AI-Powered SaaS: AI Startup Studios, Validating Demand, Predictable Revenue

“AI amplifies human capabilities.” — Satya Nadella

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❓ What You’ll Learn

How to build better products by “dogfooding”?
Who used X (Twitter) to get a 7,500-person wait list?
Who got 4,600,000 views on the launch tweet?
How to fill your funnel with warm leads?
How to get others to sell for you?
Who used the existing user base to test AI features?
Who’s building AI startup studios?
Who is building embedded AI?
How to deal with weak moats?
How to control API credits usage?
How to stand out in this crowded market?
How to direct AI to get accurate results?
How to build niche AI models?

🔍 Problem

We write first drafts, draw wireframes, edit videos and more.

This is slow and repetitive.

💡 Solution

AI-powered SaaS helps you get results faster.

Jenni AI writes research papers
Framer builds websites from text
OpusClip turns long videos into short clips

🏁 Players

AI-Powered SaaS

Loom • Video recording for screen, camera and audio sharing
Notion • All-in-one workspace for notes, tasks and collaboration
Hemingway AI • Rewrite text for clarity
Grain • AI meeting automation tool
Resume.io • Write resumes with AI

🛠 How to Build AI-Powered SaaS

“Dogfood” your product by using it yourself. You will build better products faster when you understand and empathize with customers.
- Matthew Lesiuk is building Clipio. He uses it for cold video outreach to market Clipio.
- Bhanu Teja P is building SiteGPT. He used it to build a chatbot for his blogging platform Feather.
- Simon Hoiberg is building Aidbase. He uses it to handle customer support on his personal website.

Build an audience first. Fans are more eager to support you by buying or sharing your tool.
- Dharmesh Shah shared ChatSpot on X (Twitter). His post got 4,600,000 views.
- Bhanu Teja P launched SiteGPT on X (Twitter). The launch tweet got 1,000,000 views.
- Mark Gadala-Maria says growing on X (Twitter) helped him get 7,500 people on the waiting list for Post Cheetah.

Build a waiting list to validate demand.
- Dorik lets you sign up for the waiting list for Dorik AI. It helps to generate UI, copy and images for your websites.
- Slack lets you sign up for the waiting list for Slack AI. It helps to get insights into your chats and knowledge bases.
- JetBrains lets you sign up for the waiting list for JetBrains Grazie. It helps software teams write and communicate better.

🌱 How to Grow AI-Powered SaaS

Use side project marketing to get more users.
- Hippo Video has a video ROI calculator.
- QuillBot has a suite of free grammar tools.
- Jungle Scout has a profit calculator for dropshipping.

Use a freemium model to fill your funnel.
- Aaron Edwards made DocsBot AI. It’s free for chatting with docs with up to 50 pages.
- Abdulhadi Y made AI Magicx. You can make a limited number of articles, logos and images for free.
- Helghardt Avenant and Michail Brynard made Lampbuilder. You can build 1 landing page with AI on its free plan.

Use affiliate marketing to get others to sell for you.
- Copymatic offers a 30% commission to affiliates.
- Seamless.AI offers a 20-40% commission to affiliates.
- Pieter Levels offers a 20% commission to Photo AI affiliates.

💰 How to Monetize AI-Powered SaaS

Offer subscriptions to get predictable revenue.
- Jon Yongfook is building Browserbear. He charges up to $949 per month.
- Shawn Tucker is building Feedloops. He charges $69 per year while it’s in beta.
- Dobroslav Radosavljevič is building Written Labs. He charges up to $49 per month.

Offer single-use plans for a one-time price. This helps to serve users with occasional needs.
- Jera sells website roast packs at Roast My Web.
- Lior Grossman is building Completely. It costs $39 per competitive analysis report.
- Philipp Seeser lets you enhance the audio of 1 file with Xound. It costs $4.99 per file.

Use a free trial to convert more leads into customers.
- Jared Rhizor offers a 7-day trial for MealByMeal. It helps to track food and calories.
- Alex Buran offers a 7-day trial for Help-Desk.ai. It helps to build AI chatbots for customer services.
- Eddie Forson offers a 7-day trial for EnVsion. It helps to uncover insights from your customer interviews.

🔮 Predictions

Companies will let existing users try AI features for free. Before locking them behind a paywall.
- Loom let existing users try Loom AI before launching.
- Evernote lets users try AI-powered search for free before adding it to paid plans.
- Archbee offered a beta of AI Addon for free to paid users. It now costs up to $50 per month on top of paid plans but is part of the Enterprise plan.

We’ll see AI startup studios that take a systemized approach to building AI companies.
- Twelvefold builds generative AI tools.
- 1811 Labs builds AI products in 2-4 weeks.
- Slimmer AI is a venture studio for building AI products.
- Pawa is a venture studio for machine learning startups.
- VirASTRAL helps to build AI SaaS and generative AI products.

AI will be embedded in hardware. The era of “smart things” will turn into the age of “AI things”.
- Bolt uses Drover AI to boost scooter safety.
- VoiceKitt is an in-car voice assistant. It helps salespeople close deals while driving.
- Samsung has washing machines with AI Control. It also says smartphones are obsolete –– it’s time for AI phones.

😠 Haters

“Most of these companies are retrofitting AI into existing products. The future is AI-native UX.”
This is common with technology. It took decades for manufacturers to redesign factories around electricity instead of adding to existing factories. Progress is iterative.

“Some of these are AI wrappers with weak moats.”
If an AI wrapper can make people’s lives easier, they will pay for it. Seize the opportunity when you have it.

“Uncontrollable growth can lead to bankruptcy. Freemium users can eat up API credits faster than expected.”
Limit the number of available credits to free users. Design Sense lets you generate only 1 image for free. Logie has user caps.

“This market is crowded.”
You can differentiate by offering unique features, great customer support or serving a niche audience.

🔗 Links

$22,000 in 1 Week with a Better UI for ChatGPT • The thread behind this report.
Building a Report on AI-Powered SaaS • The tweet behind this report.
What The Generative AI Craze Will Look Like • AI experts and business leaders explain how AI will change the business.
Making $22,000 in 7 days • How Tony Dinh bootstrapped a better UI for ChatGPT.

