Indie Games: Million-Dollar Games, Getting Early Players, Indie Accelerators

“I could never say what I wanted to say in a song, with games I find it much easier.” — Jazz Mickle

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

How to build indie games faster?
How to piggyback on popular games?
How to build an engaged community?
How to get early feedback?
How to find beta players?
Why should you use cloud gaming services?
How to fund your game?
What are million-dollar, one-person indie games?
What are some great indie game accelerators?
How can indie games tap into other forms of media?
How to build a moat?
How to find a great idea for your game?

🔍 Problem

We are tired of the same genres and game mechanics.

We crave new experiences.

💡 Solution

Indie games experiment with game mechanics, stories, genres and themes.

They take creative risks to offer unique game experiences.

🏁 Players

Indie Video Games

Among Us • Complete tasks and fight impostors on a spaceship
Minecraft • Build, explore and survive in a blocky world
Stardew Valley • Cultivate land, raise animals and mine resources in a rural village
Escape the Backrooms • Try to escape eerie rooms while avoiding hostile entities
Terraria • Explore, build, fight and survive in a 2D world
Undertale • Role-playing game where choices matter
Into the Breach • Control powerful mechs from the future to defeat an alien threat

Indie Tabletop Games

I Feel Attacked • Game about the people you love to hate
Untamed: Feral Fractions • Control animal factions to take down the enemy stronghold
Castles by the Sea • Build and populate a seaside kingdom
Proxy War • Become dictators, rebels and politicians
The Morrison Game Factory • Puzzle adventure that blends board games, escape rooms and interactive fiction
The Old King’s Crown • Claim an empty throne of a crumbling kingdom

🛠 How to Build Indie Games

Use a starter kit to save time building and optimizing your game.
- Starter Kits by Kenney help you build platformers and first-person shooters in Godot.
- Creator Kit: RPG helps you build a simple RPG with characters, quests and dialogues in Unity.
- Interaction System Starter Pack helps you save time coding interactions in Unreal Engine.

Take inspiration from popular games to stack the odds in your favor. If people enjoy them, chances are they will enjoy yours too.
- Paper Trail is a mix of Gorogoa and The Monument Valley.
- Eric Barone says Stardew Valley was inspired by Harvest Moon.

Build a unique game by experimenting with genres and game mechanics.
- Pyre combines role-playing games and sports.
- Crypt of the Necrodancer combines roguelite and rhythm genres.
- Creature in the Well combines dungeon crawl and pinball games.

🌱 How to Grow Indie Games

Build your own community to foster loyalty and get feedback.
- Pirate Software has a Discord channel where you can learn more about Heartbound.
- Last Epoch has an official subreddit and a Discord channel with updates, player discussions and more.
- Vampire Survivors has a Discord channel. You can talk to fellow fans, hear about updates, join challenges and more.

Build in public to earn trust, feedback and early fans.
- LathanumStudios is building Soul Split in public.
- Henrik Djerf is building Project Beyonder in public.

Add your game to cloud gaming services. Let your fans play your game from anywhere in the world.
- Celeste is available on Xbox Cloud Gaming.
- Home Behind 2 is available on GeForce NOW.
- Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is available on Gamestream.

💰 How to Monetize Indie Games

Sell early access to get early funding and feedback.
- Last Epoch is releasing updates based on the early access feedback.
- Heartbound uses early access to get feedback and fix bugs on the road to launch.
- Inkbound offers early access to get feedback and add features suggested by players.

Offer battle passes. They reward players with in-game items for playing the game and completing challenges. Players can buy battle passes to get access to content or battle pass levels to progress faster.
- Brawlhalla has battle passes with unique cosmetic rewards.
- DrainLive has a battle pass with character skins, coins and more.
- STALCRAFT has battle pass levels with weapons, themed skins and more.

Sell digital goods such as soundtracks and artwork. Give players something they will enjoy outside of the game menu.
- Roots of Pacha sells a bundle with 28 soundtracks.
- DAVE THE DIVER sells Digital Extra with a digital art book and 54 soundtracks.

🔮 Predictions

We’ll see more million-dollar, one-person indie developers.
- Eric Barone built Stardew Valley which sold 20,000,000+ copies and made $30,000,000+.
- Markus Persson built Minecraft. It sold 4,000,000 copies before its official launch and became the best-selling video game ever.

We’ll see accelerators for indie game developers. They will help with marketing and sales.
- Indielab Games helps to grow indie studios from the UK.
- Appodeal has an accelerator for mobile games and apps.
- GameFounders helps indie studios launch games and demos.

Indie games will tap into other forms of media. Such as animations, movies and TV shows.
- Cuphead has a Cuphead Show.
- Minecraft will have its own movie.
- Among Us has an animated series in the works.

😠 Haters

“This is a hits-driven business with a low chance of success.”
Most indie developers make games out of passion. If you want to make games to get rich, this may not be the right business for you.

“Game concepts are copied a lot. It seems that there’s no strong moat.”
In games, execution is everything. They have more moving parts than software. Experiment with story, characters, visuals and game mechanics to make a unique game.

“You’re not indie if you’re working with a publisher.”
A lot of great indie developers work with publishers to market their games. While keeping full creative control. You can go alone or sacrifice a part of your revenue for better visibility. It’s a matter of priorities.

“Some of the indie game developers you shared have dozens of employees.”
Some studios started as a one-person or a small team. Some got funding and hired fast. Some got acquired right after they made a successful game.

🔗 Links

Let’s Talk About Indie Games • Thread for this report.
Building a Report on Indie Games • The Tweet behind this report.
Getting Started in Indie Game Development • How to pick the right game idea, engine and assets.
The Point of a First Level • How to give a great first impression with the first level.

📁 Related Reports

Million-Dollar, One-Person Businesses • Find your highest point of leverage.
Startup Studios • Take a systemized approach to building companies.
Self-Publishing • Publish “long-tail” books with more control and upside.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Tim Jones, Holger Sindbaek and Amit Das. 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 #0136 — Indie Games has more insights.

What you’ll get:

16 Indie Video Game Examples (129% More)
14 Indie Tabletop Game Examples (133% More)
8 Ways to build indie games (167% More)
14 Ways to grow indie games (367% More)
10 Ways to monetize indie games (233% More)
12 Predictions (300% More)
13 Links (225% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

(📈 Pro) Why do game demos matter?
(📈 Pro) How to involve the community in the development?
(📈 Pro) How to boost your game’s visibility?
(📈 Pro) How to build hype around your game?
(📈 Pro) How to boost the reach of your game?
(📈 Pro) How to get free marketing on social media?
(📈 Pro) How to find relevant audiences?
(📈 Pro) How to get help with distribution?
(📈 Pro) How to boost replay value?
(📈 Pro) How to market the game by using unique content?
(📈 Pro) How to keep your game interesting?
(📈 Pro) How to sell “the same” game twice?
(📈 Pro) How to make game assets with AI?
(📈 Pro) What makes games fun?
(📈 Pro) What are the 7 game design mistakes?
(📈 Pro) How do accelerators help indie developers grow?
(📈 Pro) How to make beautiful game graphics?
(📈 Pro) How to make realistic sound effects?
(📈 Pro) What are popular game mechanics?
And much more…

