Are you working today?
I often work on Sundays. But I reduce my working hours on weekdays.
💬How do you keep your work-life balance?
#buildinpublic
#indiehackers
I started this blog late last year from scratch.
1000 founders and IT enthusiasts in 3 months is a very inspiring result.
Thank you 🙏
#buildinpublic
#letsconnect
Hey, can you pitch your startup in 2 minutes? Set the timer ⏱️ , how long is your elevator pitch?
I pitch the 🦄Unicorns Club in 2 minutes and 10 seconds and oh my gods, I'm trying really hard to make it shorter!
#pitch
#buildinpublic
Remember those good ol’ startup days? 😉
To celebrate the launch of 🦄 Unicorns Club, we have created a profile for
@ProductHunt
as if it were 2014.
The world didn’t know the hashtag
#buildinpublic
back then, but the product search site launched in 2013 was already a hit⭐️
Today is 6 months since I've been writing posts on X for founders.
0 → 200 (60 days)
200 → 1000 (60 days)
1000 → 1500 🎉 (60 days)
Is this a normal growth rate for X?
In fact, I wanted to hit 5,000 hackers before we released Unicorns Club. But it would be wrong to keep you
💬 How many co-founders are on your team?
'We've funded two single founders, but in both cases, we suggested their first priority should be to find a co-founder. Both did. But we'd have preferred them to have cofounders before they applied.'—Paul Graham, founder of the YC.
We did it! 🎉
Thank you to everyone who was with us on the day!
In the last 10 minutes, I almost fainted 🥵
because
@VidAU_AI
fought beautifully 🤝
Let's compete for the product of the week 🚀😉
#buildinpublic
I love
@ProductHunt
!
Want to gain 1st place as a product of the week? How many votes you should get? 1352... but 2342 would be better. Do you need subscribers? Yes, 37701. But 43 might be enough 😁.
The key ingredient to success is your great product 🥂
How many people were in your
#ProductHunt
launch support team last time?
I have 108 at the moment.
My launch is in 3-4 weeks. Is that a lot or a little?
#buildinpublic
If your startup is making $1,000 a month, in 4 years you'll be making:
- $10K /mo if you are growing at 5% a month
- $25M /mo if you are growing at 5% a week 🔥
VCs want to see a billion-dollar market opportunity potential and a company that has a chance of reaching at least
Hey everyone! 🦄 Unicorns Club has a real shot at winning Product of the Week on
@ProductHunt
! 🏆
My X account is still shadowbanned, so I know my followers aren’t seeing my posts. Your reposts would really help spread the word about our launch. I’d truly appreciate your
Each founder should learn and do marketing themselves. The same is true with sales. You can hire someone for it when you find what works for you and what you should grow.
Pre-seed startups and contemporary art have something in common: investors evaluate them based on the owner's background (industry connections, experience, skills, education, personal qualities, and so on).
#buildinpublic
💬 Do you plan to raise funding this year?
👉 50 million new startups are launched yearly
👉$285 billion — global startup funding in 2023 (significant downturn of 38% year-on-year). For instance, 2023 saw a record-breaking 5.48 million new businesses started in the U.S.
💰
How will you find an investor if you can't inspire a tech guy to build an MVP for free or a partner to bring in the first users? How will you inspire customers to sell your solution for billions of dollars? 🤔
#indiehackers
🚀 Finally, I can share the results of Unicorns Club’s launch on
@ProductHunt
!
We received 275 startup profiles, and here are some amazing highlights:
• 80% of them have developed an MVP and launched to the market.
• 60.70% of these startups already have users/clients and
We wanted to launch Unicorns Club by the end of April. But we screwed up. We are deploying a prod server and will definitely release it by the end of May.
In the middle of May, we are ready to give access to everyone who filled out the form at 💜
Only 4 people, including me, are working on Unicorns Club. This is very little for such a complex product. Give us a like 💜. We are working hard on the 1st stage to share it with you this month.
#buildinpublic
I've reached 800 subscribers. 🎉
Once I have 3,000 founders subscribed, I will personally send everyone a link to the Unicorns Club private sign-up.
#buildinpublic
#indiehacker
"They told us we were crazy. Now they ask if they can invest".
I’m excited to share my recent interview with CEO Weekly! Hot on the heels of our feature on
@ProductHunt
, dive into everything you wanted to know about Unicorns Club and how we empower early-stage startups and
It's good to see more products coming out that try to give equal growth opportunities to all makers and founders, not just those in the US 👍
#buildinpublic
'If you became an entrepreneur because you cannot stand to work for anyone else, having VCs may not be your cup of tea, either!'
@geri_kirilova
wrote a brilliant guide for first-time founders and explained how the VC model works.
Strong recommend 👇
I reviewed the TechCrunch pitch decks and noted that they start with problem slides. However, the pitch falls flat if investors don't recognize the problem.
Uber came about not because there was a problem with calling a cab. Uber succeeded due to shifts in behavior from
The 51% rule: you don't need to be 100% sure when deciding. 51% is enough.
