Funding, Creators, Reflection 💭
👋 Welcome!
Tracy Osborn from TinySeed recently spoke at Queens University in Ontario about alternative sources of funding. She shares a helpful slide deck for anyone wishing to learn more about this topic and what options are available. Her presentation first looks at the upsides and downsides of bootstrapping vs venture capital. It then goes on to look at alternative funding methods. These include revenue-based financing, bank loans, debt financing crowdfunding and early-stage bootstrapper funds such as TinySeed, indie.vc or Earnest Capital. View the full slide deck.
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July 23, 2020
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🚀 Maker News
Creator Funds
Anthony Pompliano (Pomp) shares an interesting Press Release from TikTok, which has announced a $200m creator fund. Pomp observes that more and more young people now aspire to become full-time creators and this fund will accelerate that trend on this and other platforms. As David Perell and others have written, social media is the top of the funnel, where you can make friends, grow your audience, and share what's on your mind. From there you can capture more value through “direct contact,” whether this is a newsletter, podcast, online course or ebook. Content is king!
Newsletter Monetization
Simon P. shares a helpful post on Indie Hackers on how he grew his newsletter to $1,000 after three months and his plan for reaching $10k. Key learnings include launching before you think you're ready, setting a schedule, collecting feedback, not getting stuck on one idea and subject lines. He explains his strategy on when and how to monetize, emphasizing that “when you have something great, don't be scared to charge for it.” Above all though, you need to “give real value to capture and hold attention!” Read the full post.
Generational Thinking
Substack spoke with Terry Nguyen, writer for Vox and of the gen yeet newsletter. Her writing focuses on youth culture on the internet, technology and consumer trends, and generational commentary. The goal is to “demystify and humanize” Generation Z. In the podcast, they discuss the different media coverage toward Millennials and Gen Z, and the importance of reframing how people think about specific generations. She points out that “no generation is a monolith. We shouldn't always assume that people hold these views just because that's the dominant narrative.” Listen to Podcast.
💭 Afterthought
To finish the week an insightful Tweet on the necessity of reflection by Tim Ferriss with a quote from Henri Poicaré, a French mathematician and physicist from 19/20 century. Take care and see you next week!
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