📁 Related Reports

Niche AI Models • These are fine-tuned to perform well on domain-specific tasks.
AI Agents • They work on your behalf without your supervision.
Prompt Engineering • Learn how to direct AI to get accurate results.
No-Code • Stop wasting time, money and energy doing repetitive work.
Software Development Services • Build a software business without technical skills.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Maciej Cupial, Stewart Townsend and Vishal Srivastava. We had a great time jamming on this report.

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

📈 What else?

Trends PRO #0141 — AI-Powered SaaS has more insights.

What you’ll get:

25 AI-Powered SaaS Examples (400% More)
18 Ways to Build AI-Powered SaaS (500% More)
11 Ways to Grow AI-Powered SaaS (267% More)
13 Ways to Monetize AI-Powered SaaS (333% More)
7 Predictions (133% More)
10 Links (150% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

(📈 Pro) How to hedge platform risk?
(📈 Pro) How to lower market risk?
(📈 Pro) How to build solutions to real problems?
(📈 Pro) Who grew an AI SaaS to $12,000 MRR by solving their own problem?
(📈 Pro) Who makes $75,000 MRR with a fine-tuned AI model?
(📈 Pro) Who made $1,023 in 10 days by addressing flaws in competitors?
(📈 Pro) How to make your AI SaaS easier to build and maintain?
(📈 Pro) Who grew an AI SaaS to $20,000 in 6 months by building in public?
(📈 Pro) Who grew by $1,090 MRR after a public launch?
(📈 Pro) How to use TikTok to get 150,000 users?
(📈 Pro) Who used influencer marketing to add $100,000 MRR?
(📈 Pro) Who used TikTok to add $50,000 MRR for a B2C AI SaaS?
(📈 Pro) How to offer AI features on demand?
(📈 Pro) Who made $23,000 with a lifetime deal?
(📈 Pro) How to monetize open-source SaaS?
(📈 Pro) Who grew an AI SaaS to $18,000 MRR with Bubble?
(📈 Pro) How a college student grew an AI support app to $64,000 MRR?
(📈 Pro) Who grew a ChatGPT interface app to $10,000 in 4 days?
(📈 Pro) How a college dropout built a $30,000,000 startup?
(📈 Pro) What are 12 profitable SaaS ideas with validated demand?
(📈 Pro) How to make $5,000 MRR with AI wrappers?
And much more…

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🦾 AI Agents Database 📚 Insight Logging 🔎 Discovery Platforms

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

📚 A note-taking system
🦾 An AI agents database
⏪ What is the Backwards Law
🔎 What are discovery platforms
🕒 How to balance side projects and work
➡️ And more…

🪶 Remember This

All profit is derived from risk.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

👥 Elia Zane unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

👨‍💻 Simon launched Authentic Devs

💰 Yuyu sold Opengraph.xyz for 5 figures

💼 Karissa Rischall left her day job while keeping her employer as a client

📩 Elie Steinbock reached 1st place on Product Hunt with Inbox Zero

🎵 Darren Travel made a music video with AI

🧠 Joe Montanino, Barbara du Perron, Rob Blake and Ren Saguil unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching 30-day standup streaks

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

🦾 AI Agents Database shared by Bernardt J. Vogel
A database of 120+ AI agents with descriptions

📚 Insight Logging Framework shared by Eren Suzer
A note-taking system for podcasts, books and articles

🕒 Balancing Side Projects and Work shared by Royce Johnson
A blog post on pursuing passion projects while working

📘 Read This

The Backwards Law

The backwards law says that the more you pursue something, the less you achieve it.

For example, the more you pursue happiness, the more unhappy you feel.

Why?

Because you focus on what you lack instead of what you have.

Few things in life follow the backwards law. But those that do, are extremely important.

💬 Join the Conversation

Here’s what Trends Pro Members are talking about…

(📈 Pro) Finding affiliates
(📈 Pro) Scheduling tools
(📈 Pro) B2B sales toolkit

👀 Watch This

What Are Discovery Platforms?

Discovery platforms have built-in discoverability.

They help people find your content even if they were not looking for it specifically.

These platforms are incentivized to connect users with great content via algorithms.

Get Weekly Reports

Join 65,000+ founders and investors

📈 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.

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

🗺️ Millionaire Blueprint 📊 Life Planning Framework 🌱 0 to Audience

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

⚙️ What’s missing from EOS
📊 A life planning framework
🎨 A collection of Framer resources
🗺️ A blueprint to becoming a millionaire
👥 How to build an audience from 0 followers
➡️ And more…

🪶 Remember This

If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

🔁 Karthik Vijayakumar launched B2B From Scratch

💲 Simon got the first sales of WordPress Tailwind Directory

👨‍💻 Krish launched Git Checkout

🌐 Kevin Galang updated the landing page for A Team Overseas

📺 Elie Steinbock released his best performing YouTube video so far

🤝 Hj Barraza closed the second client for his productized service

🧠 Jarrad Pouncil and Trilok Hebbur unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching 30-day standup streaks

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

📊 Strategic Life Planning shared by Breno Ferreira
A life planning framework based on strategic thinking

⚙️ What’s Missing from EOS shared by Ivan Malopinsky
A tweet about how to improve the Entrepreneurial Operating System

🎨 Remix Framer shared by Joe Montanino
A collection of Framer components, UI elements and websites

🔧 Try This

How To Build an Audience from 0 Followers

You need to get your content in front of people.

Here’s how:

Experiment with content to see what works.
Build a system that helps you publish content consistently.
Stay top of mind by engaging with your audience and other creators.

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Here’s what Trends Pro Members are talking about…

(📈 Pro) Notion guides
(📈 Pro) Scheduling tools
(📈 Pro) A directory of GPTs

👀 Watch This

Blueprint to Becoming a Millionaire

Alex Hormozi shares the path to becoming a millionaire:

Level 1: The fundamentals of wealth creation.
Level 2: The tactics to make your first million.
Level 3: How to stay rich and get richer.