A simple thought that helps me make decisions faster and not procrastinate.
#buildinpublic
Some investors have more time than money.
👉 Before the meeting, check out the investor and their latest round.
However, if you are looking for your first investor, don't miss any opportunity to pitch your idea to experts and get feedback.
#buildinpublic
#indiehackers
Excited to announce my upcoming book for first-time founders!
Help me pick the cover design: 1 or 2?
Huge thanks to
@ropesandhopes
,
@arnoldmasci
,
@AvgustinDenis
, and
@GPaullJr
for your invaluable feedback. Your insights have shaped my edits, and I’m once again seeking your
I want to share with you my favorite
#framework
that I advise all startups, regardless of your growth stage.
===================
@BainandCompany
has spent 40 years studying how customers make purchasing decisions. It has developed a pyramid of 30 value elements: at its peak are
Why you should launch on
#ProductHunt
The IKI AI results:
🆕 +2.5k users
💰 +50 emails from venture capitalists
They got the Product of the Day last week
#buildinpublic
#indiehackers
Do you agree that founders need to actively expand their
#networks
and invest time in attending events to attract venture capital investment?
If so, is this right for you?
Is this method still modern and does not need any changes?
#buildinpublic
#indiehackers
🚀 We’ve launched Unicorns Club on
@ProductHunt
!
Today is a big day for our team.
Please share this venture with us 🦄 👇
We’re incredibly grateful to all makers,
#indiehackers
, founders and the
#buildinpublic
community for your support and
No Sex For Fish
Last week I served as a judge at a local startup competition from Africa. One of the pitch decks began with the headline: No Sex For Fish.
The first slide of the pitch deck is accompanied by a photo of a dark-skinned woman (seemingly from an ID card). The
I recently asked private investors and top VCs how they decided to fund early-stage startups. Here's what I learned:
35% - Funded startup on the recommendation of other investors
17% - Were familiar with the founders before (former colleagues or work acquaintances)
These
Q&A: How can Unicorns Club help your startup get investment?
Raising capital is a complex journey that goes beyond simple financial transactions. It's about building relationships and trust and moving into an economic partnership. The path to securing early-stage funding for
You can get investment at the pre-revenue stage if you have the following:
1. Users / Audience
- users of your product
- waitlisted users
- subscribers of your social media channel relevant to your product
- letters of guarantee (for b2b): a statement of intent of other
Guys, in direct messages and comments you ask for tips on how to grow your audience in X. I can do a detailed tutorial on
#indiehackers
showing what my team and I do every day and what our conversions are.
We even count the hours spent on X because we're obsessed with numbers
🔥 50% of pre-seed stage startups already have revenue
For the last month, I've been collecting applications from startups that want to get access to Unicorns Сlub. This is the numbers I got when looking at the stats today. And that's a lot!
Guys, you are awesome! 👏
The photo shows the result of AI’s work. AI tried to depict a kitten based on a prompt containing descriptions of the Japanese figurine Lucky Cat and the
@ProductHunt
mascot 😄
Here’s the deal: I managed to gather makers on Product Hunt in a
@telegram
chat. We share launch
You should get 5 customers who have gone through the sales funnel.
Be sure these 5 customers are
❌not those who "came on their own,"
❌not your friends or acquaintances.
They should be 5 complete strangers who learned about you from a cold outreach/ad and bought.
If you
🎉 Today, my X account reached 1600 subscribers.
In light of this, let me give you the unvarnished truth about what it takes to grow.
Sometimes one follower on X takes 60 minutes. Learn more on
#indiehackers
👇
#buildinpublic
Oh, guys, I read my feed and see that many stay
#solofounders
for years. And, for most, being a solo-founder also means doing everything on your own.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
Last week I asked you - Did you get investors after your
#producthunt
launch.
Many people wondered if there were any examples of investors writing after the launch. And now I have fresh confirmation of that:
#buildinpublic
Every startup begins with that spark – an idea. But when it comes to equity, how much is that idea really worth?
If tomorrow you were invited to co-found a project at the idea stage, should you get a smaller equity because the idea belongs to someone else?
👉 What do you
1. Create your 🦄 profile
2. Keep it updated
3. Investors will follow you
💜 Join us now
Unicorns Club takes care of the heavy lifting. We deliver your profile updates to the right investors and recommend you to those who align with your goals. Your
Hey, guys.
Still unofficial, but I'm hoping the launch date on
#producthunt
will be June 12. 🫰
Now, I am finalizing the design materials for the upcoming launch and have prepared a video explainer.
After watching it, does it make you want to go and see the interface live,
Better Call Saul - finding your customer segment and the importance of sharing the same underlying goals with your co-founder
The Curse - ethics
Super Pumped - working in a red ocean and risk of losing control
We crushed - obsessing over your idea and influencing everyone
'If you're doing something people need, you don't need fancy networks to raise money.' Brad Flora,
@ycombinator
I raised my first investment without any connections in the VC world. We proved ourselves and made our first sales in a small startup accelerator, which later
4 years ago, I participated in the
@500STARTUPS
.
