🗞 What's New: 2022's hottest trends for founders

Predictions for next year? Indie Hackers has you covered:

• From Buy Now, Pay Later, to Pinterest's "altbashes," here are the hottest trends that founders can capitalize on in 2022!
• The conscious capitalism movement is gaining steam, as (mostly millennial) consumers call for values-driven companies and products. Check out a breakdown of the movement below.
• Founder Marc Kohlbrugge launched Beta List, and several other popular products for bootstrappers. Here are his thoughts on reusing code, and why he hasn't fully bought into the NFT hype.

Want to share something with nearly 85,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing

🔥 The Hottest Trends for 2022

from the Indie Economy newsletter by Bobby Burch

Many of us had hoped that 2021 would bring a return to “normal” human interaction, economic stability, traveling, and...wearing pants. But alas, COVID-19 variants had other plans. Nevertheless, indie hackers have stayed the course, and are looking to 2022 with a healthy dose of optimism. Here are some of the hottest trends to capitalize on next year!

Buy Now, Pay Later

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services are becoming the most popular form of alternative credit for consumers.

In total, consumers will spend nearly $100B using BNPL programs in 2021, up from $24B in 2020. More than half of all consumers plan to make purchases using BNPL options in 2022, per a recent McKinsey study. BNPL options increase conversions by 20-30%, and boost the average purchase price by 30-50%. PayPal Credit, Afterpay, Affirm, Klarna, and ZipPay are leading the BNPL market.

How to capitalize: Offer BNPL at checkout. Afterpay recently announced that its BNPL option will be available for subscription services, which is a huge score for SaaS companies. Using BNPL could increase your annual subscriptions and decrease customer churn. Most BNPL services offer simple and fast checkout.

Altbashes

In its remarkably accurate annual predictions, Pinterest designated 2022 as the year of “altbashes." Altbashes are celebrations arranged specifically for unusual holidays, milestones, or new chapters. This trend is good news for founders, as a recent study found that people were twice as likely to click promotions in an email if they were centered around a special day. The same study shows that customers were also 25% more likely to buy during special day promos.

How to capitalize: As detailed in the Indie Hackers Growth Bites newsletter, an "unusual" holiday must have three characteristics:

Choose an existing niche holiday, create your own (like a launch anniversary), or personalize a day for a certain customer. Have fun with it, and use it as an opportunity to show your personality. If you're stuck, check out the trove of unusual holiday calendars out there: Here's one, and here's another to get you started.

Social commerce

Social commerce, a subset of e-commerce involving sales made via social media, is expected to grow ~36% this year. The market is expected to reach $36.6B in the US. In China, social commerce is already extremely popular, raking in $352B in 2020.

The pandemic lit the social commerce spark, but other factors helped it grow. Social media is well-targeted, as users seek out specific people, activities, and brands that they like. Social commerce is also straightforward for customers, since it allows them to become inspired by a creator and make purchases on the same platform.

Young people are more apt to buy on social media. Instagram reports that 27% of teens and young adults plan to shop directly through their social media feeds and special in-app features.

How to capitalize: Optimize your social channels to sell your products. Keep your social commerce efforts focused on informative, entertaining content, rather than a strict sales pitch. Another avenue for ambitious founders is to build a product that helps small and medium-sized companies optimize their social commerce efforts.

What 2022 trends are you watching? Share in the comments below!

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Indie Economy for more.

📰 In the News

from the Volv newsletter by Priyanka Vazirani

🎓 Eight top universities have formed an education DAO to promote web3 innovations.

🏦 The Bank of England has warned that Bitcoin could be worthless.

💻 Chinese technology could overtake the US’ in the next 10 years.

✨ Microsoft's metaverse is coming, and it will have PowerPoint and Excel.

📺 Experts say that binge-watching may have health benefits.

Check out Volv for more 9-second news digests.