Learn how to build a sustainable business that will help you create, maintain and grow your wealth.

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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.

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YouTube Channels: Million Dollar Channels, A/B Testing, Selling Merch

“If it isn’t on YouTube, it might as well have never happened.” — Gordon Korman

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❓ What You’ll Learn

How to grow with YouTube Shorts?
How to use AI to make content faster?
How to start a YouTube Channel?
How to monetize a YouTube channel?
How to offer value to fans?
What are multi-channel networks?
How to A/B test video titles and thumbnails?
How to optimize your channel?
How to boost engagement?
How to upsell channel memberships?
How to make the perfect YouTube Short?
What makes a great YouTube video?
How to beat competition by niching down?
How are YouTube channels better than legacy media?
Who is building a YouTube channel in public?
How to hack the YouTube algorithm?

🔍 Problem

We want content that fits our needs and interests.

💡 Solution

YouTube channels cater to our need for new and engaging content.

🏁 Players

YouTube Channels

Minute Physics • Teaches physics.
MKBHD • Tech reviews of consumer electronics.
No Code MBA • Tutorials on how to use no-code tools.
Sidemen • Challenges, sketches and gaming commentaries.
Xyla Foxlin • DIY videos, builds on woodwork and engineering.
Traversy Media • Tutorials on web development and programming.
Andrew Huang • Song challenges and tutorials on music production.
Amelia Dimoldenberg • Interviews with celebrities using comedy and humor.

Tools for YouTube Channels

Powtoon • Create videos with animated characters, templates, backgrounds, audio and more.
TubeBuddy • Optimize your channel to get more views and subs.
Descript • Write, record, transcribe, edit and share your videos.
vidIQ • Boost your YouTube views and subscribers.
Synthesia • Make AI-powered virtual avatars.
OpusClip • Turn long videos into viral clips.

🛠 How to Build YouTube Channels

Niche down to lower competition.
- Matt Parker mixes stand-up comedy with math.
- Bryan Johnson shares content on reverse aging.
- Babish Culinary Universe recreates iconic dishes from films and TV shows.

Build in public to earn trust and build awareness.
- Casey Neistat vlogged his daily life, including the process of making his videos.
- Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) shares behind-the-scenes on making tech reviews.
- Peter McKinnon shares how he makes videos, takes photos and gives helpful tips.

Use AI to make content faster. Use ChatGPT to write video scripts. Use AI image generators to make visuals.
- AI Hustlewise shows how to make viral talking AI avatars.
- Phil Pallen shows how to make an AI avatar using Synthesia.
- Revenue Rebels shows how to make explainer videos using AI-generated scripts, voices and visuals.

🌱 How to Grow YouTube Channels

Make YouTube Shorts. They are easier to create and yield better return on effort.
- Blogilates’ videos get ~350,000 views. Her Shorts get up to 163,000,000 views.
- Jenny Hoyos’ videos get ~150,000 views. Her Shorts get up to 60,000,000 views.
- Comics Explained’s videos get up to ~120,000 views. Their Shorts get up to 1,100,000 views.

Split-test your YouTube videos to see what works. This can help you optimize your channel and boost engagement.
- Evan Carmichael uses TubeBuddy to split-test his video titles and thumbnails.
- Sean Cannell shows how A/B testing thumbnails got his channel to 1,500,000 views.
- Kevin Espiritu A/B tested titles for this Epic Gardening video to boost his click rates by 38%.

Cross-promote your YouTube channel on social media. Use discovery platforms to reach a wider audience.
- Casey Neistat is active on Instagram and Twitter.
- Beta Squad promotes its channel on Instagram and TikTok.
- Jon Youshaei shares YouTube clips on his Instagram and TikTok.

💰 How to Monetize YouTube Channels

Sell merch to diversify your income. Let your true fans support you and get branded goods from their favorite creator.
- Binging with Babish sells a range of cookware.
- James Charles sells makeup palettes and brushes.
- Dude Perfect sells clothing, toys and more.

Sell products aligned with your channel. Offer tangible value to your fans.
- Doug DeMuro auctions cars.
- Nomad Capitalist sells tax planning and citizenship services.
- Epic Gardening sells gardening supplies, seeds and other gardening products.

Offer channel memberships. Give more value to your true fans.
- YaBoyRoshi offers members exclusive content, live polls and merch.
- CGP Grey offers exclusive videos, deleted scenes and wallpapers.
- Dead Meat offers channel memberships with exclusive bonus content and commentary tracks.

🔮 Predictions

YouTubers will build multi-million e-commerce businesses.
- KSI and Logan Paul started Prime, an energy drink with $1,200,000,000+ in sales.
- Doug DeMuro started Cars&Bids, a car auction marketplace with $230,000,000+ in sales.
- Kevin Espiritu bought Botanical Interests, a company that sells high-quality seeds with $30,000,000+ in sales.

YouTubers will use generative AI to create scripts, characters, animations, audio and scenes.
- Kevin Parry uses Runway to edit his videos and sound.
- Alec Wilcock shows how to use ChatGPT to write video scripts.
- Premier Gal shows how to use LaLaLai and other tools to edit videos and sound.

YouTube channels will grow into multi-channel networks that cover many topics.
- The Game Theorists grew from video games to cover food, film and fashion.
- MrBeast grew from extreme videos to gaming, reaction videos, shorts and philanthropy.

😠 Haters

“The YouTube algorithm is unpredictable.”
While this is true, there are ways to stack the odds in your favor. Experiment with content, see what works and stick to it. Great content will eventually get a boost from the algorithm.

“It’s hard to compete with popular YouTubers.”
Share your personal experiences and inject your personality.

“I want to start making content on YouTube, but I don’t know what to talk about.”
What are you passionate about?What do you know a lot about? Share stories based on your experience even if you’re not an expert on a topic. Show your progress learning a skill or a topic. People want authenticity more than ever.

🔗 Links

A Doctor Turned YouTuber with 4.8M Subscribers • The thread behind this report.
Building a Report on YouTube Channels • The tweet behind the report.
The Ultimate Guide to YouTube Monetization • Monetization and growth strategies.
How to Grow A YouTube Channel • Beginner’s guide on how to grow a YouTube channel.

