I've been brainstorming how I would build a new indie startup if I had to do it again in 2023.

Here are 5 principles I’d use. 1. Build a product that people are already searching for.

It's 1000x easier to target folks already in motion.

The best opportunities are where customers realize they have a need and are doing something about it: searching Google, asking for recommendations, etc.

More thoughts on why ChatGPT is not a traditional startup platform.

🧵 Historically, bootstrapped startups have been built on top of open protocols (such as email, the web, and RSS), open platforms (like WordPress), and open-source tools (including Ruby on Rails, Laravel, Vue, and Tailwind CSS).

If you were building a new web app/SaaS in 2023, what would your tech stack be?

(Rails, @laravelphp? Fancy new JS framework? What database setup would you use? Where would you host it?) Personally, I'm still on team "full stack web dev" (Laravel, Rails).

Most indie SaaS these days are still being built on mature web frameworks:

@SnapShooterio (Laravel)
@bannerbearHQ (Rails)
@TransistorFM (Rails)
@usefathom (Laravel)
@hostifi_net (Laravel)
@ZipMessage (Rails)

In my early 20s, I was running a skate shop where I was constantly stressed, working late nights, putting out fires, and leveraging multiple credit cards to keep everything afloat.

Over time, I began evaluating biz opportunities on their likelihood of “giving me a good life.” So many of us business owners end up being a slave to our companies, and we forget why we started our businesses in the first place: to give us, our families, and our employees a better life!

The willingness of some CEOs to move fast, and make big risky decisions with impunity, boggles my mind.

Is this really the best strategy?

Maybe it’s because Transistor is small, but I’m very much in the “keep the boat steady” camp. I'm also confused why so many companies are moving to raise prices now.

During a recession, aren't customers trying to reduce expenses?

Why give folks a reason to leave?

Isn't it better to keep your prices the same and attract more customers looking to save money?

Holy crap.

Now on Twitter, you are no longer allowed to share links to other social media platforms.

You are no longer allowed to share your username for other social networks (Mastodon, Instagram, FB, etc).

You are no longer allows to use linktree.

help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-p…

https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/1604531261791522817

Is this the “free speech absolutism” we were promised?

Why stop here Elon? Why not just ban all hyperlinks all together?

Can I still link to my blog? For how much longer?

To me good critique and creation go hand in hand.

They’re both necessary.

Sure, bad critiques abound, but that doesn’t mean we should silence thoughtful analysis on topics like AI.

The potential ramifications of AI are significant; the topic requires serious scrutiny.

https://twitter.com/tobi/status/1602058577174269953

BTW - the article in question seems completely reasonable to me.

You can read it here:

techcrunch.com/2022/12/09/is-…

This feels like an appropriate amount of scrutiny for disruptive tech like ChatGPT.

Almost everybody I know who's created a successful business found their winning idea while doing something else.

Almost like they were digging a pool in their backyard and accidentally discovered oil. The idea for @tailwindcss came to @adamwathan while he was working on other SaaS ideas:

Digest - "Delicious for teams"
Kitetail - competitor to gumroad for selling digital products

He was building in public, and people kept asking him about his CSS.

adamwathan.me/tailwindcss-fr…

Back in 2001, Bob and Jane each picked a stock and invested $1,000.

Bob picked IBM.
Jane picked Apple.

Bob's $1,000 investment turned into $2,643
Jane's $1,000 investment turned into $903,471

This is the "effort/reward conundrum:" some actions produce wildly better results. To me, it's fascinating that two people can invest the same amount of time, money, and resources, and one person can get 10x, 100x, or 1000x better results.

Some of this can be explained by "luck," but this multiplication effect can also be achieved by making better bets.

I had nearly 1,000 people reply to this tweet.

Here are 3 bigger ideas for promoting your product (plus 3 quick wins) 👉

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1509232410856091648

Idea #1

Publish quality, keyword-driven, videos on YouTube.

Many niches don't yet have good videos ranking for common search terms.

1. Make a video optimized around search intent
2. Publish on YouTube
3. Optimize your title, thumbnail, description

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1509254111912345602

I saw this post on Facebook:

"Running a business is really hard. It's a grind. It's long hours. It's lots of additional stress. It’s freaking exhausting."

I know this is the dominant narrative. And, from experience, I know it can be true.