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 Video Editor 👨‍🍳 OpenAI Cookbook 📅 Week Planning Framework

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

📅 How to plan your week
👨‍🍳 A list of OpenAI API guides
🎬 An AI-powered teleprompter app
🧠 The key skills every founder needs
🪴 50 ways to make your life greener
📚 A book on becoming the key person of your industry
➡️ And more…

🪶 Remember This

Join the community you want to build your products or services for.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

👥 Sahil Sangani, Peter Elkins, Ioannis Bakagiannis, Pavels Gurskis, Joe Montanino, Don Ho, Marc Kreuzer, Shreyans Bhansali, Pierce P., Rob Blake and Avy Leghziel unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

💰 Simon sold his side project

🎙️ Abhishek Kumar was featured in Lex Roman’s podcast

💡 Prabhjot Singh Lamba was accepted to Microsoft Founders Hub

🔥 Bernardt J. Vogel wrote about hype in tech

👨‍💻 Elie Steinbock made a video on the code behind Shadcn CLI

🤖 Eddie Forson wrote about AI in UX research

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

🎬 BigVu shared by Darren Travel
An AI-powered teleprompter and video editor

👨‍🍳 OpenAI Cookbook shared by Elie Steinbock
A collection of guides and examples for using OpenAI API

🧠 Key Skills for Founders shared by Royce Johnson
A list of skills every startup founder needs

🎧 Listen To

Questions to Ask When Planning Your Week

Planning your week can help you stay focused and avoid wasting time on tasks that don’t matter.

Here are a few questions to help you plan your weeks better:

What do you want to accomplish this week?
Is your to-do list for this week realistic?
Do you have time for yourself?

🌟 Founder of the Week

Kevin C. Whelan

“I love being a Trends Pro member. The Trends.vc team shares a concise yet in-depth summary of niche businesses that people are growing to huge success. They help you find hidden gems few people know about.“

Kevin is building How to Sell Advice. He helps independent marketers create highly profitable businesses selling their expertise, not just their hands.

What’s your most important habit?
Morning exercise. It gives me mental clarity and energy which help me do my best work the rest of the day.

What are you reading right now?
Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestly. He shares a great formula for building interest and selling expertise.

Another book by Daniel is Key Person of Influence. Highly recommended.

What product or service do you wish existed?
A service that would turn all of my training, writing, resources and consulting calls into:

1. Quality content for different social media platforms.

2. Searchable knowledge base of everything I know.

What product are you obsessively using right now?
Dropbox Dash. It is a search bar for all of your cloud storage, email, calendars and project management apps.

What are you bullish on?
Hybrid consulting which combines personalized advice with access to additional resources, training and community—for a reasonable cost.

I’ve been building my membership around 1:1 sessions, group calls, community and a content library. Self-learners with lower budgets can access content and community for self-paced learning.

What are you bearish on?
AI as a threat to people who sell their expertise. It is good at reproducing content. Original thinking is a unique blend of knowledge and nuance. Which AI lacks.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🤓 Consulting is the best one.

What else?
Thanks for highlighting me! Everything I do lives at https://kevin.me and gets distributed outward from there. If anyone is looking to dig deeper into any of these ideas, that’s where you’ll find them. 🙏

Exclusive Deal: Kevin is offering Trends.vc readers 30% off annual Mindshare Learn plans for the first 20 people. It includes access to a library of training, templates, live workshops and private Slack community exclusively for marketing consultants. Use this link to claim.

💬 Join the Conversation

Here’s what Trends Pro Members are talking about…

(📈 Pro) A directory of GPTs
(📈 Pro) Running an eCommerce store
(📈 Pro) What to expect from influencer marketing

🔧 Try This

50 Simple Ways to Make Your Life Greener

Expert tips on how to be kinder to the planet – from cooking and cleaning to fashion and finance.

All without complicating your life.

Recycle: Sort waste into different categories.
Minimize packaging: Take your own containers to shops.
Shop locally: The shorter the food chain, the less waste it creates before reaching you.

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.

🎞️ 10M View YouTube Shorts ✨ AI Browser 💡 How to Vet Ideas

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

⛰️ The peak-end rule
💡 How to vet startup ideas
🤥 A tool to run AI models locally
🍔 A book on the history of In-N-Out
🎥 A YouTube transcript downloader
🎨 A curated library of web design inspiration
🎞️ How to get 10,000,000 views per YouTube Shorts
➡️ And more…

🪶 Remember This

The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

🎙️ Milly Tamati launched the Generally Curious podcast

🚀 Simon launched 20X Hosting

🎥 Prabhjot Singh Lamba built a YouTube transcript downloader

📩 Elie Steinbock got Inbox Zero approved for Gmail API usage

🏦 Bernardt J. Vogel wrote about generative AI in finance

🤝 Abhishek Kumar landed a large market research client

🧠 Kevin Galang and Zac Qi unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching 30-day standup streaks

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

💡 How to Vet Ideas shared by Dru Riley
A framework to translate problems into viable business models

✨ pinokio shared by Stewart Townsend
A tool to run AI models locally

🎨 Web Design Inspiration shared by Prabhjot Singh Lamba
A curated library of design inspiration from around the web

👀 Watch This

How to Get 10,000,000 Views per YouTube Short

Jenny Hoyos is an 18-year old YouTuber who averages 10 million views per video.

She analyzed thousands of Shorts and knows how to make one go viral.

Jenny shares how to make anything go viral, how to make perfect short-form videos and what platform to pick to succeed.

🌟 Founder of the Week

Kevin Galang

“I’m a big fan of the Trends Pro Community. It has been a major influence on me as a founder.“

Kevin is building A Team Overseas. An agency that saves your time by matching you with executive assistants for your specific needs.

What’s your most important habit?
Having a quarterly planning doc where I define goals, projects, ideas and more.

Every week, I go through the doc, review the week and plan the next.

This helps me to stay focused and keep track of the main goals.

What are you reading right now?
In-N-Out Burger by Stacy Perman

The book is about Harry Snyder, the founder of In-N-Out Burger. He inspired the way I run my company.

He didn’t get distracted by the industry changes, focused on his work and made sure to do it the best.

What product or service do you wish existed?
An app to pick a board of directors that is made up of founders that I look up to. Such as Steve Jobs, Harry Snyder, Charlie Munger, Sam Walton, David Ogilvy and others.

They would appear as AI models trained on their previous work and biographies. Which I can ask to guide me based on my weekly reviews, plans and priorities.

What product are you obsessively using right now?
Loom which saves me time recording and sharing videos.

What are you bullish on?
Business development. There are industries where the buyer decisions happen via relationships:

– Healthcare/hospital software ($30B+ market)

– Manufacturing software ($15B+ market)

– Some startups buy from each other because the founders know each other

What are you bearish on?
Having emotional relationships with AI as strong as with humans.

Many tools try to replace personal trainers, therapists, coaches and more. I don’t think they will win in the long run.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🛠️ Growth Tools

This report helped me learn growth strategies.

Exclusive Deal: Kevin is offering Trends.vc readers $100 off per month to people who want an executive assistant from A Team Overseas. Email Kevin at kevin@ateamoverseas.com to claim.