One of the tools I learned about during the boot camp, and which I still use today, is the Pyramid of Values.
I've also implemented it in Unicorns Club profiles so that a startup can easily highlight the values of their
🚀 Hey
#indiehackers
! I just got hooked on an insightful piece by
@_Maskoe
, 'Why you won't find a technical co-founder.'
I totally resonate with the idea that some newbies are scouting for CTOs in all the wrong spots. If you're rocking your 20s, your university might be teeming
I'm reading the posts by the guys at
@_buildspace
and they do a great job of describing their ideas.
Seriously, you do it better than most founders of early startups. Do you write this yourself or is it AI?
Come to Unicorns Club when you add business goals to your products
Founders, how do you handle a lot of different tasks?
Do you deal with different fields for a couple of hours a day, or do you allocate a separate day for each? e.g., marketing and post planning on Monday, backlog and documentation management on Tuesday, etc.?
#solofounders
How do investors predict which founders will succeed and which will give up? Will they bet on a passionate and energetic founder or a quiet and uncertain one?
Lots of startup founders start out with high motivation and energy, only to fail in the end. When it comes to being a
What's the worst that could happen? People might think the product is ugly or sucks, competitors might see it and quickly steal your best feature. Maybe you're afraid that no one will see it or no one will care?
#indiehackers
#buildinpublic
Yesterday, the Valley hosted an event where a startup could tell investors about itself and get initial funding. The video is not mine (I found it on a social network).
A question for you: How do you feel when you see such events?
1. ✅ I really want to participate; it's so
Let's test your
#MarketingDigital
knowledge.
You have 2 posts.
One of them needs to be put up for advertising.
You like both of them: on what principle will you choose between them?
#buildinpublic
#indiehackers
I was recently asked, "How do we get our first investment at the MVP stage?". I asked a counter-question: how many investors are in your funnel today?
Like the tweet 💜or comment 💬 if you want me to expand on this topic.
Today, I was asked an interesting question that reminded me of an interview I did a while back. I talked about a catastrophe we faced because we sold our product to customers it wasn’t intended for:
Sometimes, a customer who doesn’t fit your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) appears
Unicorns Club is the first solution for building long-term relationships between startups and investors.
The platform assists startups in maintaining profiles, tracking KPIs, and packaging their data attractively for relevant investors.
Investors can quickly qualify
GPT saved half of my work time today!
If you, like me, hate writing and layout emails, here's a lifehack:
👉 Tell GPT that you need to make the layout of the email in HTML and give it your brand colors to create styles.
👉 Then tell it what the project is about (what the
Does your startup have a logo?
Would you like to upload a logo to your startup profile?
So far, we have provided the option to set any branded color. 🤔
#buildinpublic
#indiehackers
Hi, 👋 founders of pre-seed & seed-stage startups
I am part of the Unicorns Club platform. Today, our team invests resources to help startups succeed by carefully reviewing and connecting them with relevant investors.
Are you looking for investment for your dream project?
Have you applied to 5-10 startup accelerators, but haven't received the response you were hoping for?
@waydevco
startup was accepted to
@ycombinator
after 13 applications. If you have a pre-seed stage startup, you not only need to send your application to several dozen
💡 Trick on Product Hunt: How to sneak a peek at competitors' materials and the exact launch date of a 'coming soon' product? Watch the video.
💬 Did you know this?
#producthunt
#buildinublic
Hey everyone!
Sorry for the two-week radio silence – I’ve been busy selecting some awesome startups that joined Unicorns Club from
#ProductHunt
. You guys are amazing! 🎉
I’m thrilled to share that I’ve chosen about 100 startups for 4 different VC funds. If you got an email from
New milestone for the Unicorns team! 🦄
We’re thrilled to welcome another front-end developer to our team! 🎉
Our Unicorns family is now spread across even more time zones 🌍 — from Europe all the way to Argentina.
With this global spread, we have just a two-hour window
So many of you have subscribed to me in the last few days 😱
Is there anything I can do for you? Some expert insight/feedback from the outside on the pitch deck, product, design, or anything else?
What are your biggest challenges for the coming year: the cofounder searching,
@ThePeterMick
Oh, that's not true.
The solo founder has to invent, sell, fundraise, and hire.
If a solo-founder does everything, they would be a great employee. 😁
But they'll never become an entrepreneur.
The outcome of business is the work of someone else.
And while the long-awaited development of the first Unicorns Club stage is ending, I've started the 800th-anniversary task today 🎈
👉 What's the last number in your startup task tracker?
#buildinpiblic
#indiehackers
Which is easier for you:
1. to build a business that turns a profit
2. to launch a startup and realize early on that it's not gaining traction, then drop it to return to point 1.
#buildinpublic
#indiehackers
'I very often hear early-stage founders say, “I did lots of user interviews”. And then they tell me that they interviewed eight people. I interviewed 500 and spoke with 5,000 during the first year of Edusign' — says
@Elliot_Bch
Thank you
@JamesOfTheDrum
for your awesome