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

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❓ 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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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

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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:

• 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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💲 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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💬 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

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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:

• 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.

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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:

• 100 sales questions
• A copywriting classic
• 12 startups in 12 months
• How to build a sustainable SaaS business
• And more…

🪶 Remember This

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time for that’s the stuff life is made of.

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

🎙️ Market Analysis for Calm SaaS Businesses shared by davidacreates
An audience-first research process to build a sustainable SaaS business.

📖 Tested Advertising Methods shared by Kyle
A copywriting classic by John Caples.

🤖 Adept AI Action Transformer shared by Sunny Kay
Tell your computer what to do and it’ll do it.

🔧 Try This

Hardcore Year

Like 12 startups in 12 months. Instead of assuming that you know what will work. 

Commit to shipping lots of things. Double-down on what works. 

This approach led to Trends.vc and the projects that came before it. 

It’s a reminder that business is not baseball:  

“The difference between baseball and business, however, is that baseball has a truncated outcome distribution. When you swing, no matter how well you connect with the ball, the most runs you can get is four. In business, every once in a while, when you step up to the plate, you can score 1,000 runs. This long-tailed distribution of returns is why it’s important to be bold. Big winners pay for so many experiments.” — Bezos

🌟 Founder of the Week

Wit Sumathavanit

“It’s great to be part of an ever-evolving community of interesting people in Trends Pro. I look forward to contributing more to the community.”

Wit is a one-person hedge fund. He’s joined more than 500 Trends Pro Daily Standups. 

What are you bullish on?
Big changes. 

The future is being built today. Things are getting more volatile. Market regimes are giving way to something new. Inflation and fuel costs might accelerate the reality of alternative fuel sources. Ecology is not getting any better soon as reflected in the harsher climate people experience. Crypto markets coming out of mania clears up garbage and allows for future development. Many of the big projects that headlined in the 2020-2021 era got their start in the 2018-2019 bear market.

What are you bearish on?
I’m bearish on being bearish! 

There’s not much upside in being bearish. Aside from the ‘told you so’ smug points. That’s why stories like the Big Short are exceptions compared to being long or neutral. I can’t come up with many names who can build a career being net short. So do it in a healthy way. Get into the habit of rarely being net short.

What are you reading right now? 
I’m re-reading The Most Important Thing Illuminated by Howard Marks

I’ve gained more experience and re-reading this feels new and important again. The book contains a lot of wisdom around professional speculation that I missed. It’s about how to operate in the markets for the long run.

What product or service do you wish existed?
I wish there were more reasonable paths to trade more capital aside from the professional money manager route. Since trading is highly scalable. 

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🤑 Million-Dollar, One-Person Businesses

Coming from a background in man-power intensive, low-margin hospitality businesses, I find this idea alluring. The obvious path for me is the trading/investment business which has a long record of being run by (or at least started by) a small group of people. e.g. Warren Buffett, Edward Thorp and many “Market Wizards.”

📘 Read This

“In a perfect world, what would you like to see happen with this?”

100 Sales Questions

A few days ago, we had a mastermind chat on limiting beliefs. One of my limiting beliefs was that I could not sell. Which led to the delay in launching sponsorships at Trends.vc. 

To challenge this, I found a guide and jumped in head first.

Equip yourself with useful questions for sales conversations.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

🆕 Paul Jansen, Kyle, Alex Adamov and Kris Ruby became Trends Pro Members

👥 Mehdi Bellatig, Tarek Zalt, Harsha MV, Alex Cristian and Kyle unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups.

🤝 Simon Daley received the first LOI for his listing on MicroAcquire.

🏷️ Mehdi Bellatig submitted the mobile version of Eden to app stores.

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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:

• Retiring at 39 with $660,000
• A tool to make visual tutorials
• A collection of sales email examples
• A list of online projects that generate revenue
• And more…

🪶 Remember This

Focus on what you control.

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

💌 Good Sales Emails from Stewart Townsend
Learn how some of the best companies are doing sales, by looking at their email campaigns.

