🗞 What's New: The unpopular opinions of successful founders

Startup advice is a dime a dozen, and some of it may be overrated:

• You don't need to scale. Your product can sell itself. Perceived value > actual value. Dig into these unpopular opinions below.
• Embrace fear. Consider it to be a member of your team, and use it to gain deeper insights into your goals and your progress.
• $4K MRR. Two acquisitions. Luca Restagno built and sold two SaaS products in one year, while working full-time.

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by James Fleischmann

Last week, we caught up with successful indie hackers to find out what they're doing that goes against conventional startup wisdom.

Products can market themselves

Alexander Isora:

I've always believed that a product can market itself. It is a very unpopular opinion. Every startup book will tell you that the product does not matter, and that the important thing is marketing.

But I was able to grow a SaaS in the red ocean of website builders from $0 to $15K MRR with minimal marketing effort. My focus has been on the product. I was just building a great tool, and people were using it and spreading the word. Simple as that.

People go crazy when you ship a feature they ask you for within hours. Try it, and see the major marketing effect you can get by just working on your product.

You don't need to scale

JT:

Growth is a lie. You don't need to grow your business infinitely. Instead, hit your revenue goals, then optimize your time.

Tony Dinh:

You don't need an office or a lot of full-time employees. You don't need to scale up.

To me, $10K MRR is enough for one person. When I have kids, maybe $20K MRR will be more comfortable. Any higher than that is just my "backup plan."

Perceived value > actual value

Jay Tan:

Focus on perceived value, not actual value. Products that appear or feel valuable will make money, even if they actually aren't valuable or useful.

The sad truth is that actual value that isn't perceivable will not generate revenue. This is the great paradox of buyer psychology. We'd like to think that customers are acting logically, making purchase decisions based on objective data. But the truth is far simpler: We buy with emotion, and we justify our purchase using logic after the fact.

So, how do you create perceived value? Get people talking about your product. A well-incentivized affiliate program might do the trick in the beginning stages. If people rave endlessly about your product, bystanders will start questioning themselves. Customers are people, and people feel safety in numbers.

Another way to create perceived value is to make your app more sticky. When I was building Zlappo, I added a feature called "Unfollowers," which was a list of people who unfollowed you on X. It was updated daily. It made my app sticky, as my users would routinely check who "backstabbed" them, even though there's no real value in doing that. The more time users spend on my app, the more useful the app feels to them.

You don't need a grand vision

Kyle Nolan:

Businesses don’t always need to start with a grand vision. Sometimes, they can evolve from personal needs or pet projects.

Marie Martens:

Launching a startup doesn’t mean you need to invent something new.

People often ask us why we chose to build yet another form builder in an already competitive market. In my opinion, it's a lot easier as a bootstrapped company to claim a small part of an existing market with validated demand, than it is to conquer a completely new industry or invent a new product.

We didn’t reinvent the wheel. We focused on differentiation in pricing and UX, and this is why our users love Tally.

Discuss this story.

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from The Hustle newsletter

Here are three essential lessons from the Trends Facebook community!

Figure out what you want

Trendster Bee Jam found that many founders he spoke to were unhappy, even if their business was successful. It turned out they'd put all their energy into building something they didn't want in the first place.

Before you build, figure out what you really want. Here are some techniques that Trendsters find useful:

• Ask yourself lots of reflective questions: What are your values? What does a happy life look like to you?

• Map out a life plan with big picture goals for the next one, three, and 10 years. What are you building towards?

• Surround yourself with a network of peers and mentors, and tap them for external perspectives. Sometimes you just need to get out of your own head.

• Check in once a year to make sure you're staying true to your values. You may need to update your plans as your priorities evolve over time.

Be brave...and pragmatic

It's normal to be terrified. Trendster Tara Persson recommends embracing fear. Consider it to be a member of your team. Get to know it, and try to understand what it's trying to protect you from.

