- **US lawmakers have introduced** antitrust legislation that will foster competition in industries ruled by tech giants. These regulations aim to prevent monopolization, and will curb big tech mergers and acquisitions. - **Using email marketing tool
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US lawmakers have introduced antitrust legislation that will foster competition in industries ruled by tech giants. These regulations aim to prevent monopolization, and will curb big tech mergers and acquisitions.
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Using email marketing tools like HubSpot for cold outreach has garnered results for some founders. But it carries big risks, including potential bans.
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With niche email newsletters trending, community-based news is having a revival. Although this may seem like a new phenomenon, an expert highlights the connection between digital newsletters and the early days of news.
As always, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing
🏛 US Lawmakers Propose Regulations to Reign in Big Tech
from the Indie Economy newsletter by Bobby Burch
US lawmakers are introducing regulation to reign in big tech. This will carry implications for founders and consumers alike.
Regulation exploration
The no-background: On February 4, US Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act (CALERA). This act will:
- Make it more difficult for big tech mergers and acquisitions to occur.
- Beef up the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice's (DOJ) antitrust enforcement resources.
The bill updates centuries-old antitrust law, and aims to address the alleged practice of edging out startup rivals before they become a competitive threat. Sen. Klobuchar said:
Competition and effective antitrust enforcement are critical to protecting workers and consumers, spurring innovation, and promoting economic equity. While the United States once had some of the most effective antitrust laws in the world, our economy today faces a massive competition problem...The Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act is the first step to overhauling and modernizing our laws so we can effectively promote competition and protect American consumers.
What would change: CALERA would make five key changes to curb anti-competitive behavior:
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The current law (Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914) only prohibits the most demonstrable anti-trust acquisitions, which has allowed big tech companies to evade scrutiny. The updated law would shift the burden to the merging parties to prove their merger will not violate the law.
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Target harmful dominant firm conduct: The measure adds a new provision to the Clayton Act to prohibit "exclusionary conduct" by incumbent firms. Prohibited conduct is behavior that limits competitors' ability to compete, presenting an "appreciable risk of harming competition."
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Independent oversight:* CALERA will establish a new, independent FTC division to carry out market studies and merger retrospectives.
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Increase enforcement: The bill will increase FTC and DOJ enforcement budgets by about $1.1B, and authorize increases to each agency's annual budget.
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Punitive power: The DOJ and FTC can seek civil fines for antitrust violations, study the effect of past mergers, and strengthen whistleblower protections.
The scope of regulation
Cautious optimism: CALERA is the strongest attempt in recent history to pass antitrust reform. Klobuchar's bill adopts strategies that both US House Democrats and some populist Republicans (specifically Sen. Josh Hawley) have supported, which helps its prospects of adoption.
Defining markets: Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon are each facing at least one antitrust suit already. Current law maintains that a successful antitrust suit requires regulators to define this parameter: in what market does the company operate?
CALERA would remove the requirement for regulators to define a company's market before filing an antitrust claim; this requirement has hampered success in previous suits against tech companies that have complex markets and models.
What this means for you: CALERA's adoption will have big implications for startup tech companies that have historically been disadvantaged in the market, competing against giants that can simply buy and integrate their competitors' tools.
If Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon are reigned in by regulators, that could create more openings for indie hackers. New startups would have a chance to truly compete with the giants, leading to more innovation, better products, and more consumer choice.
Would a more aggressive pursuit of anti-competitive behavior create more openings for indie social media, search engines, and other products? No one really knows. But this could be a step in the right direction.
Indie alternatives: If you're looking for substitutes to mainstream tech tools, check out these recaps on alternatives to Google search, privacy-focused email, analytics, and communication tools.
What are your thoughts on the proposed regulations? How do you see it changing the indie landscape?
Discuss this story, or subscribe to Indie Economy for more.
📰 In the News
📧 Substack welcomes Facebook and Twitter to the newsletter biz, asserting that "the more initiatives giving power to writers, the better."
💘 Bumble is prepping for a $6B IPO. The popular dating app boasts 42M monthly users across 150+ countries.
🔎 Tensions increase between Apple and independent software developers over alleged multimillion dollar App Store scams.
🥗 DoorDash acquires salad startup, Chowbotics. The Bay-area company is famous for its salad-making robot, Sally.
🧾 Tesla purchased $1.5B in bitcoin, and may accept cryptocurrency payments in the future.
📤 Should You Use Email Marketing Tools for Cold Outreach?
from the User Acquisition Channels newsletter by Darko G.
Founders are actively using email marketing tools (that aren't supposed to be used for cold email) to do cold outreach. This works for some founders, but it has the potential to backfire.
Difference between email marketing and cold email tools
Here's a basic overview on the fundamental difference:
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An email marketing service allows you to send mass emails to people who are already part of an email list. These individuals explicitly gave you permission to send them emails.
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Cold email marketing is emailing people with whom you have no prior relationship.
