DEV Community: Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️

Where do you deploy your backend apps?

Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️ — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 12:10:25 +0000

Curious to know how do you deploy your backend apps. Are there cheap/free ways to do so?

Here are the answers of the wbe community in case you are interested

How many devs have side-projects?

Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️ — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 01:45:51 +0000

Most of the members of the WBE Space are Devs so I would love to understand what percentage of all devs have web-related side-projects.

Do you have a web-related side project?

All Devs Make The Same Mistake

Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️ — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 02:09:28 +0000

I am working with starting indie makers for more than one year now and most of them (including me) have a software background.

The biggest problem that devs face when turning entrepreneurs is that they try to solve every problem with MORE features. 🤦‍♀️

Since we suck and tbh do not like marketing we always assume that the reason why we are lacking users is because we are missing that ONE special feature.

Spoiler alert!! It is not! 🤣

The reason why you are lacking (paying) users is either because you are not able to get them on your website or because the problem you are solving simply has no demand...

It's sad but it is true... 😿

The cool thing is that there is a solution for this!! 😱😱

It's called the Audience First Approach and it's a method that most successful entrepreneurs use...

I have created a simple step-by-step guide that you can easily follow and avoid all the common mistakes that all devs do.

The guide is very hands-on, so don't worry... There is not a lot for you to read 😉

Good luck and welcome to the indie hacking world!

How do you deal with remote work loneliness?

Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️ — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 16:02:28 +0000

Most remote developers are working from home, alone, struggling which is fine for a couple of days but in the long term can become really lonely.

Here are some of the tips that are working for me...

1- Go work in coffee places
It helps me to leave my house and actually be surrounded by other people.

2- Hobbies
Can be a sport or something you are passioned about like painting or playing the guitar but it really helps to have a routine, something steady that occurs every week.

3- Join a virtual co-working space
A few months ago I started a virtual co-working space and we are now more than 30 people working together on our own projects and jobs. We even have a virtual office where we work together.

Do you have any other tips? Would love to hear from you...

A simple yet powerful virtual office for slack

Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️ — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 10:49:46 +0000

Hey there, my name is Tiago and I am working on a platform that allows to create a virtual office in seconds...

Indie Offices is a platform that allows any slack based team or community to create a virtual office in seconds.

How does it works?

The concept is very simple, when you tap on Open The Door it asks you to login with slack and creates 2 virtual rooms that are always open and anyone can join at any time. You don't need to actively create a room every time you want to meet someone.

The idea is to motivate a more spontaneous vibe just like in an office where you work and chill together.

How others know I joined?

Indie Offices have a great integration with slack. Whenever you join a virtual room your slack status will be updated. For example , if I join the work room, a little lap top be appended to my slack username.

Besides you can send a message to the virtual-office channel (created by the tool) letting the others know that you have joined.

Why is it better than other solutions?

The reason why I built it like this is because is simple and easy to setup. Many other solutions coffee also an avatar that you can use to walk around, but in reality is not very practical.

Next steps

I am reaching out to remote companies to convince them to try it out and my goal is to help everyone to be more connected.

If you have a slack channel you can try it for free in Indie Offices

Let me know what you think

I am building a cheap remote co-working space

Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️ — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 02:05:03 +0000

The Problem

One big Con of working remotely is the lack of an office vibe and team spirit.

Many try going to physical Co-Working spaces but they tend to be expensive and noisy and for digital nomads that jump around constantly it's hard to develop meaningful relationships.

Virtual Co-Working Space

To fix that I started building a remote co-working space that entrepreneurs can access no matter where they are.

Now I have more than 50 members and some have even already met in person.

Besides having the slack channel we also have always available virtual rooms where people can work or hang together and events like hackathons, random coffees, and workshops.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the idea. Would you see yourself using such a service?

Cheers

A day in an entrepreneurs meta co-working space

Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️ — Sat, 08 Jan 2022 12:53:37 +0000

Hey there, my name is Tiago and I am the founder of the WBE Space, a virtual co-working space where Bootstrappers and Entrepreneurs work in their side/full-time projects with a team of like-minded people.

I have been a member of multiple communities, but this one seems to be a bit different... But I am also a little bit biased

So I will describe a day, as a member of the WBE Space and you can help me decide...

What am I doing today?

The first thing I do when I first open the WBE slack channel is to go to the #what-i-am-doing-today channel and check out what the others are up to and answer them in case I have insights or questions.
After that, I write my own plan for the day...

Working Room

When I have a task to do that requires full focus I jump into the workroom and let the others know I am starting a work session. Often other entrepreneurs join me and we start a Pomodoro timer and work at full focus until it rings... After that, we have a small chat and repeat the process.

