Unbundled, Creators, Public 🚀
👋 Welcome!
Today’s newsletter focuses on creators who build in public, part of the new passion economy as Li Jin calls it. In her newsletter Unbundling Work from Employment, she explains how new digital platforms are enabling a shift in work. Traditional corporate gatekeepers are being bypassed, allowing a new breed of micro-entrepreneurs to emerge. With these platforms, they can “create products, reach customers, and earn income without needing an employer.” Not only are they able to leverage their “skills, creativity, and knowledge,” but they also have “greater ownership and autonomy”. She explains that traditional employment is “a bundle of income, benefits, team, learning.” Independent workers have to assemble these pieces themselves. This, in turn, creates “opportunities for vertical & horizontal platforms.” She concludes that “to legitimize independent workers and creators, there needs to be dedicated tools to support managing and growing their businesses, forging new connections, learning new skills, and connecting to work opportunities.” Read the full thread or read the newsletter.
😺 Products of the Day
July 29, 2020
🥇 Grapevine: Asynchronous meeting software for remote teams.
🥈 onetool: The App Store for SaaS.
🥉 Cohere: Observe and interact with users, live.
🚀 Maker News
Idea to Customers
On July 7th, I reported that Kieran, founder of Growth Lessons, launched a new project named Launch MBA. The goal is to “build, launch, and learn rapidly,” by shipping 12 products in 12 months. Besides learning to ship products, members will join a vibrant community, learn to grow an online audience by building in public and become NoCode experts. After five weeks, Kieran is launching the first cohort and has generated a phenomenal $2.5k in revenue. He shares with us the response he got from the community, his work methodology, the ups and downs, as well as the NoCode stack he is using. The whole experience has been humbling and Kieran is “determined to give them 10X more value than they paid, at a minimum.” Congrats Kieran, not only is this is a great idea that deserves applause, but it also emphasises, that if you keep shipping you will succeed! The 1st Cohort is sold out, but you can sign up for the 2nd cohort here. Read the whole thread.
Build in Public
Speaking of shipping, KP has just shipped the first issue of Build in Public 👏 It features non-other than the prolific maker Dru Riley, creator of trends.vc and a rising start the VC and founder community. Focusing on quality and surrounding himself with great people have helped him build an audience. Like many others, @levelsio inspired him to build in public. “It's storytelling. And stories are powerful.” One of his most valuable decisions was to go to the Indie Hackers Atlanta meetup, where he met other makers who changed his life. Read KP’s thread or the full interview.
FAQ Directory
Zoe Chew also loves building in public! She often receives DMs from the community for advice on how to transition into tech, how to start a consulting business, or how to build and launch products. As a consequence, she decided to curate a Public FAQ Directory, to answer all the questions. On top of that, she has written a post that lists the NoCode tools used to build this project (Carrd, Airtable, Substack, DrawKit) and explains the whole build process step by step. This is a highly informative post on multiple fronts, thank you! View the directory and read the full article.
💭 Afterthought
To finish the day, a statement by Dann that speaks for itself. It especially emphasises the range of opportunities available to contemplating and idea-seeking makers, solopreneuers and side-hustlers. IMO, everybody has something of value to share! So pick a medium and start creating consistently. Everything else will follow. Take care and see you tomorrow.
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