📁 Related Reports

Personal Brands • YouTubers are personal brands with huge influence and following.
Faceless YouTube Channels • Faceless YouTube channels lower key person risk.
The Creator Economy • YouTube channels make a big part of the creator economy.
AI-Generated Content • AI-generated content speeds up video creation.
Short-Form Videos • Short-form videos are a great way to grow on YouTube.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Maciej Cupial and Don Ho. We had a great time jamming on this report.

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

📈 What else?

Trends PRO #0140 — YouTube Channels has more insights.

What you’ll get:

34 YouTube Channels (325% More)
14 YouTube Channel Tools (133% More)
7 Ways to Build YouTube Channels (133% More)
11 Ways to Grow YouTube Channels (267% More)
10 Ways to Monetize YouTube Channels (233% More)
7 Predictions (133% More)
9 Links (125% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

(📈 Pro) How to craft effective video titles?
(📈 Pro) How to make attractive thumbnails?
(📈 Pro) How to boost subscriptions?
(📈 Pro) How to optimize your YouTube SEO?
(📈 Pro) How to use emotions to hook viewers?
(📈 Pro) How to gamify your YouTube channel?
(📈 Pro) Why should publish more videos?
(📈 Pro) What to do when you are low on content ideas?
(📈 Pro) How to build a consistent posting schedule?
(📈 Pro) How to build partnerships with brands?
(📈 Pro) How to build interest with a channel trailer?
(📈 Pro) Which YouTubers are selling their back catalogs to investors?
(📈 Pro) Who crowdfunded $519,851 from his YouTube fans?
(📈 Pro) Who made $1,025,441 from YouTube Superchat and Stickers?
And much more…

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

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

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

📅 Annual Review Questions ✅ How to Validate Products 🎯 Doing Less

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

😱 What is Fear Setting
🎯 A book on doing less
🎙️ The 6 best podcast formats
✅ 19 product validation tactics
📅 40 questions to ask yourself every year
➡️ And more…

🪶 Remember This

Don’t be distracted by criticism.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

🚀 Simon built Launch Story

🎓 Philip Obosi launched a Notion course builder

🧩 Atul launched Echo

⚡ Gab got the first superuser for Untools

🧰 Maisha Cannon hosted a workshop at Career Jam

🧊 Karthik Vijayakumar booked a client in 9 days from cold emails

🧠 Rahul Kahani, Keihan Popal and Onu Ocholi unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching 30-day standup streaks

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

😱 Fear Setting shared by Tony Tong
An exercise to help take action despite doubt

✅ Validate Your Product shared by Royce Johnson
A list of 19 product validation tactics ranked by difficulty

🎯 Essentialism shared by Giovanni Vanini
A book about getting the right things done

📘 Read This

Best Podcast Formats

Podcast formats form the structure of your episodes.

Here are 6 best formats for your podcast:

Fiction: telling a story
Solo: talking on your own
Co-hosting: working with a partner
Roundtable: wider panel of guests
Interview Podcast: new guest every week
Documentary: highly produced content mix

💬 Join the Conversation

Here’s what Trends Pro Members are talking about…

(📈 Pro) Notion guides
(📈 Pro) Scheduling tools
(📈 Pro) A directory of GPTs

❔ Ask Yourself

40 Questions to Ask Yourself Every Year

Track your growth and life changes with 40 annual review questions.

Review your ups and downs, wins and failures. Reflect on the past year and set goals for next year.

What was your biggest achievement?
Who was the best new person you met?
What valuable life lesson did you learn this year?

Get Weekly Reports

Join 65,000+ founders and investors

📈 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.

No-Code: Custom GPTs, Getting Early Users, Million-Dollar Businesses

“A world where only 0.3% of people can create software is a world missing 99.7% of its potential.” — Adalo

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❓ What You’ll Learn

Who makes $10,000 MRR with a no-code directory?
Who sold a newsletter marketplace for 5 figures?
Who grew a no-code form builder to $60,000 MRR in public?
Who made $12,000 by interviewing no-code founders?
Who grew a no-code chatbot builder to $18,000 MRR in 6 months?
Who runs a $3,000,000 ARR business on a $100 no-code stack?
Who runs a $5,000,000, one-person business using no-code tools?
Who runs a $1,500,000 ARR unlimited service in Trello?
How to build no-code apps inside ChatGPT?
Who made ~$2,200 with a no-code app built inside ChatGPT?
How to build AI agents without code?

🔍 Problem

Repetitive work wastes time, money and energy.

💡 Solution

No-code tools help you:

Build products faster
Automate repetitive tasks
Make systems easier to maintain

Without writing code.

🏁 Players

No-Code Apps

UserLoop • AI-powered surveys for Shopify
Strabo • Investment portfolio tracker
SubSocket • Set up recurring and one-time payments with PayPal
Riku • Build and deploy AI models
Packfleet • Delivery platform for ecommerce businesses
beegle • Marketplace for on-demand helpers

No-Code Tools

Craftar • Build scalable APIs and automations
Adalo • Build custom responsive apps
Softr • Build directories, client portals and internal tools
Make • Build no-code automations
Framer • Build websites with AI
Zapier • Build automated workflows

No-Code Founders

Prabhjot Singh Lamba • Helps to craft automations visually with Craftar
Max Haining • Teaches how to build no-code projects with 100DaysOfNoCode
JJ Englert • Builds no-code MVPs with Studio NoCode
Kieran • Teaches Bubble with Zero To Pro Bubble Course
Katt Risen • Interviews no-code founders at No-Code Exits
Bram Kanstein • Teaches how to build no-code MVPs with No-Code MVP
Seth Kramer • Teaches how to use popular no-code tools with No Code MBA

🛠 How to Build No-Code Businesses

Build a directory with no-code tools and resources. Help others sift through the noise.
- Jonas made Duuce with Carrd. Then sold it for 5 figures.
- Art West made NoCodeDevs which makes $10,000 MRR.
- Drew Thomas made NoCodeList with Bildr and Airtable. Then sold it to Stefan Quartemont.
- Joe Brown made Nucode with Bubble, SendGrid and Fathom. Then sold it to NoCodeOps.