If we just want to chill we often have a chat in our virtual coffee corner room.

Feedback

Most of our members are always cooking new ideas and it is very common for them to use the #feedback channel to ask for an external opinion and advice.

Random Coffee

Every week we are matched with a member of the space for a coffee. This week I had a lovely chat with @MaxwellDavis and I am looking forward to my next random coffee.

My Role

As the host is to make sure that everyone feels welcome and to support the community with tools and events to help each member succeed and achieve their goals! But sometimes I just forget about my role and just enjoy being another member and part of the team!

Would you like to join us?

Check more info here: https://wannabe-entrepreneur.com/coworking

3 surprising perks of having a podcast

Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️ — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 12:01:53 +0000

Hey there and happy new year! My name is Tiago and I am the host of the Wannabe Entrepreneur podcast. I started this podcast in June of 2021 and have released already more than 175 episodes and interviewed more than 30 entrepreneurs.

I did not plan to start a podcast

Starting my podcast was something very spontaneous but quickly became a routine. A way for me to vent my feelings and organize my ideas. But I have to say that there are definitely hidden perks of hosting a pod...

1- Free Mentorship

Thanks to my podcast I was able to interview and ask questions to entrepreneurs like Arvid Kahl or Tibo. These are extremely busy entrepreneurs and a lot of people would pay big money for a chance to speak 101 with them for a whole hour... My podcast does not even have a big audience but just the fact of hosting one is already a great argument to convince these experts to share their time with you.

2- Great Marketing Channel

I don't do any external ads on my podcast or have sponsorships. I would love to keep the wbe ads free. Instead, I use my podcast as a marketing tool for my own projects. For example, by becoming a WBE member, listeners gain access to my virtual co-working space for bootstrappers. This has proven to be surprisingly effective because your listeners already know you and want to be part of your projects.

3- Forced Reflection

Every Tuesday I release an episode about my own journey which motivates me to write down my thoughts during the week and reflect on them before each episode. This is great because it "forces" me to stop the autopilot mode and reflect if I am going in the right direction... After releasing the episode I often get feedback and helpful tips from my listeners that help me steer the week ahead.
It's also helpful to go back to older episodes and see what I have learned and what predictions and thoughts were wrong...

So here you have it, 3 surprising perks of having a podcast, I speak more about this in my latest episodes or you can start by checking out episode number 1

Cheers

We all feel like impostors sometimes

Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️ — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 11:32:04 +0000

My name is Tiago and I am hosting the Wannabe Entrepreneur Podcast for more than 170 episodes now.
This has given me the chance to interview many entrepreneurs from all backgrounds and in multiple stages. From bootstrappers that have terminated their projects without even really starting it to entrepreneurs that write books and have thousands of followers.

I learned a lot from them but one unexpected learning was that:

They all have insecurities

All of them fall into the impostor syndrome trap. Here are some good examples...

1- Arvid Kahl
Arvid had an excellent exit with is company, sells hundreds of books and has more than 40K followers on Twitter.

In my interview with Arvid he told me that he looks up to Peter Levels and there is times when he envies his success regarding the number of books he is able to sell.

2- Dagobert
In a matter of month he was able to grow his number of Twitter followers from 2K to 12K.
In my interview both with him and his Wife/Co-founder they told me that they are only now reaching a somehow decent salary after 4 years of struggling and that the pressure of keeping it up and avoid mistakes is sometimes too high to handle.

3- The Bread Code
A YouTuber with 100K subscribers told me that he has spent one year without even reaching the 1K mark and after finding some traction has been spending countless hours with marketing, social media and testing multiple titles and thumbnail.

All of the examples lead to three important conclusions...

No matter our degree of success we all have our insecurities.

Quite often you might think that the people you look up are better than you and you will never achieve their level but In reality, they are most likely worried to reach their own idols or simply stressing out to keep up their momentum.

What you see is not what it seems

Behind every successful entrepreneur, there are years of hard work, sacrifices and self-doubt. The success might seem instant for you because you only get to know the person at their best, but believe me. It takes time...

Just because they are famous it does not mean they are rich

There are very trendy businesses and profiles that in reality are actually making very little money. Either because they are spending most of it in marketing or just because it is hard monetize...

Let's keep pushing
Like you there are tons of other indie makers trying to build their projects and having little success. You are not alone! Just keep working consistently and always in the lookout for what you can improve!
And if you feel like you need some extra support checkout our entrepreneurs virtual co-working space.

