What's New: TikTok is growing like crazy

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

TikTok recently hit 3 billion downloads globally:

• TikTok is the most downloaded app for the 4th month in a row. SaaS products are being advertised on the platform, so hop on this growth channel while it's sizzling hot.
• Irish-pub-as-a-service (IPaaS) is a hot new concept that generated one company $2 billion. For founders, "Biz in a Box" could be the next big thing.
• Founder Nathan Barry's ConvertKit hit $28.3 million in annual revenue. His secret? Make your customer the hero.

Want to share something with over 80,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing

📹 TikTok is Growing Like Crazy

from the Growth & Acquisition Channels newsletter by Darko

TikTok recently became the first non-Facebook mobile app to reach 3B downloads globally. The platform is growing like crazy, and indie hackers are growing with it.

TikTok is killing it

The stats: TikTok recently became the first non-Facebook mobile app to reach 3B downloads globally. Also, TikTok is the most downloaded app for the fourth month in a row.

Are you missing out? Personally, I'm seeing digital SaaS products and apps being advertised on the platform.

There are influencers who make short videos about cool things that you can do with software. For example, if you run a personal background check app, someone could make a short video with a joke saying something like:

Did you know that you can locate your neighbor's criminal record online?

The opportunity: If you've been on TikTok long enough, you've seen plenty of videos like these. If you sell a B2C product, or market to certain professions, then definitely take a look at using TikTok for fast growth. At the moment, it's growing like crazy!

Yelp's new ads

Previously, Yelp allowed only brick-and-mortar businesses to reach its audiences. This is now changing.

The news: Yelp has announced a new product called Yelp Audiences, which is a way to "retarget" people who search Yelp by directing them to other platforms.

An example: Let's say you offer dog subscription treats like BarkBox. You aren't allowed to advertise on Yelp because you're not a brick-and-mortar business.

However, with Yelp Audiences, you now appear when someone who searches Yelp for pet services visits another website. Yelp will collaborate with a variety of networks so that you can show your ads on as many websites as possible.

The opportunity: This is a new way to reach high-intent audiences. If you have a gym app, for example, you can appear in front of people who searched for gyms on Yelp. According to Yelp, 90% of people make a purchase within a week after visiting the platform.

YouTube audio ads work

The experiment: Ad design platform Creatopy spent almost $7K promoting its software on YouTube. Half of it was spent on video ads, half on audio ads (which are still in beta).

The results: Audio ads brought Creatopy six view-through conversions. This is a new type of conversion tracking that measures how many visitors saw your ad but did not click. The platform received three conversions from video ads. The company concluded that audio ads worked twice as well as video ads. Also, twice as many people saw the audio ads for the same budget.

The opportunity: YouTube Audio Ads are quite new, but they're starting to show results for founders. If you're looking for low-cost promotion methods, Audio Ads might be something you want to consider.

Have you used TikTok as an acquisition channel? Share in the comments.

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Growth & Acquisition Channels for more.

📰 In the News

from the Volv newsletter by Priyanka Vazirani

🖼 The Louvre is suing Pornhub over its 'Classic Nudes' initiative.

📱 The 'Right to Repair' movement is gaining ground in the US.

🎮 Netflix says its gaming push will begin with mobile.

🌧 The UAE paid scientists to create artificial rain to beat extreme heat.

🤑 YouTube is planning a new way to tip creators on the platform.

Check out Volv for more 9-second news digests.

📦 Biz in a Box is the Hottest New Trend

from the Hustle Newsletter by Shân Osborn

The Signal: You may have heard Sam and Shaan talk about the Irish Pub Concept, a company that has generated ~$2B shipping units of their Irish "Pub in a Box" to 50+ countries.

The pubs are delivered complete with everything from furniture to authentic Irish knickknacks (they'll even do the setup for you). In this Signal, we'll dive into what makes this business so successful, and highlight other opportunities that lend themselves to the "Biz in a Box" model.

Biz whiz

The big picture: The Irish Pub Concept's secret lies in both product profitability and standardization.

*Source: Keywords Everywhere

Authentic Irish pubs are highly distinctive, with decor and atmospheres that have remained largely unchanged over the years, lending themselves to templatization.

The Irish pub is also a money-minting machine.

Guests are typically immersed in a world of warmth, festivity, and "craic": What the Irish call real fun. This level of authenticity creates a premium environment feel for patrons, encouraging them to indulge. This, of course, leads to impressive margins.

Combine this with decor that stands the test of time (lowering capex needs), and ye have yourself the foundation of a solid business model.

*Source: The Irish Pub Concept

The opportunity: Profitable businesses that can be templatized present attractive Biz in a Box opportunities.

Foreign cuisine and dining experiences are a great way to leverage the concept. Take Thai restaurants, the number of which tripled worldwide between 2001–2019, thanks to a Thai-government-backed program offering pre-designed restaurant "packages" to Thais living abroad.

Partnering with popular brands with licensed IPs is another route. Founders could create complete solutions for Disney-themed diners or Instagram-worthy gamer cafes, marketing to existing establishments in need of a revamp.

