“You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.”

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

• What are charter cities?
• Who has relocation incentive programs?
• Will charter cities increase inequality, discrimination and gentrification?
• How are charter cities and remote work related?
• What would economists change if they ran the world?
• Why does governance matter?

💎 Why It Matters

What separated East and West Germany? Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Shantou and Xiamen from China? What separates North and South Korea?

Governance.

Bad laws lead to poverty.

🔍 Problem

Poor governance works. For a few.

Benefits are concentrated. Costs dispersed. 

💡 Solution

Charter cities are new cities with better laws.

They go by many names: Special economic zones (Dubai Internet City), special administrative regions (Hong Kong) and countries (Singapore).

As Tyler Cowen says: “There are a lot more charter cities than we think. It’s just that the successful ones stop looking like charter cities.”

🏁 Players

Charter Cities

• Nkwashi • A university-anchored city under construction in Zambia. 
• Próspera • A semi-autonomous zone on the island of Roatán. Built in partnership with Honduras. 
• Talent City • Located in Nigeria. It’s meant to be “…free of complex socio-political or economically protectionist considerations.”

Special Economic Zones

• Shenzhen • Located near Hong Kong. China’s first special economic zone.
• Mariel • A port located near Havana. 
• Centenary City • A planned city in Nigeria meant to rival Dubai and Singapore. 
• Tanjung Lesung • Located in Indonesia. Focused on tourism. 
• China–Belarus Industrial Park • Focused on high-tech manufacturing. 

Special Administrative Regions

• Hong Kong • The former British Colony transferred to China in 1997. 
• Macau • A former Portuguese colony with a separate governing system from mainland China. 
• Sinuiju • A region of North Korea experimenting with a market economy.
• Yogyakarta • The only recognized monarchy within the government of Indonesia.

Organizations

• Charter Cities Institute • A nonprofit aimed at improving the ecosystem for charter cities.
• Creator Towns • An initiative to grow small towns by leveraging the digital economy. 
• Plumia • Billed as the first country on the internet. 
• Bluebook Cities • A group aimed at building cloud-first cities. Also behind Praxis. 

🔮 Predictions

• Remote work will lower switching costs between cities. Where we work and live are being decoupled. We’ll optimize for lifestyle and physical networks over offices. 
• Cities will compete for citizens. Miami’s Mayor makes a show of it. Governance options lead to more competition between jurisdictions.
• Relocation incentive programs will become more aggressive. See the remote work report with 25+ relocation incentive programs. 

☁️ Opportunities

• Fight as few battles as possible. Consider relocating before building a new city.
• Decide what to test. How much political autonomy do you need to:
  • Ban cars
  • Lower taxes
  • Legalize drugs
  • Reform education
  • Use ranked-choice voting
  • Institute an open container law
  • Legalize certain medical procedures
• Start with problems, not policies. Don’t fetishize charter cities or seasteading. Think from first-principles.
• Cheaply try ideas. Test governance models in cruise ships, DAOs, virtual worlds and temporary autonomous zones like Black Rock City (Burning Man).

🔑 Key Lessons

• Experiments have positive expected returns. Most fail but some have asymmetric upside. We need more than 195 experiments.
• Environment matters. We’ve seen natural experiments where culture, geography and other variables are controlled. Governance tips the scale.
• Evolution needs variation and selection to work. We need more governance options and the ability to vote with our feet.

😠 Haters

“Lots of charter cities have failed.”
“There are a lot more charter cities than we think. It’s just that the successful ones stop looking like charter cities.” The same goes for no-code tools like WordPress. We move goalposts.

“Charter cities will be unequal.”
We don’t need charter cities for that. “Economic development specializes functions, differentiates abilities, and makes men unequally valuable to their group.” —Will Durrant

“Charter cities will discriminate.”
We don’t need charter cities for that either. Teams behind relocation incentive programs run competitive screening processes to decide who receives thousands of dollars to relocate. 

“This will lead to gentrification.”
Most organizations focus on greenfield cities. Those who don’t could argue that unshared upside, not gentrification, is the issue.

“East and West Germany. SEZs in China. The difference was a market economy. That’s low-hanging fruit. Now what?”
I asked lots of people: “What would you change about your city?” Everyone had answers. 

“What about seasteading?”
We covered it. Costs need to drop, political issues need resolutions, there’s a quality of life question and practical things like wave breaks. 

📁 Related Reports

• Paid Communities • The first stage of a cloud-first city.
• Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) • A guide to unstoppable networks.
• Remote Work • Jobs won’t tie us to cities. We’ll be able to optimize for lifestyle design.

🔗 Links

1. What would the world look like if economists were in charge? • A list of changes economists would make from legalizing drugs to removing the minimum wage.
2. Building the Network State • We’ve ceded power to Gods, nation-states and now networks.
3. Citizens Vote With Their Feet • On the importance of choice.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Katelyn Donnelly (Avalanche VC), Yolanda Stephens (WomenToDone), Anthony Castrio (Indie Worldwide), Chris, Natwar Maheshwari (Mailchimp), Michael Houck (Launch House), Yashar Nejati, Edmund Amoye (I Want This to Exist), Logan Johnson, Vic and Tom Bonin. We had a great time jamming on this report. 

Get Weekly Reports

Join 54,000+ 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.

Brought to you by the team behind HeadsUp

What you’ll get:

• 5 Charter cities (66% More)
• 10 Special Economic Zones (100% More)
• 7 Special Administrative Regions (75% More)
• 10 Organizations (150% More)
• 5 Predictions (66% More)
• 8 Opportunities (100% More)
• 8 Key Lessons (66% More)
• 10 Links (233% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

• (📈 Pro) How to start a charter city?
• (📈 Pro) Who’s crowdfunding an island?
• (📈 Pro) Why should you start with an existing city?
• (📈 Pro) Other than governance, what matters?
• (📈 Pro) How to cap your downside?
• (📈 Pro) Why will it become easier to build charter cities?
• (📈 Pro) How to avoid the multiple-miracle problem?
• (📈 Pro) How to align incentives with host states?
• (📈 Pro) Who tried to build a cruise ship community?
• and a lot more…

“Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them.”

