Learniverse

When I first quit my 9-5 to start building startups, I had one goal in mind:

I had never written a line of code in my life.

Now where the hell was I supposed to start? How do I learn?? What do I build?

One thing was clear to me:

Why is learning so hard & boring and rarely applicable to my real use case?

I went through countless:

• Udemy tutorials

• Youtube videos

• Practice projects

Still… it was way too time-consuming and I had to learn something else entirely when building my 1st real product.

Now imagine if there were a platform to learn by doing and lessons personalized to your real-life goals and current knowledge.

That’s when I started building Learniverse.

Learniverse skill tree: expand your real life skills like a video game

Learniverse: Learning personalized to your knowledge

Tired of generic online courses? Learniverse personalizes learning to your goals and knowledge.

• Create personalized learning paths in minutes

• Learn on your data, never learn something useless again

• Lessons adapted to your real-life goals

• Practice quizzes & exercises tailored to your use case

Create custom learning paths in minutes. Tell us your interests and our AI generates adapted learning content and matches you with relevant courses, articles, and videos.

Adapts as you grow. The more you learn, the smarter the recommendations. Learniverse evolves with you.

Stop wasting time. Learniverse curates quality content designed for real-life applications.

Stay focused on your definitions of success. We personalize your journey so you can stress less and accomplish more.

Try it out

Try it here for yourself. I’d love to hear your feedback

P.S. I'm on Twitter too if you'd like to follow my startup journey & future development to Learniverse!

Zach, Founder of Learniverse

Hey builders 👋

If you're like me when I first entered the startup world…

You probably think raising venture capital is the only way to build a successful tech company.

But then I discovered the bootstrap method - and it changed everything.

One book was the catalyst, and I want to share it with you today.

By famous indie-hacker & bootstrapper levels.io, who makes over $2M/year from his solo businesses.

It went over how to build a startup as a solo builder with no money.

Key points:

1. Think about solving your own problems, and niche down as much as you can.

2. Build a simple app as fast as possible to test how much people are willing to pay for it, and if it doesn’t stick, kill the project and start a new one.

3. Share what you’re doing in public so you build an audience at the same time = Two birds one stone.

But which one is better for me, you might ask? I have a feeling you will like the 3rd method.

The Bootstrap way

Bootstrapping focuses on solving a niche problem efficiently with a simple solution that doesn't require external capital. It tends to be a slower growth path with smaller yearly goals, but offers some major advantages:

• Speed: You can build, launch, and iterate much faster without relying on outside investors' timelines.

• Lean: You can operate very lean with a solo founder or small team.

• Independence: You have the flexibility to work remotely and travel while building your company.

Here’s a video from Pieter Levels that goes over into more details:

This method has exploded in popularity in recent years. More and more “Nomad builders” every year trying to reach that elusive 10k MRR (monthly recurring revenue).

Problem is? You need to focus on an unattractive problem and set less ambitious goals.

Not for everyone, but highly recommend if you’re just starting out.

The Vc way

While bootstrapping offers control and independence, VC funding also has major upsides if exponential growth is the goal:

• Capital: Massive amounts of capital to scale operations and marketing quickly.

• Expertise: Seasoned investors provide advice and networks.

• Prestige: Being VC-backed adds credibility and buzz.

Here’s an incredible playlist from Y Combinator that goes over how to build a startup the VC way:

When deciding how to build your startup, consider your end goal. Do you want to create the next Apple? Or do you want to build a lifestyle business that provides financial independence and location freedom as quickly as possible?

How about a chance for Both?

The new way to build startups

But what if you don't have to choose one path?

What if you start building your startup Bootstrap, focusing on solving the problem as simply as possible and see how far you can go?

But that does not mean you completely isolate yourself from the investment world.

You can still explore investment opportunities & apply to startup incubators.

Instead, you will be in a position of attraction vs necessity

That should invigorate you with a much more powerful mindset.

That’s exactly what I am doing with learniverse.xyz 

I am building Bootstrap, but applying to startup incubators.

And last week I received an interview invitation from a super competitive startup incubator in San Francisco:

Pretty cool! But I'll keep building learniverse.xyz either way.

With the freedom to create, why wait?

So build what matters most - solve problems you care about.

When opportunities arise, you'll hold all the cards to decide on investment.