But what if you flipped the script? 👉 Instead of saying "Running a business is really hard," ask "What would it look like if this was easy? Calm? Profitable?"

Some types of businesses will be hard to run, no matter what.

But there are other business opportunities that provide incredible life-giving margins.

Here are 5 methods for finding new SaaS ideas:

🧵 Method 1: interviews

Interview a bunch of people you'd love to have as customers. Ask them:

- "What was the last software subscription you paid for?"
- "What's one product you're currently using that you're not happy with?"
- "What alternatives have you considered?"

In SaaS, churn is just one pressure gauge on your dashboard.

Don’t blindly aim for a specific churn %!

The rate at which your customers cancel is connected to a bigger picture.

It’s only by looking at all other variables that you’ll know if your churn is “good” or “bad.” Which would you prefer?

- Churn is 10%, but revenue is growing at 20%
- Churn is 3%, but revenue growth is 10%

Elon (the world’s richest man) is crying publicly about having to pay taxes.

The only reason he is paying billions in taxes is because he *waited too long to exercise his options.*

He could have exercised them at $6.24, but is now paying $1k per share.

fortune.com/2021/11/10/tes… “If Musk had exercised his stock options as they vested, he would have ended up with a tax bill of $598.9 million.

Instead, he waited until his stock options were on the verge of hitting their 10-year expiration date. And he’s facing an estimated $12.5 billion tax bill for it.”

I really don't get the hype around web3.

(I was around for the advent of the web and and "web 2.0" and was excited about both)

If you're a web3 believer, what's compelling about it for you? Also: do decentralized apps work, at scale, in practice?

Example: Twitter already has a decentralized competitor (Mastodon) that hasn't gained traction.

Is there something about traditional apps/biz models that make them succeed despite open-source/decentralized alternatives?

I used to invest heavily in marketing automation, tracking, attribution, configuring funnels, and retargeting.

But after 13 years of doing marketing for SaaS companies... I'm convinced that 90% of it is unnecessary. The biggest reason you don't need a complex marketing stack?

What drives demand isn't a bunch of funnels or retargeting campaigns...

👉 What drives demand is a bunch of customers who actively want what you're selling.

Good indie marketing connects buyers with your product.

I'm about to launch a campaign to get 25 other companies to join @stripe Climate and give 1% of their revenue (or more!) to carbon removal.

Two people have already committed to join:
Francois, @like2have
@danhulton, @nodewood

Anyone else want to be a part of the announcement? Update: @BrendanOfEarth just enabled it for brightbits.app

█░░░░░░░ 12% towards our goal!

It's been 15 months since @pmarca & @a16z published "it's time to build."

Question: WTF have they done in support of this thesis?

Marc said we should be "solving the climate crisis by building."

From what I can see, @a16z has only made a few meager investments in climate tech. Andreessen Horowitz seems to think they can help "build" by launching content sites like future.a16z.com.

How about investing real 💵 to *build* real solutions?

(Also, @a16z has tweeted about "climate change" exactly once).

🤔 What motivates people to buy your product?

Years ago, @alanklement and I explored this topic on a livestream.

Here are some of the key insights that emerged. 👉 @alanklement Case study: why did I buy @decksetapp?

- I wanted my slides to look as good as @SamuelHulick's
- Spent hours trying to design my own
- Failed; tried to buy PowerPoint theme and customize it
- Got frustrated; wasn't working on my talk!
- Saw DeckSet slides. They look good!

If I was at a bigger company, trying to hire incredible "full stack" employees, here's what I'd do:

1. Go to communities like @IndieHackers, @megamaker.

2. Find indie creators earning $5k-12k/month from their projects.

3. Offer them a salary that's 2-3x their current revenue. Mosts indie creators have an annual revenue goal in mind ($120k, $200k, $300k).

Many of these indie makers would be unbelievable employees, but aren't currently looking at job postings.

Make them an offer that helps them achieve their financial + freedom goals to entice them!

The pre-requirement for a successful SaaS is customer demand.

If there’s no existing desire from customers, it doesn’t matter how good your marketing is (or how passionate you are).

Customer demand forms the baseline for your company’s trajectory. People who built their company purely on passion (and succeeded) got lucky.

Their passion happened to coincide with a market where there was demand.

Beware of false-positives: most passion products fail!

There needs to be underlying customer demand for what you’re building.