💬 Join the Conversation

Here’s what Trends Pro Members are talking about…

(📈 Pro) Feedback on newsletter
(📈 Pro) Running an eCommerce store
(📈 Pro) What to expect from influencer marketing

📘 Read This

The Peak-End Rule

We judge experiences based on the feelings we had at the peak and the end.

Getting a tattoo hurts but people come back to get another one.

This rule plays a role in customer experience and influences how customers feel about your brand.

Here’s the science behind the peak-end rule:

We don’t remember more peaks: Identical peaks leave the same impression.
Recent peaks are more effective: We remember recent positive feelings better.
We remember long peaks: The longer the positive feeling, the better we remember it.

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.

“Unlimited” Services: Getting Early Customers, Building in Public, Million-Dollar Services

“I’ve sold millions of dollars of work this way.” — Brett Williams

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

How to get early clients?
Who is building unlimited services in public?
Where to find qualified prospects?
Why should you offer a demo call?
How to lower market risk?
How to onboard clients without friction?
How to build lead lists?
How to earn predictable revenue?
How to retain clients for longer periods?
Who runs million-dollar unlimited services?
Why do traditional agencies offer unlimited services?
What tools make it easier to manage unlimited services?
How to deal with demanding clients?
How to position yourself as an industry expert?

🔍 Problem

Businesses need design, development and marketing work done.

Without a complex buying process.

💡 Solution

Unlimited services let customers outsource tasks with a predictable price, scope and time frame.

🏁 Players

Unlimited Services

Baked Design • Product and UX design by Nick
Stakeholders • Automation services for growing companies by Justin Watt
Video Husky • Video editing services by Justin Tan
UnlimitedAppDevelopment • Web and mobile app development
Phasma • Design for tech companies by Hermione Gogou
Conversion Factory • Design, copywriting, brand optimization and more
ManyPixels • Logos, web design, illustrations and more

🛠 How to Build Unlimited Services

Build in public to earn trust, early customers and feedback.
- Nick is building Baked Design in public.
- Ch Daniel is building SaaSPad in public.
- Justin Watt is building Stakeholders in public.
- Brett Williams shares lessons learned while building Designjoy in public.

Reach out to prospects via social media, job boards and referrals. It’s easier to sell your services to someone who needs the job done.
- Davor Egyed used warm outreach and grew Derokki to $7,800 MRR in 17 days.
- Luka Mlakar applied to companies on LinkedIn and job boards looking for services provided by Flowout.
- Cameron Baughn runs DesignFriend. He sends cold emails to recently funded startups and companies with open designer jobs.

Offer a demo call to learn more about prospects and answer unique concerns.
- Storehelper lets you book a demo of their Shopify development services.
- Flow Sparrow offers a free call to share solutions to your website problems.
- GoDesignGo offers a discovery call to help you learn more about their services.

🌱 How to Grow Unlimited Services

Make it easy to sign up to lower friction.
- Flowspark lets you sign up in 2 minutes.
- Product Alchemy lets you sign up in 1 click.
- Davor Egyed redesigned Derokki to offer fast sign-ups.
- Brett Williams says it’s faster to sign up to Designjoy than to buy a t-shirt.

Use scarcity. Fear of missing out is a strong buying trigger.
- Draftmade works with 5 companies each month.
- Imperius Films shares the number of spots left for new clients.
- Design Rack says they have limited availability and adds new clients to a waitlist.

Use lead magnets to get the contact details of your prospects.
- DotYeti offers a marketing report and 150+ illustrations.
- DarkRoast offers 100+ ideas for high-impact marketing projects.
- Design Pickle offers a guide on how unlimited graphic design works.

💰 How to Monetize Unlimited Services

Use recurring subscriptions to get predictable revenue.
- Buildpath offers Shopify development for $4,995 and $7,995 per month.
- Black Mammoth offers web development services for $19,995-$31,995 per month.
- UnicornGO charges $399-$999 per month for unlimited design, content and video editing.

Offer a paid trial to make money while testing demand.
- AutoGrow offers a 7-day trial for $7.
- ViralVerse offers a 1-week trial for $77.
- Storehelper offers a 10-hour trial package for $890.
- Zensite offers a 7-day trial of their best plan for $999.

Let clients pay per quarter or year. They get a discount. You get a retainer.
- Drip Fed Design lets you pay per month or quarter.
- Joyflo lets you save more by paying per month, quarter or year.
- Imaginary Space breaks down its flat fee per month, quarter or year.

🔮 Predictions

We’ll see million-dollar unlimited services.
- Hunter Hammonds grew his unlimited services to 7 figures.
- Johnathan Grzybowski and Khai Tran grew Penji to $350,000 MRR.
- Brett Williams grew Designjoy to ~$1,500,000 ARR and made $3,000,000 in total. He’s a million-dollar, one-person business.

Traditional agencies will offer unlimited services to move to a more scalable business model.
- All Hands is a design studio. They launched Rhythm with unlimited design requests.
- HeyHiHello is a digital product and UX agency. They launched an unlimited design subscription for startups.
- Scandiweb is an eCommerce agency. Their design team launched green pixel with unlimited design services.
- Ebda is a full-service agency for Webflow design, development and marketing. They offer unlimited Webflow development.

We’ll see niche B2B SaaS apps for running unlimited services. They will make it easier to manage clients and payments.
- Breeew lets you manage tasks, chats and subscriptions.
- Zendo helps you sell productized, recurring and custom services.
- Queue lets you manage payments, feedback and clients in one platform.
- Service Provider Pro is a client portal for productized digital marketing, SEO and content agencies.

😠 Haters

“Unlimited is misleading.”
The “one request at a time” rule prevents scope creep. This makes it impossible to abuse the system.

“How to deal with the most demanding clients when the cost of service outweighs revenue?”
It may be that your services are not a good fit for the most demanding clients. Those who need a full-time professional may not be your ideal customer. There are clients who have small, occasional needs for your service. This is your gold mine.

“Unlimited revisions lead to bad quality. Why bother if we can revise ‘one more time’?”
Poor execution will lead to churn and bad word of mouth. Unlimited requests and revisions are part of your value proposition. But the deciding factor is the quality of your services.

🔗 Links

$2,000,000+ ARR with Service Businesses • The thread for this report.
Build a Report on “Unlimited” Services • The tweet behind this report.
Make Millions With a One-Person Business • How Designjoy grew to $1,500,000 ARR.
Position Your Agency for Growth • How to position your agency as an industry expert.

📁 Related Reports

Productized Services • Stop trading hours for dollars.
Consulting • Monetize your expertise.
Lead Generation • Find potential customers with high lifetime value.
Build in Public • Get early customers and feedback.
Influencer Marketing • Build brand awareness and find customers.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Kevin Galang, Vinamra Agrawal, Stewart Townsend 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 #0135 — Unlimited Services has more insights.