Good luck, fellow builder! 🚀

I hope you enjoyed this one. 

If you want to see more of my content, feel free to check out my posts on X 👇

thezachhan

If you’re curious about what I’m working on at the moment. Check out learniverse.xyz to gamify your learning with AI-powered course creation.

Hey builders 👋

Ever thought about how you could get extraordinary outcomes in your life?

I certainly have. And it made me realize something that most successful founders have in common…

Their extraordinary outcomes were fueled by extraordinary experiences.

It makes sense because life experience directly shapes how we see the world. Most of our decisions, thoughts, and actions result from it.

The quality and uniqueness of our experiences will dictate the quality of our outcomes.

Now one common misconception I’ve seen a lot is:

That’s bad advice.

Volume only brute forces breakthroughs.

It is nowhere near the most efficient way to improve your outcomes.

Your peak creative potential is hidden behind actions you aren’t doing & thoughts you’re not having.

That’s why investing in life experience is a hidden cheat code.

it expands your mindset, skills & opportunities in almost a magical way.

Most of all, it enables the most powerful force in your life. Serendipity.

And serendipity is the true creator of wealth.

Here are 3 examples of massively successful founders & their upbringing:

Steve Job - Apple

• Dropped out of college after 6 months

• Traveled to India seeking spiritual enlightenment

• Experimented with psychedelic drugs

• Became a Zen Buddhist practitioner

Pieter Levels - #1 millionaire indiehacker

• Built a successful electronic music YouTube channel

• Dropped out of high-paying consulting to travel to Asia

• Self-taught coding from scratch

• Built 12 startups in 12 months while traveling to 10+ countries

Justin Khan - Founder of Twitch.tv

• Unemployed for 1 year after graduating from Yale

• Self-taught coding from textbooks

• Part of the startup incubator Y Combinator at age 22

• Streamed his life 24/7 for 8 months straight

How to optimize for life experience? Where to start?

You have to see genuine desires as signs of opportunities.

What would a clone of you with no fear do?

What I did was pursue my natural curiosity about Japan.

For the past 2 years, while working at my 9-5, I kept telling myself that I would soon save enough money or have enough banked vacations to finally go to Japan.

My heart was calling for an adventure in Japan.

I didn’t realize my limitations were all self-imposed.

The reality was: I could go whenever I wanted, and find ways to make the trip within my budget. I didn’t have to keep my job or stay in Canada.

Realizing that all situations that I was in were the result of choices I made was liberating.

First, I had to free my mind, to even perceive that I had the choice.

Secondly, I had to eliminate fear from my decision, to tune in to what the heart was calling.

Thirdly, I had to take the leap and do it, enabling a shift of realities to take place.

Which led me to go live in Japan for 3 months solo.

Itsukushima shrine, Hiroshima

Very simply here are the 3 steps to create your unique life experience:

• Pay attention to your genuine desires

• Execute decisions like you have no fear

• Enable new mindset & habit shifts by adventuring in new environments

I hope you enjoyed this one. 

If you want to see more of my content, feel free to check out my posts on X 👇

thezachhan

If you’re curious about what I’m working on at the moment. Check out learniverse.xyz to gamify your learning with AI-powered course creation.

Hey Builders,

As a bootstrapped entrepreneur, you may hear advice to pick a single marketing platform like Twitter, YouTube, or Email and stick to it until you’re a master at it.

This can work if you have lots of time and money to lower your customer acquisition costs (CAC) over time.

But if you want to get clicks on your project for cheap, the opposite is better in almost all cases.

Why?

Because of a traffic compounding effect.

Say you only post your project on Twitter. You can create 10 posts about it that will get you 10,000 impressions total.

Now imagine you post on Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, YouTube, and multiple websites.

For each of those channels, you can repurpose your content and release the same 10 posts.

Meaning 10 channels x 10 posts x 1000 impressions/post → 100,000 impressions

That is 10x more than if you only post on Twitter.

And as a bootstrapped builder, traction and distribution will be your most important challenge.

The other important variable is you don’t know where your target user is.

For example, more of them could be hanging out on Reddit than you thought.

Here’s an example of a launch Tweet for my project Learniverse that got around ~1800 impressions

And another launch newsletter, which got 5x the clickthrough rate than on Twitter.