Build in public to stay top of mind.
- Goutham Jay grew Famewall to $1,000 MRR by building in public.
- Katt Risen made $12,000 with No-Code Exits which she was building in public.
- Marie Martens and Filip Minev grew Tally to $60,000 MRR by building in public.

Presell to validate demand.
- Marc Lou is preselling a course on making viral launch videos.
- Alex Vaughtton presold NocodeHackers courses for €1.000. Then grew the platform to €13,000 in revenue.
- Alex Rainey presold My AskAI chatbot builder for $5,000 before launching. Then grew it to $18,000 MRR in 6 months.

🌱 How to Grow No-Code Businesses

Share video tutorials on YouTube. It’s a discovery platform that can help to boost your visibility.
- Glide shares how to build internal tools.
- Bubble shares how to build full-stack web apps.
- Softr shares tips on how to use their website builder.

Offer freemium to lower your user acquisition costs.
- Umso lets you build a website for free.
- Typeform lets you build online forms for free.
- Backendless lets you build a database for free.

Build an affiliate program. Get others to recommend your no-code tool.
- NoCodeAPI offers a 30% commission for attracting paid users.
- Jet Admin offers a 30% commission for referring paid customers.
- No Code MBA offers a 40% commission for every customer you refer.

💰 How to Monetize No-Code Businesses

Charge per user to grow with your customers.
- Jestor charges per builder and per user.
- Fibery charges up to $20/user per month.
- AppSheet charges up to $10/user per month.

Offer subscriptions to earn predictable revenue.
- TillyPay is a payment platform that charges $40 per month.
- Tally is a form builder that has a pro plan for $29 per month.
- Nocodey is a marketplace for no-code gigs that costs $79 per month.

Offer sponsorships to help brands connect with their target audiences.
- No Code Founders offers sponsored ads.
- NoCodeDevs offers paid ads and reviews.
- Katt Risen offers sponsorships at No-Code Exits.

🔮 Predictions

We’ll see more million-dollar businesses built with no-code tools.
- Joe Speiser said he was running a $1,000,000 startup on a $200 no-code stack.
- Flexiple grew to $3,000,000 ARR. It runs on no-code tools that cost $100 per month.
- Justin Welsh made $5,000,000 with his one-person business. He started with Carrd, Airtable, Zapier and other no-code tools.
- Brett Williams grew Designjoy to $1,500,000 ARR and $3,000,000 in sales. He uses Memberstack, Trello and Webflow to run his design services.
- Nuage Stays was a $5,000,000 short-term rental business running on a $200 no-code stack. While it was successful, COVID-19 put a strain on the business.

Custom GPTs will become the new interface for building no-code apps in ChatGPT.
- Alex Atallah made a speed reading coach.
- Nick Dobos made $2,192 with GPT apps such as Grimoire.
- Princely H. Glorious made an app that helps to design board games.
- Putri Karunia made a prompt generator for building websites with Typedream.
- Pieter Levels made a text-based adventure game. He open-sourced the prompt to help you build one yourself.

We’ll see no-code tools for building AI agents. They will take the guesswork out of building, training and running autonomous AI models.
- AgentGPT is a visual builder for AI agents.
- Relevance AI lets you build AI agents without code.
- Flowise AI is a drag-and-drop UI for building AI workflows.
- Promptly helps to build AI apps and chatbots without code.
- OpenAI’s GPTs let you build custom AI agents in ChatGPT.

😠 Haters

“No-code tools are less powerful and flexible.”
No-code tools are easier to use but less powerful. Custom software is more powerful but complex. Tradeoffs are a fact of life.

“Bubble’s pricing changes took some companies out of business. Platform risk is too high.”
While this is true. The accessibility, cost and development speed often outweigh the downsides. Bubble is a unique case. They tried to find a fair price in 2022. They tried again in 2023. Most no-code tools don’t have this problem.

“There’s little-to-no technical moat here.”
There are other types of moats to build around your business. Scale economies, network effects, branding and more.

“Using ChatGPT to write and debug code is not ‘no-code’.”
True. But this is better than hiring a developer if you need to add custom code to your no-code product.

“User-based pricing limits growth.”
While it adds obstacles to user growth. There are some benefits. You can align your expenses with the workload produced by your user base. Your revenue grows as your customers’ teams grow. You get engaged customers who pay for real users instead of subscriptions they forgot to cancel.

🔗 Links

Growing a No-Code Form Builder to $60,000 MRR • The thread behind this report.
Building a Report on No-Code Businesses • The tweet behind this report.
What Is No-Code? • Simple guide to no-code tools.
Bubble Crash Course • Learn the fundamentals of Bubble by building a marketplace app.

📁 Related Reports

Micro-SaaS • Build a no-code tool to solve a specific problem for a specific group of people.
Product-Led Growth • Distribution matters more than product.
AI Agents • AI agents can think, plan and do tasks on your behalf.
Low-Code • Focus on solving problems without wasting effort.
Directories • Save people’s time and build a defensible business.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Marc Kreuzer, Onu Ocholi, Bernhard Friedrichs and Uwe Dreissigacker. We had a great time jamming on this report.

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

📈 What else?

Trends PRO #0139 — No-Code has more insights.

What you’ll get:

14 No-Code App Examples (133% More)
15 No-Code Tools (150% More)
14 No-Code Founders (100% More)
16 Ways to Build No-Code Businesses (433% More)
12 Ways to Grow No-Code Businesses (300% More)
13 Ways to Monetize No-Code Businesses (333% More)
14 Predictions (367% More)
9 Links (125% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

(📈 Pro) How to monetize your no-code expertise?
(📈 Pro) How to piggyback on no-code platforms?
(📈 Pro) Who sold a website builder with $6,300 MRR for $300,000?
(📈 Pro) How to find an idea for your product?
(📈 Pro) Who pre-sold a Chrome extension built with ChatGPT?
(📈 Pro) Who sold $1,000,000 worth of Notion templates?
(📈 Pro) Who made $10,000 with a lifetime deal to fund product development?
(📈 Pro) How to monetize open-source products?
(📈 Pro) How to build websites with natural language?
(📈 Pro) How to build Chrome extensions without code?
(📈 Pro) How to turn sketches into functional code?
(📈 Pro) What accelerators help to launch, market and scale no-code companies?
(📈 Pro) Who raised £300,000 for a prototype made with Bubble?
(📈 Pro) What is the top mistake no-code founders make?
(📈 Pro) How to grow a no-code recruiting agency?
(📈 Pro) How to build a SaaS without code?
And much more…

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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.

