CuratorList
Create awesome lists, build a ❤ community, and monetize.
After more than 6 months in the wild, and getting nearly no validation for this idea, I have decided that it's better to let it go.
It seemed like a good and interesting approach to solving a need the community apparently had.
The real data gave a different perspective. Very few people cared about the idea or even subscribing to it.
My 2 hypotheses are that most people trying to create this kind of sites (based on feedback I received) either have enough experience to build something on their own or are doing it as a side-side project and are not interested in paying for the service as proposed.
If you come from the future with a similar idea and would like more details or to chat about this, feel free to contact me!
Have fun!
Figuring out what to say is hard when is the first time ever you're contacting your soon-to-be users.
But also, super thrilling!
If you have not requested an early access account at CuratorList.com, you should run and do it now, because once the beta is out, the super secret early adopters club won't accept any new members!
This week was a short one, but had a deep impact noneles.
I spent a good amount of time chatting with curators, and list creators. It helped me realize many hidden opportunities around my original idea.
I also opened a pandora box... Curatorlist.com has 3 pillars: Curated lists, Community & Monetization.
So, naturally, I started doing a deeper research for the second one: "Community", and trying to contact people that had a better understanding about it than me. That's when I contacted @8bit and started chatting...
Five minutes into the conversation he said to me: Have you started building a product and don't have a community first?
You need to build a community before you build a product. Don't build anything until you're entirely certain of a customer!
Thanks John for the wise words!
Now, back to the drawing board, or maybe... the community drawing board.
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lol!
you're doing great! the fact that you reached out and took some criticism says quite a lot about your drive!!
this can't be taught... so, keep going. you'll do great.
Built a simple landing page.
Asked for feedback.
Scrapped it.
Started over & built another one.
Asked for feedback.
Improved it.
Asked for feedback.
Improved it.
Got anxious about posting the link.
Posted the link in a comment just to see what happened.
Went to sleep.
Woke up to new subscribers.
Felt empowered!
I figured... if I'm going to build it, let's see what people that have built sites like this before have to say about it.
I started contacting (still am.. just in case you get a DM from me on Twitter!) people and asking simple questions? Why...? How..? Pain..?
This of course led to many "aha" moments, where things that I haven't even considered showed up.
I was trying to create a curated list one afternoon, after trying to get it to work the way I wanted for a couple of days, I figured... there is nothing that covers this issue well!
Some would just focus on one side of the problem: Curating, but there is so much more to it!
I posted about it here, and got the crickets: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/lists-websites-a-no-code-nightmare-19e2022c95
One thing led to the other, and I figured... this is something I'd like to build.
And that day, CuratorList was born!
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