@hi_gaganthakur
Stick to one thing, all those things that you tried could have worked.
You just had to stick to it and get better at diagnosing why things were going wrong.
🚨 Our new challenge is here 🚨
I'm going to build a newsletter from scratch to 1000 subscribers in 30 days 💯
I will share literally everything on here. Including what works and what doesn't.
I'm calling this new newsletter Unheard Roots, a newsletter that tells the back
@sweatystartup
Just sent you the video, 17 year old sales machine here willing to work 17 hours a day. Heck I'll even work for free until you see the hunger!
I just want to show my appreciation to the
@beehiiv
team and
@ej_beehiiv
You guys have built one of the most awesome tools to use I've seen in a while.
Every time I use Beehiiv I'm pleasantly surprised by a new feature.
This time it was having it show me the most engaged
For anyone who is in SAAS this is a straight up gold mine of information.
I just went through the entire doc and it is possibly one of the best educational resources I've seen.
@SimonJalbert
You're the goat Simon, this is incredible value you're providing!
Want to build a SaaS in Q2 but not sure where to start?
Today I'm sharing the process we used to build 19 startups making a combined $44M ARR since 2017.
Want it for free? Like + comment SEND and I'll DM it.
(Must be following. 24 hours)
Something that I don't understand is happening.
We got 17 subs today.
I don't know where these people are coming from and how they're finding Unheard Roots.
And their emails appear to be valid.
Growth Update 🎉
579 subs, 41.1% Open Rate, and 4.2% Click Rate
Doubling down on Reddit for growth as it's be yielding really well.
- 28 sign ups on Sunday.
- 34 sign ups on Monday.
- 21 sign ups on Tuesday
All from Reddit posts.
@heyeaslo
My kindle (might have been around $100 or a little bit more).
It's an entire library of books in this small tablet like device.
Way more convenient then carrying 700 page books around :)
@marc_louvion
None of it really matters.
Code, no-code.
Customers don't really give a flying fuck about your tech stack.
All these people passionately arguing about one side or another don't realize none of it matters.
You can deliver value in so many ways.
@mrgreen
I can’t imagine the cybersecurity side of this.
Imagine if someone found a way to compromise these robots.
Things could quickly take the wrong turn.
@williamthething
Neo here, doing challenges to come up with, build, and grow businesses all in public.
Plus sharing everything that I learn on here, what works, what doesn't, etc!
Starting a new challenge.
I'm going to build & validate a SAAS idea in 30 days or less.
If I can't get $ in the first 30 days after coming up with the idea, I will try to validate a new idea in another 30 day increment.
To spice it up, ChatGPT will be my business partner.
Day
#41
of the 1000 sub challenge
Decided to take a bit of a break today, get my mind together.
Even tho I did no marketing, got +6 subs.
Totaling 323 subs :)
#buildinpublic
@AmonCheruiyotHQ
Hey there, I’m Neo. I do challenges to come up with, build, and grow businesses all in public!
I also share all of the things I learn and all the things that don’t work!
Never thought I would see this day.
This was just a side project I started and now it's at $100 in revenue.
It's great to be at this milestone at 16 years old.
17 people took out their credit cards and paid for something I built.
It’s come to my attention that I made a severe lapse in judgment yesterday re: a marketing tactic I tried.
I was hired as a growth intern out of high school by Jardy.
I had lots of ideas and neglected to run some of those ideas by the team.
One of those was the poorly-thought
@malenchi_alex
Might be a hot take but logos don't matter for early stage projects.
They simply don't matter until there is revenue and consistent growth.
Now that I'm back on my marketing grind growth is back.
Sign ups are skyrocketing as they should 📈
I'm going to make sure one day instead of "12" the top of the graph says "1,000,000".
One day...
@xsgames_
It's a tool to enable you to be more creative.
It's a way to get unstuck or get inspiration when you're stuck.
But it can't really replace your ingenuity.
@arvidkahl
“Don’t worry about the money - focus on being passionate and helping people.”
Is helping people a nice side affect of building a business? - Yes.
But are business owners philanthropists? - No
We’re building For Profit companies for a reason.
@DarrelFrater
I wouldn't make it free, free communities in my experience always attract low-quality shills.
@AnthonyCastrio
was really smart about this, he increases his price every now and then + kicks inactive folks out.
Free is now a red-flag for me with communities.
Anthony is a guy you will want to work with.
And
@BotEatBrain
is a fantastic newsletter.
I'd recommend if anyone of ya'll are interested in sales, get in touch asap.
Anyone looking for a sales job?
I want to find someone to help sell
@BotEatBrain
ads.
50% commission. Currently ~$8k in unsold inventory.
The newsletter is growing fast, so each month we're able to increase our prices and make more money.
DM if interested.
We just hit 100 subscribers for Unheard Roots 🥂
It's Day 25 and we've finally achieved the long overdue milestone.