👀 Make Visual Tutorials from Mikk Laos
Document what you’re doing, instantly.

💲 Profit Hunt from Stewart Townsend
Discover money-making online projects

❔ Ask Yourself

What is slowing down your momentum?

A few months ago, I shared 10 things I ask myself each day. Then Jakob shared two of his own. 

The one that I found to be the most useful is “What’s slowing down my momentum?”

It brings to mind: “Invert. Always Invert.”

🌟 Founder of the Week

Soma Mandal

“I love the content and rituals within Trends Pro. The community vibe is educational and respectful no matter where you are in your bootstrapper journey.”

Soma is the co-founder of Ansured. A service that provides niche, research-backed information to businesses and individuals within 48 hours. She is also the host of Trends Mastermind #0005.

What are you bullish on?
Personalized, virtual medicine for complex conditions.
Patients will increasingly have access to solutions that incorporate genetic data, medical history, and practical preferences with delivery of care within a few clicks.

Thoughts on bootstrapping…
“I love the combination of creativity, grit, and honesty that comes with bootstrapping. I enjoy the mental resilience needed to consistently fail and have the energy to try something different. I once heard that you need to have something “damaged” inside you to willingly pursue free market, ill-guided entrepreneurship. I would say what is more likely is that you have something that is propelling you towards discovery, learning, play, and in my case, what it means to really feel alive.”

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
💼 Agencies

👀 Watch This

How I Retired Early At 39 In Mexico City With $660,000

Freedom over fame is an ethos that unites Trends Pro Members. 

Roshida shares how she retired early to Mexico City. 

To learn more about FIRE, read our deep-dive on The FIRE Movement.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

👥 Lola Ojabowale, Isabelle Dumortier, Tyler Priest, Krish and Davida Pitts unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining standups.

🧪 Tom Maciejewski closed his first client for his new venture. Quiz Funnels.

🤖 Jwalant Patel reached 75,000+ signups with Shadowing.ai. Helping students prepare for job interviews.

🪄 Tal Hacmon launched Supercreator System. A six-week creator accelerator program.

🔊 Michael Adams is a Product Manager at Waves Audio. They launched Clarity VX and VX Pro after 5 years of work.

💸 Joshua Peck founded a hedge fund after two and a half years of incubation.

🧠 Adrian Divecha and Stanislav Bodiagin 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.

View on OpenSea

“The standard pace is for chumps.” – Kimo

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

• How to find cost-effective ways to grow?
• How to build a low-cost referral program?
• How to increase your odds of virality?
• How to reduce switching costs?
• How to build backlinks?
• How to lower customer acquisition costs?
• How to get existing users to invite new users?

💎 Why It Matters

Marketing channels become competitive over time.

🔍 Problem

Traditional marketing channels are expensive.  
Google Ads cost per click range from $0.20 to $1,000.00+ depending on the keyword choice.

💡 Solution

Find cost-effective ways to get attention and convert customers.

🏁 Players

Growth Hacking Examples

• Intercom • Adds “We run on intercom” to chat windows.
• Robinhood • Offered higher spots on waitlist to users for more referrals.
• CD Baby • Sent offbeat confirmation emails to customers. 
• Dropbox • Grew 3,900% by offering free storage for each converted referral.
• Hotmail • Signed every email with “P.S. I Love You”.
• Barclay Prime • Sold $100 cheesesteak. Attracting press around the country.
• Paypal • Gave a referral bonus to users and merchants.
• Uber • Gave early adopters free rides.