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

💵 Charging 100% Upfront 🚀 How to Launch on PH 🌎 Global SEO

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

💵 Why charge 100% upfront
🚀 How to launch on Product Hunt
📊 Metrics that cannot be measured
🌎 An SEO guide for international traffic
✨ Official Guide to Prompt Engineering
➡️ And more…

🪶 Remember This

Start before you’re ready.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

👥 Aaron Nesser unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

📺 Elie Steinbock reached 1,500 YouTube subscribers

🎙️ Hj Barraza launched the En Contxto podcast

🔥 Bernardt J. Vogel spoke at a fireside chat

📝 Julien Collet shipped new features for Scheduled.so

🐦 Kevin Galang announced A Team Overseas

🧠 Avy Leghziel and Patrick Reker unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching 30-day standup streaks

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

✨ OpenAI Prompt Engineering Guide shared by Avy Leghziel
The official guide to writing better prompts from OpenAI

🚀 How to Launch on Product Hunt shared by Simon
A practical guide on launching on Product Hunt

🌎 International SEO shared by Daniel Berggren
A guide on reaching new target audiences in different countries

📘 Read This

Metrics that You Can’t Measure in Retrospect

Some important metrics are impossible to measure:

Probabilities of “risks”
How a single feature affects revenue
How your actions affect customer churn
How small design choices affect user experience
The value of proactively fixing bugs or good engineering practices

If they can’t be measured in retrospect, they can’t be measured now or later.

🌟 Founder of the Week

Marc Kreuzer

“I had valuable conversations with Trends Pro Members that gave me a deeper understanding of fractional leadership and venture capital. Lots of inspiration.”

Marc helps purpose-driven brands build, adopt and maintain strategies to foster deep connections with their customers.

What’s your most important habit?
Running. It boosts my health, energy and creativity. The best ideas come to me while running.

What are you reading right now?
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, the founder of Nike. Nike serves as a fascinating case study in brand-building. Its story resonates with me as I’m a runner and a brand consultant.

What product or service do you wish existed?
A tool that can automatically build a knowledge base from everything I read. Then integrate it with my writing tools to suggest relevant information while I write.

What product are you obsessively using right now?
Apple Shortcuts. It’s an underrated tool. In combination with Notion and OpenAI, it adds so much value to my daily life by automating repetitive tasks.

What are you bullish on?
AI as a value-creation tool. The technology opens a lot of ways to do things better. It will have a huge impact across industries and daily life.

What are you bearish on?
AI as a cost-saving tool. If we use this powerful technology to do more of the same, but cheaper, there is no real progress. Brands that use AI to merely cut costs will lose to companies that understand the AI‘s potential in creating more value for their customers.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🤓 Consulting

This report offers useful insights for building my business, which is a mix of consulting and agency. It serves me as a roadmap to where I’m heading.

💬 Join the Conversation

Here’s what Trends Pro Members are talking about…

(📈 Pro) Scheduling tools
(📈 Pro) A directory of GPTs
(📈 Pro) Favorite online communities

🔧 Try This

Why You Should Charge 100% Upfront

Have you ever been stiffed by a client?

The client either paid you late or never paid you at all.

Fix this by charging 100% upfront. Stop worrying about:

Getting paid on time
Abandoned projects
The number of revisions
Enforcing legal contracts
Sending multiple invoices

The money becomes the contract.

Pro tip: for clients who don’t want to pay 100% upfront, break down payments into tiers and never start working on the next part of the project until the new payment arrives.

Get Weekly Reports

Join 65,000+ founders and investors

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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.

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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.

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

Digital Products: $550,000 with One Course, Lifetime Deals, Side Project Marketing

“Always deliver more than expected.” — Larry Page

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

Who made $550,000 with 1 programming course?
How to validate demand?
How to get early customers?
Who makes $100,000 ARR via affiliates?
How to get early feedback?
How to get predictable revenue?
Who made $200,000 with a course on spreadsheets?
Who used side project marketing to attract 150,000 visitors?
How to boost customer success?
How to crowdsource product ideas?
What are evergreen digital product ideas?
What are 77 digital product ideas?

🔍 Problem

You know something that others don’t.

But 1:1 help does not scale.

💡 Solution

Digital products help you share your knowledge in a scalable way.

🏁 Players

Ebooks

Landing Page Hot Tips • How to build effective landing pages
Zero to Sold • How to start, run and sell a bootstrapped business
Writing for Software Developers • How to write technical articles

Online Courses

Notion Mastery • Master your life and business workflows with Notion
Driven Digital • How to make passive income with affiliate marketing
The Art of Visual Design • Improve the aesthetics of your product with images, colors, fonts and more

Templates

Lume 3D • Portfolio website template for Webflow
Figma iOS UI Kit • Responsive mobile app templates for iOS
Design System UI Kit • Design system templates

Databases

CyberLeads • 1,000+ handpicked companies that raised millions
Free To Use Sounds • Library of royalty-free sounds
ChatGPT Prompts • 1,000+ prompts for lawyers, recruiters, marketers and more

🛠 How to Build Digital Products

Build in public to earn trust.
- Vensy has built Notion Planner in public.
- Eelco Wiersma shares the new features of SaaS UI in public.
- Josh W. Comeau made $550,000 with CSS for JavaScript Developers. He was sharing short recordings of the course in public.

Presell to validate demand.
- Jane Portman presold UI Audit (now free) for $3,500.
- Jay Clouse got 40 pre-orders for Podcast Like The Pros.
- Ayush Chaturvedi presold Make Money with Words for $512.

