How to validate a side hustle
📓 Articles
I'm obsessed with validation techniques. Especially when you can find signals of desirability for your conceptual product before even building it. This fantastic writeup by Justin Mares discusses his unique approach to validating his business idea which later became a successful D2C company.
Helen Ryles of MakerPad takes a fun look at some of the most common kinds of no-coders and what they are working towards. Personally, I think I'm a bit of a blend. Consisting of the 'Maker' and a sprinkle of the 'The Improver'. Which one are you?
This post by Linda Z is packed with great advice on how to launch a new product. One of my favourite excerpts that really resonated with me was "Every idea is a house of cards built on a set of assumptions. Every failed idea can be traced back to false assumptions." My advice is to identify your riskiest assumptions and find evidence to prove or disprove them before you spend any considerable time and money building your product or service.
The worst kind of bad startup idea is one that looks good. Jitha shares 10 patterns to identify plausible-sounding, but bad startup ideas. As Paul Graham points out "You should solve a deep need for at least a few people. Not a shallow need for the many." I touched on this a while back with this graphic.
🔗 Links
This site and newsletter by Whit & Ash showcase the worst startup ideas. When I mean worst, I mean very niche, silly and quite frankly weird. Some of my favs include ScareBnB (haunted rentals), and Zoom Hypeman (get a z list celebrity to join your next work Zoom call).
Last month Traf shared an early screenshot of a prototype of what looks like a newsletter creation tool built using Notion. I haven't heard any further updates since but I'm super excited to see what this mad Notion hacking genius can do with Notion next.
Dann Petty is usually the first person I think about when I'm looking for design inspiration for my next product. He recently launched his new personal site which includes a weekly showcase of stunning new design products. Also, check out his 3D designed avatar - it was created by Arek, an extremely talented 3D designer/ illustrator.
📱 Products
"We are holding phones from the future, running software designed a decade ago." - Andy makes a fascinating point in his latest post. I have been following Andy on Twitter for a while and been diligently waiting for his latest product drop! And it's finally arrived. He launched a series of fun and beautifully designed alternatives to some of Apple's most iconic but neglected iOS apps.
Mark Bowley just launched Microbrave. Building it from start to finish in just a weekend as part of the On Deck Global Build Weekend! Microbrave is a toolkit for makers and founders to compose, post, and track their build-in-public updates. Follow Mark's public journey on twitter.
Dan Rowden (also a big advocate of building in public) has recently launched ilo - a tool to track your tweet activity, impressions and granular engagements and share publically. If you are looking to build your Twitter following and increase engagement this tool can certainly help you.
Continuing with my theme of building in public,Philip Young has been sharing his UX tips on Twitter whilst building Session. Session is a beautiful new productivity tool that helps you focus and be more mindful by blocking distractions and tracking your activity across your iPad, iPhone and Mac. Think Pomodoro with data!
⭐️ Community Showcase
🟣 Molly Jones (a Certified Notion Consultant) recently launched her 'The Smart Studio Solution' - A single 'operating system' to run all internal business processes - ready for use virtually immediately.
Are you working on a new product or side project and want to share it in this newsletter? Hit reply. I want to use the distribution of this newsletter to showcase your work.
🐦 Tweet of the month
I love the idea of creating a series of small products centred around one overarching mission. Pieter Levels on the OG indie makers and remote working advocate shared this fascinating diagram which outlines his roadmap and shows the relationship between his products and initiatives centred around his mission.
⚡️ Flashback
I'll leave you with this 1966 video presented by Walt Disney (this was recorded just a few weeks prior to his death). I was first introduced to this clip back in uni whilst studying Town Planning and was blown away by his futuristic conceptual vision for a new city back in 66.
That's it for this month!
If you made it this far, hit reply and tell me what you thought of this newsletter. What did you love? what didn't you like so much? I read every response 👀
Until next month,
Sam | @thisdickie 👨💻
P.S you can check view all my past content in this Notion repo.