Now we need 900 more :)
#buildinpublic
Day
#0
of the $100 MRR Challenge.
is at $27 of MRR right now with $110 in total revenue ($89.81 net revenue after fees).
There are 6 active customers / subscribers right now.
- 3 paying $5 a month
- 1 paying $10 a month
- 1 paying $1 a month
The
Creator and celebrity led brands have exploded in the last couple of years.
MrBeast, Rihanna, Nelk Boys, etc.
I overheard someone say they wanted to be a celebrity / influencer just so they could create one of these brands.
What's interesting is there are people behind the
@avizn_
I'd advise against it.
A) Way too little for a seed around (I'd at least want 10K+, don't waste time with little amounts of money).
B) There are way too many great organic ways to grow this plus you're already generating cash-flow.
Use the revenue to fund new ad campaigns.
@dagorenouf
Too many have a bad perception of marketing.
A good product is not good marketing.
You need to get good at getting and funneling attention.
Shoutout to
@indie_worldwide
for being such an amazing supportive community.
And shoutout to
@AnthonyCastrio
for being such a wonderful community builder.
@robertodigital_
Hey Berk here - I share case studies on how big companies got where they are 🚀
I also share reports on different consumer trends and industries. 📈
🎯 Day
#37
of the 1000 sub challenge 🎯
So we lost a sub today...
But gained 8+ subs.
Growth is slowing down since I haven't been able to do much marketing other than cold DMs recently.
Will change that ASAP.
#buildinpublic
Everyone is sleeping on the future of advertising.
There are 363 of you following me, likely all of you are involved in startups / growth one way or another.
Let me tell you guys something, there is an advertising method all of you are overlooking.
Let me explain 🧵
Day
#20
: I made a revelation.
SAAS is not for me.
I don't enjoy it.
And I'm not good at it (yet).
I could get better but I might be better off sticking to what I've been doing and getting paid for in the last few years.
And that is content.
Gonna continue building my
@idanielroman
@beehiiv
Beehiiv is going to eventually take over the entire newsletter space.
I'm 100% sure of it, the founders are my role models.
They need to be a business case study in 10 years.
Sometimes I feel fatigued working on my newsletter.
Growth is slow and the process is grueling.
But then I remember even if I grow just by a sub everyday.
And one issue every week.
I'll still have made insane progress in a year, 2 years, 5 years, etc.
It's just hard to
Day
#22
of the 1000 subs challenge 📈🚀🥂
So we lost 2- subs today but gained 5+.
We're at 76 subscribers in total.
I really don't know if the 1000 milestone will be reached within the 30 days.
We're not even at 100 yet (and it's day 22 😢)
UPDATE ON DAY
#30
.
This challenge is no longer a 30 day challenge.
It will keep going until I either sell Unheard Roots or simply quit / delegate / scale.
Will keep sending out daily updates and learned lessons.
🎯 Day
#43
of the 1000 sub challenge 🎯
10+ subs today :)
Total subs is at 341.
This is literally all growth coming from momentum built up in the past, I've been busy traveling and being sick the past couple of days lol
Will do a thread on growth in a bit 📈
My newsletter subs finally crossed my Twitter followers :)
Newsletter: 418
Twitter: 402
Now time to add another digit to both... 😉
Will you help me do that?
I messed up today.
Sent an email that shouldn't have been sent to the Unheard Roots email list.
Wasn't anything inappropriate, it was just too salesy and I didn't think through it enough.
The result was a brutal 7 unsubscribes from a single email.
I learned... 👇
@bruno_nwogu
Exactly what I’ve been telling all of my friends.
We’re still pretty young and all of us have temptations around us.
But it’s imperative we focus and build ourselves.
Side effects of testing on Reddit.
Sometimes tests do really well and sometimes they don't and this happens.
Heads up for anyone who plans on using Reddit as an acquisition channel.
Have thick skin, you'll be disappointed otherwise.
Latest update on Unheard Roots growth.
459 subscribers.
I have done close to 0 marketing since I've been traveling & spending time with family.
This is all just past momentum.
I'm slowly getting back to marketing.
I missed 2 days of the challenge, I should have published Day
#6
on April 16 and Day
#7
on April 17.
I'll be super honest, I need money to fund these businesses.
And to get the money, I was delivering food during the entire weekend (11~12 hours a day).
I'm back on track now.
@gouthamjay8
Just like any marketing or sales approach it takes time to find something that truly works.
Now when you find something that converts well, it becomes a whole other conversation.
You start enjoying it.
I just want to give a shout out to
@ThePeterMick
I literally got hired in one of his posts comment section.
(This one )
Long story short Peter does these posts where every Monday he does a "follow post" where people can introduce themselves and get
🚀🚀🚀 FOLLOW MONDAY! 🚀🚀🚀
To cheer you up on Mondays, I want to give you the opportunity to grow your following!
Introduce yourself below, and tell everyone in a few words who you are and why we should follow you!
