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Zero to $Sales in 30 Days · Alternative Assets are Trending · Saving Earth as a Biz Metric

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

Channing here. Now that we're approaching the 2020 mountaintop, a bigger picture of creative destruction is taking shape. It's a collage of two photos: 2020's destruction on the left, and (if all goes well with the new COVID-19 vaccines) 2021's creation on the right.

I won't call 2021 "the year of the startup," because let's face it: it's the 21st century, and every year is the year of the startup. But we are in the midst of a new boom:

Airbnb and DoorDash plan to go public in the next few weeks, capping off a very busy year for IPOs… There used to be only a handful of unicorn IPOs per year, due to a limited pipeline, making each one a major Wall Street event. Those days are over.

And make no mistake: some of those VC-backed startups will have a bit of trouble in the staffing department. Because the excitement fueling Big Tech is fueling Indie Tech as well.

On to the newsletter. Here's what you'll find in this issue:

  • You've got 30 days to build a product and make a sale. Can you do it? Because this indie hacker did.
  • In the news: Slack joining Salesforce? Courtland gossips about Y Combinator culture. Stripe eyes $70bn+ valuation.
  • While you were shopping on Black Friday, marketing expert Harry Dry was taking notes on everyone's promotional strategy. Cheat off his test!
  • Investing in stocks and other mainstream assets can be a struggle. Learn about a trending investment alternative that offers unexpected opportunities.
  • 188,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. Learn about the indie hacker whose main metric relates to saving the planet.

Special thanks to @HaldenIng, @PeteCodes, @Dru_Riley, @HarryDry, @Ben, @WesBos, and artist Gavin Nelson for contributing to this newsletter. Want to contribute a piece of your own? Check out this doc for an idea of what I'm looking for.

⏳ Zero to Sales in 30 Days

Photo of Ben Isseman's bedroom

by Halden Ingwersen of The Deep Dive

If you had 30 days to get your business off the ground or give up on it forever, could you do it?

Because that's exactly what Ben Issenmann did this spring:

In May 2020 I gave myself 30 days to create and sell an online course. If I succeeded, I would continue with it.

Going from zero to making sales in just four weeks is a daunting task no matter when you do it. But here Ben was, trying to do all of this in May 2020.

If you don't remember, not much was happening back in May. No biggie. Just worldwide lockdowns as COVID-19 ramped up, protests against police violence and brutality across the United States, and record high unemployment.

During a time when most people were stressed out beyond belief and businesses were failing nationwide, Ben decided to take on a completely voluntary challenge and try to get his product going.

So what did he do first? Where do you even start a project like this?

I locked myself in my bedroom… I set up a landing page and prepared an outline for a course to teach Webflow. The course would focus on hands-on coaching and last for a month.

By the end of the month, he had created Supercreative: an all-in-one resource for creatives of all types featuring tutorials, expert-taught courses, templates, articles, tools, and online events.

But he hadn't simply created the new project. He'd also found tens of users and gotten them to open their wallets to the tune of thousands of dollars. People didn't just like Supercreative. They loved it.

So how the hell did he validate his idea so quickly and effectively? The secret, as it so often is, was all about doing something that didn't scale:

I announced the course with a LinkedIn video, explaining that I worked at Webflow, built hundreds of websites with it and was now teaching this tool. I had 10 students sign up within a week. It earned $4,000 and I got to meet and help awesome designers and entrepreneurs.

Once he realized what he was onto, Ben was addicted, and there was no going back. But in order to go forward, he would need a lot more than a LinkedIn announcement.

And the marketing approach he put together after those first 30 days has been effective, to say the least:

Right now Supercreative has about 15,000 monthly visitors and the newsletter is growing +100% every month. More than 2,000 people have bought or downloaded Supercreative resources in the last three months.

To find out more about how Ben has grown Supercreative from just a few users to a couple thousand, read the full interview.

📰 In the News

💰 $5k in a week: An indie hacker talks about monetizing a community for developer bloggers.

📹 Courtland talks YC culture: Courtland and Jason Calacanis discussed YC culture and how to be an indie hacker on the podcast This Week in Startups.

💸 Salesforce might acquire Slack: Will this make indie hackers host communities elsewhere?

🐘 PHP 8 is out: The unfashionable coding language that powers Pieter Level's wealth gets an upgrade.

📬 Sam Parr sends "mistake" email: A creative way to announce his paid newsletter Trends is on sale.

🎙 Mubs is on the Indie Hackers podcast: Courtland talks to the prolific maker.

💻 CSS Scan update released: Easily copy and paste any website's CSS.

📈 Stripe could be worth $70bn: Rumor has it the payments platform is seeking a new funding round.

🧳 Tech CEOs are leaving SF: Austin, LA and Denver are attracting CEOs leaving the Bay area for financial and political reasons.

🧠 Harry's Growth Tip

by Harry Dry of Marketing Examples

image of tips from Wes Bos

Wes Bos's Black Friday email is a lesson in copywriting.

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

Discuss this story.

📈 Alternative Assets are Trending

Shiny Blog GIF

by Dru Riley of Trends.vc

Problem

Mainstream assets (stocks, bonds, real estate) tend to trade in efficient markets. It's hard to find an edge when others have the same access and information.

Solution

Alternative assets (tax deeds, sports cards, fine art) have access and information problems. They may be illiquid, volatile, hard to authenticate and value. But every problem presents an opportunity.

Players

  1. Wine
  2. Watches
  3. Art
  4. Facebook Groups
  5. Music Royalties
  6. NFTs
  7. Instagram Accounts
  8. Domain Names
  9. Whisky
  10. Spotify Playlists

Predictions

  • Alternative assets will become more accessible. Vinovest (wine), Otis (collectibles) and Masterworks (fine art) give us access to alternative assets.
  • Transaction costs will drop. Marketplaces, like Swapd, save time and sometimes broker fees by moving deals from DMs to public listings. Fractional ownership platforms sidestep 25% premiums from auction houses like Sotheby's.
  • Influencers will exert more control over alt prices. See Logan Paul and PokemonGary V and Sports CardsJack Dorsey and BitcoinBuffett, like Binance, also bumps prices.

Go here to get the Trends Pro report. It contains 200% more insights. You also get access to the entire back catalog and the next 52 Pro Reports.

Discuss this story. Image Credit: Gavin Nelson.

🌎 Saving the Planet as a Business Metric?

Photo of Ben Sterne

by James Fleischmann of Milestone Road

188,000 pounds of CO2 removed from our atmosphere. That's the metric that counts for @bensterne of Oco ($410/mo). Here's why:

I am lucky, I've had some powerful experiences in nature. I recently camped in a pine grove with some of the oldest trees in the world. Five thousand years old. These trees have been there since the dawn of civilization. It's hard to wrap your head around. It was moving. Beautiful.

Living in an apartment, driving my car, eating at restaurants, it's easy to feel like I'm completely removed and separate from nature. So it's these experiences that remind me that I'm a part of the natural world — not at odds with it.

Oco is one way that I show respect to nature. And it's one way that I take meaningful action to support a more sustainable future. The main metric I track is the amount of CO2 removed from our atmosphere, not revenue. And we just hit 188,000 pounds. I feel great purpose in that.

Join Milestone Road to peak behind the curtain of the latest Indie Hackers milestones.

Discuss this story.

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