Growth Hackers

• Sean Ellis • Co-author of Hacking Growth
• Nir Eyal • Author of Hooked
• Ryan Holiday • Author of Growth Hacker Marketing
• Tiffany Desilva • Founder of Flowjo
• Wes Bush • CEO of ProductLed
• Jonah Berger • Author of Contagious
• Dan Benoni • Co-Founder of Growth.Design

Growth Hacking Tools

• Hotjar • Understand user behavior
• Zapier • Automate workflows
• Ghostery • Find out which tools websites are using 
• Wistia • Host videos and optimize user engagement
• Ahrefs • Get traffic value and ranking of competitors
• CrazyEgg • Survey, split test and understand user behavior
• Unbounce • Hone your landing page through A/B testing

🔮 Predictions

• More apps will use collaboration-focused featuresto spur growth.
  • Uber’s fare split feature converts new users through requiring app sign-up to pay.
  • Docusign hooks new users through continuous collaboration on document signing.
• Growth tools will become a popular way to reach prospective customers and gain mindshare.
  • Ahrefs invested $60,000,000 in their creator friendly search engine Yep. 
  • AppSumo generated $30,000 after building TidyCal as a side project in 20 days.
• Top brands will partner on rare drops.
  • Balenciaga worked with Adidas on a spring collection.
  • Apple collaborated with Hermès on a limited edition Apple watch.
  • Puma worked with Nipsey Hussle’s team on their TMC collection.
  • Spotify partnered with Starbucks to offer free premium memberships.
  • Spatial Labs partnered with Pantone to design their LNQ Wearables and more.
• Brands will increasingly use pricing to trigger word-of-mouth marketing.
  • Barclay Prime’s $100 cheesesteak became a national story.
  • Nipsey Hussle sold 1,000 copies of Crenshaw for $100 a piece in 1 night.

☁️ Opportunities

• Offer free credits to users for referrals.
  • Homage gives $20 credit to you and each friend you refer.
  • Plant Therapy offers $10 off to you and each friend you refer.
  • Uber began sponsoring events and offering participants free rides. 
  • Airbnb offered up to $35 in travel credit for each successful referral.
  • Dropbox grew 3900% by offering free storage for each converted referral. 
  • Skillshare offered 2 free months to students who signed up via referral links.
  • Fiverr gave members 10% in platform credit for each completed referral order. 
• Tag your products to trigger virality. This works well with freemium plans. Turning free users into promoters.
  • Mint gave VIP access to their app in exchange for placement of their badge on a website.
  • Product Hunt lets makers embed their badges to share milestones. Ex: Trends.vc
  • Hotmail added a signature to every email and gained 1 million users in 6 months.
  • React Native’s documentation embeds Expo code widgets for real-time learning.
  • Calendly gives you a way to embed a calendar for visitors to request meetings.
  • Headway adds a “Powered By” tag at the bottom of changelogs.
  • Testimonial adds a badge at the bottom of embedded sections.
  • Facebook offers profile badges to embed on personal websites.
  • Carrd displays “Made with Carrd” pages that you create.
• Use the invite-only playbookto create scarcity and drive word-of-mouth.
  • Clubhouse released as an invite-only app.
  • Hey offered two invite codes for each new member to share.
  • Facebook only gave access to Harvard students upon launch.
  • Gmail started with a 1,000 user limit and required an invite to join.
  • Dispo started with a 10,000 user cap and required an invite to test.
  • The Gathering Spot is a private, member-only restaurant and networking space for entrepreneurs and celebrities.
• Book guest spots on podcasts to spread the word about what you’re building and get backlinks. You can piggyback on existing audiences.
  • Iddris Sandu spoke with Coindesk TV about LNQ.
  • Luis von Ahn spoke with CNBC Make It about DuoLingo’s growth.
  • Courtland Allen shared the Indie Hackers story on Will Kwan’s show.
  • NPR’s How I Built This hosted Stewart Butterfield to discuss Slack’s journey.
  • Scott Hanselman hosted Brandon Tory for the journey behind Little Hackers.
  • Dru Riley explained the success behind Trends.vc in 15 minutes on Indie Bites.
• Pay users directly. Customer acquisition costs may be lower by paying users. Instead of intermediaries.
  • Bluehost pays $65 per qualified referral.
  • Slide gave $20 off foreach new sign-up.
  • Tornado offers $10-$1,000 as a sign-up bonus.
  • Acorns pays $5 to you and each friend you refer.
  • 1729 teaches concepts and offers crypto for completed tasks.
  • PayPal paid $60,000,000+ in referral incentives to gain new members.
  • Robinhood offers a free stock to you and each new member you refer.

