Observations from listening and producing 350+ startup podcasts

Daniel Jiang — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 01:23:13 +0000

After listening to over 100 Nathan Latka Podcasts, observing 200 Indiehacker podcasts and watching 50 Microconf talks AND recording 80 episodes myself.

Here's what I've observed:

SEO
Over 70% of founders credited SEO for being their best source of growth. Invest into ASAP and build up that MOAT.

FB / Social Media
Its a hit or miss. Don't waste time curating the perfect Ad or post. Tim Doyle of Eucalyptus shared that his most profitable Ad was not some high quality video but rather a Doge meme.

Velocity is everything
When building companies you NEED to move fast, there is no alternative to it.

Product
Product led growth is the BEST type, its natural and doesn't feel forced.

Distribution
This is probably just as much if not more important than the content or product itself. Build with distribution in mind, articles / SEO or products.

SLC
NO ONE wants to use an MVP - stop using that mindset. Literally no one other than your Mum/Dad will use a "minimum" "viable" thing you build. Its 2020, the whole patchy product cycle doesn't exist. Aim for Simple, Loveable and Complete (or what I call Minimal Product for Impact) Introduce simple features that meet your north star and make sure they're complete.

Cold Email
Learn to master this, its a great skillset to have in building a company and distributing content.

Feature Validation
Before you build a feature, literally build a simple landing page, run some GAds to it for lifetime deals (this doesn't work always, but for some apps).

Communicate
Build every channel possible to communicate with your user as often as possible for as long as possible.

No CC No Bueno
UNTIL someone gives you their CC, you don't have validation. Do not take anything else as validation other than their CC.

Timeframe
Before you start, set a goal to hit, if you don't hit that goal, be quick to reflect. Build more or move on Last but the MOST important.

Audience
Almost 90% of all the "Super successful" founders attributed having a previous built audience as their reason for success. They built this audience through, podcasts, blogs, Youtube, Tiktok or even Newsletters. BUILD. AN. AUDIENCE. You have a higher chance of succeeding with a shit product and a large audience than vice versa For those that are keen.

Originally posted at: https://viralwegrow.com/blog/observations-from-over-350-startup-podcasts/ by Vaibhav

DEV Community: Daniel Jiang

Observations from listening and producing 350+ startup podcasts