I never could have known that my email list would convert so well if I hadn’t experimented with the email channel.

Understanding and mastering this method will be absolutely critical to get your first users for cheap.

Not to mention one overlooked variable too…

You have to experiment with various distribution channels to find which one you shine in.

So go ahead and a few new ones this week. You might be a few posts away from popping off.

If you liked this edition, reply to this email with what new channel you’re gonna try for your project (ps. I recommend Reddit or Email it’s seriously underrated)

Hope it helps with your journey,

Zach

Becoming a digital nomad entrepreneur is no easy feat. A lot of people romanticize it but building a location-independent income is hard.

It needs to be fully remote, and synchronous with your career aspirations.

You don’t want to settle for some half-assed freelancing.

It is cool to travel but is it really worth it if you have to pause your entire life for it?

The ultimate goal is to build projects that make you financially free.

I made the plunge into digital nomad entrepreneurship 7 months ago and I want to share my learnings so far.

(Here’s a cool pic of Japan before we continue)

Hiking in Wakayama, Japan on a Tuesday afternoon

I've identified 4 pillars that allow me to travel the world while working and will continue to do so in the future.

4 Pillars for Earning, Learning, and Creating Long-Term Wealth while traveling the world

Generate Part-Time Income from Existing Skills

To travel the world, you need a steady cash flow to pay the bills. The easiest way is to monetize skills you already have quickly through part-time remote gigs. This could be building websites, mobile apps, financial models, or providing consulting for your industry.

Platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and LinkedIn ProFinder make it easy to sell your services globally. Or use your personal network and previous employers to find short-term projects.

Twitter is also underrated for this. Post your work & watch the inbound leads come in.

The key is finding quick ways to generate income so you can focus the rest on building higher ROI projects.

While I lived in Japan for 3 months, I only really needed about 2-3k per month to live comfortably.

With the ability to travel and live anywhere, you also can choose locations that are much cheaper than your home country. This makes it even easier to make a living.

TLDR: Build a 1-person service agency around your most valuable skills to earn income while only part-time

Build Ventures with Fast Returns That Grow Your Skills

Invest time in projects that provide faster returns and build more valuable skills. For example, you could create an e-commerce store, build client apps, or launch an online course. The faster the ROI, the more time you have for other ventures.

This pillar’s objective is to take your skills from the 1st pillar but increase the amount of leverage.

This is where you want to build digital products, productize services, online courses, online books, small brands, etc.

Choose projects that force you to learn in-demand skills like coding, marketing, writing, and personal branding. Over time, combining skill-building with fast returns will make you a more competent builder (Which unlocks the ability to create generational wealth → 4th pillar I talk about below).

TLDR: Focus on skill-building with higher leverage projects (agencies, digital products, online courses, etc.). Investing in yourself to become more competent unlocks new life-changing opportunities

Build an Audience Online

Becoming location-independent is so much easier if you have an online audience. Choose a medium you enjoy and can stick with long-term. This could be through blogging, YouTube, podcasting, or Twitter/Instagram.

Find a niche you're passionate about that allows you to provide unique value.

Consistently put out great content and grow your subscribers over time. An engaged audience provides opportunities like sponsorships, product sales, and partnerships.

An audience is the cheapest and best distribution channel out there.

If you can build one, you will be miles ahead of competitors.

TLDR: Build an audience to have one of the best distribution channels out there and one of the best sources of leverage in the digital age

Work Towards Creating Generational Wealth

Have an ambitious long-term vision beyond short-term income. Building a business, brand, or passive income source will change your legacy’s financial situation.

You could aim to build a seven-figure company, create a well-known personal brand, or develop category-defining products.

All the skills & knowledge you built from the previous pillars culminate in this.

Keep this big-picture perspective in mind as you balance short-term work.

TLDR: Aim towards building ambitious projects that have generational wealth-building possibilities. The more competent you are the better the probability of building something life-changing.

I hope you enjoyed this one. 

If you want to see more of my content, feel free to check out my posts on X 👇

If you’re curious about what I’m working on at the moment. Check out learniverse.xyz to gamify your learning with AI-powered course creation.

Hey builders,

Do you remember times you just did something on a whim and then it ended up into a whole story arc?

That's exactly what I did when I was solo-traveling in Japan 🇯🇵

3 hours before the application deadline of the Buildspace 6-week startup program.

