Week #6 ODNC – It's Time to Ship
Hi, I’m Kavir! Here's recapping Week #6 of ODNC1.
If you're new here, I’ll be chronicling the 10 weeks of ODNC1 with key takeaways of events, noteworthy quotes, and my perspective while I build in public. Subscribe to get updates:
With ODNC1 past its halfway point, it's time to start shipping products. That's what the Global Build Weekend also introduced us to - shipping quickly over a weekend. We didn’t have any fireside chats this week, but we had a few insightful workshops organized by ODNC and OD folks.
Let's dive into the takeaways of one of them:
Corey Haines — Swipe Files
Corey talked to us about Distribution from Day 0. A lot of what he spoke resonated with me.
If code is no longer the barrier and making products is democratized, then distribution is key
I resonate very strongly with this quote and it’s reflected in my personal journey. In 2018, I spent 6 months building an app with an outsourced team, only to have no audience to market it to by the end of it.
This experience made me create my own audience on Twitter, Substack, and being an active part of communities like On Deck, Lenny's product community, and now, Compound Writing. It's important to be present where your users hang out, and most of my product's users are in these communities.
Marketing and distribution is earning trust, at scale.
Trust is earned over time. I previously wrote about the Lines vs Dots concept in all kinds of relationships and even at scale. A newsletter is an example of building trust, so is an active Twitter presence.
At scale is through distribution channels. Find the relevant channels that work at your stage and scale.
Move people from borrowed to rented to owned platforms.
borrowed - completely out of your control - e.g. someone else's audience on social media
rented - subject to algorithms - e.g. your own audience on social media
owned - direct relationship with your audience - e.g. your email lists, podcast, community
This was another insightful takeaway. I resumed my dormant Twitter account in the beginning of 2020 with <100 followers. At the time it felt like tweeting into the void, but through interactions with people and being consistent over a year, I've now taken it to ~1400 followers with good engagement!
But I always realize that this is a rented platform and anything can happen in the next few years. Whereas email is long lasting and so, I try to channel most of my Twitter followers to also subscribe to my Substack.
My Build in Public Journey
I finally shipped my first ODNC product! YC Prep App — curated resources to help you ace your YC application and interview.
Access text and video resources to help with the written application, intro video, and the interview
Learn from successful applications like Mixpanel, Dropbox, Product Hunt, DoorDash and others.
Here’s my tweet thread. I shared it on Twitter, ISB Alumni group, on Indie Hackers with Product Hunt coming right up. (I'll update this post with my Build in Public stats and learnings.)
Global Build Weekend Community Awards
Janel updated the results of the community awards with most of ODNC representing:
That’s it for this week! See you next time.
Follow me on Twitter @KavirKaycee!
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