporate coaching. Also, the book series is leading the way and heading up the course creation. 

What’s your most important habit?
My most important habit is the way I make coffee and the time I take to do it every morning.

It’s an event, from the measuring of the beans to the grind to the tamp, and finally to the pulling of those shots of espresso.

This happens every day twice. Once at the very beginning of my day, and once halfway through my day.

These moments are spaces for me to think, assess, plan, breathe, and then spend ten minutes focusing purely on the coffee. This helps me every day, and happens every day without fail.

What are you reading right now?
You Can’t Always Get What You Want: My Life with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and other wonderful Reprobates by Sam Cutler.

I’ve known Sam for years. I’ve never read his book. He hassled me about it the moment I landed back in Australia. So now I’m reading it, and it’s awesome. I regret not reading it sooner.

What product or service do you wish existed?
Faster planes. Concorde still wouldn’t be fast enough. The older I get the more I hate sitting in a metal tube for hours on end.

What product are you obsessively using right now?
I live by DoTalk. Go see and you’ll understand.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🤩 Personal Brands and 🙌 Audience-First Products

Love them both. Actually I love every damn report. But these two are constant gold mines for me.

What else?
It’s so much easier to criticize than it is to create.
Creating is putting yourself out into the world. Saying this is me.
Be proud of what you do.
Be proud of who you are.
Much love,
MPA

👀 Watch This

Building Trends.vc

Ian and I jumped on a call for the Demand Curve Growth Summit. We talked about growing newsletters, building support networks and doing comfort challenges.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

🆕 Shuyen Phoon, Elijah Buford and Nando became Trends Pro Members

👥 Felipe Collins, Shuyen Phoon and Elijah Buford unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

🗓️ Parth Pareek launched Loopin on Product Hunt

👔 Tom Maciejewski’s list of 100 B2B marketing and growth LinkedIn creators went viral

💻 Elijah Buford created a landing page for his no-code agency

🧠 Jawad Sefiani unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching a 30-day standup streak

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📈 Unlock Pro Reports, 1:1 Intros and Masterminds

Become a Trends Pro Member and join 1,200+ founders enjoying…

🧠 Founder Mastermind Groups • To share goals, progress and solve problems together, each group is made up of 6 members who meet for 1 hour each Monday.

📈 100+ Trends Pro Reports • To make sense of new markets, ideas and business models, check out our research reports.

💬 1:1 Founder Intros • Make new friends, share lessons and find ways to help each other. Keep life interesting by meeting new founders each week.

🧍 Daily Standups • Stay productive and accountable with daily, async standups. Unlock access to 1:1 chats, masterminds and more by building standup streaks.

💲 100k+ Startup Discounts • Get access to $100k+ in startup discounts on AWS, Twilio, Webflow, ClickUp and more.

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

• An alternative to Bitly
• An interview with Dru
• The Racecar Growth Framework
• A tool to test AI image generators
• Why “building an audience” can be a waste of time
• And more…

🪶 Remember This

Make it work. Then make it pretty.

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

⭐️ Build a Business, Not an Audience shared by Simon Daley
An essay on why “building an audience” can be a waste of time.

🖌️ Playground AI shared by Stewart Townsend
A tool to freely play around with DALL·E and Stable Diffusion to generate AI art.

🔗 Dub.sh shared by Yuyu
An open-source Bitly alternative with built-in analytics and free custom domains.

🔧 Try This

The Racecar Growth Framework

On SEO, sales, sponsorships and more. See Lenny’s growth insights captured in one image.

🌟 Founder of the Week

Elom Maurice

“I love being part of Trends Pro. Being an entrepreneur can be lonely at times and it’s essential to find a community of people who are on a similar journey. 

When I joined at the height of Covid, I just wanted to be part of a supportive community but ended up gaining so much more. The accountability with daily standups helped me stay on track with building Delverise. I made connections. Some of which turned into business opportunities. But the best part of being in Trends Pro is the masterminds.

I get to chat every week with other founders, entrepreneurs, and leaders who are all building and working on awesome things to discuss our challenges and give each other feedback. Everyone is extremely helpful, shares freely and there’s a lot of useful feedback to guide you in the right direction.”

Elom is building Delverise. A growth marketing agency helping lean teams​ and startups scale revenue faster with holistic growth solutions. He is also a member of Trends Mastermind #0002.

What are you bullish on?
Communal living. 

Humans are social creatures who crave community. Yet a combination of modern technologies and culture seems to cause more isolation. I believe communal living will become popular with shared living spaces/resources/childcare/amenities/costs and more. We will modernize tribal communities of the past.