I sent my application.

Why not? I told myself.

Flash forward a few days later… I am now in Miyazaki, Japan visiting 1000-year-old shrines 👇 

Amaterasu shrine-cave, Takachiho, Miyazaki Japan

I open my phone… 1 new email from the buildspace team. I am in 🤯

Now I need to find a startup idea and build it in just 6 weeks.

So I decided to start building: an RPG-like app to gamify your life

I even go semi-viral on Instagram and TikTok

Day 3 filming myself using the app

I was pretty pumped but you know the problem with traveling a lot?

You don’t really have time to work.

Visiting new cities every 2 days. I barely built the app for the first 5/6 weeks of the program.

But the clock is ticking…. we are now 7 days before Demo Day.

I barely have a prototype to show, and user feedback is not great.

That’s when I decide to do the impossible: Pivot to a better idea. And rebuild from scratch 👇

Introducing Learniverse AI

Learniverse AI

I realized that what I wanted to gamify was not my daily life.

But my learning.

As a builder & founder, I am always learning new skills.

Copywriting, Web development, Marketing, etc.

I always felt it was annoying having to piece learning content together to adapt it to my use case.

YouTube videos + buy a Udemy course + find my own practice exercises

That’s what led me to Learniverse:

Imagine growing your personal knowledge skill tree, exactly like a video game.

• Learn about anything.

• Create personalized learning content based on your goals, learning style, and current knowledge.

• Instantly create courses, exercises, and quizzes on any topic.

Learniverse Skill Tree, create any learning path. Tied to a real goal.

Personalized learning content, exercises & more

So I decide to convert my waiting list to Learniverse and start advertising on Twitter

Signups double in a week.

learniverse waiting list

Key lessons from building Learniverse:

I’ve been building online startups for 6 months now.

And with every project, I learn incredibly valuable lessons.

Here are 3 of the most important lessons I learned:

1- Knowing when to kill an idea and pivot is one of the most important skill for a founder

The best founders have a successful startup hit rate of 1 out of 5. Quickly identify when the project lacks traction and move on.

Build fast → Launch → Measure → Pivot or kill the idea if low traction

2- Measure traction with trust (signups), usage (average use time), or value (revenue)

Decisions taken on metrics are almost always better. Take a metric: trust, usage, or value and every action should be to increase the metric. Focusing on the highest ROI actions is hard. But it pays off the most.

3- Follow your gut

Sometimes you have to follow what your gut is telling you. And if it’s telling you to pivot to a problem that you are genuinely more excited about solving… Examine the metrics you have, but if you know your gut will continue to direct you towards another problem. Then follow it with no hesitation.

Launching in October 👀

v1 of Learniverse is coming in October!

Sign up below for a special gift

Check it out 👇

Join Early Access I’d love to hear your feedback

P.S. I'm on Twitter too if you'd like to follow more of my stories. I’m building startups full-time

Courses Hunt

When I first started the solopreneur journey 6 months ago, one thing was clear to me.

There are so many ways to build an online business.

Too many even. The current starting point is being lost.

• Where do I start?

• Who do I learn from?

• What skills are important?

• What type of business do I want to build?

And it’s not because we lack information or resources.

It’s all out there.

What’s really lacking is how to navigate it.

So after countless hours of YouTube. Countless useless courses on Udemy & Coursera. I finally found how to get real, practical courses that teach you skills to build real businesses

👉 Twitter (Now X)

There are tons of creator-made courses on Twitter, some are incredibly valuable.

Now that was like finding a treasure trove

But the problem was still there.

• Who do I follow?

• Which courses are the best?

• And it’s tedious to find courses

And it led me to …

The Problem

Experience with the problem

I have taken 10+ courses in the past 6 months across coding, web design, copywriting, personal branding & AI.

All the ones that actually helped me to build an online business were courses I found on Twitter.

I have over 400 hours of Twitter content creation experience and have seen & experienced how hard it is to navigate and find the best creators and the best courses available.

Solution

Courses Hunt: Indiehacking

A one-stop shop for all solopreneurs to find, review & post the best creator-made courses.

Choose your skill category (indie hacking, blogging, SEO, agency, content creation) and connect with a community of 100s of other entrepreneurs on the same path and learn together.