Build an audience to get early customers.
- Quentin Villard made $3,000 by sharing TIMS with his audience.
- Xavier Coiffard says building an audience helped him launch UserBooster.
- Arvid Kahl used his audience on X (Twitter) to launch Zero to Sold. He sold 350 copies of the book in 24 hours.

🌱 How to Grow Digital Products

Use affiliate marketing to get others to sell your product.
- Gabe Ragland offers a 50% commission to Divjoy affiliates.
- Kerry Godsall offers a 50% commission to How to Sketch affiliates.
- Rob Austin and Michael Andreuzza offer up to 70% commission to Wicked Templates affiliates.
- Ryan Sager says Who Sponsors Stuff attracts customers through inbound inquiries and referrals. It makes $100,000 ARR.

Use digital products as lead magnets. It’s easier to sell to warm leads.
- Nicole Osborne offers a free Agency Growth ebook.
- Dan Martell offers Growth Playbooks by SaaS Academy.
- Modest Mitkus offers free resources for making digital products.

Use social media to drive traffic from your existing audience.
- JPatz is showing music beats on TikTok.
- Chris is promoting his SEO course on YouTube.
- Matt Olpinski embeds Project Proposal & Contract Bundle in his blog.

💰 How to Monetize Digital Products

Offer lifetime deals to get early users, feedback and revenue.
- Pixel True has a $299 lifetime deal for illustrations.
- Seth Kramer has a $159 lifetime deal for No Code MBA.
- Landingfolio has an $89 lifetime deal for all UI components.

Offer a one-time pricing to lower mental overhead.
- Doing Content Right costs $300.
- Podcast Cover Templates cost $19,90.
- SaaS Conversion Strategies cost $157.

Offer recurring plans to get predictable revenue.
- Mark Anderson sells cartoons for up to $75 per month.
- SaaSFrame offers SaaS layout examples for $14 per month.
- Andrew Kamphey sells Better Sheets for up to $29 per month. He made $200,000+.

🔮 Predictions

Companies will use side project marketing to get more leads.
- Clientjoy is a CRM for small businesses. They offer contract templates for freelancers and agencies.
- Surfer SEO is a content creation platform. They have an SEO Writing Masterclass to help you optimize your writing for SEO.
- Karthik Sridharan runs Flexiple, a recruiting agency. They made free illustrations that attracted 150,000 visitors in 24 hours.

Platforms for selling digital products will offer real-time help to educate users. Sellers have a high lifetime value for platforms and this boosts customer success.
- Kajabi helps you make and grow digital products with 1:1 sessions.
- Teachable helps you make better digital products with group coaching.
- Thinkific helps you launch online courses with growth and marketing calls.

Creators will crowdsource content to build products fast.
- Pieter Levels crowdsourced the chapters for MAKE.
- Lokesh Gupta wrote Art of Email List Growth based on insights from top email marketers.
- Gergely Orosz made $14,000 with The Tech Resume. He based the book on insights from recruiters and hiring managers.o Philip Kiely made $39,141 with Writing for Software Developers. The book is based on interviews with software developers and writers.

😠 Haters

“Digital products are easy to copy. It’s hard to build a moat.”
To boost value, base your digital product on your personal brand, unique experience and provide great customer support.

“Digital products are prone to piracy.”
This is true. If you’re worried about piracy, it can be wise to choose another business model.

“Some digital products get out of date fast.”
Some digital products are evergreen. For products on fast-paced topics, offer lifetime deals to boost the perceived value or sell updated versions as “new” products.

🔗 Links

Made $550,000 with a Programming Course • The thread behind this report.
Building a Report on Digital Products • The tweet behind this report.
77 Best Digital Products to Sell • List of digital products for bloggers, freelancers and more.
How I Made $3,000 With a Digital Product • Build, launch and grow a digital product without tech skills.

📁 Related Reports

Ebooks • Learn from the lives of others and explore new worlds.
Data as a Service • Gain a competitive edge by fueling your decisions with the right data.
Email Courses • Deliver promised transformations in a scalable way.
Million-Dollar, One-Person Businesses • Find your highest point of leverage.
Audience-First Products • Validate products, build distribution and stay accountable.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Sam Schrup and Sahil Sangani. We had a great time jamming on this report.

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

📈 What else?

Trends PRO #0138 — Digital Products has more insights.

What you’ll get:

28 Digital Product Examples (133% More)
9 Ways to Build Digital Products (200% More)
8 Ways to Grow Digital Products (167% More)
10 Ways to Monetize Digital Products (233% More)
7 Predictions (133% More)
10 Links (150% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

(📈 Pro) How to sell “sawdust”?
(📈 Pro) Who makes $3,771 MRR with tweet templates?
(📈 Pro) How to get to market faster?
(📈 Pro) Who made $7,569 with an NFT ebook?
(📈 Pro) How to lower market risk?
(📈 Pro) Who made $100,000 by flipping websites?
(📈 Pro) Who grew to $120,000 ARR by giving away products daily?
(📈 Pro) Who made $1,000,000 with 2 Notion templates?
(📈 Pro) How to build a value ladder?
(📈 Pro) Who made $170,000 by selling stock photos?
(📈 Pro) Who made $839,968 by selling music beats?
(📈 Pro) How to boost perceived value?
(📈 Pro) How to get high-ticket sales?
(📈 Pro) What 7 digital products you can make with AI?
(📈 Pro) How to price your digital product?
And much more…

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

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

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

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

🎞️ AI Video Generator 🧘 6 Simple Habits 💰 Dropout to $1B Startup

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

🧘 6 simple habits
💬 A speech-to-text app
🎞️ An AI video generator
💰 Building a $1B startup at 23
❓ 12 questions to guide your work
🪝 A book on habit-forming products
➡️ And more…

🪶 Remember This

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

👥 Ka Yi Hui unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

🤖 Elie Steinbock launched Full Stack AI on Product Hunt

🎨 Simon launched Design Rack

💼 Sarim Khalid launched AI/ML Jobs on Product Hunt

🤾‍♀️ David Getchel updated Random Hiit

🧰 Errol Tiozon hosted a Trends Pro workshop on Profitable Customer Acquisition with Lead Magnets