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

• What’s low-code?
• What’s the low-pro movement?
• How to reduce internal dependencies?
• How’s low-code related to million-dollar, one-person businesses?
• How is DeFi (Decentralized Finance) related to low-code?
• Will low-code eliminate developer jobs?

💎 Why It Matters

Low-code lets us focus on unique problems. Leading to leverage and specialization. The same forces behind million-dollar, one-person businesses. 

🔍 Problem

Reinventing the wheel wastes time.

💡 Solution

Use low-code tools to solve non-unique problems. 
Focus on what you do best. Let WordPress, Stripe, Shopify, AWS and others do the same. 

🏁 Players

Platforms

• Shopify • Build online stores
• Heroku • Deploy and manage apps
• Webflow • Build websites

Tools

• Retool • Build internal tools
• TextRetailer • Shop by text
• Bildr • Build full-stack web applications
• Kelp • Build interactive, data-driven apps
• MavenCart • Host ecommerce stores

APIs

• ScrapingBee • Scraping API
• Segment • Collect and manage customer data
• Plaid • Connect financial accounts

Frameworks

• Ruby on Rails • Web framework
• React • Front-end framework
• Angular • Cross-platform framework

Libraries

• OpenCV • Computer vision
• TensorFlow • Create and evaluate ML models
• Moment.js • Manage dates and times in JavasScript

🔮 Predictions

• “Full-code” is here to stay. Low-code tools allow developers to work on new problems. We can build brain-computer interfaces instead of CRUD apps.
• Lawyers, accountants and other professionals will be impacted by low-code-like phenomena. Low-law (Termly), low-accounting (TurboTax) and low-podcast-editing (Descript) are on the rise. This is a low-pro movement.
• DeFi will embrace low-code. Token standards (ERC20, ERC721) “ensure” security. Billions of dollars staked in standards are implied, uncaptured bug bounties. 

☁️ Opportunities

• Build the first version of your app with no/low-code tools. Shoutout started on Bubble.
• Equip non-engineering teams (marketers, product managers and customer support) with low-code tools to reduce internal dependencies. Tara Reed did this at Google. 
• Use low-code tools to help businesses. See Clutch Software and Anything as a Service (XaaS).
• Democratize new form factors. Wine Text sends daily deals via SMS. TextRetailer gives anyone the ability to run daily deals.

🔑 Key Lessons

• Focus on what you do best. Don’t rebuild AWS, Twilio or Stripe. Use them. Innovate on another front.
• There’s a tradeoff between customization and abstraction. Low-code is “opinionated.”

😠 Haters

“You can’t build everything with low-code.”
Sure. That which can be. Should be. Work on unique problems. 

“This isn’t customizable.”
It’s all relative. Abstraction isn’t free. Nothing is. 

“This will take developer jobs.”
Developers will work on unique problems. See creative destruction.

“Functions, libraries, frameworks and APIs are not low-code.”
Each is an abstraction. i.e. Low(er)-code

🔗 Links

1. Trends #0033 — No-Code • Low-code tools are less abstract versions of no-code tools. 
2. Trends #0027 — Million-Dollar, One-Person Businesses • On the power of leverage. 
3. Creative Destruction • The net-positive process that prevents stagnation.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Curtis Cummings (Shoutout), Ben Church (Pull Checklist), Nile Frater (Concrete Capital), Tyler King (Less Annoying CRM), Mark Magnuson (Bildr), Andrew Swiler (Clutch Software), Joshua Schultz (Clutch Software), Drew Thomas (Bildr), Pravin Kumar (Mavencart), Gene Maryushenko (Swipe), Rick Lindquist (LegUpHealth), Jeremy Abraham (Spiffy), Emmett Armstrong, Stewart Townsend (Channel as a Service) and Ivan Zografski. We had a great time jamming on this report. 

Get Weekly Reports

Join 54,000+ 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.

Brought to you by the team behind HeadsUp

What you’ll get:

• 11 Platforms (266% More)
• 21 Tools (320% More)
• 10 APIs (233% More)
• 12 Frameworks (300% More)
• 10 Libraries (233% More)
• 5 Predictions (66% More)
• 9 Opportunities (125% More)
• 4 Key Lessons (100% More)
• 10 Links (233% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

• (📈 Pro) What’s the future of low-code?
• (📈 Pro) Who pays $400 million per year for a low-code tool?
• (📈 Pro) Which force threatens the low-code movement?
• (📈 Pro) How to build low-code growth tools?
• (📈 Pro) How to use low-code tools to boost productivity? 
• (📈 Pro) Who’s using low-code tools to build a Data-as-a-Service company?
• (📈 Pro) What are citizen developers?
• (📈 Pro) Why do top developers embrace low-code tools?
• and a lot more…

This is the free version of Trends PRO #0045 — Paid Communities

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

• Who offers community-as-a-service?  
• How to build a high-signal environment? 
• How to solve the chicken and egg problem?
• Why do rituals matter?
• How to use gamification?

🔍 Problem

Free communities tend to be noisy without a barrier to entry.

💡 Solution

Paid communities use strategic friction to build high-signal environments.

Members are invested and engaged.

Community builders are aligned with members and able to invest in great experiences.

🏁 Players

Paid Communities

• Trends Pro
• Founder Summit
• Femstreet
• MicroConf Connect
• PandoLabs
• Consulting Club
• Everything Marketplaces
• MicroAcquire
• Launch House
• Launch MBA
• Lenny’s Newsletter

Tools

• Laylo
• Icebreaker
• Hopin
• Gumroad
• Community
• Commsor

Platforms

• Slack
• Disciple
• Facebook
• Circle
• Mighty Networks
• Patreon
• PeerBoard

🔮 Predictions

• Fractionally-owned assets will be the basis of “paid” communities. Nike MAG shareholders have more in common than those of utility companies.
• Community-as-a-Service will become a common XaaS category. Late Checkout helps brands build communities.
• Funds will leverage paid communities for deal flow. See MicroConf Connect (TinySeed) and Founder Summit Remote (Earnest Capital).

