This week’s Founder Finds includes:
- Business Legos
- A suite of AI tools
- The Rule of 3 and 10
- The Entrepreneurial Operating System
- A list of the fastest growing US companies
- A report on the impact of influencer marketing
- And more…
🪶 Remember This
“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” —Austin Kleon
🤓 Fav Finds
Tools, tweets and more from Trends Pro Members
🏦 Inc. 5000 Company List shared by Stewart Townsend
The fastest growing US companies with founders’ information included.
🤳 Influencer Marketing Impact Report shared by Stewart Townsend
See the impact of influencer marketing and social platforms on consumer behavior.
🤗 Hugging Face shared by Stewart Townsend
Easily test text-to-image, text generation and other AI tools.
🌟 Founder of the Week
“Trends Pro is a very thoughtful community of other curious entrepreneurs and builders. My absolute favorite parts are the masterminds and standups. I’ve received such helpful feedback for Integrations Directory being involved in the community.”
Lola runs Integrations Directory. Which helps you find new integrations for no-code apps so that you can spend more time building and less time reinventing the wheel. She also runs Lunch Pail Labs. A no-code studio which works with a few companies each year to build and grow with no and low-code tools. She is also a member of Trends Mastermind #0007.
What are you bullish on?
Business legos!
These are all the pieces of business functionality you can now assemble to create a company without having to build that expertise and functionality in-house. I think we’ll see more services (ie, fractional teams you can work with) and products (ai copywriters, code generators, etc.) that’ll let people do more with fewer resources. And all of that will enable more permissionless entrepreneurship.
Jack Conte had a cool snippet on this concept when he announced the $155 million Patreon raise.
What are you bearish on?
Toxic productivity. I hope in the future, we’re all more comfortable resting, being in the moment, and not optimizing every part of our lives.
What’s your most important habit?
Interacting with at least one stranger a day — it’s scary and a little awkward but gets me geared to tackle the uncomfortable but necessary things for the rest of the day.
What product or service do you wish existed?
A device to record and replay your dreams. I feel like we’d uncover so many secrets of the subconscious.
What’s your favorite Trends Report?
🤑 Million-Dollar, One-Person Businesses
It’s super inspiring to learn about solo businesses doing really well.
📘 Read This
I came across Traction in 2020 at Founder Summit in Mexico City.
It was too early at Trends.vc for the book to be interesting or useful. Fast forward a year and we’re building a team. It’s now our operating system.
The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) from Traction seems to be built for traditional businesses. Not internet companies. So we remixed a few things. Now use a hybrid version of the system. It’s what allows us to run a calm company.
🔧 Try This
…everything changes at roughly every third and tenth steps.
I found the Rule of 3 and 10 in 2017 while reading Tools of Titans. The same book that led to my mini-retirement. I use the rule of 3 and 10 to gamify life and set expectations.
For example:
- Going from 2 to 3 team members at Trends.vc led to a 50%+ increase in complexity. We had to redesign systems. But I was not surprised. Thanks to this rule.
- I track progress across 10 strength training sessions instead of session-to-session.
- I expect success from batches of experiments (10 or 30) instead of putting all hope into the outcome of a single experiment.
The rule of 3 and 10 also parallels with The 1000 Day Rule from Tropical MBA.
🏆 Trends Pro Member Wins
🆕 Dai Dao, Kuba Siwiec, Sunny Kay, David Steinley, Illés Vörös, Arpan Deb, Daniel Berggren, Vinamra Agrawal, Gianni D’Alerta, Harit Rathi, Mike Stop Continues, Gokul Madan, Tarek Zalt, Harsha MV and DeMoine Lovelace became Trends Pro Members.
👥Indra Jith, Jawad Sefiani, Arpan Deb, Daniel Berggren and Mike Stop Continues unlocked 1:1 Founder Intros by joining daily standups.
💻 Katt Risen reached 715 subscribers in 1 month for No-Code Exits.
🧙 Prabhjot Singh Lamba launched Community Sorting Hat. A game that helps you find the community that fits you best.
📚 David Steinley set up the landing page and got the first waitlist signup for Slushkiller.
🎤 Sean Hua interviewed a founder for his upcoming podcast Promise.fm.
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