I've built 10 startups and sold several for millions.
Let me teach you in 2 minutes what took me 5 years to learn.
Let me teach you in 2 minutes what took me 5 years to learn.
How to build a startup within 30 days -
Pro tip: In the first 30 days, your goal is to get your first 10 customers.
Nothing else matters.
Pro tip: In the first 30 days, your goal is to get your first 10 customers.
Nothing else matters.
Do only those tasks which are absolutely necessary for getting you 10 paid customers.
Ruthlessly eliminate everything else.
Let's say you're building a Calendly clone.
Ruthlessly eliminate everything else.
Let's say you're building a Calendly clone.
You'll need
- a website for getting customers.
- a functioning product.
- a customer acquisition strategy.
- a launch strategy
Week 1
- a website for getting customers.
- a functioning product.
- a customer acquisition strategy.
- a launch strategy
Week 1
-Buy a domain from Godaddy. com
-Find a cool website template on Wix. com
- Make design, logo, and branding on Figma
- Launch your website in <10 hours
You now have a slick website.
-Find a cool website template on Wix. com
- Make design, logo, and branding on Figma
- Launch your website in <10 hours
You now have a slick website.
- Post a job on Dribbble & hire a UI-UX designer to design the interface of your app.
- Task here is to design an end-to-end workflow of the app.
While your designs arrive, you'll vet developers who can build the app on no-code using Bubble
- Task here is to design an end-to-end workflow of the app.
While your designs arrive, you'll vet developers who can build the app on no-code using Bubble
- Go to Fiverr, & find Bubble developers with 10+ projects. Pay for the experience.
- Set up calls to figure out their budget. Don't skimp on the cost, pay what they're worth
By the end of week 1 -
- Set up calls to figure out their budget. Don't skimp on the cost, pay what they're worth
By the end of week 1 -
You have a website, your designs are getting baked and you have 2-3 prospective developers that you will finalize at the start of week 2.
Week 2 and 3 - Build a 500-person email list
Week 2 and 3 - Build a 500-person email list
Install retention.com - it captures emails of website visitors without them entering the email. It's like magic, I'm a power user.
And then direct thousands of people to your website so you can capture emails.
Let me show you 5 strategies to find these 500 customers from social media.
Let me show you 5 strategies to find these 500 customers from social media.
1. Follow your competitors' customers and DM them for advice. People love giving advice, but to give you advice they'd have to sign up. Sneaky.
To do this make a database of your competitors and the social channels where they are most popular.
To do this make a database of your competitors and the social channels where they are most popular.
Follow their thousands of followers and send them this DM.
Ask them for advice on shaping the product.
Calendly has 20K followers
Assume 2,000 of them are their customers
Maybe 3% of those people will sign up
Ask them for advice on shaping the product.
Calendly has 20K followers
Assume 2,000 of them are their customers
Maybe 3% of those people will sign up
That's 60 users. BOOM!
You can repeat this with all your competitors. Send thousands of DMs to get 100s of sign-ups.
2. Find negative comments about your competitor on socialmention.com and reply to each one of those complaints asking them to try your product.
You can repeat this with all your competitors. Send thousands of DMs to get 100s of sign-ups.
2. Find negative comments about your competitor on socialmention.com and reply to each one of those complaints asking them to try your product.
3. Build a Twitter bot that replies with a meme on every tweet where your competitors are mentioned.
To create the bot, follow the instructions here, it's pretty simple - ealpython.com/twitter-bot-py…
To create the bot, follow the instructions here, it's pretty simple - ealpython.com/twitter-bot-py…
4. Target your competitors' followers and tell them your product is better.
My friend @AKASpencerScott tried this and it totally works.
5. Partner with Influencers and give them 100% commission
My friend @AKASpencerScott tried this and it totally works.
https://twitter.com/AKASpencerScott/status/1585271233754677249?s=20&t=XGcsqRaTdMJIVEtxdfVo1g
5. Partner with Influencers and give them 100% commission
@AKASpencerScott Research and make a list of influencers who talk about office culture, remote teams, no-code tools, work-from-home, etc.
Find all these Influencer's emails using @MeetApollo
Find all these Influencer's emails using @MeetApollo
@AKASpencerScott @MeetApollo Send them a hyper-personalized email. Take a picture holding a whiteboard (or their product) with their name
Sounds crazy, but that's why it works. If somebody sent you an email holding a whiteboard with your name on it, would you not reply?
Sounds crazy, but that's why it works. If somebody sent you an email holding a whiteboard with your name on it, would you not reply?
@AKASpencerScott @MeetApollo c. Give them a 100% commission on any sale they bring. They keep revenue for month 1, if your product is any good, some users will be retained, and you'll keep the revenue from month 2 onwards.
The traffic from all these sources will come to your website.
The traffic from all these sources will come to your website.
@AKASpencerScott @MeetApollo retention.com will capture emails of all the website visitors, without them knowing. Then send an email to everyone.
It's magic, I know! I use it a ton.
By the end of week 3 -
It's magic, I know! I use it a ton.
By the end of week 3 -
@AKASpencerScott @MeetApollo Your app is ready. The designer was late, and the dev didn't exactly match the design, but hey, you have a MVP.
You also have an email list with 500+ sign-ups and some paying customers.
You also have an email list with 500+ sign-ups and some paying customers.
@AKASpencerScott @MeetApollo Unless there are major problems with your app, don't wait to test out the bugs in your app, launch it and use the pressure of losing customers to fix bugs faster.
Week 4 - Product Hunt Launch
Week 4 - Product Hunt Launch
@AKASpencerScott @MeetApollo - Use upvote-bell.com/leaderboard to find 2-3 hunters to help rank #1 on Product Hunt
- Use your 500-person email list to upvote your product
- Make all your friends go and upvote your product
- Post live updates on your social channels, gain traction
- Use your 500-person email list to upvote your product
- Make all your friends go and upvote your product
- Post live updates on your social channels, gain traction
@AKASpencerScott @MeetApollo Follow the Official Product Hunt Launch Guide -
producthunt.com/launch
The goal is to be amongst the top 5 products of the day & the week
By the end of Week 4 -
You have a site. You have an app. You have 500 prospective customers and hopefully, 10 paying customers.
producthunt.com/launch
The goal is to be amongst the top 5 products of the day & the week
By the end of Week 4 -
You have a site. You have an app. You have 500 prospective customers and hopefully, 10 paying customers.
@AKASpencerScott @MeetApollo You now have a company to run. Congrats.
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