Hotel in a Box: As we pointed out in our rewilding Signal, interest in outdoor experiences is soaring. Trendster Nathan Resnick is currently leveraging the opportunity with his startup Bubble Hotels (check out his story here).

Airstreams provide a great opportunity: They can be delivered with everything needed to start welcoming guests. And they're trending. TikTok's #airstream has already garnered 58M+ views.

Site visits to AutoCamp, provider of luxury Airstream suites at US national parks, have more than doubled since January to reach 170K visits per month, according to Similarweb.

Founders could offer landowners complete, prepackaged designs via outright purchase or rental and revenue sharing options.

Leaning into the vintage trend could boost margins: Outdoorsy reports that their vintage Airstreams go for premium rates and have lower upkeep costs (~$1K per year).

Box in a Box: CrossFit gyms are known as "boxes" for a reason: They're plain, square warehouse-style buildings without the usual gym paraphernalia (no saunas, treadmills, pools, or mirror-lined walls). Demand for CrossFit is making a post-pandemic comeback.

You could deliver an entire gym to prospective owners, and set it up in a matter of hours. Interest in niche gyms, particularly CrossFit, is rising.

*Source: Keywords Everywhere

Acquiring distressed gym assets post-pandemic is another option. While demand for CrossFit is rebounding, gyms have had it rough: 96% of affiliate boxes in the US were closed for a period of time (or permanently) due to COVID-19.

A quick browse of business sale listings shows just how many CrossFit gyms are likely in the red. Founders could combine acquiring equipment and/or client bases from distressed boxes with the Biz in a Box model.

Trendster Codie Sanchez discussed the untapped opportunities of a revenue-sharing model with struggling gyms on a recent My First Million episode.

Shipping container gyms for home or professional use are another great niche. Google searches for "container gym" rose ~200% YoY from last March, Keywords Everywhere shows.

They're durable, easily shippable, and will provide boutique hotels, clubs, businesses, etc. with affordable gym options.

There is essentially no limit to the number of concepts you could package up into a shipping container: Mini-spas (complete with a sauna), toolshed or hobby rooms, garden home office....the list goes on and on!

Would you launch a Biz in a Box? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Discuss this story, or subscribe to the Hustle Newsletter for more.

🧠 Harry's Growth Tip

from the Marketing Examples newsletter by Harry Dry

Show off your product in all of its glory. The goal is to get as close to reality as possible.

Don't show me fancy illustrations. Show me your product. Even better, show me your product in action.

Go here for more short, sweet, practical marketing tips.

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Marketing Examples for more.

📧 Founder Nathan Barry's ConvertKit Hit $28.3M ARR

from the Listen Up! IH newsletter by Ayush Chaturvedi

Nathan Barry is the founder of ConvertKit, an email marketing solution for creators. ConvertKit hit $28.3M ARR, and has published its numbers, such as revenue and churn rate, for the past eight years.

Nathan has written extensively on his blog about the wins and losses on his journey of building a profitable SaaS company. He thinks of #BuildInPublic as a mission, not just a marketing strategy.

Building in public

Usually, bootstrapped companies stop sharing their numbers publicly after they hit the $1M revenue mark. At that stage, #BuildInPublic can become more of a disadvantage than an advantage, as companies could be giving away too much information to their competitors. (Indie Hacker Arvid Kahl wrote a detailed analysis on why companies stop sharing their numbers publicly once they get big.)

Nathan knows this, but he still shares ConvertKit's numbers publicly. On its baremetrics page, you can find tons of information:

• ConvertKit's average revenue per user is $64.
• The company has 36,634 active customers.
• Its new subscriptions are down 8% YoY.
• Its MRR is up 0.8% YoY.

For Nathan, sharing these numbers openly is about leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for founders to follow later. He builds in public to help other founders:

For us, our mission at ConvertKit is to help creators earn a living. Partially that's in building the software that we build, the training, education, everything else.

For new founders, data is easily available for very early-stage companies who are building in public. Just check out the #BuildInPublic hashtag on Twitter or the Building In Public group on IndieHackers. Data is also publicly available for large, publicly-traded companies, like Salesforce or Shopify. Hardly any data is available for companies that are in the middle, and ConvertKit wants to fill that gap. However, Nathan shared a caveat:

I would not recommend that companies share their numbers publicly unless you're doing it for a mission perspective.

Positioning ConvertKit in a crowded market

Here's how ConvertKit positions itself:

Your favorite creator's favorite marketing tool.

That's the aspirational part of the value proposition. The company wants to be the guide instead of the hero, Yoda instead of Luke Skywalker. A lot of companies miss out by positioning themselves as the hero when, in fact, they would benefit more by making their users the heroes.

Advice for indie hackers

Nathan advises not giving up too early. Have the patience to enjoy the fruits of compounding:

I think the biggest thing is that it takes a long time. When you look at compound growth of any kind, you have to give it enough years for it to compound. The thing that most founders end up doing is that they ended up selling early, moving onto the next project, giving up too soon.

Check out the full episode on the Indie Hackers Podcast here.

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Listen Up! IH for more.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Nathalie Zwimpfer for the illustrations, and to Darko, Priyanka Vazirani, Shân Osborn, and Ayush Chaturvedi for contributing posts. —Channing