farez
@farez
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Following
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898
Statuses
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Building indie businesses in public. Currently growing .
London, England
Joined May 2007
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Last Seen Profiles
So I was wrong.
For a SaaS business, audience != customers.
Let me explain...
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What I’ve learned in the last 3 years of trying to start/survive new businesses:
Old rules: Make, then sell, then grow.
New rules: Grow, then sell, then make.
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10
62
This one's for you, freelancer.
This is the system I'm using in my 15-year-old freelancing business, as a set of Notion templates.
Get it for $5 before launch. Includes a 25% discount code for
@NotionInvoice
!
0
4
57
Launched my side project today.
It's a simple web app to help you clarify long complicated PDFs by asking it questions.
Built with
@openai
@laravelphp
@LaravelLivewire
@tailwindcss
@lmsqueezy
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1
34
Love the
@visualizevalue
Daily Manifest by
@jackbutcher
.
Made one for Notion. Let me know if you want it.
(Hope that's ok,
@jackbutcher
, but let me know if not).
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4
33
Consulting work has taken a toll on my SaaS products. Finally have some time to breath and plan.
Here's my immediate focus for this year.
Primary focus
Grow
@PopInvoice
. Invoicing is boring, but our customers here are the stickiest by far. They've been around for years. And
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Went to bed at $0 MRR.
Woke up to $10 MRR.
This is a good day.
LIVE: New PRO pricing options.
$10 /month
$100 /year
$100 /lifetime (limited supply)
Or use it for Free (5 invoices, 1 template)
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Love how active this OpenAI API package for PHP is. Will be using it today. Thanks for the fantastic work,
@enunomaduro
and team!
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28
An audience follows you because they want to learn or be entertained.
SaaS customers buy your software because they have a problem to solve.
The two don't naturally overlap (sometimes they do, but this is not a given).
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6
28
The value you deliver and the channels you deliver it through are different.
Content
Value: education, thought leadership, entertainment.
Channel: video, blog, book, courses, etc.
SaaS
Value: save time, save money, increase revenue.
Channel: website, app, API.
1
1
22
The problem with that is, I confused "audience" with "customers".
And I failed to see that the audience-first approach, while highly relevant for content creators, isn't as effective for SaaS builders.
1
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Employee to freelancer is a mindset shift.
You need to start thinking like a business. That means getting savvy with finances, sales, and client relationships.
#Tweet100
#Freelancing
2
3
22
Didn't realise the number of cases I'll need to handle for user subscriptions in SaaS:
- Free user
- Currently subscribed
- Currently subscribed but payment past due
- Subscription cancelled but on grace period
- Subscription cancelled and grace period ended
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So what's a SaaS maker to do?
Instead of focusing on building an audience, focus on learning. Pick a group of people, help them regularly, and along the way, learn about the problems they all have in common.
Then build something to solve that problem.
1
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18
Great discussion also happening here:
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Working on my next startup.
Looked back at my "Ideas" notebook and just shortlisted 125 ideas to 17!
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1
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The Organised Freelancer is a Notion template + apps bundle.
Now includes up to 25% discount codes for
@NotionForms
and
@feather_blogs
🎉. More being added to the bundle.
Thank you
@pbteja1998
and
@JhumanJ
🙏
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If you're in a similar situation to how I was, do yourself and your startup a favour and give yourself some financial peace of mind. Here are some suggestions, depending on what your income situation is:
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Bootstrapping a new business and growing it to a sustainable level is hard, because it takes a long time and it requires mental and emotional endurance. And luck.
Trying to do that without some financial foundation will make that 100 times harder.
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This morning: our product is ok.
This evening: our product is ok, but now we know how to 10x it.
Just finished the first day of demos to our waiting list. Talking to customers is such a high leverage activity.
0
1
13
@ProjectKenneth
Personally, I like asking for specifics in my questions. E.g. "Tell me about the last time you discovered something in the tech space which you thought was cool". Easier to answer + more insight into how the candidate functions. Also less prone to defensive answers.