🏔️ Risks

• Too Many Channels • Limit the number of experiments that you run at once. Chasing too many channels at the same time leads to context switching and can lower your chance of success. 
• Working in Silos • Open the floor for every team member while brainstorming growth hacks. Winning ideas can come from outside of marketing. An engineer at Pinterest optimized subject lines by 10% through automated tests.

🔑 Key Lessons

• Most prospects see through gimmicks. Put your customers first.
• Building a product is half of the battle. Figuring out who needs your product and how to reach them is the other half.

🔥 Hot Takes

• Companies will spend more time and resources on organic strategies like growth tools.
• More companies will manipulate demand by limiting access. Raya, the private celebrity dating app requires an application and a referral. 

😠 Haters

“These companies make growth hacking seem easy. How do these examples translate to other companies?” 
You’ll need to decide what makes sense for you. These are models. Try them and keep doing what works.

“Scraping seems illegal. Isn’t this an unethical growth tactic?”
If the data is public it’s yours, according to the US Supreme Court. You may decide to avoid web scraping. Competitors may decide that this is not off limits.

“Growth is great. But what if you’re pouring water into a leaky bucket? What about retention?”
Growth hacking should include experiments around retention. If you’re losing more users than you’re gaining. You’re not growing. 

🔗 Links

• Who should we talk to about growth hacking? • The tweet behind this report. 
• 3 Stages of Growth Hacking • A talk by Sean Ellis.
• Growth Hacker Marketing Review • A review of Ryan Holiday’s book.

📁 Related Reports

• Growth Tools • Build utilities to attract prospective customers. 
• Drop Culture • You can tweak supply to spur demand. 
• Referral Programs • Incentivize others to help you grow.
• Lead Generation • Get qualified leads. 
• Build in Public • Share your journey and gain advocates. 

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Krish, Paul Martin, Stewart Townsend, Uwe Dreissigacker, Vishal Srivastava, Maciej Cupial, Ron Immink, Jwalant Patel, Yarty Kim, Theo Ohene, Anke Corbin and Ken. We had a great time jamming on this report.
✏️ Devin researched and wrote this report. Dru researched and edited this report.

📈 What else?

Trends PRO #0090 — Growth Hacking has more insights.

What you’ll get:

• 30 Growth Hacking Examples (275% More)
• 30 Growth Hackers (328% More)
• 20 Growth Hacking Tools (185% More)
• 8 Predictions (100% More)
• 17 Opportunities (240% More)
• 4 Risks (100% More)
• 5 Key Lessons (150% More)
• 11 Links (266% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

• (📈 Pro) How to find your North Star Metric?
• (📈 Pro) How to increase user engagement?
• (📈 Pro) How to use web scraping to prospect and acquire customers?
• (📈 Pro) How to launch successful contests and challenges?
• (📈 Pro) How to use urgency to drive sales?
• (📈 Pro) How to get the most of out freemium options?
• (📈 Pro) How to use physical items to spur word-of-mouth marketing?
• (📈 Pro) How are founders “hacking” the fundraising process?
• (📈 Pro) How to leverage user-generated content to acquire customers?

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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.

View on OpenSea

“The biggest competition in SaaS is a spreadsheet.” — Ross Simmonds

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

• How to presell to validate demand?
• What are growth systems?
• How to index into existing markets?
• How to use personalization to convert leads?
• How SaaS analytics can help you boost revenue?
• Why narrow your target audience?
• How will open-source SaaS impact B2B SaaS?
• What’s feature parity?

💎 Why It Matters

B2B SaaS gives you a simple, secure and accessible way to solve business problems.

🔍 Problem

You can solve internal challenges:

• internally by building tools and hiring
• externally by outsourcing the problem

Building your own tools can distract you from your core competency.

💡 Solution

B2B SaaS helps you focus on your core competency. 

While reaping the benefits of improvements made by teams dedicated to specific problems.

