Makermind
Find and form impactful entrepreneurial mastermind groups.
Marketplaces take time and energy to get going.
I didn't have the energy to commit to a marketplace at the moment. Had fun, met some cool people and learned a ton about choosing which products to start when.
There is definitely a need for this, but I am not going to be the one to take it to market. Live and learn!
Didn’t get as much done today as I thought. Tomorrow is another day.
Finished off majority of the makermind website landing page.
Need to add some detail to the OpenStartup page so people can view this notion.
Doing the website on Webflow just because it's what I know and will be fastest.
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Product looks very interesting good luck =) Will keep myself posted on updates I definitely have searched for this, the closest thing I found was @tiagorbf's coworking space..but I actually was looking more for a kind of mastermind thing..not so much a coworking but I guess it could have some overlap
So, how did that go?
About as I expected it to.
First, a few honest reflections:
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It is not a super exciting idea or space right now. If I look at the products that ranked yesterday on PH - they are almost all Web3 products or crypto-related products. Super hot space right now.
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The landing page and product was not ready for launch. There's no where for a user to go, see the product in action, and see what groups they can find.
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It's not a ground-breaking idea. A marketplace is a marketplace.
To be honest, I didn't have huge expectations, and that's maybe why I am not super dissapointed.
My expectations...
The goal was sign ups. Any of the other vanity metrics like page views and upvotes were just going to be contributers to that metric.
If I got 20 sign ups I would have been happy.
The results...
Only 85 page views (Much lower than I expected)
I only got 21 upvotes on PH and ended up ranked about 25th for the day?
21 Sign ups.
So... what next?
Keep promoting the product organically in the circles that matter. This community is one of them.
Maybe setup and start my own group which spawns others.
My intention for all the products I launch this year is to try and build them as community-contributed products. I want them to mould into what the community wants from them.
Some ideas:
- Keep promoting the PH launch, and hopefully get some (post-launch) upvotes.
- Keep talking on IH and engaging in the community.
- Keep posting here.
- Reddit.
- Low-hanging SEO fruit?
No updates for a while, sorry!
I've been slowly ticking away at getting this product ready for a PH launch. It was meant to happen last week, then on Sunday, but I've just been too busy with other (main work) stuff and never got around to it.
There was definitely also a feeling of nervousness ahead of the impending launch!
I have verrryyy low expectations.
Some key things I focused on for the PH launch:
- Posting as close to 00:00 PST as possible.
- Having some actual product mockups available, not text. I did those in Figma and they came out relatively fine. Tried not to spend toooo much time on these, as it easy to get too close to perfection.
- Made two gifs. One for the logo, and one for one of the images of the product. I was battling to find a way to convey how the value proposition can be specific, but also account for the different types of groups that the product enables. So I used Adobe After Effects to create some simple animations which add a "polished" look to the product.
- A really simple value proposition and messaging.
- A good comment.
- Opening up the lines of communication and inviting collaboration. I don't for a second expect that this is the final version of Makermind. I want the market to pull the product into the niche and/or form that it wants it.
The rest I will hopefully work out as it goes today. Wish me luck, and hopefully I'll see you in the comments?
Website is done. 99%:
- Mobile friendly,
- Analytics installed,
- Forms hooked up.
Decided to include an inline form on the hero so that I was capturing emails before the application form started.
Used Paperform for the application form. Typeform is just reeeeally expensive. Paperform had a good free-tier.
Website is live on makermind.io
It's by no-means perfect but I decided to get it out there and tweak as I go.
The 1% left to do is to add some visual mockups of the matching paltform to the website. I feel like I can't launch without those. My experience has shown that people need a visual frame of reference so that they can picture "what is this experience going to look like".
No matter how good your copy, people respond to media.
They'll also help with the PH launch. Revised launch date is 14 Feb.
Next update on Sunday!
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Needs pricing info.
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Thanks, on the way!
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Hi Simon, congrats on the progress!
I feel like you have the same problem that I'm running into with my landing page - too much text, too few pictures. I personally don't have an application developed yet, which is why I didn't add any screenshots. But that's my next step.
By the way, I LOVE that you added a personal note at the bottom. That's really cool and helps build trust!
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Thanks for the feedback @milanjovanovic. Good luck with your project!
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07 Feb
Setup the Projects interface on SimonBlogs.
Updated my IH profile.
Engagement on these platforms is going to be NB to build a bit of a following over the year. I anticipate that I’ll likely be better at launches by the end of the year when I’ve shown a track record of consistency.
Today I will finish MM website after a chilled day yesterday.
08 Feb
Didn’t finish the MM website yesterday, or today.
Manic start to the week at normal work. Two 14-hour days have meant little to no extra time.
What I did do is finish the landing page for MM. I think the messaging is good. Maybe a bit much.
Need to work on the revenue model. I’m not sure about that.
Loading this on IH now.
Tomorrow
- Footer
- Rest of the site
- Survey
A few things to think about:
- Turning this into a social media channel for professional connections. Maybe that’s the revenue angle.
- What value can you provide in the Pool that is useful for young entrepreneurs. Maybe just accountability? What’s something that people who are looking for a group might need?
Launch day will be two weeks from Thursday: 24 Feb
As the first project of my 12 products in a year, this is the official start. Here, you'll be able to see all my updates. I'll be using this as a journal so you can read what's working, what's not, and what I'm working on.
04 Feb was official kick-off day. Here's the first update:
Decided to commit to building 12 projects this year. Varying levels of technicality.
I need to get out of the mindset of perfection. That cadence should help me do that.
Today:
- Refined messaging for Makermind
- About to update my PH profile
- Decided on Web3 newsletter
Tomorrow:
A big day.
- Finish MM website
- Write about goals on SB
- Write about web3
- Setup MM survey
- Start frontend technical work behind tracker.
1 Comment
Please share your learnings, what worked, what did not worked etc.