Hey — It's Nico.

This newsletter contains:

• 5 resources for founders.
• 5 startup news.
• 1 failed startup.
• 1 hot startup.

Quick announcement: I’ve decided to shut down Startup Ideas, the weekly newsletter I sent on Tuesdays, to work on other upcoming projects.

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What to read this week?

💯 Mike Strives talks about how he makes $40,000/month for his SaaS startup.

✍️ Brian Bourque on the 13 common ways startups make things unnecessarily complex.

🧠 NFX discusses how AI will transform “lagging” industries.

📈 Jake Ward explains how he took a B2B blog from 1K to 120K organic visitors per month without creating new content.

🔥 How HeyReach made $200,000 in sales in 4 days with their AppSumo launch.

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What happened this week?

💰 Wargraphs, a gaming startup with one employee and zero funding, sells for $54M.

📣 SoftBank-backed startup Improbable announces Metaverse plan to challenge Meta and Microsoft.

👀 Meta explores ways to make LLaMA an open-source large-language model.

📉 India’s largest Edtech startup Byju, to cut up to 1,000 jobs.

👎 Wyre, once valued at $1.5 Billion, shuts down.

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Failed startup story: Wimdu

Wimdu, a startup born out of the Rocket Internet startup factory in Berlin, aimed to compete with Airbnb in the European market but ceased operations in 2018.

Founded in 2011, the company adopted a model similar to Airbnb's, creating a platform where people could offer and rent rooms or entire homes for short-term stays as an alternative to traditional hotels.

The startup raised a total of $90M to take on the U.S. competitor and establish itself as the leading vacation rental marketplace in Europe.

In Between the Lines:

Despite the strong financial backing, Wimdu's approach seemed to lack originality, and instead, the startup closely mirrored Airbnb's model.

While Airbnb was not as massive back in 2011 as it is today, Wimdu's strategy to grow aggressively did not involve carving a distinct niche or offering unique features. Instead, the startup engaged in growth hacking tactics, some of which were questionable, like duplicating listings from Airbnb and making false claims regarding affiliations.

Lessons Learned:

Copying a successful model without adapting it to local needs or without offering something unique and better can set up a business for failure.

Wimdu essentially mirrored Airbnb's business model, but that's not a long-term winning strategy because the original business, especially if it is successful and innovative like Airbnb, will continually improve, update, and outcompete its imitators.

Therefore, while a startup might get initial traction by copying a successful model, it will likely face difficulties in the long run unless it can differentiate itself.

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Hot startup of the week: Smiler

​Smiler, a Netherlands-based startup, recently raised €7.9M in its latest funding round led by Octopus Ventures. The startup operates in the tourism and photography industry, connecting photographers with tourists at iconic locations around the world.

Through a dedicated platform, it allows visitors to effortlessly have their experiences captured by professionals. This capital is set to bolster Smiler's expansion plans and support its mission to provide affordable, high-quality photoshoot experiences globally.

In Between the Lines:

What sets Smiler apart is its unique position at the intersection of tourism and photography. The startup has created a marketplace where photographers and tourists can connect easily, transforming the way people create and capture their travel memories. Its integration with online Travel Agencies and partnerships with popular tourist locations has further streamlined this process, creating an all-in-one platform for high-quality photography experiences.

Moreover, the launch of Smiler.co brings a new dimension to the company, offering direct B2C interactions and enabling consumers to plan and book photoshoots in advance. By understanding the growing demand and catering to consumer needs, Smiler has created a business model that is both unique and scalable.

Lessons Learned:

Smiler's success lies in its unique value proposition – it's not a traditional photography company or a standard tourism business, but it operates at the intersection of both industries. They've essentially created a new demand by combining two different sectors in an innovative way.

Their success shows that even in seemingly saturated markets, there are always opportunities to leverage technology and create a differentiated value proposition.

The photography industry has long been perceived as one that relies heavily on individual talent and traditional business models. While technology has made photography more accessible, the process of hiring a professional photographer has remained somewhat unchanged.

Smiler has leveraged technology to transform this process, creating an intuitive platform that connects photographers with potential clients in popular tourist locations. In doing so, they’re making professional photography services more accessible and convenient for consumers while also providing photographers with a steady stream of business opportunities, a win-win for all parties involved.

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What do you think of today's newsletter?

• ​🔥 Great​
• ​😒 Meh​
• ​👎 Not interesting​

Cheers,

Nico