🤔 Can Capitalism be Conscious?

from The Content Marketer newsletter by Marc Bromhall

Conscious capitalism work is an approach that provides stakeholders with not just financial wealth, but also intellectual, ecological, cultural, emotional, and social wealth. Many business leaders, executives, and founders are practicing conscious capitalism in an effort to change the way that business is conducted.

What is conscious capitalism?

Conscious capitalism is a business philosophy shaped by John Mackey, Whole Foods cofounder and CEO, and Professor Raj Sisodia. They offer this definition for conscious capitalism:

Conscious capitalism aims to put people first. In implementing the philosophy, proponents aim to include, and honor, the voices of all stakeholders, from investors to customers. Additionally, the impact on the community and the environment is considered.

Conscious capitalism places purpose at the core of business leadership. Its presence heralds new programs and processes that connect workers more personally with their work. According to the traditional idea of capitalism, a business leader must be cutthroat in order to be successful and profitable. The philosophy of conscious capitalism attempts to change this.

Guiding principles of the movement

Taking a look at the philosophy's core components can help explain why conscious capitalism has caught on. Conscious capitalism is based on four guiding principles:

1. Higher purpose: Leaders who adhere to the conscious capitalism philosophy consider why their business exists. Staying focused on their mission is easy when they have an understanding of their higher purpose. A company's higher purpose serves as a compass that keeps it headed in the right direction. Profits are not the only goal for conscious capitalism businesses.

2. Stakeholder orientation: Leaders who practice conscious capitalism are aware of the human impact of their companies, including customers, employees, investors, and communities in which they operate. Practices of conscious capitalism aim to ensure that the ecosystems that support and maintain a business are healthy and engaged.

3. Conscious leadership: Leaders guide others in a purposeful direction. The passion they have for what they do inspires others. The belief is that valuing each individual in a company, and creating harmony among stakeholders, will lead to success. Leadership that promotes social responsibility is a hallmark of a conscious capitalist.

4. Conscious culture: A work culture built with intention is critical to a conscious capitalism company's success. Upholding shared values, principles, and practices binds each individual involved.

What are the benefits?

Leaders who commit their passion to their purpose find that their employees are happier at work. Employees who believe that the company is motivated by more than just money are more likely to stay on board. Thus, the brand is strengthened. Additionally, engaged employees are more creative.

Improved customer relationships have also been noted, as customers who are drawn to a brand's mission tend to have a deeper sense of loyalty to the brand. Forbes said:

The Harvard Business Review found that companies practicing conscious capitalism tend to perform 10x better than their peers.

Why conscious capitalism?

Founders who are uncomfortable with the tenets and practices of traditional capitalism can look into employing conscious capitalism. With the rise of calls (led mostly by millennials) for values-driven products and companies, more founders and business leaders are searching for new philosophies and frameworks for conducting business. For many, including Starbucks, Patagonia, and Southwest Airlines, conscious capitalism fits the bill.

In order to usher in a greater sense of social responsibility, and bring conscious practices into mainstream business, many leaders believe that conscious capitalism is the way to go.

What are your thoughts on conscious capitalism? Please share below!

Discuss this story, or subscribe to The Content Marketer for more.

🌐 Best Around the Web: Posts Submitted to Indie Hackers This Week

🤑 $2K MRR in 60 days by building in public. Posted by Tony Dinh.

🤝 I'll find one person you should meet, based on what you're working on. Posted by Anthony Castrio.

🧠 What's your mental warm-up routine? Posted by Santiago M. Quintero.

⚖️ Ethereum programming: The good, the bad, and the ugly. Posted by Ricardo Rojo.

🛩 I left my startup and my country, and started over in Thailand. Posted by Rox.

🎥 Going live and only getting 3 viewers? Posted by Aleks Miric.

Want a shout-out in next week's Best of Indie Hackers? Submit an article or link post on Indie Hackers whenever you come across something you think other indie hackers will enjoy.

🛠 Marc Kohlbrugge Talks Bootstrapping

from the Deep Dive newsletter by Seth King

Founder: Marc Kohlbrugge.