🏁 Players

B2B SaaS

• Make • Build and automate workflows
• InvoiceBerry • Online invoicing for small businesses
• Gusto • Payroll, benefits and HR management
• Hive • Manage tasks, workflows and team’s work
• Lanva • Social video editing app. 
• ClickUp • Manage tasks, docs, chat, goals and more
• Plausible • Open-source privacy-friendly web analytics
• Podcast Hawk • Podcast guest booking software. 
• Writesonic • AI-driven content creation
• Folderly • AI-Based platform to improve email deliverability.
• Craftar • Build APIs with No-Code
• Budibase • Low-code internal app builder
• LiveAgent • All-in-one platform for live customer support
• SavvyCal • Experience-focused Calendly alternative

Communities

• Trends.vc • Community of entrepreneurs discovering new markets and ideas 
• MicroConf • A community and event series for bootstrapped SaaS founders
• Indie Hackers • Real stories, advice, and revenue numbers from indie makers
• The Indiependent • A community for founders where you get kicked for inactivity
• MegaMaker • A community for bootstrappers
• 100DaysOfNoCode • Lessons, stories and activities for no-code founders

Funds

• TinySeed • An accelerator for bootstrapped SaaS founders
• SureSwift Capital • Buys and grows businesses of independent founders
• Calm Company Fund • Capital, mentorship and community for B2B SaaS
• Dura Software • Invests in hyper-niche software
• Lighter Capital • Invests in companies with $15,000+ MRR
• Calm Capital • Invests in profitable businesses
• LTV SaaS Fund • Focuses on profitable and privately held SaaS companies

🔮 Predictions

• B2B SaaS companies will index into existing markets instead of trying to create new categories.
  • Plausible reached $500,000 ARR in 3 years with an analytics tool.
  • ConvertCalculator has 15,000 users and $24,000 MRR. 
  • Checkout Page is a side-project that processed $2,000,000 in payments.
  • Paperform reached $2,000,000 ARR. Tally reached $10,000 MRR in less than a year in a crowded market of form builders. The latter has 30,000 users and sits at $17,000 MRR.
• Companies will use open-source SaaS to avoid platform risk and vendor lock-in.
  • Baserow • No-code database, Airtable alternative.
  • Fider • Feedback management tool, alternative to Canny.
  • Chatwoot • Customer engagement platform, Intercom and Zapier alternative.
• Businesses will use personalization to nurture leads and convert customers at high-intent moments. Live video sales reps is the second most upvoted idea on Kernal.
  • ConvertKit uses surveys to change onboarding paths.
  • Candu lets you serve different content to different users.
  • Helium lets you talk to web visitors as they land on a page.
  • Bonjoro lets you send transactional personal videos to your customers.
• Businesses will use SaaS analytics to improve customer experiences. Data-driven roadmaps and pricing will help reduce churn and maximize revenue.
  • Chargebee allows you to run billing experiments with real-time insights.
  • Chartmogul helps you measure, understand, and grow your recurring revenue.
  • Mixpanel helps you convert, engage and retain users with user behavior analytics.

☁️ Opportunities

• Don’t waste time, money and energy trying to create new markets. Solve existing pain points. Not those you wish existed.
  • Upvoty • Feedback management tool, grew to $20,000 MRR.
  • Potion • Notion to website converter, grew to $4,000+ MRR.
  • Headlime • AI-powered marketing copy generator, grew to $20,000 MRR and was sold for $1,000,000+ in 8 months.
• Focus on a specific job-to-be-done. Design simple, powerful features.
  • ShareThis lets you add share buttons to your website.
  • Hugo helps you manage notes and tasks for your meetings.
  • SavvyCal is a calendar scheduling tool that generates $20,000+ MRR.
  • Hyperping helps you monitor uptime and manage incidents. It has ~$7,000 MRR now.
  • Friendly offers privacy-first marketing automation and web analytics. It’s close to $13,000 MRR now.
• Narrow your target audience. Vertical SaaS targets niche industries and customers. Niching down helps you stand out from competition, clearly communicate your value and find customers.
  • The Agent Nest • Social media marketing for real estate that reached $10,000 MRR.
  • Aplano • Employee management and time tracking for shiftworkers that reached $450,000 ARR.
  • Zenmaid • Scheduling, automation and reporting for maid service that reached $1,500,000 ARR.
• Presell to validate demand. A landing page, mockup or screenshots will do. Don’t waste time building something nobody wants.
  • Ch Daniel got $1,000 in presales.
  • Alex Pethick received $4,000 in presales for Lanva.
  • Brian Casel got $3,000 in preorders with wireframes.
  • Aazar Shad reached $560 MRR with Ecomply after 3 webinars.
  • Danny Postma got $16,000 in presales in 48 hours for Headlime.
  • Kalo Yankulov says Encharge got ~$4,000 in pre-sales with content marketing.