👇
#buildinpublic
Day
#6
of 1000 sub challenge ✨
We're now at 5 subscribers 🚀🚀
---
I just published our 4th issue - the backstory of Brex.
Check it out here, I'm really proud of it :)
---
I also just downloaded Dylans (
@growthcurrency
) course on getting 1000
Day
#6
️⃣
- Wrote documentation on how to use tool
- Determined 3 marketing / sales channels
- Found a way to cold outreach for initial validation
- Added Paypal button to website
More info below 🧵
In startups we're told we need to be working every waking hour and sacrifice our social lives.
But is this how all elite entrepreneurs operate?
Not according to Marc Randolph.
The guy that's built $100B empire called Netflix.
🧵
Gonna publish Unheard Roots issue only once a week from now on.
Every Saturday at 10 AM (EST).
Researching & Writing these issues takes too much time.
Gives me more time to produce quality work.
Day # 1️⃣5️⃣
I'm changing my approach to ideating, I spent today creating a list of demographics / groups I relate to and choosing one to build for.
I'm going with founders / business owners.
Tomorrow I'm going map the journey + stages of building a
I hear this with every single founder I do a case study on for Unheard Roots.
Lots of founders seem to be exceptionally talented at the low-level scrappy stage.
And not very good at the high-level organized phase.
Being a founder and being a CEO are two different skill sets. Sometimes they overlap — I was co-founder/CEO at Netflix for several years—but just as often they don’t. And that’s fine.
When I stepped down as Netflix CEO, it was because we all realized I wasn’t the best person to
Here is another really important lesson this experience taught me:
Never tear others down to build yourself up.
"Build the biggest building if you want to, stop tearing down other peoples buildings" - Gary Vee
One of those lessons I will never forget.
It’s come to my attention that I made a severe lapse in judgment yesterday re: a marketing tactic I tried.
I was hired as a growth intern out of high school by Jardy.
I had lots of ideas and neglected to run some of those ideas by the team.
One of those was the poorly-thought
@FounderKyle
I disagree to some extent, I work in a VC backed startup right now and it's really not as bad.
Being able to move faster and deploy capital on things that work to speed them up is really a superpower.
As much as I love bootstrapping, VC ain't that bad. You get paid to learn.
@theneooftech
Just subscribed! Good luck with your challenge!
(I don't know if it can help you but I think that I would have subscribed earlier if I knew what was your newsletter about✌️)
If I had to start the challenge over again, I would:
- Focus on making more viral posts on Reddit and other social media platforms. I would likely share snippets of my posts in the form of case studies
- Get into shout out exchanges much earlier.
- Do guest-posts
Day
#28
of the 1000 sub challenge 📈
I was super sick & tired today, exhausted from the long week I had.
Wan't able to do much marketing or content creation (other than answering DMs and sending links).
We still got 15 sign ups today bringing our total to 197 subs.
Day
#13
is complete ✅
- Sent 200+ DMs for learning about pain points
- Had 2 interviews scheduled for today, both ended up canceling last minute or not showing up
- Have 2 more interviews scheduled for the rest of the week
- Did a handful of
Oh and in the spirit of building in public.
Our last issue got 2 unsubscribes.
Thankfully this isn't a trend with all issues but it still hurts.
Hurts to see people leave 💔
#buildinpublic
Day
#46
of the 1000 sub challenge
4+ subs today (and 7+ yesterday since I didn't post yesterday).
Total is at 367 right now.
Yes, growth has slowed down.
I've been focused on doing research & writing this weeks issue - while also working a job.
But... 🧵
@anothercohen
Don't think so, I think Linkedin is going to remain the place where people post career updates.
I don't see it replacing Twitter anytime soon
There is 248 of you here 🌍
My goal is to build a tribe of makers & dreamers that I can make the climb with.
I just launched Unheard Roots on Product Hunt!
Will you help build the tribe by upvoting the post?
#buildinpublic
#ProductHunt
#launch
@ikoichi
First question that comes to mind is “are they the right prospect”.
If no, ignore.
If yes, ask them what they would be willing to pay and validate with other prospects.
That is how I’ve handled it in the past.
453 subs to go until 1000 subs for Unheard Roots.
Thought this would happen in 30 days.
But it's already been 84 days since I announced Day
#0
of building Unheard Roots.
I wish I had focused on Reddit & Cross-Promotions sooner + had put more volume into Reddit especially.
This will be a hugeee win if it works out.
A shout out exchange with a 700+ sub newsletter.
Moonshot but I can only hope it works out.
Please God 🙏
There is literally a 500 sub difference which usually makes it a moonshot...
📚 Day
#35
of the 1000 sub challenge 📚
15 + subs today bringing our total to 273.
- Ran ColdDM campaigns for Y-Combinator, Sequoia, Google Ventures, and Techstars Twitter followers.
And spent rest of the day writing next weeks issues on Netflix :)