What are you bearish on?
Being in an office full-time for knowledge workers. 

No matter how much employers want their employees to be in the office full-time, I don’t think it’s going to happen. There was a seismic shift in how most people think about their relationship with work during the pandemic. Those who have tasted the flexibility of remote work are unlikely to go back to the old ways. Flexible companies will have the advantage. Inflexible companies will get eclipsed in time unless they adapt. Fully-remote and hybrid work is the future. 

What’s your most important habit?
Getting some sun/light exposure first thing after waking up. 

I picked up this habit from Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast. It has been a game-changer for me. 

What are you reading right now?
Zero to One by Peter Thiel. I wanted to dive into the fundamentals of building a startup and apply the same principles to Delverise.

What product or service do you wish existed?
Indexing, search and tagging for Twitter bookmarks. I save a lot of useful tweets that I don’t revisit because they get lost in a sea of other bookmarks.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
💼 Agencies

It was applicable to me because I’m building an agency. This report shortened my learning curve. I go back to it often to uncover more gems.

Exclusive Deal: Elom is offering Trends.vc readers 30% off Growth Execution services. Email friends@delverise.com with the subject “Trends.vc Deal”.

🎧 Listen To

Growth Outside Your Comfort Zone [Podcast]

AJ and I jammed on doing comfort challenges, building lindy habits and building teams.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

🆕 Ben Rhys, Sina Meraji and Ruben Dahmen became Trends Pro Members

👥 Cameron McGrane, Katt Risen, Ralph Quintero, Chris Klaus, Ben Rhys and Sina Meraji unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

🤖 Shashank launched the CRW RIDE Substack

💭 Rick Jarrell launched Thinking Better

👔 Tom Maciejewski published issue 4 of B2B Growthletter

🎧 Simon Daley put together an MVP of Bootstrapper Podcast

🧠 Mike Stop Continues unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching a 30-day standup streak

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📈 Unlock Pro Reports, 1:1 Intros and Masterminds

Become a Trends Pro Member and join 1,200+ founders enjoying…

🧠 Founder Mastermind Groups • To share goals, progress and solve problems together, each group is made up of 6 members who meet for 1 hour each Monday.

📈 100+ Trends Pro Reports • To make sense of new markets, ideas and business models, check out our research reports.

💬 1:1 Founder Intros • Make new friends, share lessons and find ways to help each other. Keep life interesting by meeting new founders each week.

🧍 Daily Standups • Stay productive and accountable with daily, async standups. Unlock access to 1:1 chats, masterminds and more by building standup streaks.

💲 100k+ Startup Discounts • Get access to $100k+ in startup discounts on AWS, Twilio, Webflow, ClickUp and more.

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

• Building a StoryBrand
• A copywriting handbook
• A collection of design resources
• Europe’s fastest growing companies
• Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule
• Overcoming the fear of starting something new
• And more…

🪶 Remember This

Courage is a muscle.

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

🎨 Bookmarks.design shared by Kevin Deol
A comprehensive collection of design resources neatly organized for easy access.

✨ All the Reasons Why You Should Start Now made and shared by Michael Pearson-Adams
A short video to help you overcome the fear of starting something new.

🇪🇺 FT 1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies shared by Stewart Townsend
An annual ranking of the top 1,000 high-growth businesses in Europe.

🔧 Try This

Photo from Tyler DeVries

Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule

As creators, we need long, uninterrupted stretches of time to work. Managers can be productive in short spurts with speculative meetings. Check out this classic post from Paul Graham.

🌟 Founder of the Week

Maciej Cupial

“I joined Trends Pro by buying a MetaTrends NFT. I immediately loved the Standups idea. It has been almost 240 days! I haven’t missed a day without doing this. Standups help me track my progress and let me be my own boss.”

Maciej is building Calendesk. An all-in-one scheduling appointment software built for businesses. He is also a member of Trends Mastermind #0002.

What are you bullish on?
Blockchain technology. 

It brings trust, transparency, immutability, and decentralization. I think it’s inevitable.

What’s your most important habit?
If I start working on something, I do it until I finish it. I don’t give up 🙂

What are you reading right now?
Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

At first, we completely ignored storytelling with Calendesk. There is endless potential here. This book opens your eyes after the first chapter.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🎓 Online Courses

Exclusive Deal: Maciej is offering Trends.vc readers 30% off any Calendesk plan with the code “trendsvc”

📘 Read This

The Adweek Copywriting Handbook

We all write copy. From tweets to text messages. 