Cheers,

Trial periods... Are they worth it? - part 3

Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️ — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 13:35:03 +0000

Hello everyone, it's me again with an update on my free trial experience for my entrepreneurs virtual co-working space. Make sure to check part 1 and part 2 for a bit more context.

It's been three days since I started this experience, which I realize now might be too short of a period to actually make relevant conclusions... But I will make them anyway XD

In these three days six people have joined the trial period for the community

To put things in perspective, since I started the WBE space, between one and two new paying members have joined us every week. This means that implementing the trial period increased the conversion by 300%.

Even though these are non-paying members at first glance it seems like a promising result. However, it is not working out...

My intuition was right!

As you probably remember, I was always a little bit against giving access for free to the community because it is a safe place where entrepreneurs can speak about their vulnerabilities and support each other. We have members that have even already met in person!

Removing the paywall means that people can join without any prior commitment and actually damage this trust that we have built.

From the six people that joined only one has actually been active. The others have completely ghosted us and because of that, it feels we can not trust them and be authentic in the groups.

No more free trial!

I have decided to stop this free trial experiment and implement a Money Back Guarantee Policy for the first thirty days. I know that this offers a bit more resistance for people to join but in this case, this is actually my method to keep the community a safe and cozy place for bootstrappers!

I hope you found this post valuable and if you are more of a podcast kind of person I have talked about it in episode 175.

Cheers

Trial periods... Are they worth it? - part 2

Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️ — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 13:33:34 +0000

Quick Recap

So a few days back I told you about my initial experience with trial periods in my entrepreneurs community.

You can read the previous post here

I finish the previous post telling you that I did not know if the trial periods were actually going to work because it had been 8 hours since it was live and nothing had happened. I know that 8 hours is not a lot but as a bootstrapper living from his savings every minute counts!!!

Beautiful Morning
I normally do this posts before bed because there is nothing better than waking up with 2 likes in a post! XD (gives you the motivation to get a job)

Anyway, I was surprised to notice that there were two new trial members! And not long after that one more joined us!
24 hours later and 4 new members have joined which proves that the conversion has definitely increased!!

Will this people actually pay for it?

In the end it does not matter much if more people are joining if in the end they don't become fulltime members...

So far from the 4 members that have joined only one has started to engage with the community. The others have joined the slack channel and are just in idle mode (which is a bit creepy tbh...)

Am I worried?

Ofc! I am always worried! I don't want to scare away the few paying members I have... I will give it a couple more days to see how things develop but I will probably start kicking out the people that have joined and did not say a word.

Do you think it is a good idea?

Will keep you posted...

PS: Listen to the podcast episode about this here

Trial Periods... Are they really worth it?

Wannabe Entrepreneur 🎙️ — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 02:21:57 +0000

There is no SaaS without a Trial!

Many indie devs are into SaaS nowadays and their monetization strategy normally falls into two categories:

A fully paid product with different tiers
A freemium model

Quite often in either of these methods, the creators offer free trials. A way for users to actually try the paid version without credit card is needed! (got to have these last magic words)

Feedback

I have been really enjoying writing my thoughts both here and on indie hackers and from yesterday's post I got a few Devs visiting my virtual co-working space for entrepreneurs and asking me if they could try it for free...

I had already considered a trial in the past but I have always rejected the idea

My product is a paid community and I have been lucky enough to have found really cool and active first members 💪

It somehow seemed odd to allow strangers to come into our virtual office just to disappear a few days after (much like my father... 😿). Plus it's a 4 euros subscription that can be canceled at any time...

If people are not willing to pay that then they probably never will... - Tiago thinking to himself

I explained my reasons to this user and then got convinced by the explanation... 😱

Is not about the money but the fact of giving my credit card info and committing to a product without actually knowing if it works... - user

I realized that the problem was not losing the 4 euros but rather being tricked by a sketchy podcaster with possibly an empty slack channel!

I decided then to give it a shot! Here is what I have done...

1- Get a coffee ofc... ☕

2- Asked the community members if they were ok with it and like always they were super supportive!

3- Create a new extra in the buymeacoffee platform for a value of ZERO euros and use zapier to store the new user data together with the expiration date into Airtable. #NoCode4TheWinBROOOO

4- Change the landing page to this beauty...

Results

It's amazing because since I implemented the trial a grand total of ZERO new members have joined!!! So I was right!

Or maybe is still too soon to tell... XD I will wait a couple more days to take my conclusions and I will keep you posted! (btw if you prefer listening to these adventures in an audio format you should checkout my podcast)

I hope you found this entertaining and I would love to know what are your thoughts on trial periods... Have they been working out for you?