I struggle a lot with making some important decisions, above all because I end up taking too long to make them. I basically stall. Lately, I've been struggling with this one: do I move to Portugal and keep my company in Estonia, or do I stay in Italy and open a new corporation here? Context: I run a a company in Estonia which manages 9 SaaS products, making … [Read more...]
How I would grow gumroad.com
This is the second blog post in the "How I would grow" series. The first one is about how I would grow getrewardful. This blog post is about reinventing the discover page over at Gumroad, a site that allows creators to get paid. The goal is to bring in more money for creators by driving more eye balls to their products in the discover page. The page is pretty static at the … [Read more...]
We launched LeadHall.com (2021)
At my company, we (which really means I), launch 5 or more products per year. I write these “launch” posts as a way to encapsulate my thinking at the time of launch. Here are some other launches that we made in the past: * I launched Angage (now Cart, 2017) * I launched Dealflow (2019) * I launched Treendly (2019) * I launched Podda (2021) Yesterday we soft-launched … [Read more...]
My first hire
In 2021, I’m hiring people to help me out. Hiring has many problems, and I already wrote about how relationships are not linear here. I also outlined my very opinionated candidate persona here. As I reach my goal of $100k ARR with just SaaS products, I’ll be bringing on one person, and then possibly another one (for redundancy). My first hire My first hire is Clarice, she is … [Read more...]
Paperback over digital?
Paperback over digital? A simple question someone asked me on Facebook, commenting on a photo of some books I just purchased. What do I prefer? I replied: yes, and yes. In life, people often think they have to choose between two things. Or, put one before the other. Here is the thing: you can just have both. In this case, the cost of a book is so trivial compared to the upside … [Read more...]
We launched Podda.io (2021)
At my company, we (which really means I), launch 5 or more products per year.I write these “launch” posts as a way to encapsulate my thinking at the time of launch.Here are some other launches that we made in the past:* I launched Angage (now Cart, 2017)* I launched Dealflow (2019)* I launched Treendly (2019) A couple of days ago we soft-launched Podda.ioI coded this in ~5 … [Read more...]
1:1
In 2021, I’m thinking about hiring people to help me out. Just thinking, not actively doing it yet. Hiring has many problems, and I already wrote about how relationships are not linear here. Delegate to machines it’s far easier for me: * they almost never fail; * if they fail, it’s most likely your fault. Sometimes, though, you can’t not hire humans. So, I’ve been thinking … [Read more...]
Does it make sense?
This a blog post about finding the thing that makes the other things you do meaningless. For me, that thing is music. And, I’ve always known. First of all, when I hear music (whenever I play or not), I have no other thoughts. It’s like meditation in a way, its purest form.The other thing is: everything else that I do during the day becomes meaningless: software, marketing, … [Read more...]
Speed by subtraction
An obvious point that took me way too long to appreciate: in software engineering, you should probably optimize for speed even when you don't have to, because it's one of the easiest/best ways to prioritize subtraction and parsimony in the solution space. https://t.co/kYulYoV3uN. — Patrick Collison (@patrickc) April 9, 2021 … [Read more...]
The era of gods
In a previous blog post, I’ve discussed how I think code is becoming a commodity. Still, I think the difference in the (somewhat near) future will be made by technology. A reader asked me to clarify my position on that. First of all, technology is not only code. There was a point in time where your bicycle was, in fact, technology. Now everyone has a bike. It’s a … [Read more...]
Multiple products, same product
I previously wrote about how multiple products can end up looking like the same product. In a similar fashion, even if you take two different products, with different designs, with different team sizes, etc - your target market will think that they generally do the same thing. And, that has nothing to do with design. Aligned with the JTBD framework, and maybe stressing the … [Read more...]
Make it less ready
This is an addition to one of my other blog posts, called "make it boring". On that blog post, I wrote about how there’s always something (usually a shiny object) that can make your project look or feel cooler. Instead, you should aim to make it boring. Similarly, there’s always something you can do to make your project be more ready. There’s always something unexpected you can … [Read more...]
Events, compressing and expanding time
Our life is made of days, and our days are made of events. Events are major highlights which obfuscate everything else that you do in a given day. Events are not only major social events, like a wedding could be. An event could be you going for a run, it could be you discovering something for the first time, it could be anything that moves you far more than what you usually … [Read more...]
Permission to forget
Today I want to talk about autopoiesis. For context, the term refers to a system which can reproduce and sustain itself. The term was introduced in 1972 by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela to define the self-maintaining chemistry of living cells. Since then the concept has also been applied to systems theory and sociology. To me, autopoiesis goes … [Read more...]
Don’t build for too long
Eventually, all the solutions in a market end up looking the same and having the same features. For example, take UpWork and Fiverr: two marketplaces who had a kind of distinct offer until now. Here is Fiverr: And here is Upwork, who recently launched services: What do you see? The same thing. This is true for other software out there as well. For example, Todoist now has … [Read more...]
1 + 1 != 2
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about hiring. This will probably be the first of a series of blog posts about it, as I have more than one problem with the concept of building a team. I’ve been working alone for a long time, and the few times I worked together with other individuals I was disappointed, to say the least. Today, I want to share one concept that is kind of … [Read more...]
Cutting my revenue on purpose
I run multiple profitable software products in parallel, and I just passed $6k MRR last month. But, I'm starting 2021 by unsubscribing some of my users. These "users” were currently paying but they were not regularly using my products. All and all, I cut around $3-400 worth of subscriptions. When I shared this on Twitter, I got controversial replies. Some people said they sign … [Read more...]
The insecure entrepreneur
If you are insecure, you can't be an entrepreneur. Being resolute is the name of the game. Entrepreneurship is about making decisions quickly with incomplete information. It's a roller coaster, far from the concept of something stable. Here are some things that make it so: how much you work on your thing is not directly correlated to how much you get out of it things brake all … [Read more...]
What I know about data
My new course "Reverse engineering through technical scraping" is out. I built my career, and 10s of software products on a simple idea: collecting third-party data for profit. In the course, I teach you exactly that: how to collect, transform and use third-party data to get a competitive advantage. Collecting data is more crucial than ever now, as every company needs data. … [Read more...]
Micro feedback
Micro feedback. I've been practicing this for years. How do you know that you are actually helping your customers? You ask them, without getting in the way. Example from one of my SaaS, Cart, below. Feedback comes directly to my inbox: Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are launched, as well as other stories from the trenches. People … [Read more...]