This is one of the best books that I’ve found on the topic. I read a small section each night.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

🆕 David K, Rick Jarrell, Cameron McGrane and Ralph Quintero became Trends Pro Members

👥 Gianni D’Alerta and Rick Jarrell unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

📧 Simon Daley published Cold email guide: How to buy a website

🌎 Rick Jarrell launched Climate Tech Brief

🗣 KP launched a coaching program for first-time founders

⚙️ Ismaël Sow published Startup Grinder

💰 Simon Daley sold Provver

🧠 Swapnil Puranik and Alexandro Armour unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching 30-day standup streaks

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📈 Unlock Pro Reports, 1:1 Intros and Masterminds

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🧠 Founder Mastermind Groups • To share goals, progress and solve problems together, each group is made up of 6 members who meet for 1 hour each Monday.

📈 100+ Trends Pro Reports • To make sense of new markets, ideas and business models, check out our research reports.

💬 1:1 Founder Intros • Make new friends, share lessons and find ways to help each other. Keep life interesting by meeting new founders each week.

🧍 Daily Standups • Stay productive and accountable with daily, async standups. Unlock access to 1:1 chats, masterminds and more by building standup streaks.

💲 100k+ Startup Discounts • Get access to $100k+ in startup discounts on AWS, Twilio, Webflow, ClickUp and more.

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

• 5 daily habits for happiness
• A collection of copy swipe files
• How to run Stable Diffusion locally
• 3800+ case studies of successful businesses
• How to create work that resonates with your audience
• And more…

🪶 Remember This

Writing is the process by which we discover we don’t really know what we are talking about.

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

✍️ Audience Map shared by Nash
A step-by-step process to create resonant work that matters to your audience.

🎨 DiffusionBee shared by Stewart Townsend
Run Stable Diffusion locally on your M1 Mac to generate images from text.

🏪 Starter Story shared by Victor Park
3800+ case studies of people starting successful businesses.

👀 Watch This

Would winning the lottery make you happier?

I’ve thought about hedonic adaptation on and off for the last decade. 

In short, it means that we adjust to any environment. Good or bad. 

We return to a baseline happiness level. No matter what. 

But these daily habits seem to alter my baseline happiness level…

• Meditation
• Cold showers
• Strength training
• Intermittent Fasting
• Gratitude journaling

🌟 Founder of the Week

Prabhjot Singh Lamba

“I learn from everyone in my Trends Pro Mastermind and always look forward to my weekly call. In Trends Tribe, I meet amazing people for 1-1 chats.”

Prabhjot is building Craftar.io. A no-code platform that makes it easy and affordable to craft automations using a visual block language. He is also a member of Trends Mastermind #0002.

What are you bullish on?
Tech that automates or makes automation easy. Such as AI and No-Code. Automation allows us to focus on problems, ideas and solutions rather than mechanics.

As well as tech that enables new user experiences. Such as Chatbots, AR, VR, Haptics and WebGL. Technology that creates new experiences gives us new ways to engage, have fun, be creative and open up solutions to previously-hard-to-solve problems.

What’s your most important habit?
I spend at least an hour a day discovering new things which may or may not be related to my current focus. The exploration habit expands my horizons, feeds my curiosity and keeps me optimistic.

What are you reading right now?
Advanced Game Design and Game Thinking

There are games and systems which are easy to pick up and hard to master. But they keep you engaged throughout the journey. No-Code has a trade off between flexibility and accessibility. The more easy a tool is to use, the less flexible it is and vice versa. I’m exploring ways to minimize this trade off. Based on my current understanding, I think Game Design and Systems Thinking might provide useful frameworks and mechanics to approach solving this problem.

What product or service do you wish existed?
I have been coding since I was 7 years old. I had cervical spondylitis at 29 and was on bed rest for 6 months and couldn’t code. 

The programming experience on the phone was horrible. 

I realized there was no way to build software without sitting in front of a laptop or desktop. I came up with the idea to build Craftar to solve my problem. So that I can create software visually by connecting blocks. I wish that Craftar existed. So I’m building it.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🧱 No-Code

This report covered the landscape of No-Code. Which was really helpful and it also featured Craftar!

🔧 Try This

Copy Book

Copywriting is one of the highest-leverage skills that you can possess.