☁️ Opportunities

• Build an audience first. Start with a newsletter, podcast or YouTube channel. Audience-to-community solves the chicken and egg problem. Trends.vc reached 20,000+ subscribers before Trends Tribe meetups were launched.
• Craft a mission statement. See Compound’s Manifesto.
  • Why do you gather?
  • What’s your mission?
  • What are your core values?
  • What problems do you solve together?
• Use challenges to gamify success. Launch MBA members produce 12 products in 12 months.
• Create rituals. Host standups, meetups, co-building sessions and retreats to form bonds and productive habits. Trends Pro Members build compounding relationships in daily standups.
• Leverage user-generated content. Hundreds of people Tweet using #100DaysOfNoCode. Bringing attention to the community.
• Nurture one-on-one connections to build a stronger community. Trends Pro Members have weekly one-on-ones along with daily standups.
• Build growth tools to draw members into your paid community. See the No-Code Marketplace directory, toolkit and book.

🔑 Key Lessons

• Price is multi-dimensional. Compound requires you to submit your best writing to apply. This is non-monetary friction.
• Paid community members have skin in the game. Investment limits noise and boosts engagement.
• You’re the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with. Paid communities raise the average.
• Beware of reverse network effects. Scale changes everything. Especially niche communities. Engagement drops as communities grow.

😠 Haters

“You already covered this.”
Yes and I’ve covered No-Code, Bootstrap Funds and Micro Private Equity more than once. There’s still more to learn.

“Most of these communities are online.”
Google jiu-jitsu, church, country club or university if you’re looking for offline paid communities.

“Some online paid communities are built without an audience.”
Cold outreach, personal networks and borrowed credibility can work.

“Paid communities are exclusionary.”
Yes. So are “free” communities. You can’t pay to become a Navy SEAL but the price can be your life. Price is more than money.

“What about community fatigue?”
Fatigue is a forcing function for quality. The same goes for newsletters.

🔗 Links

1. What’s your favorite paid community? • The tweet behind this report.
2. Turning an Audience Into a Community • Girls’ Night In went from a newsletter to a community.
3. Come for the tool, stay for the network • How to overcome the chicken and egg problem.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Kieran Ball (Launch MBA), Max Haining (100 Days of No Code), Stew Fortier (Compound), Yaro Bagriy (Newsletter Crew), Jeremy Au HF (Monk’s Hill Ventures), Rick Lindquist (LegUpHealth), Logan Johnson, Aadil Maan (Nike), Marek Janetzke, Jose Bermejo (Startup Builder), Paul Martin (Integrity Music), Janel Loi (Newsletter OS) and Vikrant Duggal (Consulting Club). We had a great time jamming on this report. 

Access Trends Pro

To save 2,000+ hours of market research, access all Trends Pro Reports and join our Trends Pro Community.

Become a Trends Pro Member

What you’ll get:

• 35 Paid Communities (191% More)
• 21 Tools (250% More)
• 33 Tools for Presales (371% More)
• 7 Predictions (133% More)
• 14 Opportunities (100% More)
• 8 Key Lessons (100% More)
• 10 Summarized Links (233% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

• (📈 Pro) Which communities have their own cryptocurrencies? 
• (📈 Pro) How to borrow credibility to build your community? 
• (📈 Pro) How to boost engagement? 
• (📈 Pro) Who’s earning $450k/yr from a job board? 
• (📈 Pro) Why does decentralized leadership matter? 
• (📈 Pro) How to use non-monetary friction? 
• (📈 Pro) How to find community-member fit? 
• and a lot more…

This is the free version of Trends PRO #0040 — Digital Products

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

🔍 Problem

We need your knowledge and experience. But providing 1:1 help doesn’t scale.

💡 Solution

You can help at scale with digital products. While divorcing your time and money.

🏁 Players

• Airtable Databases
  • Cyberleads
  • Swipe Page
  • Maker Design Tools
  • Tims
  • STACK$
• Courses
  • Build Once, Sell Twice
  • Notion Mastery
  • Marketing for Developers
  • Flowmingo
  • Super Webflow
• Notion Templates
  • Newsletter Operating System
  • The Startup Builder
  • Startup Growth KIT
  • Proposal Notion Template
  • Notion Pack
• eBooks
  • Product-Market Fit
  • Zero to Sold
  • Your Productized Consulting Guide
  • Tiny Design Lessons
  • Maker Minions
• Webflow Templates
  • Telly
  • SendBox
  • Collateral
  • Nunito
  • Terso

🔮 Predictions

• More products will launch into micro-economies. Think Notion, Webflow, Figma and Canva. Million-dollar businesses, like Elegant Themes, are built on WordPress.
• More people will combine community with digital products. This leads to network effects and members learning from each other. Makerpad combines community with tutorials.
• Dynamic digital products will become common. See STACK$, a live Airtable database by Michael Gill. Notion docs will join the fray once Notion’s API is released.

☁️ Opportunities

• Build an audience first. This forces you to understand prospective customers, lowers your customer acquisition costs and leads to repeatable sales. Jack Butcher compounds his audience between courses, community, planners and wallpapers.
• Add a community to your digital product. This curbs piracy and allows members to learn from each other. See Flowmingo from Mackenzie Child.
• Get ideas on what to build next from your community. The introductions channel in Trends Pro reveals that most members use Notion. Should there be a Notion-themed Deal of the Week? 👀
• Presell to gauge demand and boost urgency with presell pricing. Failory used presell pricing for the Product-Market Fit book.
• Borrow trust and attention from affiliates. Leverage influencers and platforms like AppSumo or (shameless plug) Trends.vc — Deal of the Week.
• Establish predictable and compounding revenue with subscriptions. See Product Explorer, Egghead and Code with Mosh.