Some founders have seen positive results
Contento, a guest posting marketplace, attracted users and grew their business through cold email using HubSpot (an email marketing service). Contento's founder said:
We use HubSpot for the actual email sequencing, as it works well both for tracking all the email metrics we need and the customer lifecycle.
On the publisher's side, there are many blog posts all over the internet containing lists of blogs/publisher sites that accept guest posts. I've written scripts and tools to scrape the information, gather the email addresses using tools like Hunter, and massage it into our outreach funnel. We do a similar thing for brands. We've actually ended up developing some secret sauce to automate our prospecting for digital marketing agencies. We collect the emails and massage it into sequencing in HubSpot.
HubSpot is an email marketing service. However, you're allowed to send email via Hubspot once someone gives you a permission to do so: by entering their email on your website, for example. This means that every email you send through HubSpot's platform is going to an engaged visitor, rather than someone who has never heard of you. In fact, cold email is against HubSpot's Terms & Conditions.
Although HubSpot (and other email marketing tools) say that you can't send cold emails through the platform, I've discovered that founders are doing it and getting results.
Inbox When Ready, a Chrome extension in email, used Mailgun (another email marketing service) to send emails. Mailgun's founder said:
I got most of my first 100 users via manual outreach. I made a list of several hundred people who I thought would be interested in trying Inbox When Ready and contacted them individually, mostly by email.
I wrote a short email with a clear subject line. I sent the emails via Mailgun's free SMTP service, which makes it easy to track open rates and spam complaints.
This didn't get Inbox When Ready banned; in fact, it brought in actual results:
I received zero spam complaints, which I took to mean I was emailing the right kind of people in a reasonable way. About 20% of [email] recipients gave the extension a try.
Is it a good idea?
My take: No. Most email marketing providers have a "complaint rate" (for Amazon SES, it's 0.1%), meaning that if more than 1 in 1000 people mark your email as spam, you're going to start having issues with deliverability.
Though I don't think it's a good idea in theory, in practice, some founders are seeing results.
Have you used email marketing tools to send cold emails? What was your experience?
Discuss this story, or subscribe to User Acquisition Channels for more.
🤖 Idea Bot Beep Boop
from IdeasAI by Pieter Levels
Looking for a startup idea? I'm a GPT-3-powered business idea generator built by Pieter Levels. Here are today's top ideas:
To explore more ideas, subscribe to IdeasAI.
🔖 The Revival of Localized, Community-based News
from the Indie Airwaves newsletter by Nicky Milner
After a disastrous decade, local news is making a comeback. Whether online or offline, community-based news is all the rage.
Localized news is gaining new life
The no-background: In my own personal career, I've had a front-row seat to watch Canada's largest regional news publisher being decimated. In Canada, and several other countries, many communities have lost their local rag. This has eliminated the best source of consolidated and curated information about municipal government activity and community events.
The opportunity: As it stands today, there may have never been a better time to be in local news. Europe, Australia, and Canada are all making legislative efforts to address their news media industries' revenue imbalances. Hyper-local news organizations are also shifting their media strategy to focus on digital newsletters with membership fees, and boosting overall revenue with takeovers, sponsorships, and events.
A national campaign: Last Thursday, most Canadian national and regional newspapers published blank front pages to grab people's attention. The message read:
Imagine if the news wasn't there when we needed it. If nothing is done, the journalism industry will disappear.
Synopsis: New forms of local and community news such as email newsletters, podcasts, and mobile apps are developing. In a recent IH podcast episode, the founders of local newsletter network WhereBy.us emphasized the power of the local paper:
Curious locals want to explore the city, feel local pride, and have meaningful engagements within their community. They may read and share local content or events, but they may be more passive information seekers, relying more on their networks to help them discover and understand these opportunities.
Back to the future
The early days: Early newspapers were short and pithy (2-4 pages), and were labors of love by their editors. Editors were driven by their passion to release information for the benefit of the local community. Pioneer publishers often formed symbiotic business relationships with local printers; this secured their means of production and distribution. In those days, content generation was the sole focus of the publisher or editor, and they did not have the burden of infrastructure and business management.
Hypothesis: Today's community-based newsletter market is in its infancy, and it's a throwback to the early days of news. A hyper-local email newsletter is curated and targeted for a particular community. Similar opportunities exist for communities of interest, both on- and off-line.
In the news: Other recent announcements in the space include Hubspot's acquisition of The Hustle and Twitter's acquisition of Revue. In September 2020, Axios reflected on this growing trend among high-profile journalists who decide to "go-it-alone" with email newsletters as their distribution channel.
As the creator economy continues to expand, the distribution of news is returning to its early strength: providing carefully-curated information to a common audience drawn together by community values.
What are your thoughts on localized news? Do you see connections between online and offline news options? Share your thoughts below.
Discuss this story, or subscribe to Indie Airwaves for more.
🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick
by Tweetmaster Flex
I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:
🏁 Enjoy This Newsletter?
Forward it to a friend, and let them know they can subscribe here.
Also, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter.
Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Nathalie Zwimpfer for the illustrations, and to Bobby Burch, Darko G., and Nicky Milner for contributing posts. —Channing