The more examples we have, the easier things are to do. Copy Book offers swipe files for common situations such as adding FAQs and value propositions to landing pages.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

🆕 Tem, Victor Park and Kiet Phung became Trends Pro Members

🥇 Founder Finds became #1 Product of the Day on Product Hunt

👥 Gokul Madan, Harit Rathi, Victor Park, Vinamra Agrawal, David K and Ryan Crownholm unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

💲 The Trends.vc Team added $100k+ in Startup Discounts to Trends Pro

📝 Tem launched HiveMind on Product Hunt

🎙️ Sean Hua launched his podcast Promise.fm

⭐ Ismaël Sow’s article Indie Hackers’ Hall of Fame reached the front page of Indie Hackers

🚀 Gokul Madan launched My First Million – Catalog of Greatness on Product Hunt

🧠 Kuba Siwiec unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching a 30-day standup streak

Get Weekly Reports

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📈 Unlock Pro Reports, 1:1 Intros and Masterminds

Become a Trends Pro Member and join 1,200+ founders enjoying…

🧠 Founder Mastermind Groups • To share goals, progress and solve problems together, each group is made up of 6 members who meet for 1 hour each Monday.

📈 100+ Trends Pro Reports • To make sense of new markets, ideas and business models, check out our research reports.

💬 1:1 Founder Intros • Make new friends, share lessons and find ways to help each other. Keep life interesting by meeting new founders each week.

🧍 Daily Standups • Stay productive and accountable with daily, async standups. Unlock access to 1:1 chats, masterminds and more by building standup streaks.

💲 100k+ Startup Discounts • Get access to $100k+ in startup discounts on AWS, Twilio, Webflow, ClickUp and more.

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

• A FIRE calculator
• A prompt marketplace
• A docuseries about psychedelics
• 12 methods to validate your business idea
• How Thomas Frank reached $100,000/mo selling Notion templates
• And more…

🪶 Remember This

This too shall pass.

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

📊 TryValidated.com built and shared by Simon Daley
12 tried and tested methods to validate your business idea.

🧠 PromptBase prompt marketplace shared by Stewart Townsend
A marketplace for prompts that produce the best results in AI models like DALL·E and GPT-3.

💭 How to Change Your Mind shared by Swapnil Puranik
A docuseries on the history and uses of psychedelics.

👀 Watch This

$100,000+ Per Month Selling Notion Templates

This is the most high insights-per-minute conversation I’ve recently heard. Thomas Frank talks about setting “impossible” goals, why consistency matters and how to keep things simple.

🌟 Founder of the Week

Stewart Townsend

“It’s been amazing over the years to meet like-minded people in Trends Pro from across the globe who all want to help, understand what you are doing, share knowledge, join your company and become your friends.”

Stewart is the co-founder of Podcast Hawk. A service that gets you booked as a podcast guest on auto-pilot. He is also the host of Trends Mastermind #0002.

What are you bullish on?
Text-to-Image/Video and AI-Driven Art. I believe the next Banksy will come from this space.

What’s your most important habit?
Everything I have to do is in a calendar. 

Personal or business. Without enforcing this I would not be able to function. Tasks, appointments, meetings and car shows all go into my calendar. Reminders are set with updated tasks or nudges as well.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🤖 AI-Generated Content

This report is from 2 years ago. I have been bullish on this sector for a long time and if I had a time machine I would have invested.

🔧 Try This

FIRE Calculator: What if you move to another place?

This combines two of my favorite topics: Nomading and Financial Independence. 

The Financial Independence Retire Early movement was also the topic of a recent report.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

👥 Alex Adamov, Kris Ruby and Jerome Green Jr unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups.

📝 Swapnil Puranik built 101 Days Goals Tracker in 8 hours.

⚙️ Prabhjot Singh Lamba started 100 Days of Automation Challenge.

🎨 Simon Daley set up his portfolio website.

📢 Kris Ruby did an AMA about PR, Publicity, AI and Content Strategy.

📘 Read This

Discomfort Club

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”

Each morning I spend time doing uncomfortable things. From trying a new tool to having a tough conversation with a friend or team member.

Discomfort Club is a consistently great newsletter for those of us committed to growth.

Get Weekly Reports

Join 65,000+ founders and investors

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📈 Unlock Pro Reports, 1:1 Intros and Masterminds

Become a Trends Pro Member and join 1,200+ founders enjoying…

🧠 Founder Mastermind Groups • To share goals, progress and solve problems together, each group is made up of 6 members who meet for 1 hour each Monday.

📈 100+ Trends Pro Reports • To make sense of new markets, ideas and business models, check out our research reports.

💬 1:1 Founder Intros • Make new friends, share lessons and find ways to help each other. Keep life interesting by meeting new founders each week.

🧍 Daily Standups • Stay productive and accountable with daily, async standups. Unlock access to 1:1 chats, masterminds and more by building standup streaks.

💲 100k+ Startup Discounts • Get access to $100k+ in startup discounts on AWS, Twilio, Webflow, ClickUp and more.