A few months ago, I ran an NFT experiment that failed horribly. I put a lot of effort into creating and minting a few pieces of visual art that I thought would resonate with my audience, and then the whole thing fizzled out. I believe it's time to share this particular failure today. There are … Continue reading How I (Fortunately) Failed to Launch an NFT Collection
Author: Arvid Kahl
I write about bootstrapping, audience-building, and building in public at The Bootstrapped Founder.
Formerly FeedbackPanda (exit/2019)
Wrote Zero to Sold, The Embedded Entrepreneur, and made Find your Following.
The SaaS Market Maturity Paradox
SaaS businesses are most impactful in entirely new markets and the markets they have been serving for a long time. Anywhere in between, starting a new SaaS business has the potential to create a product with reduced effectiveness. There is a "small improvement trap" in every industry that many SaaS business endeavors fall into. While … Continue reading The SaaS Market Maturity Paradox
The Power of the Narrative when Building in Public
The show "Friends" was on TV for ten years. Over 230 episodes were created, starring the same characters having the same problems day in, day out — and people kept tuning in. Viewers were hooked. For a decade. If you want to understand what gets people invested in a journey, you should investigate what makes … Continue reading The Power of the Narrative when Building in Public
Building in Public and Negativity
I was invited to a Twitter space about audience-building this week, and we talked about the not-so-fun side of building in public: dealing with negativity. That's something a lot of people are scared of. When we talk about negativity on Twitter, we often think about flamewars and shitstorms. That's the external kind of negative thinking; … Continue reading Building in Public and Negativity
Purchasing Power Parity Pricing
Let's talk about burgers and why they matter for how much you can sell as a digital creator. A Big Mac in the United States costs around $5. You'd have to pay ¥20 for the same burger in China. But the exchange rate between the Dollar and the Yuen is not 1 to 4; it's … Continue reading Purchasing Power Parity Pricing
Being Imperfect in Public
When I launched my Twitter course Find your Following earlier this week, I realized that my launch Tweet had a typo less than a minute after posting it. For a supposedly pristine piece of marketing that highlights my professional approach to using Twitter, that wouldn't really work. But it did. Before I had the opportunity … Continue reading Being Imperfect in Public
The Performative Nature of Building in Public: A View From the Inside
When you build in public, you're performing. You can call it what you want: sharing your authentic journey, teaching from the driver's seat — when you type your updates into that Twitter prompt, you are thinking about how you can "most authentically show something" to your audience. And that is a performance. A performance that … Continue reading The Performative Nature of Building in Public: A View From the Inside
Fear-Setting
While I was working on answering questions for my upcoming Twitter audience-building course, I ran into this one: "What if it doesn't work?" While my immediate thoughts went to the random nature of eventual success and how only consistency will pave the way there, I soon arrived at a problem that lies much deeper than … Continue reading Fear-Setting
The Power of Repetition
When you build in public, you'll eventually arrive at a point where it feels hard to be original. Here's the solution: give yourself permission to repeat yourself. Sometimes, you are most effective when you stick to your message. "Won't that get boring?" I hear you ask. Yes, but it doesn't have to be. Like with … Continue reading The Power of Repetition
Building in Public: Maintaining a Positive Self-Image
Building in public is not always easy, often caused by problems with our self-image. I want to talk more about mental health topics because I feel they are severely underrepresented in the conversations around being an entrepreneur in public. Most conversations are about the positive things, the successes, celebrations. While that's great — who doesn't … Continue reading Building in Public: Maintaining a Positive Self-Image