0
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The
#1
most valuable skill I learned as a freelancer is
Empathy
Being able to put yourself in your client's shoes is a superpower. Second only to reading their minds.
#Tweet100
#Freelance
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1
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Never thought my humble, simple, browser extension could be this useful to so many people.
@markfolder
Thank you for using Markfolder to save and organise your favourite tweets!
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0
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@itskeeplearning
@NotionHQ
@_yudax
@JhumanJ
@sobedominik
@JoLodge01
@AAlemayhu
@up_to_nonsense
@braisthinks
@pbteja1998
@sotak
@nandhaKT
@mralexhay
@Johannesguent
Big shoutout to
@Johannesguent
!
The Notion API library he created powers both our Notion apps (
@NotionInvoice
&
@DatePopApp
).
If you're a Laravel dev who wants to develop for Notion, I highly recommend it:
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And I failed to check whether their business lessons (content) is relevant to mine (SaaS).
I was attracted to this shiny new thing called "audience building".
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I love building software businesses.
But there's only one thing I love more...
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You don't have to "grow" into an agency start employing people.
You can still take on larger projects by staying as a solo freelancer and partnering with other freelancers.
#Tweet100
#Freelance
1
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PLAYERS
People who play in the new rules are good at all 3.
Follow:
@unicodeveloper
@levelsio
@dannypostmaa
@dr
@jspector
@MKBHD
@DruRly
@thisiskp_
@arvidkahl
@jasonfried
@JohnONolan
@austin_rief
@whizzzoe
@ramit
@tferriss
@lennysan
@alexhillman
@jackbutcher
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At uni, we created an operating system from scratch.
That taught me so much about how software works.
That turned into software engineering intuition that's with me till today.
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Work has been slow this week, but surf's been epic.
I'm lucky to have found a passion that pulls me away from my laptop.
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It's here:
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Working on the
@NotionInvoice
prototype this week.
Usually, I'd just sketch it out on my iPad and then code it. This time, I'm going to try and join the cool kids and use
@figmadesign
.
Definitely feeling the learning curve...
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My manager, Charlotte the cat, always trying to micro-manage my meetings.
2
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11
Finally finished building the prototype for
@InvoiceNotion
. Used
@figmadesign
and I started from zero. Phew, that was a learning curve.
Here are the main Figma features I used, and I think these are enough for any founder to create a clickable prototype for their product
↓
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I think there are many good reasons to write and build an audience.
It sharpens your thoughts, it improves your communication skill, and it connects you with people you can learn from.
My mistake is to assume that the audience I am building is also my source of customers.
1
0
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Couldn't sleep. Decided to start a new weekend project.
It's a combo of Laracon + OpenAI + New
@laravelphp
and
@LaravelLivewire
features, Volt and Folio.
Let's see where this goes!
1
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@notionhq
is a fantastic platform for work. No surprise that freelancers (like me) are moving to Notion to manage workflow.
But there's one missing piece: a decent invoicing solution. In fact, there's not even a way to generate decent-looking PDF invoices.
So what to do? 👇🏽
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Power-up your Twitter experience.
I love using single-purpose apps. They solve specific problems well.
Here are a few made for Twiter, by solo founders or small teams.
Recommendations 👇🏽
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If you're working solo and would like to join a virtual coworking space on Discord, DM me and I'll send you the invitation.
It's a place for you to get shit done and grow your network.
All welcome.
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First day of a new routine today:
Up at 6
Shower
Go for a walk (with coffee)
Plan my day during the walk
Likes:
- mindful planning without the distraction of being online
- start my day moving
- mental space to process things
Dislikes:
- rain
- not early enough
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Good Morning, Makers, Builders and Creators in South East Asia.
🤜
What are we contributing to the world today?
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Last few months have been hard.