🔑 Key Lessons

• Digital products give you leverage. As Naval says, “Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media).”
• Build a value ladder. Have a free offer and others that gradually increase in price.
• Build a content ladder. Make the simplest version of your product first. Learn and iterate fast.
• Every business model has a weakness. Most digital products have unpredictable revenue. Services have high marginal costs. Most SaaS businesses have no moat. There’s no free lunch. Pick your pain. Then stack business models to hedge the downsides.

😠 Haters

“Lots of people succeed without an audience.”
Yes. And this is a riskier proposition. You depend on virality and your ability to capture some of that momentum and convert eyeballs into an audience for repeatable sales. Max Rand writes about how he reached #2 on Product Hunt without an audience.

“What about doing direct sales?”
This works. But your LTV has to justify it. And do you have leverage if you can’t sell at scale?

“What if someone steals my idea or pirates my product?”
Content is a magnet. Community is a moat.

“What about subscription fatigue?”
Subscriptions don’t make sense for every product. Fatigue forces quality up.

“You missed digital product categories.”
Chances are, you can find them in Trends Pro.

🔗 Links

• Who should I talk to about digital products? • The tweet behind this report.
• Trends #0030 — Audience-First Products • The path towards low CAC, defensibility and repeatable sales.
• The Passion Economy and the Future of Work • Monetize your individuality.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Jose Bermejo (The Startup Builder), Mark Bowley (Tiny Design Lessons), Mackenzie (Flowmingo), Marie Poulin (Notion Mastery), Len Markidan (Podia), Alex Pethick (Nutriso), Tem (Optemization), Max Rand (Startup Growth Kit), Nicolás Cerdeira (Failory), Gene (Swipe Page), Janel Loi (Newsletter Operating System), Ash (Bad Unicorn), Yarty Kim (Kick Ass Letters), Traf (Super.so), Doc Williams (Build with Me) and Ben Issenmann (Supercreative). We had a great time jamming on this report.

Access Trends Pro

To save 2,000+ hours of market research, access all Trends Pro Reports and join our Trends Pro Community.

Become a Trends Pro Member

What you’ll get:

• 17 Types of Digital Products (240% More)
• 81 Digital Products (224% More)
• 6 Predictions (100% More)
• 17 Opportunities (183% More)
• 8 Key Lessons (100% More)
• 10 Summarized Links (233% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

• (📈 Pro) How to build your value ladder? 
• (📈 Pro) How to build a micro-monopoly? 
• (📈 Pro) How to crowdsource your digital product? 
• (📈 Pro) How to boost your average order value?
• (📈 Pro) How to reduce market risk and improve your odds of success? 
• (📈 Pro) What are the benefits of niching? 
• (📈 Pro) How to boost perceived value? 
• (📈 Pro) How to use digital products to build an email list? 
• (📈 Pro) How to bundle with yourself?  
• (📈 Pro) How can digital products help SaaS businesses? 
• PLUS a 25-minute episode on this report
• and a lot more…

This is the free version of Trends PRO #0037 — Virtual Events

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

🔍 Problem

Time, location, health and financial constraints hinder physical meetings.

💡 Solution

Virtual events reduce these concerns. And lead to experiences that are impossible to physically recreate. For better or worse.

🏁 Players

Virtual Events

• Astronomical
• Interintellect
• Indie Worldwide
• OBFH Live
• MicroConf Remote
• Apple Event
• Inside Outside

Tools

• Icebreaker
• Bevy
• Zoom
• Twitch
• Gather
• Hopin
• Run The World

Types

• Presentations
• Q&As
• 1:1 Meetings
• Online Classes
• Masterminds
• Conferences

🔮 Predictions

• We’ll see new form factors. 1-on-1 matching exploded with tools like Icebreaker, Lunchclub, Bevy, Hopin and Run The World. Is Gather (2-D Video Calls) next?
• There will be more virtual event marketplaces. Think Airbnb’s Online Experiences and Winekey. Tools like Zoom and Run The World are also getting into distribution.
• More events will have omni-directional engagement. With no “audience.” Only participants who shape the narrative.
  • HQ Trivia
  • Capiche.fm
  • Clubhouse

☁️ Opportunities

• Make it interactive. Keep your audience engaged with Q&As, polls, challenges and trivia. MicroConf Remote gave founders a challenge. Get a customer testimonial and bring it back.
• Start sawdusting.
  • Use registration information to build your list (Rita Barry)
  • Distribute talks through your podcast (MicroConf OnAir)
  • Distribute talks through your YouTube channel (Everything Marketplaces)
  • Turn user-requested songs into playlists (OBFH)
• Bundle to raise your average order value. Combine your paid newsletter, paid community, digital products or physical products with virtual event access. Teaching an online bartending class? Offer to ship the shaker and glasses.

🔑 Key Lessons

• Virtual events are better at some things. And worse at others. In-person events give us high-fidelity experiences. Virtual events can remove space and time. And create worlds.
• Start with the end in mind. Why are you creating this event? How will participants be transformed? What’s your north star?

😠 Haters

“Virtual events won’t replace face-to-face interactions.”
Yes. And they’re not meant to. Each type of event excels at different things.

“1:1 matching isn’t new. What about Chatroulette?“
Smartphones, tablets and wireless headphones weren’t new either. Then Apple came in. Lunchclub, Bevy, Icebreaker, Run The World and Hopin are popularizing this feature.

“You said that virtual events reduce time constraints. What about time zones?”
Reduce. Not eliminate.