Founded: Work In Progress, Startup.Jobs, BetaList, Pay Game, and Build In Public.

Sphere of genius: Determination.

Marc founded Beta List, a popular community of makers and early adopters showcasing their startups and exchanging feedback. Most recently, he launched Pay Game, a pay-to-play game in which players earn NFTs by playing.

We caught up with Marc to chat all things bootstrapping. Read on for more!

Marc's beginnings

I grew up in the Netherlands. As a kid, I hacked myself to the top of a leaderboard. I don't know if people would consider that programming, but I think it's definitely in that same mindset where you're hacking the system and trying to understand the computer. You get this idea, and you try to make the computer do something that you want it to do. When it works, you're amazed by it.

Do you often reuse the code from previous projects?

Normally for me, it's not about learning new technology. It's about creating a product and doing something conceptually new. If I can reuse existing code, then I can just move faster, right? So some of my product decisions might be informed by what I can ship the quickest. You don't want to do that for every feature because you want to make sure that you build a product that people want, and that it works. But for some things, it doesn't really matter whether you do A or B, as long as you do one of those.

I might copy the code, or maybe I would re-implement it, but I know the edge cases to think about. You don't want to reinvent the wheel.

Did the recent buzz around blockchain entice you build a project with it?

Totally. I've been intrigued by blockchain development for a few years, but the learning curve was too steep. But more recently, there have been useful resources popping up, and it's become a lot more approachable.

But five years ago, it was too early for me anyway. I didn't have the interest to really dive into Solidity programming because there were very few resources, if there were any at all.

What are your thoughts on web3?

While there is a lot of money flowing into crypto, it's clear to me that people are really interested in the underlying technology, and the cultural impact it will have. It's very similar to the early days of Web 2.0.

I feel that excitement at these blockchain events as well. Most people are more interested in the technology and the philosophical concepts behind it, including the decentralization of existing institutions like government and finance.

The great thing about web3 and the blockchain is that all those NFTs are stored there. That's one example of where web3 really shines, that there's no one entity controlling the data. You control your own wallet. You control your own destiny.

With Web 2.0, one of the promises was APIs, being able to grab data from one service and combine it with data from another service. Over time, it has become more gated and closed off. Companies became more commercial and started charged for the API, but web3 is open by default.

We're still figuring out what's possible as a community.

Are Beta List users experimenting with web3 projects?

The majority on Beta List and Work In Progress are still traditional startups, in other words, SaaS businesses. But I do see increased interest in web3, so it's getting more popular.

I think it's still a bit hard to figure out how to build a sustainable business in web3. With Web 2.0, building a SaaS for businesses is the go-to for bootstrappers: Figure out business problems, solve them, and charge a monthly fee. That's the proven model.

And so, the people that are trying to build a profitable business are mostly focused on traditional startups for now.

Are you familiar with any metaverse coins?

A few months ago, I looked into buying land NFTs. It was so complicated that I didn't feel comfortable investing money without doing proper research, and I just didn't have the time to do the proper research.

And, it's still quite a risky investment because you don't know which game is going to win. Or maybe multiple are going to win, but it felt like one of those bets would be too big for me. But it's definitely something to keep an eye on.

What lesson have you learned recently?

You need feedback in order to know which direction to iterate on, because anything you do without feedback or data is based on assumptions, guesswork basically. And you're probably worse at guessing than you think you are. So just get it out there and get real data, get real feedback, and then quickly iterate on that.

I try to ship a working prototype within a few days, but the actual full press launch might take two months total. Don't feel ashamed if it's still buggy or looks ugly. It's fine because it's clear that it's a prototype. But if you ship after three months and it still looks unpolished, people might interpret the lack of polish as a lack of design sense.

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Deep Dive for more.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

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 Bobby Burch, Priyanka Vazirani, Marc Bromhall, and Seth King for contributing posts. —Channing