You can alleviate some of the stress by taking these sensible steps:

• Get some traction first: Starting your business as a side hustle means you can test it out without losing your safety net.

• Save up: There's no bank balance minimum for ditching the 9 to 5, but it's wise to consider your expenses and the lifestyle you want to maintain, plus extra for emergencies.

• Have a back-up plan: Setting up a low effort side hustle, or freelancing for your old employer, are both potential insurance policies.

Take care of your mental health

Founders are twice as likely to suffer from depression and three times as likely to face addiction. So, how do you keep your head healthy while you're hustling?

Trendsters swear by therapy, meditation, good sleep habits, sticking to a routine, regular short breaks, spending time in nature, and, above all else, exercise.

It's also important to avoid social isolation. If working alone is what's bumming you out, you might enjoy digital coworking using an app like Groove.

Trendster Sean Cook also recommends several tactics to combat loneliness and meet new people:

• Join an in-person group with those who share a common interest, like a gym group, book club, or board game meetup. Bonus points for any activity that requires you to work together towards a common goal. Pro tip: Go at least three times before you give up!

• Leverage your existing friends to meet new people. This is an especially good tactic if you've moved cities recently. Friends of friends come pre-vetted, and your common connection will help break the ice.

• Be a good listener. Humans love to talk about themselves. If you show an interest, you've got a better chance of making a meaningful connection.

Subscribe to The Hustle newsletter for more.

from the Growth Trends newsletter

📹 Facebook introduces an organic A/B testing API for Reels and videos.

📝 Seven writing tricks to keep people on your website longer.

💲 Get $100 off an In the News section ad with code MINUS100.

👥 The ultimate guide to creating a customer persona.

👋 Instagram is retiring its Guides posting option next month.

🤖 Here's why OpenAI's drama is just getting started.

Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.

by Luca Restagno

This article is about my recent journey bootstrapping two SaaS products while working full-time. Here's how I found and validated product ideas.

The background

In early 2021, I launched my first SaaS product on Product Hunt and got only 70 upvotes. That’s when I realized, for the first time, that I needed an audience.

After six months of using X professionally, I discovered that DMs were lacking many features. Many big accounts were suggesting using DMs to create meaningful connections, so I decided to build around that.

Product one

In the beginning, Hivoe was simple. It set up a welcome message DM for new followers. The idea was to use automation to kickstart meaningful conversations with people interested in your journey, understand the content they were interested in the most, and double down on it.

I wasn’t very good at validating products at that time, but I built the smallest MVP possible. I posted on X about it, and a user asked to pay for the service. I integrated Paddle within a couple of days, and allowed him to pay!

Hivoe eventually grew into a cold outreach platform for Twitter, including welcome message DMs, cold DMs, giveaway automations, and integrations. I launched on Product Hunt, and hit fifth Product of the Day.

I also created a guide about launching on Product Hunt, which you can get for free! Then, I did a giveaway:

Product two

While using Hivoe to send a lot of DMs, I noticed that the messaging experience on X was very ugly and painful. Compared to other platforms (like Telegram), it's missing tons of features to let you be productive in messaging privately on the platform.

This time, I did a pre-launch. With this technique, I saved time and collected money, while validating the product idea.

I created a landing page and offered a lifetime deal for $69.99:

I used X to showcase the product, including one tweet every day for seven days, displaying a feature or problem solved.

The results: 50 licenses sold in two months and ~$3K in revenue! I wrote a more in-depth article about the pre-launch here.

With that validation, I focused on coding. I built the first version in a month, and invited the LTD users. So far, the product has been growing steadily, with X as the main source of traffic.

What’s next

I sold both products around June. Now, I’m happy to announce Userdesk, an AI assistant platform for businesses, trained on your own data. I’ve launched on Product Hunt, and would love your support!

Discuss this story.

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to James Fleischmann, Darko, Caitlin Macleod, and Luca Restagno for contributing posts. —Channing