Post your own course to get feedback, visibility and upvote your favorite courses to help shape the learning of future solopreneurs.

Growth Plan

1. Reach critical mass of courses on the platform (1000+)

2. Newsletter sending the top 3 courses in a chosen category. Every week.

3. Marketing

   1. Twitter, Reddit, Youtube shorts

   2. SEO with personal AND AI business blogs

4. Monetization

   1. Affiliate marketing for courses

   2. Super creator: Lifetime verified profile and courses, 1 month free course feature

   3. Featured courses: Pay to get your courses seen on the front page

   4. Newsletter monetization

5. Coming soon features

   1. Community: to allow users to connect with each other and review courses

   2. Solopreneur Path: Choose a solopreneur archetype and get the best courses in the recommended sequence to learn and build an online business fast

Vision

The go-to website for people to learn entrepreneurial skills. Help them transition from a 9-5 more easily and build a happier life they own through online businesses

Try it out

Try it here for yourself. I’d love to hear your feedback

P.S. I'm on Twitter too if you'd like to follow more of my stories. I’m building 6 startups in 6 months. Stay tuned for more!!

4 days ago I moved to Asia to build startups full time.

I promised myself I would launch one before moving.

So here it is. My very first startup. Inspired by Levels.io.

Grow My Dang Twitter. Set a follower goal, pay if you don’t reach it by your deadline.

You set a Twitter follower goal, set a deadline, and set a penalty if you don’t reach it. You pay only if you fail.

The problem

I’ve been using Twitter everyday for the past 6 months and one thing kept coming back. People have a really hard time being consistent and committing to a goal. Most lack motivation.

In the past 6 months, more than 50% of the people I was regularly tweeting with gave up. Either on Twitter as a whole or on their content creation schedule.

Everyone wants to grow, and there are a lot of resources to grow. But the one thing missing is that there is nothing that keeps them accountable if they don’t reach it

People are motivated either by punishment or by reward. But punishment motivates 3x as much according to studies.

The solution

I remembered seeing this startup Gofuckingdoit.com by Levels.io and thought…

Then, what about building an App that allows users to set a follower goal + a deadline and pledge a $$ amount for their goal? Then if they don’t reach it they have to pay.

How it works

1. Choose a Follower goal you want to reach

2. Choose a deadline

3. Enter your Twitter account name

4. Choose the amount you want to pledge to the goal

5. Enter credit card

6. Success!: You enter the leaderboard and have access to a “share-your-goal” feature for your audience

What to improve?

- Idea that solves a real pain point rather than a nice to have

- Better design and UX/UI

- Post on Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and Youtube.

- Post on blog & newsletter

- Cold DMS to get user feedback

Learnings per category

1. Importance of organic marketing & cold DMS

Expanding to platforms like LinkedIn and Reddit where my target users are can help get the word out.

Quality content and SEO will also drive website traffic.

More cold Dms to large social media accounts that could use this tool as a fun challenge.

3. Importance of community:

When building a product in the Solopreneur community. I cannot emphasis how building relationship and community around the product is important. Most of my traffic came from personal relationships with larger creators that liked the idea.

One of them even redesigned my UI. This is super important.

Seek to have a positive mutual transaction.

The user gets value (or in this case interesting content from the challenge).

And you get traffic to your app.

2. How great UX can reduce user friction and lead to 2-3x more sales:

My landing page needs a redesign through A/B testing to boost conversions.

Integrating the new UX led to much more click through (Although most of them dropped when the credit card form popped up)

Adding a gif feature could make goal-sharing more engaging. Improving navigation will also enhance user experience.

127 people created a checkout session

3 users completed the user flow

2% conversion

100 of those checkout sessions were with the new UI.

Number of stripe sessions

3. Proper revenue model needs to be adapted to target user:

My current model of users losing money could deter signups. I should add a way for users to use the platform without so much friction (They have to signup with their credit cards which is a lot of friction).

4. Idea needs to solve a painful problem. Not just a cool to have:

Your idea needs to solve a painful problem. In this case, the problem solved is not painful enough and more of a “cool to have”

This is why I think only 3 users used it with more than 750 page views (0.4% conversion)

Try it out

Try it here for yourself. I’d love to hear your feedback

P.S. I'm on Twitter too if you'd like to follow more of my stories & future startups.