🧠 Hj Barraza, Peter Elkins, Pavels Gurskis, Ioannis Bakagiannis and Don Ho unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching 30-day standup streaks

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

🎞️ HeyGen shared by Maciej Cupial
A tool to make high-quality videos with AI avatars

🪝 Hooked shared by Tony Tong
A book on building habit-forming products

❓ 12 Favorite Problems shared by Harsha MV
An essay on using questions to guide your work

📘 Read This

Lifestyle and Habits that Will Upgrade Your Life

Here are 6 simple lifestyle changes that will improve your health and productivity:

Avoid sugar
Learn to box
Lower your screen time
Meditate every morning
Drink cappuccino over espresso
Nap for 30 minutes during the day

🌟 Founder of the Week

Avy Leghziel

“Loving Trends Pro. Great people willing to help each other.”

Avy is building Avyleg.com. He works with companies and professionals who feel stuck with their strategy, management practices or work processes. He shares his wisdom and resources in his free newsletter, Masters of Babel.

What’s your most important habit?
Reading the newsletters I am subscribed to every morning. I’ve been doing this for 5 years.

Great content helps me jump-start my brain better than coffee.

What are you reading right now?
A History of Ideas by Jacques Le Goff.

Ideas are at the core of any great product and service.

Excellent execution is a function of unorthodox ideas.

What product or service do you wish existed?
A browser extension that automatically hides LinkedIn posts that include expressions such as “It’s been an honor”, “I am humbled” and “Exciting news!”. This would help me sift through the noise better.

What product are you obsessively using right now?
MurmurType. It helps me transcribe and translate my speech.

And ChatGPT Plus.

What are you bullish on?
Micro-education businesses

People are losing faith in traditional education and training frameworks.. If these businesses build state-of-the-art methodologies, our human capital will get much more effective.

What are you bearish on?
Automated content creation.

We are past the point of no return. People are sick of reading cliches and SEO-oriented obvious formulas.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🖖 Open-Source AI

I’m not a programmer. This report helped me find tools to play with AI without learning how to code.

What else?
Feel free to reach out to me on Avyleg.com or X (Twitter) if I can help in any way.

Exclusive Deal: Avy is offering Trends.vc readers a 10% discount on consulting and training services. Use this form to claim.

💬 Join the Conversation

Here’s what Trends Pro Members are talking about…

(📈 Pro) Scheduling tools
(📈 Pro) A directory of GPTs
(📈 Pro) Favorite online communities

👀 Watch This

High School Dropout Builds a $1B Startup at 23

Samir Vasavada founded Vise, an asset manager for financial advisors.

Here’s how he’s building a $1B startup at 23 years old:

Have as many failures as fast as possible.
Talk to your customers. Watch how they use your product.
Have the right people that are solving the right problem at the right speed.

That’s how startups grow.

Get Weekly Reports

Join 65,000+ founders and investors

📈 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.

🤖 AI Workflows 👥 Finding First Users ✍️ Benefits of Writing

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

🎙️ An interview with Dru
✍️ The benefits of writing
🧰 A directory of 1,000 tools
🎛️ A dashboard design guide
🤖 A tool for chaining AI models
👥 How to get your first 1,000 users
➡️ And more…

🪶 Remember This

Formula for success: double your rate of experiments.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

👥 Onu Ocholi and Keihan Popal unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

🚀 Eddie Forson launched EnVsion AI on Product Hunt

📅 Ash launched Review My Year

💼 Maisha Cannon was featured on the Trap Chat podcast

🛠️ Simon got the first paid listing on Hand Picked Tools

🎙️ Dru Riley was interviewed on the Where It Happens podcast

🧰 Kevin C. Whelan hosted a Trends Pro workshop on Starting as a Fractional CMO

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

🤖 Leap AI shared by Yuyu
A tool to add AI models to your workflows

🎛️ Dashboard UI Design shared by Prabhjot Singh Lamba
A guide to designing user interfaces

🧰 1000.tools shared by Breno Ferreira
A curated directory of the “1,000 best tools”

📘 Read This

How to Start and Scale a Consumer Business

How to acquire your first 1,000 users:

Go where your target audience is
Talk to friends and colleagues
Talk to targeted strangers
Get physical placement
Work with influencers
Make viral content
Get press

Do things that don’t scale.

🌟 Founder of the Week

Don Ho

“Three thoughts:
I’ve been a Trends Pro member for a week. It was a great experience:
1. Got feedback on my startups’ website which led to positive changes.
2. Daily Standups keep me focused and motivated.
3. Re-reading all Trends Pro reports.“

Don is building Launchpad Legal. It offers legal services, startup information, and guidance to help first-time founders start and grow their businesses.

What’s your most important habit?
Keeping an abundance mindset. I may have a bad day, but I rarely have two bad days in a row.

I spent the last 20 months building a startup that failed. Lessons learned. With that knowledge, I started 2 new businesses.

What are you reading right now?
Just finished Company of One by Paul Jarvis. My failed startup was an attempt at a “homerun” business, with the largest team I would have ever led.

I read this book to reset my mindset about what a “successful” business means.

What product or service do you wish existed?
A luxury version of OpenTable where I could call a week before I wanted to have dinner and get into any restaurant (this was the concept of my failed startup).

What product are you obsessively using right now?
Reflect.app. It’s a note-taking app that integrates seamlessly into my workflow. It’s a perfect combination of Roam Research and Evernote. Anything I add gets backlinked and connected: tweets, emails, ideas and more.

What are you bullish on?
In-person meetings. Studies have scientifically proven that remote meetings don’t stimulate the brain as much as in-person meetings.

What are you bearish on?
College degrees (unless you want to become a doctor, lawyer or anybody where a degree is a must).

The system is flawed:

1) Expensive and encourages going into debt.

2) The “jobs of tomorrow” may not be the same as “the jobs of today”.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🔥 The FIRE Movement and 😍 Personal Brands. The two most important topics to me right now, personally and professionally.

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