🔗 Links

1. Best virtual event you’ve been to? • The tweet behind this report.
2. How We Hosted a 55 Speaker Virtual Summit in Just 10 Weeks • Foti Panagiotakopoulos shares how he launched the GrowthMentor Summit using no-code tools like Zapier and WordPress.
3. HeySummit Speaker Directory • A growth tool/marketplace from HeySummit that helps speakers find gigs and organizers find speakers.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Anthony Castrio (Indie Worldwide), Rob Walling (TinySeed + MicroConf), Nicolás Cerdeira (Failory), Matt Middleton (Advisor Circle), Jack Cohen (FirstMark), Ethan Jones (Tools for MGMT), Karl Mc Carthy (Tito + Campfire), Joey Womack (Goodie Nation) and Brian Ardinger (Inside Outside). We had a great time jamming on this report.

Get Weekly Reports

Join 54,000+ 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.

Brought to you by the team behind HeadsUp

What you’ll get:

• 27 Virtual Events (285% More)
• 173 Tools for Virtual Events (2371% More)
• 12 Types of Virtual Events (100% More)
• 4 Key Lessons (100% More)
• 8 Predictions (166% More)
• 10 Predictions (233% More)
• 10 Summarized Links (233% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

• (📈 Pro) How to get more attendees? 
• (📈 Pro) How to boost your average order value?
• (📈 Pro) Which roles should you outsource? 
• (📈 Pro) How to lower your risk of failure? 
• (📈 Pro) How to build a virtual event checklist? 
• (📈 Pro) What apps are shaping the future of audience engagement? 
• (📈 Pro) Which tools to use for your virtual event? 
• (📈 Pro) How to select great speakers? 
• (📈 Pro) What’s the future of hybrid events? 
• and a lot more…

This is the free version of Trends PRO #0034 — Micro-Marketplaces

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

🔍 Problem

General marketplaces lack focus.

💡 Solution

Micro-Marketplaces focus on a niche. And build an experience around it.

Marketplace	Micro-Marketplace
Monster.com (All Jobs)	Remote Ok (Remote Jobs)
BizBuySell (All Businesses)	MicroAcquire (SaaS Businesses)
Freelancer.com (All Freelancers)	Unicorn Factory (NZ Freelancers)

MicroAcquire aims at SaaS businesses. Displaying recurring revenue, customer acquisition costs and number of customers.

BizBuySell is for all businesses. But food trucks don’t have recurring revenue.

📘 Terms

Marketplace
A business that connects buyers and sellers.

Micro-Marketplace
A marketplace that focuses on a niche. And designs around it. Leading to a better experience for buyers and sellers.

🏁 Players

Micro-Marketplaces

• Notion Everything — Notion Templates
• Studiotime — Music Studios
• The Quiver — Surfboards
• Modsy — Interior Designers
• MicroAcquire — SaaS Businesses
• Good Dog — Dogs
• PierShare — Boat Docks
• TOOLBX — Construction Supplies
• Stackraft — Remote Engineering Jobs

(📈 Trends Pro) Database of 50+ Micro-Marketplaces

🔮 Predictions

• No-Code will lower the barrier to build marketplaces. Studiotime uses ShareTribe. PierShare uses Bubble. Orapa uses Webflow and Tribe.so. (via Yoroomie and Stan)
• AI will circumvent service supply constraints. MDacne analyzes skin and provides treatment plans. Otter transcribes audio. Sidestepping Teladoc and Rev.

☁️ Opportunities

• Solve the chicken-or-egg problem. Here are 19 ways and two more:
  • Provide a Service (Slice answers phones for restaurants)
  • Piggyback on an Audience (Influencers promote Cameo)
• Build a marketplace with no-code. And focus on the hard part. Code is being commoditized.
• Niche. RubyRide launched in a suburb of Pittsburg. MentorCruise focused on engineering mentors. Even The Everything Store started with books.
• Attract supply with growth tools. See Zestimate and Carculator. Thumbtack made it easy to post to Craigslist and Thumbtack. (via Andrew)
• Scratch your own itch.
  • Georgene built Fairygodboss after looking for a job.
  • Dominic built MentorCruise after looking for a mentor.
  • Andrew built MicroAcquire after looking for a business.

🔑 Key Lessons

• Start small. Micro-marketplaces can lead to more verticals. Likewise, Micro-SaaS and DTC Brands lead to bigger plays.
• Scale changes everything. Most marketplaces are curated at first. Then evolve. Game mechanics help maintain quality at scale.

😠 Haters

“Your definition of a marketplace (a business that connects buyers and sellers) is wrong. What about managed marketplaces with inventory risk?
A business that connects demand and supply is also wrong. It includes wholesalers and retailers. 🤷‍♂️ Embrace imperfection.

“MDacne and Otter’s models aren’t perfect.”
Nothing is.

“Every category can’t have it’s own micro-marketplace.”
Maybe not. It’s a battle between the benefits of having everyone in one place (general) and the benefits of specific form factors (micro).

“You didn’t mention frequency, AOV, monogamy, take rates or critical mass.”
Look out for more on marketplaces.

“Micro-Marketplaces? These are vertical marketplaces.”
Sure. But can we admit? Alliteration is fun.

🔗 Links

1. Who’s building a marketplace? • The tweet behind this report.
2. All Things Marketplaces • Fabrice Grinda on SaaS tools, curating and locking in supply.
3. Hierarchy of Marketplaces • Sarah Tavel on the levels of marketplaces and what makes them special.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Andrew Gazdecki, Jeff Ericson, Vartika Manasvi, Nate Ritter, Dominic Monn, Stan Rymkiewicz, Gali Meiri, T.D. Bryant, Bobby Gilbert and Yoroomie for being great thought partners.

Access Trends Pro

To save 2,000+ hours of market research, access all Trends Pro Reports and join our Trends Pro Community.