What you’ll get:

26 Unlimited Service Examples (272% More)
9 Ways to build “unlimited” services (200% More)
13 Ways to grow “unlimited” services (333% More)
12 Ways to monetize “unlimited” services (300% More)
8 Predictions (167% More)
10 Links (150% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

(📈 Pro) How to lower competition?
(📈 Pro) Who got $16,112 MRR by onboarding existing freelance clients?
(📈 Pro) How to productize yourself?
(📈 Pro) Who got 11 clients in 3 days by launching on app platforms?
(📈 Pro) How to build social proof?
(📈 Pro) How to reach new audiences?
(📈 Pro) How to build brand awareness?
(📈 Pro) How to get warm leads?
(📈 Pro) How to take on more clients without burning out?
(📈 Pro) How to piggyback on someone else’s audience?
(📈 Pro) How to look more attractive than competitors?
(📈 Pro) How to add value with white-label services?
(📈 Pro) How to serve clients with complex needs?
(📈 Pro) How to add specificity to your offer?
(📈 Pro) How to boost the value of higher paid plans?
(📈 Pro) How to get more leads in your sales funnel?
(📈 Pro) How to turn spare hours into revenue?
(📈 Pro) Why should you reserve unlimited services for the highest plans?
(📈 Pro) How to scale revenue without spending more time working?
(📈 Pro) Who was selling a stake in an unlimited service business for $14,000/mo?
(📈 Pro) Who offers pre-built teams for clients?
(📈 Pro) Why agencies get stuck at $50,000 MRR?
(📈 Pro) What marketing strategies can help you grow to $100,000 MRR?
And much more…

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 Podcast Player 💬 Community Framework 🧊 Master Cold Emails

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

🧊 A cold email guide
📰 A blog about big ideas
🤔 A book on clear thinking
🌱 How to have a fulfilling career
🎧 An AI-powered podcast player
💬 A community building framework
➡️ And more…

🪶 Remember This

Great products are made by people who care.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

🤖 Frank Jones finished his 30 AI tools in 30 days challenge

🎞️ Elie Steinbock posted his first YouTube short

🏏 Prabhjot Singh Lamba made a Cricket Simulator for World Cup 2023

🎥 Uwe Dreissigacker made a series of tutorial videos for BlogHandy

📝 Hamed Mohammadpour shared his notes on an AMA session with Marty Cagan

🦾 Daniel Berggren landed a large marketing automation project

🧠 Karthik Vijayakumar unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching a 30-day standup streak

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

💬 Community Canvas shared by Prabhjot Singh Lamba
A framework for building meaningful communities

🎧 Snipd shared by Kevin Galang
A podcast player with AI-powered note-taking features

📰 Collab Blog shared by Eddie Forson
A high-signal blog from the author of The Psychology of Money

📘 Read This

80,000 Hours

You’ll spend ~80,000 hours working in your career: 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, for 40 years.

How to spend that time is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make.

This guide will help to have a more rewarding and interesting life. You will learn:

What makes a dream job?
How to find the right career for you?
How to be more successful in any job?
Which jobs put you in a better position?
How to choose which problems to focus on?

🌟 Founder of the Week

Ivan Zografski

“I check Trends Pro at 10:30 AM every day. This is my go-to place to stay ahead of the curve in my thinking and business.“

Ivan is building Solveo. An innovation consultancy focused on smart product launches and fast growth. With a strategy honed from a decade of experience, Solveo has collaborated with over 500 companies across 15 industries.

What’s your most important habit?
Reading and exercising. I read 3-4 books per month and workout or run 10 km every day.

What are you reading right now?
Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish

His blog, Farnam Street, has been my go-to source for learning new things.

What product or service do you wish existed?
A truly autonomous agent. It will be a game-changer.

What product are you obsessively using right now?
ChatGPT and the OpenAI API. The chat interface is the gold standard for integrating AI in our lives.

What are you bullish on?
I’m bullish on people and business experiments. Success comes from the people you work with and the things you try during your business journey.

What are you bearish on?
Negative people who I try to avoid in my daily life.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🦄 Startup Studios — The first one I saw.

📦 Digital Products — I first started thinking about a digital product after reading this.

🔁 Productized Services — It helps us productize our agency.

🤖 ChatGPT — The tool I’m obsessively using right now.

Exclusive Deal: Ivan is offering Trends.vc readers 60% off Solveo’s signature Launch with AI Program with the code trends60.

💬 Join the Conversation

Here’s what Trends Pro Members are talking about…

(📈 Pro) What is the best CRM?
(📈 Pro) Hiring a marketing agency
(📈 Pro) What to expect from influencer marketing

🔧 Try This

The Ultimate Cold Email Guide

You may think that cold email is dead. But you’re wrong.

Cold email has a 4,400% return per $1 spent.

Here’s how you can master cold emails:

Contact the right person.
Make it about them, not you.
Write an awesome subject line.
Finish your email with a call to action.
Don’t send the same email to everyone.

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.

Mobile Apps: No-Code Tools, Alternative App Stores, Getting Users

“Mobile devices are a piece of us.” — Mike Sloan

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

How to find an app idea?
How to build mobile apps fast?
How to get early users?
Who is building mobile apps in public?
How to lower customer acquisition costs?
How to improve customer experience by educating users?
Who grew a to-do app to $1,500 MRR?
Who grew a note-taking app to $900 MRR?
How to make it easier for users to buy your app?
Are alternative app stores legal?
How can non-technical founders build mobile apps?
What are companion apps?
How to sell user data legally?
How to boost revenue with mobile ads?
How to build an app that sells itself?
How to cost-effectively convert customers?

🔍 Problem

You want to have your food, bank, books, games and friends one tap away.

💡 Solution

Mobile apps offer business, personal and social services available at your fingertips.

Uber is your driver
Zero is your dietician
Pi is your AI companion

🏁 Players

Mobile Apps

EPIK • AI-powered photo editing app
Replika • Make and talk to virtual AI companions
Everyday • Simple and beautiful habit tracker by Joan Boixadós
PantryPal • Collaborative grocery list app by Luke Pighetti
Citymapper • Live bus, subway and train times
Feng My Shui • Generate realistic images with AI by Eduardo Borges
Castro • Manage podcasts and your favorite episodes
Duolingo • Free, fun and effective way to learn new languages

🛠 How to Build Mobile Apps

Solve your own problem. Someone has it too and will pay for a solution.
- Jay Rambhia wanted to track his work. He built and grew Taskito to $1,500 MRR.
- James Shepherd needed a way to meet with his patients online. He built an app with Thunkable.
- Vishesh Handa wanted a secure and lasting way to keep notes. He built and grew GitJournal to $900 MRR.
- Joel Rainwater moved from America to Europe and wanted a way to check the weather in Fahrenheit. He built Unity Weather.
- Benjamin Godlove wanted a way to remind his parents to take medication. He built Hound Reminders that sends SMS reminders.

Use mobile app templates to build apps faster. They make it easier to build the main components and screens for your app.
- Athanasios Traitsis shares how to build mobile apps with his Flutter Boilerplates.
- Brocoders shares how they build mobile apps faster with React Native boilerplates.
- Sebastian Hoffmann used Adalo Templates to build an app for managing subscriptions.
- Krissanawat Kaewsanmuang shares how he built an app for his blog using Instamobile.

Launch a beta test to get early users and feedback.
- Circle launched an early beta test for its mobile app.
- Daba Finance launched a public beta for its mobile app.
- Mintos launched a beta test of its mobile app for 500 users.

Build in public to build trust and awareness.
- Luke Pighetti is building PantryPal in public.
- Engineer Girlfriend is building Todewy in public.
- Eduardo Borges is building Feng My Shui in public.

