Welcome to the first issue of Solo Founder 🔥

Hi, I'm Baadier and thanks for signing up to Solo Founder!

As a fellow solo founder, I know that we have unique challenges and I wanted to tell those stories and be a part of your journey. My vision is that we can learn together and reach our goals as fellow founders.

Please don't hesitate to reply here if you would like to interview on Solo Founder or would like to recommend someone else 👐

Solo Founder  

What's your background, and what are you working on?

By day I’m the Head of Growth at Baremetrics — a metrics and retention tool for SaaS companies. By night I’m the founder of Swipe Files — a curated library of marketing and copywriting examples with detailed teardowns. I’ve also created a few other projects including two online courses and a job board.

I was born and raised in San Diego, California, USA. I spent 2 hours as the first marketer for a startup here in town and then now lead growth for Baremetrics remotely.

I’ve spent countless hours talking with and helping founders with marketing and growth. This has given me a lot of perspective and insight into what actually moves the needle.

What motivated you to get started with your startup?

As a marketer and entrepreneur, I’m always churning through new initiatives to move the needle and try new things. The trouble is that I always felt like I was starting from scratch. I’d spend hours and hours looking for good examples and then trying to dissect what to take away from them.

So I decided to create it based on my own need, knowing that others are experiencing the same problem.

What went into building the initial product?

It’s built entirely with no-code tools: Webflow, Memberstack, Jetboost, and ConvertKit. I built it as a part of the Nocode Rumble. Since I can’t code, it was crucial that I’d be able to build and maintain the platform myself.

I started building an email list from the beginning, recording how it was built, and sharing progress along the way. I’ve built up a nice little Twitter following with other marketers and founders so it makes it easier to reach the right people.

What’s your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

Right now the latest teardown is completely free to read, but as soon as another comes out, it becomes member-only content. Members get access to the full library and features and can pay $29/mo, $99/yr, or $299/life. It was important for me to make it as accessible to everyone as possible with plans that work for everyone.

The free newsletter drives a lot of interest and referrals.

What are your goals for the future?

My goals are to get to a few hundred customers and expand the product to include more types of content. I’ll also be starting a private community and private podcast as well. I want it to be a one-stop-shop for marketers and entrepreneurs to learn and accelerate their projects.

If you had to start over, what would you do differently?

I’d probably think about how to prioritize the content and organize it in a way that makes sense for launch. It’s hard to cover so many topics, so I’d be more intentional about when and how I cover them so people can find what they need.

Have you found anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

My membership with MakerPad.co has allowed me to learn to build without code!

What's your advice for solo founders who are just starting out?

Figure out real problems that need to be solved by people you love to help. The rest is just details.

To end off, where can we find you?

• Twitter.com/coreyhainesco
• Swipefiles.co
• RefactoringGrowth.com
• MentalModelsForMarketing.com
• HeyMarketers.com

Solo Founder  

Refind

I started using Refind a few years ago to help me save all the interesting links that I find. The problem with saving links is a solved issue but most services fall short when it comes to retrieval ie being able to retrieve the link just when the user needs it. This is where Refind shines.

refind.com  

Blush, Illustrations for Everyone

Blush launched on Product Hunt recently and their illustrations are comprehensive. A single illustration can do a good job of making your design pop and help you connect with your users.

blush.design  

3 Key Things to Get Right in Remote Onboarding

I published this recently and I think it's relevant enough to share here. In the post, I talk through some of the challenges with getting remote hiring right. This was in the context of an enterprise but there should be parallels to help you with your hiring.

offerzen.com  

Help out Solo Founder

Once again, thanks for joining me for this issue 😄 I would really appreciate if you can share this with your circle and help me spread Solo Founder to more of our community.

You can reply right here if you have any feedback on anything at all. I'd love to hear from you 👋

Cheers, Baadier (@baadier)

Solo Founder