Become a Trends Pro Member

What you’ll get:

• 56 Micro-Marketplaces (522% More)
• 5 Predictions (150% More)
• 12 Opportunities (140% More)
• 5 Key Lessons (150% More)
• 10 Summarized Links (233% More)
   

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

• (📈 Pro) Which metrics should you track? 
• (📈 Pro) Which company locks in supply and demand with one tool?
• (📈 Pro) How to use strategic friction to create balance? 
• (📈 Pro) How to sidestep network effects and leapfrog incumbents? 
• (📈 Pro) Why will there be more service marketplaces? 
• (📈 Pro) How to maintain quality and churn bad supply?
• (📈 Pro) Why will there be more managed marketplaces? 
• (📈 Pro) How to use risk reversal to grow your marketplace? 
• and a lot more…

This is the free version of Trends PRO #0033 — No-Code

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

🔍 Problem

Recreating wheels (and apps) wastes time, money and energy.

💡 Solution

No-Code tools help you solve well-understood problems. Blogs, online stores, games, marketplaces, mobile apps and more can be built without writing code.

🏁 Players

Products

• RandomPizza
• LetterDrop
• Studiotime
• Shoutout
• Mikro
• Dev Shopper
• Rebel Book Club 
• Recruit-HQ
• Incomee
• My No-Code Journal

Tools

• Carrd
• Webflow
• Bildr
• Adalo
• Glide
• Softr
• Bubble
• Sharetribe
• Buildbox

Founders

• Ben Tossell
• Tara Reed
• Sam Lloyd
• Dan Parry
• Sisa Lleses
• Karthik Puvvada (KP)
• Rita Roloff
• Lacey Kesler
• Mark Magnuson
• Mariam Hakobyan

🔮 Predictions

• Using no-code will be a competitive advantage. Saving time, money and energy. Allowing you to build (and change) faster and cheaper than competitors.
• No-code leads to bundling and unbundling. Sharetribe, Anchor, Podia and Substack are monolithic. Studiotime, Swimmy and Wheelprice are specific.

☁️ Opportunities

• Start small with basic no-code tools like Carrd and Pory before moving on.
• Join #100DaysOfNoCode for social accountability.
• Start a no-code agency. Wit Suma, a Trends Pro member, launched a no-code agency building growth tools. See Thinkbox, BuildLab, Twindeavor, Luhhu and Finsweet. Services can be your gateway to products and scalable income.
• Use no-code tools to build a productized service. Lead Cookie ($50k/m) and Scribly ($30k/m) use Zapier and Airtable. Jake Jorgovan works 5 hours a week. As Lead Cookie earns $50,000 a month. (Via Seth)

🔑 Key Lessons

• No-code tools democratize leverage. When anyone can build. Authenticity outweighs access.
• Leverage amplifies judgement.
• Code, capital, manufacturing, (paid) acquisition and ideas are being commoditized.

😠 Haters

“No-Code?! There’s actually code.”
But you aren’t writing it. Some hate this term. But alternatives have too many syllables to win a marketing war. Haters complain about “no-code” and make it more popular.

“No-code will eliminate developer jobs.”
Developers will spend less time on CRUD apps. And more time on hard problems. Michael Gill and Yaro Bagriy use no-code tools to boost productivity.

“All problems can’t be solved with no-code.”
Correct. Absolutes are usually false.

“No-code tools can’t scale.”
Most can. But this is a good problem.

“Don’t call your agency a ‘no-code’ agency.”
Some search for no-code agencies in need of speed and accessibility. Build two funnels with the same service. Capture both segments.

🔗 Links

• Who’s down to talk no-code? • The tweet behind this report.
• How to Build • How to build Shopify, LinkedIn, Airbnb, Facebook, Amazon, Product Hunt and more without writing code.
• Serendipity as a Service (Random Pizza) • No-code tools help Whit Anderson build and operate RandomPizza.
• Small Teams • A list of teams behind billion-dollar companies. Abstraction breeds leverage.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Samuel Thompson, Seth Kramer, Edmund Amoye, Max Haining, Ben Tossell, Ash, Yoroomie, Mark Magnuson, Dan Parry, Lacey Kesler, Isaiah Weaver and Steven Gunn for their help with this report.

Access Trends Pro

To save 2,000+ hours of market research, access all Trends Pro Reports and join our Trends Pro Community.

Become a Trends Pro Member

What you’ll get:

• 30 No-Code Apps (233% More)
• 32 No-Code Tools (255% More)
• 32 No-Code Founders (220% More)
• 4 Predictions (100% More)
• 8 Opportunities (100% More)
• 7 Key Lessons (133% More)
• 10 Summarized Links (150% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

• (📈 Pro) Who’s building profitable businesses with no-code tools? 
• (📈 Pro) How will the no-code movement change investor expectations? 
• (📈 Pro) How do no-code tools lower execution risk? 
• (📈 Pro) How to use no-code tools to generate leads? 
• (📈 Pro) How will the no-code movement lead to more coders? 
• (📈 Pro) Why will no-code communities be more diverse than developer communities? 
• (📈 Pro) How to build games without writing code? 
• and a lot more…

This is the free version of Trends PRO #0030 — Audience-First Products

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

🔍 Problem

You need to understand and reach customers.

💡 Solution

Build trust before you build products.

🏁 Players

Product	Type	Source
LetterDrop	Aggregator	KP
Userlist	SaaS	Jane Portman & Benedikt Deicke
Bite-Size Python	Book	April Speight
Earnest Capital	Fund	Tyler Tringas
The Tim Ferriss Show	Podcast	Tim Ferriss
Power-Up Podcasting	Course	Pat Flynn
Groupon	Marketplace	ThePoint.com
Chicken + Beer	Restaurant	Ludacris
Virginia Black	Liquor	Drake
Roc Nation Sports	Agency	Jay-Z
Ministry of Testing	Community	Rosie Sherry

🔮 Predictions

• Startups will seek founding influencers like Justin Jackson of Transistor.fm.
• Audience-first funds will become popular. Ben Tossell and Sahil Lavingia will leverage their audiences to get deal flow, find LPs and help portfolio companies.