🌱 How to Grow Mobile Apps

Use freemium to lower your customer acquisition costs. Let them try your app before buying.
- TripIt has a free and paid version with advanced reminders, alerts and travel perks.
- PlayerFM has a free and paid version with podcast playlists, custom themes and more.
- Afterlight Photo Editor has a free version with basic editing tools. It also has a paid version with premium filters, presets and more.

Use content marketing to boost your discoverability. This also helps to educate users on how to reach their goals with your app.
- Evernote shares posts and videos with productivity tips.
- Gymaholic makes content on healthy living, nutrition and exercise.
- Headspace publishes blog posts, videos and podcasts on mindfulness and meditation.

Use gamification to boost engagement and retention.
- Forest grows a tree while you’re staying focused.
- Todoist lets you earn karma points for completing tasks.
- Habitica helps you build habits by creating characters and slaying monsters with other users.

💰 How to Monetize Mobile Apps

Use ads to get paid for connecting advertisers with their target audiences.
- Subway Surfers shows rewarded video ads.
- Rider shows an ad banner at the bottom of the screen.
- Color Switch shows interstitial ads at the end of game levels.

Offer one-time payments to lower the decision fatigue.
- Paprika is a recipe management app for $4.99.
- Scrivener is a word processor for writers for $32.99.
- Monument Valley 2 is a puzzle game for $3.99 which made $10,400,000+ in the first year.

Offer free trials to get more prospects into your sales funnel.
- Blinkist is an app for reading with a 7-day trial.
- Robinhood is an investing app with a 30-day trial.
- Roadtrippers is a road trip planning app with a 7-day trial.

🔮 Predictions

We’ll see more alternative app stores. They will let you get apps unavailable in official app stores from Google, Apple and more.
- AltStore offers apps unavailable on the App Store.
- GetJar is the world’s biggest open app store for Android.
- BuildStore offers 500+ games, emulators, tweaks and more.
- TweakBox offers modded apps and games for iPhone and iPad.

We’ll see more no-code and low-code tools for building mobile apps. They will make it easier to build mobile apps for non-tech founders.
- Thunkable lets you build custom mobile apps without code.
- FlutterFlow lets you build mobile apps with custom functions.
- Adalo lets you build and publish responsive apps for mobile and web.
- Draftbit lets you use no-code and custom components for your mobile apps.

Physical products will use companion apps to boost interactivity.
- Tesla has a mobile app that helps to see your car’s charge, schedule service and more.
- BirdWeather PUC has a mobile app that shows tracked birds, plays bird sounds and more.
- Garmin has Garmin Connect™ that helps you track your energy levels, fitness goals and more.

😠 Haters

“App stores have high fees.”
This is the price you pay for building on top of their platforms and getting access to their distribution engines.

“Competition is harder than what you make it look like. 99% of users use 1% of apps.”
You can build a valuable company without targeting a mass market. Focus on who you serve instead of how many people you serve. Meet the specific needs of your users to build a loyal, engaged audience.

“Selling personal data is unethical.”
Sell anonymized data that doesn’t link to people.

🔗 Links

$300,000 with a Sand Drawing App for Kids • The thread for this report.
Building a Report on Mobile Apps • The tweet behind this report.
How to Create a Mobile App • In-depth guide on how to build, launch and grow mobile apps.
Types of Mobile Ads • The most popular ad types for mobile apps.

📁 Related Reports

Freemium • Lower your customer acquisition costs with a free version of your mobile app.
Product-Led Growth • Build a mobile app that sells itself.
Growth Hacking • Find cost-effective ways to get attention and convert customers.
No-Code • Build mobile apps faster, cheaper and better without writing code.
Build in Public • Validate ideas, build trust and boost your reach by sharing your wins and losses.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Jonathan Parra. 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 #0134 — Mobile Apps has more insights.

What you’ll get:

32 Mobile App Examples (300% More)
9 Ways to build Mobile Apps (125% More)
12 Ways to grow Mobile Apps (300% More)
11 Ways to monetize Mobile Apps (267% More)
7 Predictions (133% More)
13 Links (225% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

(📈 Pro) Who made $300,000 from a simple drawing app for kids?
(📈 Pro) Who got 465 users in 2 days using social media?
(📈 Pro) How to get funding for your app?
(📈 Pro) How to build apps for multiple platforms at once?
(📈 Pro) How to build a better version of the phone’s generic apps?
(📈 Pro) How to get others to promote your app?
(📈 Pro) How to build social proof?
(📈 Pro) How to optimize your app to serve users better?
(📈 Pro) How to boost your reach with partnerships?
(📈 Pro) How to uncover user behavior patterns?
(📈 Pro) How to boost customer loyalty?
(📈 Pro) How to get predictable revenue?
(📈 Pro) How to completely avoid app store fees?
(📈 Pro) How to let others resell your app for a fee?
(📈 Pro) Who offers productized mobile app development services?
(📈 Pro) How will apps adapt to the user’s habits and preferences?
(📈 Pro) How to optimize your app store listing?
(📈 Pro) How to ask for reviews without being annoying?
(📈 Pro) How to ask for reviews?
(📈 Pro) How to bootstrap a mobile app?
(📈 Pro) How to grow your app with micro-influencers?
(📈 Pro) How to build efficient user flows?
(📈 Pro) How to design the 9 main screens of your app?
(📈 Pro) Who made $240,000 by selling mobile apps?
(📈 Pro) How to improve your app’s reputation?
And much more…

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.

🎯 Persuasive Design Principles 💼 Part-Time Startups 🖌️ Battling Burnout

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

💯 A productivity framework
🗣️ A book on public speaking
🎯 A guide on persuasive design
🖌️ How to handle creative blocks
🎧 Insights from Paul Graham’s essays
✍️ How to build high-converting landing pages
💼 How to launch your company while having a day job
➡️ And more…

🪶 Remember This

Great people change you, not by expectation but by inspiration.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

👥 Hj Barraza and Vikram Aditya unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

🥇 Ash launched Portfolio Leaderboard

🏠 Chuck Hardy built Propcomposer

🎙️ Maisha Cannon was featured in a podcast

⭐ Jordon McKoy launched his personal website

🆓 Eddie Forson shared his learnings from removing the free plan of EnVsion

🧠 Gab and Tony Tong unlocked Trends.vc Masterminds by reaching 30-day standup streaks

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

💼 Half-Assed Startup shared by Royce Johnson
A blog post on how to start your company while keeping your day job

✍️ Landing Page Guide shared by David Fu
A guide on how to write and design high-converting landing pages

🎧 Founder’s Podcast: Paul Graham shared by Eddie Forson
A podcast episode with insights into Paul Graham’s essays

📘 Read This

Creative Burnout

Creative burnout happens when you can’t produce any good creative work but you don’t know what’s wrong with you. This can lead to procrastination, stress and self-doubt.

This essay covers 10 signs that you have creative burnout, 5 ways to cure it and 5 ways to prevent it from happening again.

Get support: Two heads are better than one
Take a break: Not a short walk but a few days off
Look at your past work: Don’t forget it’s a temporary state

🌟 Founder of the Week

Mike Giannakopoulos

“I recently joined Trends Pro and since then:
– I’ve experienced the sense of community through sharing and reading Daily Standups.
– Two founders have reached out to me to set up 1-1 calls.
– Got featured in Founder Finds.

