IndieStack - IndieStack Weekly - Issue #5

Hello friends! I hope most of you have been enjoying the recent change in seasons — whether it's colder or hotter where you are. This week's issue we touch on fear of being copied, Arvid's new book, Adalo's recent round, Bitcoin's crash, a website builder that uses Notion and much much more. Enjoy!

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The Insight

Building in public has its share of haters and its share of supporters. While most reasons for or against doing it are valid, there's one reason that is not (and it's one I've heard several times from budding makers): fear that people will copy you. While one or two aspects of your idea/execution might be easy to copy, it's almost impossible to copy the entire constellation factors that goes into making your product unique. Your specific idea, your approach to it, your history, your experience, your preferences, your commitment, your connections, among other things, cannot all be copied to result in the your outcome. Being copied — superficially, as most copiers do — should be seen as compliment, and not a direct threat.

Building in public:

Don't be afraid of people copying you.

Be afraid that nobody wants to copy you.

— Jon Yongfook (@yongfook) May 18, 2021

The Indie Web

• You Probably Shouldn’t Work at a Startup (Napkin Math)
• Launched The Embedded Entrepreneur, a book that I wrote in public with over 500 founders (Indie Hackers, Arvid Kahl)
• How We Used to Think of Validation (Product Journey Podcast)

The News

• No-code app development platform Adalo nabs $8M -"Adalo (formerly Foundry), a no-code environment for building cross-platform mobile and web apps, today announced that it closed an $8 million series A round..."  -VentureBeat
• Unbounce snags Snazzy.ai to add automated copywriting to platform - "Unbounce, [...] added a new wrinkle this morning when it announced it has acquired Snazzy.ai, an early stage automated copywriting startup."  - TechCrunch
• Bitcoin crashes as investors fear crypto bull market could be nearing its end - "Bitcoin, Ethereum and a host of Altcoins suffered massive drops Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, erasing months of gains and hundreds of billions in market cap." -  TechCrunch
• Google updates its cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit - "Flutter, Google’s cross-platform UI toolkit for building mobile and desktop apps, is getting a small but important update at the company’s I/O conference today" - TechCrunch

The Alternatives

• Simple website -> Potion
• Community -> Playgroup
• Coding Courses -> Slip

The Community

• We had a very successful launch in the community this week. Sudu launched Community List on Product Hunt. It's not too late to go upvote it.
• Do you have a dog? Help Ucef understand your demographic for his upcoming product Kelb.io

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