☁️ Opportunities

• Choose your channel and build an audience. Use YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook. But don’t stop there. To reduce platform risk, use these as funnels. Not destinations.
• Get feedback from your audience. Failory surveys subscribers to find pain points. Bram Kanstein used Twitter to get 135 pre-launch subscribers. Kalo Yankulov used a blog to get $4,000 in pre-sales. (Via Nico)
• Leverage your audience to find investors, suppliers and employees. Ben Tossell uses Twitter to find customers and hire. Now he’s raising a fund.
• Use an audience-first approach to find your dream job. Iheanyi (Github) and April (Microsoft) have audiences, optionality and side hustles. Social profiles are replacing resumes.
• Use gamification to grow your audience. Pieter Levels gained more than 10,000 followers with a giveaway. See the Makerpad Challenge.

🔑 Key Lessons

• Audience-building is a forcing function to find and understand customers.
• Your audience is your moat.
• An audience gives you optionality. You can sell products, raise funds, hire employees, get jobs, endorsements, affiliates and more.

😠 Haters

“This isn’t new.”
Common knowledge isn’t common practice.

“You mention agencies, restaurants and conferences. These are not products.”
🤷‍♂️ Use your imagination.

“If I build it, they will come.”
Tell that to Stephen King. Who wrote under a pen name in relative obscurity. Until his identity was revealed. Audience outweighs product.

“This doesn’t always work.”
Indeed. There are broke celebrities. Blame execution not efficacy.

“What if I build the wrong audience?”
Start with the end in mind. Who do you want to help? Who do you enjoy spending time with? Educate or entertain them.

“Is paid acquisition useless?”
No. Use it for validation. And arbitrage opportunities. Not for survival. Unit economics change fast when you bid for attention.

“Gamification only attracts those who want prizes. Not my product.”
Make your product the prize.

🔗 Links

1. On Linear Commerce • Media and commerce are merging.
2. 12 Startups in 12 Months • Pieter Levels built an audience by building in public.
3. My Journey From Quitting My Job to Building 7 Apps and $1,000+ MRR • Andrey Azimov followed in Pieter’s footsteps.

Get Weekly Reports

Join 54,000+ 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.

Brought to you by the team behind HeadsUp

What you’ll get:

• 35 Audience-First Products (218% More)
• 4 Predictions (100% More)
• 11 Opportunities (120% More)
• 5 Key Lessons (66% More)
• 10 Summarized Links (233% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

• (📈 Pro) How to build an audience using others’ expertise? 
• (📈 Pro) Which founder reached a $1,000,000 run rate with $0 in ad spend? 
• (📈 Pro) Which approach is more effective than podcasts and newsletters?
• (📈 Pro) Who used an audience-first approach to launch workshops, job boards and DTC brands?
• (📈 Pro) How can your audience help even if they don’t buy your product? 
• (📈 Pro) Why is it important to niche and build a direct
• with your audience? 
• and a lot more… 

This is the free version of Trends PRO #0026 — Drop Culture

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

🔍 Problem

We are status seeking monkeys, as Eugene Wei says.

💡 Solution

Brands manufacture scarcity (and status) to drive sales.

Constricting supply amplifies word of mouth. Everyone talks. Those who were able to get it, missed it and hate it. They spread the word.

Drop culture has moved from fashion to software and experiences.

🏁 Players

Products

• Supreme Oreos
• Crenshaw Mixtape
• Hamilton
• KFC Crocs
• Hanna
• Motel 21
• Virgil Abloh x IKEA Rug
• Stellar
• Once Upon a Time in Shaolin
• GPT-3

Brands

• Birkin
• KITH
• Tesla
• Stüssy
• Goyard
• Apple
• Off-White™
• 100 Thieves
• Richard Mille
• Carhartt

Platforms

• StockX
• NTWRK
• HYP
• Grailed
• Stubhub
• eBay
• OpenSea
• Poshmark
• Drop
• Zora

🔮 Predictions

• Influencers will hoard items, influence culture then release them for profit. The song, RAF, made Raf Simmons’ items skyrocket in value. What if A$AP Rocky bought pieces before releasing the song?
• ETFs and financial derivatives will form around streetwear. StockX holds IPOs (Initial Product Offerings). Some users trade items without taking possession.
• Platforms will get unbundled. Chrono24 exists outside of watch categories on StockX and eBay.

☁️ Opportunities

• Become a reseller. Brands must create scarcity for drops. Unmet demand is your margin. Convert access into capital.
• Use drop notifications to get emails, phone numbers and downloads. You can text 917-540-3113 or download the MSCHF app for alerts. Cryptocurrency airdrops use a similar strategy.
• Post items on Instagram and run blind auctions via DMs. Take the best price.
• Drop access to your paid community. The Book of Resale randomly opens spots in the group. (From a Trends Pro, Ethan Jones)
• Manufacture scarcity. Create an imbalance of supply and demand. Don’t have a large audience? Constrict supply even more. A stadium is scarce for Taylor Swift. Your version may be a tiny desk.
• Weave items into stories. Michael Jordan’s “Flu Game” shoes fetched $104,000. Sell items featured in your YouTube, Instagram and TikTok (🤞) videos. Let your audience own part of the story.
• Reverse engineer product market fit and make scarcity a side effect. Accept ideal users. Put others on a waiting list.

😠 Haters

“This is exclusionary.”
That’s the point. Drops fail without scarcity. They also subsidize art for the masses.

“It’s not all about status.”
Some of us find streetwear, art and experiences interesting without artificial scarcity. But this report is about drop culture. And those drawn to hype.

🔗 Links

1. A Walk with Mr. MSCHF — A rare interview with Gabe Whaley, founder of MSCHF.
2. StockX’s Josh Luber — Get the origin story and vision of StockX.
3. 7 Marketing Lessons From Drop Culture — Find out why drops work.
4. How Two Sneaker Moguls Are Bringing Drop Culture to the Whiskey World — A duo uses drop culture to sell whisky for $185 per bottle.
5. Reinventing the Resell — A argumentative passionate panel represents different perspectives in drop culture. From marketplaces to manufacturing and retail.

Get Weekly Reports

Join 54,000+ 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.

