Product, Hosting, Decisions, Platforms 🏗️

👋 Welcome!

We kick off today with some great insights by product guru Shreyas Doshi (Stripe, Twitter, Google) on his 15 principles of product work. Principle #9 patrticularily caught my eye. It lists the three most valuable questions you sgould regularly ask about your product: 1) Is it serving an implicit or explicit user need very well? 2) Is it differentiated enough? 3) Is the market large-enough (or will it be) so you can meet your business goals? Read the full thread to learn more about the other 14 principles.

Shreyas Doshi @shreyas

A thread of 15 principles for product work (most of which I learned the hard way) 👇🏾

---

🚀 Maker News

Self-Hosted Substack

Are you publishing or about to launch a newsletter? Looking for an alternative self-hosted setup to your Substack? Below, Maker Dan Rowden explains how it can be done using Ghost and other tools. Read his post to learn more.

Dan Rowden 👨🏻‍💻 @dr

You can create a self-hosted version of Substack on your own domain—with a paywall—using: • @Ghost (publishing and in-built newsletter & membership features) • Substation theme (substation.rdnthemes.com) • @CoveComments (Ghost member comments)

cove.chatHow to build your own Substack with Ghost and CoveHow to create a Substack-like site with paid memberships and comments on your own domain, in a totally customisable site, with zero fees.

Investment Decisisons

Immad, CEO and founder of Mercury Bank, explains that “subjective factors are actually the core of investor decision making and one of the reasons investors have a hard time answering why they said no to a startup.” So make sure you are helping potential investors answer their questions. Read the full thread to learn more.

immad @immad

1/ Founders sometimes forget how subjective investment decisions can be. Pitches should help investors affirmatively answer: a) Am I going to be excited about sharing this startup with other investors? b) Am I going to be excited to work with this founder for 10+ yrs?

eCommerce Platforms

Looking for an eCommere platform to build your store on? Thierry Maout shares a useful post by Integromat that reviews the most popular and relevant platforms in 2020 to help you make the right choice for your business needs. Learn more.

Thierry Maout @ThierryMaout

Check out the 5 best #ecommerce platforms to start your online business in 2020 in an article I recently wrote for @integromat blog!

integromat.comThe Best 5 Ecommerce Platforms to Start Your Online Business in 2020Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce and more: Learn about the best 5 ecommerce platforms in 2020, and make the right choice for your business needs.

---

💭 Afterthought

A great tweet by Jack Butcher. Although such a small amount, it will have a giant influence on your life as a Maker. So take action and ship! Take care and see you tomorrow!

Jack Butcher @jackbutcher

A tiny goal that will change your life: Make $1 on the internet.

---

If you enjoy my newsletter, please spread the word to other interested people and help grow SpringUp Stories. You can also find me on Twitter if you’d like to follow my thoughts in real-time! I'll be back tomorrow with another newsletter. If you're getting value out of this newsletter please consider buying me a coffee. ☕