🏔️ Risks

• Feature parity • No-code and low-code tools make it easier to reach feature parity. This is a two-way problem. It increases competitor risk. You can catch up with competitors. They can also catch up to you. Competition lowers margins.
• Low Lifetime Value • This makes it hard to invest in customer acquisition. Paired with other expenses it can lead to negative cash flow and the Valley of Death.
• Platform Risk • Building on other platforms subjects you to their product roadmap, outages and fees. Changes to Notion API broke Super.

🔑 Key Lessons

• Micro-SaaS does not mean low revenue. “Micro” means a specific niche, target audience or set of features. Hubstaff started as a time tracker for field and remote teams. It grew to 75,000 users and $3,800,000 ARR.
• Growth systems > growth hacks. Growth hacks are designed for fast, low-cost user acquisition. Growth systems focus on long-term marketing strategies.

🔥 Hot Takes

• The largest SaaS categories will be commoditized by Monetized Open-Source alternatives. Rocket.Chat and n8n are open-source alternatives to Intercom and Zapier. This is counter-positioning. It’s unlikely the latter will open source. 
• You need lots of customers, a high customer lifetime value or both to build a great B2B SaaS business. A company without one of these is in a death zone. 
• Feature parity is a weakness of SaaS. This leads to commoditization and lower margins. Low prices and complementary services become your key differentiators.

😠 Haters

“Markets are crowded. How do I stand out?”
There’s a marketing strategy for every taste. AJ from Carrd says a massive market has room for many solutions. Canny got to $1,000,000 ARR in the crowded market of user feedback management. Ruth and Eric built and grew Reconvert to $120,000 MRR, competing with 750+ Shopify cross-sell and up-sell apps.

“Sales will always have a place in B2B SaaS. Self-serve does not always work.”
You’re right. Especially when selling to governments and large organizations such as hospitals. Self-serve, product-led models are increasingly effective with high lifetime value customers. 

“Lifetime deals seem risky. What if I shut the product down?”
Lifetime refers to the lifetime of your product, not your lifetime. It’s more like a “pay-once-and-use-forever” deal. Despite associated risks, some SaaS companies choose lifetime deals over subscriptions. Infinity ran a lifetime deal before official launch and decided to keep their pricing that way forever.

“Using open-source tools means self-hosting and taking on other responsibilities.”
There’s no free lunch. That’s the price of agency. Open source alternatives often offer hosted versions as well.

🔗 Links

• Who should we talk to about B2B SaaS? • The tweet behind this report.
• The Stair Step Approach to Bootstrapping • A model from Rob Walling on increasing the odds of success by “stair stepping.”
• B2B SaaS Marketing Guide • SaaS-centric marketing guide.

📁 Related Reports

• Micro-SaaS • Solve specific problem for specific audience
• Competitor Risk • Indexing into crowded markets
• Product-Led Growth • Build a product that sells itself
• Value-Based Pricing • Get the right pricing
• Programmatic SEO • Acquire high-intent customers

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Rob Walling, Reza Saeedi, Stewart Townsend, Prabhjot Singh, Uwe Dreissigacker, Tarun Muvvala, Soma Mandal, Kimsia Sim, Darren Travel, Ben Alexander, Ab Advany, Yun, Niklas Nielsen and Vladislav Podolyako. We had a great time jamming on this report.

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

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