9
6 Comments

Launched today - how I went from idea → MVP in 3 days

TweetSponsor is a new platform for twitter creators to monetize their tweets by partnering with sponsors who want to reach their audience.

And I went from idea to MVP in just a few days. Initially I just wanted to validate the idea with a simple landing page and email capture. But I decided to turn it into an MVP.

The key to building an MVP fast? Saying no to every feature you think you need. And leverage external tools to do the rest of the work.

I could have spent a lot more time building out listings, payments, user accounts, chat, and more. But it would be a waste of time if I didn't validate the idea to begin with.

Instead, I used an Airtable form for Twitter profile listings, and Gumroad to sell access to the Airtable.

This way I can validate both sides of the equation - Twitter creators that want to sell tweet space, and sponsors who pay for access to the listings.

My experience shows us a few things:

  • An MVP can very minimal

Nomadlist started as a Google Sheets document before it became the huge site and community that it is now.

TweetSponsor is a landing page with links to Airtable and Gumroad with no additional functionality. I leveraged external tools to provide the essential features (data entry, and payment).

If your idea isn't validated, reduce scope over and over.

  • You can do it on a tiny budget

The domain cost me $9, and I'm using the free-tier services of Airtable, Gumroad, Emailoctopus, and Netlify.

In fact the MVP could have been made even quicker if I used a landing page template or service - the majority of my time was spent designing and playing around with the landing page. I spent a fair amount of time creating a Twitter UI clone for the lead visual.

Within a couple of hours of launch we already have Twitter profiles listed with over 300k followers combined!

TweetSponsor is live on Product Hunt right now! I would love for you to check out the post and give some feedback!

  1. 2

    Congrats! Are you going to add a Q&A section to your page? For example, I don't know:

    • How will I be informed when some sponsor is interested in my profile?
    • How many profiles are listed now? If there is few, it makes no sense for me to buy sponsor access.
    • Is 10$ payment for lifetime access or it is only for some period of time?

    I am also wondering about narrowing down the type of content that can be tweeted. I see two advantages in that strategy:

    • If the page was only for tech (or any other) topic, and I wanted to find some interesting people who helped me to promote my tech product/course/book etc., I would be sure that I find a lot of Twitter creators on your list. Currently, the page is for everyone, so I don't have any confidence if there are creators that will be suited for me,
    • It would be easier to promote it among people who are interested in the main topic of the page.
    1. 2

      Thanks!

      Yeah a FAQ might be pretty useful. Right now everything beyond listing a twitter profile is done off the platform (because the functionality doesn't exist).

      To answer your questions:

      How will I be informed when some sponsor is interested in my profile?

      Right now an interested sponsor will contact you directly via Twitter if they're interested in sponsorships.

      In the future this will obviously change to being on-platform.

      How many profiles are listed now? If there is few, it makes no sense for me to buy sponsor access.

      Very true! We launched about 12 hours ago, and there are currently 13 listed profiles tweeting about ~25 different topics. With a reach of over 350k followers combined

      There has already been 1 sale of access to the listings. And access gives you access to the future listings too, so even if there aren't 100s right now you will have access when there is.

      Is 10$ payment for lifetime access or it is only for some period of time?

      Good question. For now it gives you access to the listings in their current form. When we build listings into the platform itself we'll probably think more about the payments.

      Then you mentioned topics and categories and visibility to sponsors. This is the same as some other feedback we've had today - sponsors want to know whether there are people in their niche on the platform before pulling out their credit card.

      For now, I might just add a list of the topics that are on the list to the landing page. But obviously in the future sponsors will be able to see listings with enough detail before committing to paying anything.

      Hope that's answered your questions!

  2. 1

    Congrats! Inspiring story and so great to see your potential. Shared the PH link on twitter!

    Are you planning to embed Gumroad and Airtable pages into the website next? What do you think about using something like Dorik.com to speed up release cycles?

    1. 1

      Thanks!

      Are you planning to embed Gumroad and Airtable pages into the website next?

      Probably not. It'll likely stay as it is for now until I build out some of the features myself.

      What do you think about using something like Dorik.com to speed up release cycles?

      Speeding up release cycles isn't exactly a priority right now. There's only been 2 'releases' so far - the initial launch, and an update that I made today to include a section detailing some of the Twitter creators.

      Building the basic functionality into the site itself - user accounts, listings, and selling access should be a simple process anyway since I've done it before.

  3. 1

    I saw this on product hunt and looks super cool man!

  4. 1

    impressive! best of luck

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 47 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 27 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments How I Launched FrontendEase 13 comments