Even with signs of progress, I feel like I'm stuck in the slow lane.
Watching everyone else whizz past with their hockey-stick MRRs.
I get panic attacks. And I can't sleep.
Which affects progress.
The cycle is fucking vicious.
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@domm
@StevejLamar
Markfolder () is a Chrome extension to help Twitter users save, organise and review their favourite tweets.
0
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As
@arvidkahl
nicely puts it, your SaaS business should be "audience-driven" - a subtle but important distinction to "audience-first".
I wrote about my pivot this week. Turned out the name for my book was confusing the people I am writing it for. So... pivot it is!
Here are my thoughts on terms, definitions, and why listening to your audience matters.
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@noahwbragg
@potion_so
We need a place where makers can dip in and out of part time freelance work.
I need it too.
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GROW your audience/following.
By creating useful content, building something publicly, or just being helpful to your community.
Use newsletters, social media, video channels, podcasts, live channels.
Talk to them regularly. Give. Then ask.
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9
@BorisTane
@benbarbersmith
@jonhainstock
@KennethCassel
@geetfun
@jamaruuuu
@jones_spencera
@geordidearns
@kevon69
@basakbuilds
@itsLeo_m
@heybereket
@lexpaval
@oktuned
@mesetatron
@joshmanders
@lesley_pizza
@neeadev
@poppacalypse
@humbleuidesigns
@TheBuilderJR
@Natalie_Furn
@jordnfk
@shkliarau
@AngeZanetti
@harishkgarg
@helloEngineur
@cogentgene
@coolnalu
@MatterSignal
@larskarbo
Thanks for the mention
@Boris
. What a great opportunity to learn from each other - I'm going to follow everyone mentioned here!
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9
The number of times I get stuck and tell the problem to someone, and the solution jumps out at me even before I finish explaining the problem!
Human conversation is prob the best debugging tool we have!
2
1
8
Been using
@getbootstrap
for years. But I'll be learning and using
@tailwindcss
for my next project.
Already spent an hour on Tailwind and I can say that it's not a direct comparison with Bootstrap. Apples and oranges.
↓
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9
The older I get, the longer I have to scroll on that "date of birth" signup field.
1
1
9
Just been shown
@NoCodeLetters
for managing your newsletters from within
@NotionHQ
.
Seeing more and more interesting applications built for Notion
1
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9
Chat With Laravel is live:
It's a website that lets you chat with
@LaraconUS
videos.
Made with
@laravelphp
10,
@LaravelLivewire
3, and all the new shiny stuff like Folio and Volt. Will write all this up soon.
1
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9
Find a fire to put out. That's where you'll find your next business idea.
2
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Some days, you just need to sit down, put some tunes on, get in the creative zone, and code.
Today's that kinda day.
1
1
8
"If something you do gives you energy regardless of who sees it, that is, like, the signal that you need to pay attention to".
@jackbutcher
on compounding and picking what to work on consistently.
Great interview by
@bzaidi
:
1
2
8
I think someone just stole my
#checksvv
NFTs. I remember clicking on a scam link inside and thought I'd revoked access. But this morning those NFTs gave been transferred away from my account and sold.
Any ideas how I can get them back?
@jackbutcher
@opensea
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0
2
Sometime last year, I tweeted this 👇.
I said:
Old way: build product, then find customers.
New way: Build audience, then build product.
What I’ve learned in the last 3 years of trying to start/survive new businesses:
Old rules: Make, then sell, then grow.
New rules: Grow, then sell, then make.
6
10
62
2
0
8
Process of doing meaningful work in general very similar to
#leanstartup
principles. Interesting.
#udhack
0
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7
@jiwakencang
@ruffleseed
This is what happens to any effort to bring different departments together to to share one resource. Not just in Malaysia. I saw the same when working on similar projects in the UK.
0
1
7
Success depends on luck.
Luck comes from being prolific.
Being prolific requires work.
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