Hey guys! Welcome to everyone new here. Glad to have you 😎

For those who don’t know, I left my corporate job last December to start building startups full-time.

Psst. Here’s a cool database of the courses I find the most helpful in my journey: https://bit.ly/Best-Courses-on-Twitter

Startup stats of the week

 www.solopreneurhunt.com

Week 8 Stats: 37 signups & 359 visitors

This week’s newsletter is going to cover:

1- Anyone can build a software startup.

2- Flowchart for choosing your tech: No-Code Vs Code.

Anyone can build.

People think they are not the “coder type”.

I know this is a misconception because is there such a thing as a coder type?

Coding is just language to build stuff.

Do you avoid talking because you are not the literary type?

I used to be a finance guy. I used to think coding is not for me.

But I reframed by perception. Instead of thinking of coding as a language only computer geniuses use.

I reframe how I thought of coding. How about seeing it as simply a tool/skill to help me build cool stuff?

No need to focus on the end goal and try to visualize yourself coding all day.

Take it step by step. Do you like building things? If you don’t know, try it out!

Try something small. Something manageable you actually want to build.

Then progressively completing more complex and more fun projects.

Without realizing you will become a coder/builder. Avoiding limiting beliefs.

Especially in this day and age, there are more ways and tools than ever to achieve it.

Now you know you want to learn to code. But where do you begin?

In this day in age there a MANY ways to build a software startup.

Code, no-code, AI., etc. And about 100 frameworks/apps in each of those categories.

Especially with the help of AI. ANYONE can become a builder.

Here are 2 questions to help you choose HOW you should build it.

1- Do you enjoy using the technology? What tech has the least friction for you?

2- What prior experience do you have?

Enjoyment.

Enjoying building is so important. I could tell you: “Just learn code it’s so much better and more flexible”

But if you try to learn to code and it’s torture for you.

Then No Code might be better for you.

But don’t abandon building as a whole just yet.

Prior Experience.

Do you have prior coding experience?

Maybe you used Python for a school project.

Or maybe you used a bit of PHP while building a WordPress site.

Use your prior experiences to guide you. Choose based on what makes sense for you.

Not based on what everyone says is the “best” framework to learn.

Flowchart: What Tech to learn?

Follow the flowchart below to get your answer!

https://www.figma.com/file/6jFP8ZiJkWBcFwYKEOWp10/Untitled?type=whiteboard&node-id=0%3A1&t=pe2IslM2G7Kt3v2U-1

Now, what’s next for solopreneurhunt.com ?

1- Build the database & backend code

2- Build the database by searching for the best courses

3- Stripe integration for early membership

Here’s a peak at the front page 👀

And that concludes this week’s newsletter 🔥

Hope you liked it and feel free to reach out @thezachhan on Twitter. Dms are always open!!

Hey Guys! Thanks for tuning in. Here are the stats of the week for solopreneurhunt.com

Week 3: 22 signups (+10%) & 187 visitors (+63%)

This week we’re going to cover:

1- Successful vs Unsuccessful Startups: 3 key mistakes to avoid as a new entrepreneur

2- 3 tools to help you find startup ideas

3- Idea vs Execution: Why your startup idea doesn’t need to be revolutionary.

What is a Startup? Successful Startup VS Failing Startup

In its simplest form. A startup can be classified into 2 categories:

1. An attempt to solve an unresolved Problem

2. An attempt to fulfill an unresolved Need

The key word is unresolved. You have to find a niche where demand is unfulfilled.

There are 3 most common mistakes entrepreneurs make :

1. The idea did not solve an ACTUAL problem. More of a “cool to have”

2. Too much competition & no differentiation (Niche was too broad)

3. The product & its value were marketed incorrectly either: Not enough, wrong strategies

So successful startups were the ones that nailed the 3. Even if just one of those is incorrect & it can ruin an otherwise perfect execution.

Do you know something else that is crucial?: Build something that YOU find important & meaningful.

Solve an issue that matters to you. Building a startup is extremely hard.

There will be highs, there will be lows.

So everybody knows that consistency & never giving up is the most important thing to be successful.

Then you must be building a solution to a problem you’re eager to solve. This will keep you going regardless of motivation.

Do you know why Elon Musk is so successful, perseverant & committed?