Brought to you by the team behind HeadsUp

What you’ll get:

• 14 Opportunities (100% More)
• 12 Summarized Links (140% More)
• 25 Product Drops (150% More)
• 7 Predictions (133% More)
• 21 Brands (110% More)
• 27 Platforms (170% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

• (📈 Pro) How to use gamification to make drops more effective?
• (📈 Pro) How to build a paid community around drop culture? 
• (📈 Pro) Why do brands eventually move downmarket?
• (📈 Pro) Which traditional industries are adopting drop culture? 
• (📈 Pro) What no-code tool is needed for drops? 
• (📈 Pro) How to craft an offer for your Superfans? 
• (📈 Pro) How to build a business by creating pop-up experiences for brands? 
• and a lot more…

This is the free version of Trends PRO #0022 Digital Products

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

This is the first version. Click here for the second version.

🔍 Problem

Selling time doesn’t scale.

💡 Solution

Digital products, like eBooks, courses and fonts, allow you to help at scale. You can build once, sell twice, as Jack Butcher says.

🏁 Players

Products

Name	Creator	Type
Maker Minions Workshop	Michael Gill	Course
Your Productized Consulting Guide	Jane Portman	eBook
Substation Theme	Dan Rowden	Ghost Theme
Bite-Size Python	April Speight	eBook
Drrac	Martin Ryden	Carrd Theme
Profitable Newsletters	Chris Osborne	Course
Zero to Sold	Arvid Kahl	eBook
4 Week Bariatric Diet	Kristin Willard	Meal Plan
The Standout Developer	Randall Kanna	eBook
Scrapbook	Kacper Staniul	Airtable Database
SEO Cheat-Sheet	Benas Leonavicius	eBook
React for Data Visualization	Swizec Teller	Course
ORBITAL	Kyle Beats	Drum Kit
EcoShot	Stuart Powell	eBook
Simple Slides	Paul Burke	PowerPoint Slides
Build Once, Sell Twice	Jack Butcher	Course
FRIENDLY AMBITIOUS NERD	Visakan Veerasamy	eBook
Standard Financial Model	Taylor Davidson	Spreadsheet
The $10K Website Process	Ran Segall	Course
Marketing for Developers	Justin Jackson	eBook and Course
Imposter Syndrome	Pete Codes	eBook
PLAN 915-8	Tumbleweed Tiny House Company	House Plan
No-Code MVP	Bram Kanstein	Course
Watercolor Teacher	Kristi Dominguez	Printables
100 Business Models	Gennaro Cuofano	eBook
McDonnell Douglas FA-18C Hornet	Dmitriy Sidelev	3D Model
Better Sheets	Andrew Kamphey	Course
Twitter for No-Coders	Jens Lennartsson	eBook
Font Personality	Taughnee Stone Golubović	Swipe File
No Code MBA	Seth Kramer	Course
Drinking Board Game	CatAndBru	Printable Board Game

🔮 Predictions

• The line will blur between digital and physical products. Platforms like Printful and Printify allow you to turn digital products into mugs, shirts, 3D printed parts, paintings, stickers and more.
• Digital product platforms will be unbundled. Look at sites like BeatStars, Houseplans and MyFonts. Individual platforms will be built to sell swipe files, spreadsheets or printables. The same happened with Craigslist.

☁️ Opportunities

• Build an audience to learn about customers needs. Start a newsletter or podcast. Leverage your audience from YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and beyond.
• Presell to verify demand. This will force you to clarify what you are building. Those who pre-purchase can offer feedback.
• Offer early bird pricing. Reward early supporters with discounted prices.
• Leverage niche communities for distribution. Answer questions and support others on platforms like Indie Hackers, Reddit and Product Hunt.
• Build a content ladder to validate demand. Start with tweets and blog posts. Then move to books and courses. You can save time if early content does not resonate.
• Combine digital products with paid communities to curb piracy and unpredictable revenue. Community can’t be pirated.
• Allow “lifetime access” to courses and databases to boost perceived value. This translates into real value if you provide updates.
• Build a value ladder. Have a foot-in-the-door offer that delivers massive value. This builds trust. Happy customers are more likely to make larger purchases.
• Read the report on online courses if you want to make a course.
• Build a digital product fast by curating. Create a swipe file of great UI designs, cold emails or landing page copy.

😠 Haters

“What about piracy?”
Every business model has weaknesses. Digital products suffer from piracy and unpredictable revenue. Niche communities have reverse network effects. Agencies have high marginal costs. Most SaaS businesses have no moat. There’s no free lunch. Pick your pain. Then stack business models to hedge the downsides.

“Digital product is a euphemism for information product.”
Nice try 😉 Information products include eBooks and courses. Digital products also include WordPress themes, typefaces, comics, floor plans and 3D models.

“You didn’t include apps.”
I excluded apps and subscription products to control the scope of this report.

🔗 Links

1. Leverage Information • How to leverage knowledge from your current field to create digital products.
2. The Ladders of Wealth Creation • A classic post on improving the quality of your income over time.
3. Open Report • 8 months of sales and expenses from Daniel Vassallo.
4. Creating Passive Income with Digital Products • How Jen Wagner makes money by selling fonts.

Get Weekly Reports

Join 54,000+ 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.

Brought to you by the team behind HeadsUp

What you’ll get:

• 21 Opportunities (110% More)
• 100+ Digital Products (225% More)
• 11 Summarized Links (175% More)
• 4 Predictions (100% More)
• 31 Platforms to Sell Digital Products (📈Pro Exclusive)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

• (📈Pro)What’s the future of bundling digital products? 
• (📈Pro)How to move from productized services to digital products? 
• (📈Pro)How to get help selling digital products? 
• (📈Pro)How to build trust and word-of-mouth marketing?
• (📈Pro)How to get distribution without an audience? 
• (📈Pro)How will creators benefit by sharing audiences? 
• (📈Pro)How to raise your average order value and lower customer acquisition costs? 
• and a lot more…