There’s still more to explore, but it seems like the perfect place to share ideas, learn and challenge each other.”

Mike is building Team O’clock. A tool that makes it easier for remote teams to take notes, set priorities and share daily updates.

What’s your most important habit?
Updating my Getting Things Done (GTD) lists every morning. This helps me stay focused in my life and work.

What are you reading right now?
A sci-fi novel called The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu.

I’ve also finished Principles by Ray Dalio and Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo.

What product or service do you wish existed?
A service suggesting what movie or show to watch next based on all my subscriptions (Netflix, Disney+, etc.), my current mood and local time.

What product are you obsessively using right now?
Midjourney. We’ve used it to build our latest feature in Team O’clock – “Agility Cards”. I also use it to make images for my blog.

What are you bearish on?
Modern UX/UI practices. Most apps and websites look the same. I wonder if we found the best way to maximize usability and apply it everywhere.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
📺 Faceless YouTube Channels

I didn’t know this was an option and it felt like a new dimension unlocked.This “aha” moment was my trigger to subscribe to Trends Pro.

💬 Join the Conversation

Here’s what Trends Pro Members are talking about…

(📈 Pro) What is the best CRM?
(📈 Pro) Hiring a marketing agency
(📈 Pro) What to expect from influencer marketing

🔧 Try This

Persuasive Design Principles

Product design is more than building beautiful interfaces.

It can influence human behavior and nurture leads into making desired decisions.

Framing: Compare different options in an appealing way
Scarcity: People act faster when things are in short supply
Social Proof: People want to know they’re not the only ones using your product

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.

WordPress Plugins: Preselling, ChatGPT, Lifetime Deals

“In the world of web, WordPress is the palette of endless potential.” — Jigisha Dave

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

How to build WordPress plugins with ChatGPT?
How to get early customers?
How to get more customers with a clear value proposition?
How to get early revenue?
How to boost your chances of success?
How to build a list of prospective customers?
How to show value faster?
How to get more prospects into your sales funnel?
What is the scope of lifetime deals?
How to get predictable cash flow?
How to monetize ecosystem plugins?
How to grow with strategic partnerships?

💎 Why It Matters

WordPress powers 43.1% of the internet.

🔍 Problem

WordPress can’t fulfill all user needs on its platform.

💡 Solution

WordPress plugins help users customize websites based on their needs.

🏁 Players

WordPress Plugins

Gravity Forms • Build and manage web forms
Memberpress • Manage and monetize paid memberships
RafflePress • Add giveaways, contests and rewards
MailPoet • Write, send and automate emails
WooCommerce • Build a custom online store
Yoast • Boost your SEO
Elementor • Website builder for professionals on WordPress

WordPress Plugin Developers

OMGIMG by Corey Maass and Cory Miller • Create better feature and social images
Advanced Woo Labels by Michael B • Create and manage product labels for your online store
Mailchimp for WordPress by Danny Van Kooten • Grow your email list in Mailchimp
GiveWP by Devin Walker • Online donation and fundraising plugin
Order Redirects by Derek Ashauer • Set up custom redirects for WooCommerce orders
Contact Form 7 by Takayuki Miyoshi • Make and manage custom contact forms
AnyWhere Elementor Pro by Anand Upadhyay and Pooja Derashri • Add dynamic elements to your website

🔮 Predictions

ChatGPT will make it easier to build WordPress plugins.
- GTCoding shows how to make a simple pop-up plugin with ChatGPT.
- Jamie Marsland shows how to make 3 WordPress plugins in 10 minutes.
- Unconventional Coding shows how to make a form encryption and price list downloader plugins.

We’ll see more multi-purpose themes with integrated plugins. They will make it easier to extend WordPress without installing more plugins.
- Divi integrates with Divi Pixel which has 50+ modules to customize your website.
- Themeco lets you extend the functionality with free and premium WordPress plugins.
- Avada lets you customize your website with Avada Elements and integrated premium plugins.

We’ll see more AI-powered WordPress plugins that help to automate business tasks.
- OpenAI Chatbot uses ChatGPT for customer support.
- AI Engine lets you integrate AI models into your website.
- WordLift is an AI-powered SEO tool for growing your traffic.

🛠 How to Build WordPress Plugins

Launch a beta version of your plugin to get early feedback.
- Automator announced a public beta to get developer feedback.
- Angry Creative announced a beta for Coil Web Monetization to get early feedback.
- Corey Maass announced the public beta of Kanban for WordPress and got 80 beta users.

Build in public to build trust and get early users.
- Lesley is building Newsletter Glue in public.
- Michael B is building Advanced Woo Labels in public.
- Corey Maass and Cory Miller are building OMGIMG in public.

Presell to get early users, revenue and feedback.
- Brizy offered a lifetime deal for early adopters.
- Independent Analytics has a discount for early adopters.
- Laura Elizabeth got $10,000 in pre-orders for building Client Portal.
- Luke Carbis shares how to presell WordPress plugins via early access.

🌱 How to Grow WordPress Plugins

Build lots of plugins to boost your chances of success.
- WPManageNinja has Fluent Forms, Fluent CRM, Ninja Tables and more.
- Derek Ashauer has Sunshine Photo Cart, Confetti, Order Redirects and more.
- Takayuki Miyoshi has Contact Form 7, Bogo, Flamingo and Really Simple CAPTCHA.

Use lead magnets to build an email list of prospective customers.
- Weglot offers an ebook with best practices on website translation.
- Elegant Themes offers a 10% discount for Divi plugin in exchange for your email.

Offer a demo to help website owners see your value faster.
- SabaiDiscuss has a demo of a forum.
- Modal Survey has a demo of interactive forms.
- Graphina Pro has a demo of dynamic charts, graphs and data tables.

💰 How to Monetize WordPress Plugins

Offer one-time payments for less mental overhead.
- JobSearch WP lets you add a job board for $39.
- Digits lets you add passwordless authentication for $39.

Offer lifetime deals to get users, feedback and revenue.
- Zynith has a lifetime deal for $99.99.
- wcEazy has lifetime deals for all its plans.
- WPXPO has 2 lifetime deals for its plugin bundles.

Charge a subscription to get a predictable cash flow.
- Akismet helps to fight spam. It costs ~$10-50 per month.
- AAWP helps to manage Amazon affiliates. It costs €49-399 per year.
- Quttera Web Malware Scanner helps to boost the website’s security. It has monthly and yearly plans.

😠 Haters

“WordPress is saturated.”
WordPress has ~60,000 plugins for 810,000,000 websites. Shopify App Store has 8,000 apps for 1,750,000 merchants. Chrome Web Store has ~138,000 extensions for 2,000,000,000 users. There’s room for you too.

“WordPress plugins must use the GPL license which lets anyone see my code. This makes it easier to compete with me.”
Your competitors can see your code, you can see theirs. Execution defines the winner. Build better, faster and simpler plugins to succeed.

“Platform risk is too high. Automattic acquires successful plugins to compete with other players. They are the developers of WordPress. This is an unfair advantage.”
While it’s hard to compete with a company that has resources and insights into its own platform. There are hundreds of successful plugins who grabbed their piece of the pie. Focus on great customer experience instead of fearing the competition.