• He is building companies that he finds INCREDIBLY important & meaningful (Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Company)

• All of those companies intend to solve a very important problem. And problems that truly matter to Elon.

Here are the 3 best tools to help you find ideas:

1- ChatGPT

• One of the best functionalities of ChatGPT is its ability to adopt an “Archetype”. You can then use it as an advisor! Ask it for its 5 best ideas to get your brainstorming going.

Prompting chatGPT for ideas in a specific industry (Poker)

2- Google Trends

• Go on Google Trends and write your industry/area of interest: Here is an example with the word “Poker”

• Now you can see what questions people ask and what Trends are linked to your desired industry.

3- Notion

• Build 3 columns, Concepts, Promising, Building.

  • Concepts: Anything goes there. Any app idea goes in there.

  • Promising: App ideas that solve a valuable & simple problem: You could build it with your level of skills.

  • Building: You select the idea that interests you the most and/or solves the most important problem. Bonus points if it has both!

• Throughout your day, think of the situations you encounter. What problems do you face? Can you think of a simple solution to solve it? Write everything down!

Idea vs Execution: Why a simple idea > complex one

Your startup idea doesn’t need to be revolutionary.

Do you know why?

Because Execution > Idea.

Executing a simple & niche idea that solves an actual problem is worth 100x more than having the idea of the century but executing only 5% of it.

There is no such thing as a million-dollar idea. There is however a million-dollar execution.

Idea x Execution = Business

So just pick a solution to one of your problems that you truly find important. And start building. The simpler the better. Just get the MVP out there! (Minimal Viable Product)

That brings me to the 3 startup ideas of the week:

1. ChatGPT addon to download & update files: Ever used ChatGPT for coding? Then you know tracking the changes it recommends is painful. How about a way to simply click “download” to automatically download the most up-to-date files?

2. ChatGPT app, finetuned for stock recommendation: Want to invest in the stock market but you don’t know which stock to invest in? What industries are good right, what trends, what market condition? Imagine a finetuned version of chatGPTthat recommends stock investments based on your pre-learned investment behavior & market trends (risk-averse, less risk-averse)

3. Uber-type app for property management: Are you renting out your place but currently on a business trip? Do your guests need help with something? Imagine an app that allows you to contract highly rated part-time property managers near your home to do specific tasks/checkups for you.

Now, what’s next for solopreneurhunt.com ?

1- Continuing organic marketing of the landing page waiting list

2- Build the core functionality: Browse courses by categories (Copywriting, Sales, Indie Hacking, etc.)

3- Build the database of courses: Get first feedback from customers on the waiting list

And that concludes this week’s newsletter 🔥

Hope you liked it and feel free to reach out @thezachhan on Twitter. Always happy to chat.

Landing page launched last week!

Hey guys! Finally launched my startup landing page last week.

solopreneurhunt.com

Week 2 Stats: 20 signups & 115 visitors

This week’s newsletter is going to cover:

1- Best no-code tools for a landing page? Pros & Cons

2- Why perfectionism is your enemy in startups, and actionable tips to overcome it

What is a landing page & why you should build one?

A landing page is a website of 1-2 pages that explain the problem you plan on solving with your startup.

Then you allow people to sign up if they’re interested.

2 reasons why that is crucial for a solopreneur startup:

1. It allows you to validate the idea

2. It gets your startup name out there & starts building marketing momentum

Here are the 4 best landing page tools I tried:

1- Typedream

• Easy to build (Notion-like)

• Beautiful & modern templates & styles

• Built-in analytics to track website traffic and performance.

2- Bubble

• More flexible & in-depth

• Possibility to create signups & logins with database

• Steeper learning curve

3- Carrd

• Ease of use

• Simpler. Fewer functionalities

• Free

• More templates & styles.

4- Convertkit

• Good to drive e-mail marketing signups

• Paid

• Fantastic user experience

• Less templates & cool styles

Typedream was the winner for me. Super easy to use, cool styles & built-in analytics tool.

Now, what’s next for solopreneurhunt.com ?

1- Continuing organic marketing of the landing page waiting list

2- Build MVP & business plan (With code - Using MERN stack)

3- Gather customer insights for the most valuable features

Next week I will share my progress on the MVP building⚡️

Overcome perfectionism: Actionable tips

Always prioritize speed & action vs perfection & inaction.

