I was recently reading an article about The Great British Baking Show - or Bake Off, as we fans of this fun TV competition call it. It was written by someone who had been on the show, one of the competitors, and they were talking about how looking at the show from the inside made … Continue reading The Pure Amateur is Vanishing: Why Everyone’s a Performer Now
Category: Market Analysis
The Podcasting Infrastructure Crisis: A $2 Billion Industry Built on Digital Duct Tape
Over the last 18 months, I've been building Podscan, a business that processes millions of podcast episodes every day—tens of thousands of new episodes daily, with 33 million episodes now in our database. We transcribe everything and do AI-based analysis, search, and mention tracking for brands and marketers. And here's what I've learned: the success … Continue reading The Podcasting Infrastructure Crisis: A $2 Billion Industry Built on Digital Duct Tape
You’re Not “Too Late”: Capitalizing on Pre-Validated Ideas
Today, I want to discuss a problem some founders face when they discover someone else has already created their idea. I certainly felt deflated when my cool idea was already being done by someone else in the past. Many founder feel disappointed, thinking it's too late for them. And then they drop their idea. This … Continue reading You’re Not “Too Late”: Capitalizing on Pre-Validated Ideas
∀𝑦∃𝑥 ≠ ∃𝑥∀𝑦: The Dangerous Misconception Founders Have About Their Market
(The mathematical notation in the title means “’For all 𝑦 there exists a 𝑥’ is not the same as ‘There exists an 𝑥 for all 𝑦”.) We’re always on the hunt for the silver bullet. The Golden Ticket. The quick fix. Even when writing resumes. We tinker, we optimize, and we look for services to … Continue reading ∀𝑦∃𝑥 ≠ ∃𝑥∀𝑦: The Dangerous Misconception Founders Have About Their Market
ChatGPT: Goldmine or Minefield for Indie Hackers?
Everybody in the indie founder community is talking about ChatGPT. Some founders discover how powerful it is as a writing tool, others have it build their products, and some entrepreneurs are even building businesses on top of OpenAI's conversational chat-based AI. Beyond that, it's a meme now: everyone is talking about how everyone is talking … Continue reading ChatGPT: Goldmine or Minefield for Indie Hackers?
Find Business Ideas on Social Media
In my conversation with Daniel Vassallo this week, I learned that Daniel uses social media —Twitter in particular— to find inspiration for his own work as a teacher and content creator. Intentionally doomscrolling Twitter to come up with writing prompts and business ideas? Why not! If we consider this a strategic effort, not just wasting our … Continue reading Find Business Ideas on Social Media
Market Analysis for Calm SaaS Businesses
Few fundamental choices impact the trajectory of your business as much as choosing the market you’ll be operating in. If you get this wrong, it will mean pivots, corrections, and many stressful days. If you get this right, you will spend your energy on better things: growing your business, improving the product, and reaching new … Continue reading Market Analysis for Calm SaaS Businesses
Don’t blame the market; blame your marketing
Many unsuccessful founders believe their business failed because of a "market problem." They think it's "the market" that wasn't ready for their product or that "the market" made the wrong choice. This line of thinking is a dangerous —and most of the time completely false— perspective to take. It's not a market problem. It's a … Continue reading Don’t blame the market; blame your marketing
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
Competition Isn’t Always a Business
When founders do market research, they are well-advised to look for competition. But many entrepreneurs have a very limited understanding of what "competition" means and therefore overlook many interesting — and often critical — competitors in their chosen markets. It usually goes like this: a founder spots a niche in the market they're interested in. … Continue reading Competition Isn’t Always a Business