🔗 Links

How a couple built a $1,000,000 ARR WordPress business from scratch • The thread for this report.
Building a Report on WordPress Plugins • The tweet behind this report.
Monetizing an Ecosystem Plugin • How to monetize ecosystem plugins.
How Partnerships Might Help Your WordPress Business • How strategic partnerships can help you sell WordPress plugins.

📁 Related Reports

Micro-SaaS • Solve a specific problem for a specific group of people.
Product-Led Growth • Build a product that sells itself.
Freemium • This is a cost-effective way to acquire new customers.
Shopify Plugins • Fill unaddressed needs by allowing merchants to customize their stores.
Chrome Extensions • Improve your customers’ browsing experience with custom features.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Vikash Kumar Prajapati. 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 #0133 — WordPress Plugins has more insights.

What you’ll get:

17 WordPress Plugin Examples (143% More)
14 WordPress Plugin Developers (100% More)
15 Predictions (400% More)
12 Ways to build WordPress Plugins (300% More)
13 Ways to grow WordPress Plugins (333% More)
11 Ways to monetize WordPress Plugins (267% More)
10 Links (150% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

(📈 Pro) How to get unlimited plugins for a fixed monthly fee?
(📈 Pro) What are WordPress plugin holding companies?
(📈 Pro) What are WordPress plugin accelerators?
(📈 Pro) Why will businesses use WordPress as a headless CMS?
(📈 Pro) What platforms help to hire WordPress professionals?
(📈 Pro) What are ecosystem plugins?
(📈 Pro) How to serve customers beyond WordPress’ ecosystem?
(📈 Pro) How will plugins extend their core functionality?
(📈 Pro) Who grew to $810,000 ARR by addressing the flaws in competitors?
(📈 Pro) Who grew to $16,000 MRR by solving their own problem?
(📈 Pro) How to pitch your plugin to prospects already invested in WordPress?
(📈 Pro) How to attract customers by lowering switching costs?
(📈 Pro) How to lower competitor risk?
(📈 Pro) How to use your consulting experience to find a problem to solve?
(📈 Pro) How to rank higher on the WordPress plugin directory?
(📈 Pro) How to boost sales with powerful buying triggers?
(📈 Pro) How to build a “content-traffic-conversion” flywheel?
(📈 Pro) How to reach your target audience?
(📈 Pro) How to serve customers with advanced needs?
(📈 Pro) How to get others to help you with sales?
(📈 Pro) How to monetize open-source WordPress plugins?
(📈 Pro) How to make a “no-brainer” offer?
(📈 Pro) How to add value with managed services?
(📈 Pro) How to grow SaaS-like WordPress plugins?
(📈 Pro) How can freelance developers build a WordPress plugin business?
(📈 Pro) Who built a $100,000,000 WordPress plugin empire by 30?
And much more…

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 Content Creation 🦄 Startup Studio Insights 🕸️ $10k/mo SEO Case Study

This week’s Founder Finds includes:

🕸️ An SEO case study
🏷️ A list of pricing tactics
📚 How to communicate as a leader
✍️ Using ChatGPT for content creation
👨‍💻 How to profit from building software
🦄 What makes startup studios successful
📓 Training an AI chatbot with journal entries
➡️ And more…

🪶 Remember This

Focus is saying no.

🤓 Fav Finds

Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members

🏷️ Pricing Psychology shared by Prabhjot Singh Lamba
A list of tactics to make your prices more appealing

🕸️ $10,000/mo From SEO shared by Vikash Kumar Prajapati
A case study on how a menswear blog grew to $10,000/month

📓 Inner Child Chatbot shared by David Fu
A Twitter thread on training an AI chatbot with childhood journal entries

🎧 Listen To

How to Profit by Building Software

Non-tech founders often opt-in for building digital products instead of software.

Spencer Haws has built and sold successful software businesses without coding experience.

He talks about building niche software, talking to customers and finding buyers for your online business.

🌟 Founder of the Week

Rupert

“The Trends Pro Community has been helpful in providing well-needed perspective, support and accountability.”

Rupert is building Applaud to help students prepare for a future with AI-powered workplaces.

What’s your most important habit?
My most important habit is praying, reinforced by the belief that my pursuits serve a purpose greater than just my own.

What are you reading right now?
The Articulate Executive by Granville N. Toogood

This book helped me improve my clarity in verbal communication.

What product or service do you wish existed?
A tool to get rid of my physical mail. There’s too much junk mail that ends up in waste.

What product are you obsessively using right now?
I use GPT-4 and prompt engineering to make digital expert avatars trained on any textual datasets. I can ask them to share insights using natural language. All without writing one line of code.

What are you bullish on?
AI which is fine-tuned for specific industries and tasks. It will boost the transfer of tacit knowledge. AI is smart, efficient and productive. It doesn’t eat, sleep or rest. It has unlimited creativity. I can’t imagine what it will be capable of in 10 years.

What are you bearish on?
The current educational and employment systems. Student debt, declining job satisfaction and AI are changing them fast. With companies not asking for a degree, we might see a more holistic approach to skill building than a mere focus on getting a degree.

What’s your favorite Trends Report?
The 🔬 Micro-Consulting report offered valuable insights on how to use my experience to build a product and shared useful tools to help me do this.

What else?
I’m launching a webinar series on automation, the future of work and education. We’re in the planning phase and haven’t started filming. If you have a unique perspective on these topics or are interested in collaborating, I’d love to connect.

💬 Join the Conversation

Here’s what Trends Pro Members are talking about…

(📈 Pro) What is the best CRM?
(📈 Pro) Hiring a marketing agency
(📈 Pro) What to expect from influencer marketing

📘 Read This

The Future of Startups are Studios

Companies founded by startup studios tend to produce better returns and scale faster.

Here are the key points that make startup studios successful:

Knowledge • They accumulate knowledge and resources from building multiple companies.
Diversification • They move from idea to idea fast, boosting the chances of success.
System • They have a proven process for building, growing and monetizing ideas.

With no-code and low-code tools, the opportunity cost of running experiments is getting lower.Welcome to the golden age of startup studios.

👀 Watch This

3 Kinds of Fear

Fears of failure, judgment and success prevent you from achieving things you deserve.

Here are a few things to remember when the fear takes over you:

It is okay to ask for support.
Failure is part of your growth.
Fear is in your mind while danger is real.

🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins

👥 Andreas Lohr and Chakria Visagan unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups

✍️ Renae Gregoire wrote about how to use ChatGPT to create content

🎪 Simon launched buildinpublic.page

🧩 Asad Dhamani built a TypingMind plugin

📅 Maisha Cannon documented her daily AI use

🤖 Bernardt J. Vogel was featured on Confluence.VC with Foundational VC GPT

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.

Faceless Social Media Accounts: AI-Generated Content, Scalable Revenue, Content Flywheels

“Content is fire. Social media is gasoline.” — Jay Baer

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

❓ What You’ll Learn

Why will big media companies acquire faceless social media accounts?
What makes a faceless social media account valued at $85,000,000?
Why will media studios make faceless social media accounts?
How to save time publishing content?
How to make faceless visuals with AI?
What to do when you are low on content ideas?
How to build a content flywheel?
How to scale your revenue?
How to monetize your traffic?
How to offer tangible value to your fans?
How to make it harder to copy your faceless content?
How to monetize content created by others?
Who made $60,000 in 6 months with a faceless TikTok account?
How to build a consistent faceless brand?