When you’re building a startup, you can’t expect to hit the jackpot on the first try.

Your first iteration is most likely going to suck.

But that’s ok because you take the learnings and improve for the next iteration, or next project.

That’s how near-perfect products are made:

• The iPhone was not flawless in its first iteration

• What you are seeing now is the result of THOUSANDS of iterations & improvements

That brings me to the 3 actionable tips:

• Set Realistic goals: Perfectionists set overambitious goals. Then they have a hard time reaching them and give up. Set realistic goals. And knock them out of the park. Every. Time.

• Embrace imperfection: Launch a ton of projects that you would deem “not perfect enough” If it’s complete, what do you lose by launching it?

• Iterate A LOT: Volume of work allows you to disconnect the fear of failure. After 50 projects shipped do you think you’ll still be scared of shipping something imperfect?

And that leads me to the lessons here:

• Actively try to fight the perfectionist mindset & launch even if your mind tells you it’s not ready & you should wait

• Seek ways to simplify & lean out your startup

• Use tools that allow you to maximize speed

And that concludes this week’s newsletter 🔥

Hope you liked it and feel free to reach out @thezachhan on Twitter. Will be glad to chat.

This is my first newsletter post!

Excited to have you here to be part of the journey.

This is what you can expect from my Newsletter…

1 Newsletter, 2 main content pieces, Wednesday, every week!:

1. I want to help you grow your mindset & startup by giving actionable tips, lessons & stories

2. I want to share with you the startup that I’ve been working on & share lessons from my journey. I want to help more people build their dream projects!

How to find your Genius zone (Golden zone)

Why do some people grow faster than others? A lot will say to never compare with others. But to me, it's still interesting how...

Some take 2 months to reach 1000 followers while others years.

My understanding is that...

Volume x Breadth = Outcomes

The more VOLUME of work you do on a greater BREATH of areas & methods.

The better your chances of finding your GENIUS ZONE.

What's the golden zone?

It's the intersection between:

1) Actions that you are better at than 99% of people

2) Actions that energize you and you can input crazy amount of hours without feeling burnt out

Example:

Why is Dan Koe so successful?

He let his curiosity explore A LOT of areas of interest. Trying 10s of different skills and businesses.

Increasing his BREADTH.

Now because it's his areas of interest

He could work obsessively on it

Increasing his VOLUME.

Eventually, he found his golden zone.

The golden zone is the ONE area that brings you the greatest fulfillment & that you have the greatest capacity for work.

Capacity for work simply means how much can you work on said things without feeling burnt out?

Ever questioned why Elon Musk never burns out? It’s because he is operating in his golden zone.

We, as solopreneurs should strive to reach the same state. No matter the discipline we choose. It could be art. It could be building a startup. It could be coaching. It could be writing.

That is, to me, the key to living a successful & fulfilled life as a solopreneur.

Startup lessons: Why speed is more important than perfect

For those who don’t know. I quit my full-time finance job 2 months ago to focus on Solopreneurship.

I am learning code from scratch to become a builder.

Now for the past 2 months, I’ve been learning a ton of stuff:

• How to build the front-end of a web app (What the user sees)

• How to build the back-end of a web app (Databases, Signup, APIs)

• How to code with Javascript, Frameworks & Libraries

I’ve been progressing fast but I realized something essential to solopreneurship.

Speed is more important than perfect.

I have been ramping up to learn React.js & Next.js (The most efficient tools to build websites nowadays).

But now my perspective shifted…

How long would that take me to learn? Maybe another 2 months?

But in those 2 months, I could learn & Deploy a basic version of the website using no-code tools.

Start getting traffic.

Potentially revenue.

Get consumer feedback.

Improve.

Etc.

That is why I am learning bubble.io and other no-code tools to build my landing page.

Yes, it will be less cool, fancy & with less features but it’ll be up and running.

And that is the most important part at first.

And that leads me to the lesson here:

• Actively try to fight the perfectionist mindset & launch even if your mind tells you it’s not ready & you should wait

• Seek ways to simplify & lean out your startup

• Use tools that allow you to have maximum speed

And that concludes this week’s newsletter 🔥

Hope you liked it and feel free to reach out @thezachhan on Twitter. Will be glad to chat.