💎 Why It Matters

You can build viral brands without key-person risk.

🔍 Problem

We want to be inspired, educated and entertained.

💡 Solution

Faceless social media accounts fulfill our need for useful, interesting and amusing content.

🏁 Players

Faceless Social Media Accounts

VC Brags • Memes on venture capital
How They Make Movies • Behind-the-scenes of making movies
Nature Is Metal • The brutal nature of wildlife
Satisfying Videos • Videos to please your mood
Hidden Tips • The best tips, tricks and life hacks
Its Wood Working • The art of woodworking
MATH TRICK • Tricks to get better at math

🔮 Predictions

Big media companies will acquire faceless social media accounts to reach new audiences.
- LabX Media Group acquired IFLScience in 2020.
- Warner Music Group acquired Daquan for $85,000,000.

Media studios will manage many accounts to boost their reach with diversified content.
- Complex Networks runs Complex and Complex Music.
- Vox Media runs NowThis, Thrillist, The Dodo and Seeker.
- Hive Media Group runs Bleacher Breaker, BUZZNET, Past Factory and Quizscape.

We’ll see marketplaces for buying and selling social media accounts. They will foster transactions with verification and escrow services.
- Social Tradia lets you buy and sell Instagram accounts.
- FameSwap lets you buy and sell Instagram, YouTube and TikTok accounts.
- Accs-Market.com lets you flip channels on YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and more.

🛠 How to Build Faceless Social Media Accounts

Build bots to save time publishing content.
- ChatGPT Bot replies to comments that tag its profile.
- Odd Steam Reviews is a bot that posts game reviews.
- WhaleCalls is a bot that shares Bitcoin market reports.
- DSCOVR:EPIC is a bot that shares pictures of Earth from a DSCOVR satellite.
- Indian Sharemarket Updates is a bot that posts updates on the Indian stock market.
- Danganronpa Anything Bot shares posts about Danganronpa video game series every 30 minutes.

Use AI to make visuals fast. ChatGPT can write posts and video scripts. AI image generators can make themed graphics.
- AI Hustlewise shows how to make viral talking AI avatars.
- Max Jones shows how to make 100 TikTok videos in 1 hour with AI.
- Lori Ballen shows how to make 50 social media posts in 5 minutes using ChatGPT and Canva.
- Revenue Rebels shows how to make explainer videos using AI-generated scripts, voices and visuals.

Curate content from other creators. This can help you fill your release cadence when you’re low on content ideas.
- Diply aggregates conversations from the internet.
- images_ai shares images generated by AI artists.
- Foodie shares content made by other food bloggers.

🌱 How to Grow Faceless Social Media Accounts

Build a content flywheel by posting on many social media platforms. This helps to boost your reach.
- The Tiny Chef Show posts clips on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
- FailArmy shares funny fail videos on Twitter, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.
- Futurism shares science, technology and medicine news on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Post daily to boost your visibility.
- Past Factory shares daily history and nostalgic posts.
- Meaning in picture shares daily stories in the pictures.
- Learn Something shares daily posts on science, mechanisms and more.

Collaborate with others to reach audiences with aligned interests.
- lil miquela is a virtual influencer who met Saweetie in public.
- Nature Is Metal collaborated with ECO DEFENSE GROUP to support the defense of wildlife.
- Ironmouse and Mori Calliope had a live stream on video games, plans for future collabs and what it’s like to be a VTuber.

💰 How to Monetize Faceless Social Media Accounts

Sell digital products to earn scalable revenue.
- Easlo sells productivity templates for Notion.
- Pikuma sells courses on game development.
- Good Minds Quote™ sells an e-book on self-discipline.
- Cheap Houses Japan sells access to a paid newsletter.

Use affiliate marketing to monetize your traffic.
- CheatSheets shares affiliate links to Miss Excel’s courses.
- Nature Predators and Scary Sea share links to Tactical Blades.
- Adobe Premiere Pro – Tips, Tricks & Tutorials shares links to Procreate Dreams.

Sell physical products to offer tangible value to your fans.
- VC Brags sells hats.
- Classical Art Memes sells Facemask Van Gogh.
- Gators Daily sells flags, merch and accessories.
- Menwiththepot sells knives, seasoning and more.
- Compound Interest sells posters, mugs, pillows and more.

😠 Haters

“Some faceless social media accounts mention the people behind them.”
There’s always someone who runs the account. The key is to focus on the content, not your personality.

“Faceless social media accounts are less defensible. Anybody can copy what I’m doing.”
Make a virtual avatar or move to the real world without showing your face to boost your defense.

“It’s harder to build personal connections without showing my face.”
This is a tradeoff of lower key-person risk.

“How do I monetize content created by others? It’s copyrighted.”
See Fair Use if you’re in the US. See Fair Dealing if you’re in the UK, Canada or India. Your country has similar laws. In short, you might be able to use a small amount of copyrighted content in your work. But it’s best to ask for permission. This is not legal advice.

🔗 Links

250,000+ followers by sharing weird game reviews? • The thread for this report.
Building a Report on Faceless Social Media Accounts • The tweet behind this report.
I Made a Faceless TikTok Account • How to make $60,000 in 6 months with a faceless TikTok account.
Brand Consistency on Social Media • Tips on building a consistent brand on social media.

📁 Related Reports

Faceless YouTube Channels • Express your creativity without worrying about your looks, status or reputation.
The Creator Economy • The ability to create and distribute work is being democratized.
AI-Generated Content • AI-generated content takes us from the era of limited to infinite leverage.
Influencer Marketing • Build awareness and find customers.
Virtual Influencers • Make an ideal brand ambassador from scratch.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Prabhjot Singh Lamba, Tony Tong, Stewart Townsend and Justin Brooke. 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 #0132 — Faceless Social Media Accounts has more insights.

What you’ll get:

20 Faceless Social Media Accounts (186% More)
7 Predictions (133% More)
8 Ways to build Faceless Social Media Accounts (167% More)
9 Ways to grow Faceless Social Media Accounts (200% More)
7 Ways to monetize Faceless Social Media Accounts (133% More)
10 Links (233% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn:

(📈 Pro) How to make content without restrictions?
(📈 Pro) Who runs million-dollar, one-person faceless social media accounts?
(📈 Pro) What will faceless social media accounts evolve into?
(📈 Pro) How to automate content creation?
(📈 Pro) How to piggyback on the attention paid to famous people?
(📈 Pro) How to stand out from competitors?
(📈 Pro) How to lower competition?
(📈 Pro) How to use extreme content to boost engagement?
(📈 Pro) How to accommodate shorter attention spans?
(📈 Pro) How to stay top of mind?
(📈 Pro) How to boost your chances of success?
(📈 Pro) How to lower platform risk?
(📈 Pro) How to take a cut of ad revenue?
(📈 Pro) How to reward fans with exclusive content?
(📈 Pro) What is the best way to go viral?
(📈 Pro) What are 17 profitable faceless niches?
And much more…

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.