THE TL;DR ON TODAY’S EMAIL

• Fernando was laid off, built aiCarousels in public in 10 days and left the 9-to-5 life behind;

• 2 pragmatic approaches to finding a niche problem to solve;

• and more!

THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES

The best new resources for AI builders and designers

Growth

• Flowla offers a platform to simplify buying experience in the B2B space. Check it out if you’re focused on B2B growth (link)

• Papermark is an open-source alternative to Docsend for sharing pitch decks and sales decks (link)

AI & Data

• Spice.ai offers building blocks for data and time-series AI applications (link)

• No-code web scraper Browserhub can be connected to integration platforms to automate your data acquisition and processing (link)

Design

• Inter 4.0 is an insanely clear open-source typeface (link)

• Stey.ai lets you analyze user replays using natural language queries. Beta launching soon (link)

DEEP-DIVE: aiCarousels

How a solo founder built a tool in 10 days and left the 9-to-5 behind

aiCarousels is a design tool that helps non-designers craft visually engaging carousels for social media, using AI.

Fernando has built it in 10 days and then left his 9-to-5 life.

In today’s case study, I’ll dive into:

• Founder profile: Fernando and his background

• Opportunity identification: How he spotted the opportunity to create aiCarousels

• Building products: how he built the first version focusing on the core features set, and found early product-market fit

• Takeaways for founders: what you can learn from a successful build in public challenge

A troubled 2023 for tech workers

In May 2023, Fernando was living abroad on a work visa and, similar to many other people, he was laid off by his employer.

This triggered uncertainty but also opened the door to exploring that entrepreneurial interest he always had.

Fernando was not new to the world of indie hacking, as he previously built https://www.resumemaker.online/, which uses AI to help people write their resumes.

This helped him learn how to code simple tools by himself.

While he did not make it big with his first product, it was a solid learning experience and side project that set him up for bigger success with his second product launch.

Opportunities in content templates

The niche that Fernando identified is in the content templates space.

By navigating social media, he saw carousels - posts with multiple photos or slides that users can swipe through - pop up increasingly often on LinkedIn and Instagram.

He also noticed that there was no consistent way they were designed by creators and brands, indicating a clear opportunity to systematize the creation of carousels through templates.

The existence of content templates is not new. Since social media became ubiquitous, publishers have been looking for ways to consistently create brand-aligned content across multiple platforms and channels, and have built or bought templates to achieve this result.

However, every now and then, a new format of content is pushed by some platforms and a new opportunity to provide templates opens up. In the case of Fernando, it was carousels.

Building with a time limit

Fernando embarked on a personal #buildinpublic challenge to build and launch a SaaS product in just 10 days.

His motivation was to hold himself accountable and resist the urge to overcomplicate the product by setting a time limit.

Fernando decided to create the easiest-to-use carousel maker for Instagram and LinkedIn after noticing the popularity of carousel posts on LinkedIn.

His goal was to simplify the design process and make it more accessible for non-designers.

Fernando documented his development process, including the creation of the product's features, such as a unique approach to carousel creation, content generation using AI, and monetization plans.

He shared his launch experience on Product Hunt, where aiCarousels received positive feedback, upvotes, and paid users signing up.

Now, six months later, he has left the 9-to-5 life behind and is fully focusing on further building his solo project.

Just a couple weeks ago, he launched version 2 of the tool, extending the core feature set with use-case specific functionality that reduces the risk of getting out of business due to a future OpenAI update, like integrations with other tools (e.g. Pexels), upstream workflow automation, and more templates in line with the latest design trends.

The takeaway for founders

The AI space is developing, fast. AI platform providers are rolling out features very frequently and many one-dimensional tools and GPT wrappers won’t survive more than a few months. We discussed this in our previous edition.

There is a trade-off that is worth considering between going to market fast with a one-dimensional tool, and building a more complete feature set that better protects you from platform risks and competition. Fernando’s approach of time-boxing the development and launch of the tool to 10 days has forced him to think of the essential features that drive the core user value centered around time savings and consistency of the outcome.

For AI-enabled products, this type of challenge is definitely attainable, given the growing ecosystem of no-code tools and AI platforms that makes MVP development extremely fast.

There is massive value in going to market extremely fast with a one-dimensional AI product, while accepting the competitive risk from other ventures and AI platforms. With the current high pace of development, there are clear opportunities for mitigating the risk in v2 and v3 of the product, once initial traction is gained and better insights are acquired.

While a 10-day #buildinpublic challenge might not be for everyone, it takes away the self-imposed pressure of having to build non-core features in v1 of the product, and has the nice added benefit of attracting pre-launch feedback from interested audiences that can help in future product development.

TWO PRAGMATIC APPROACHES TO FINDING A NICHE PROBLEM TO SOLVE

How can you follow Fernando’s lead and find your own niche problem that is worth solving (i.e. is potentially profitable)?

I have summarized below two great approaches from other entrepreneurs, along with my take on each of them. In the next edition, I will share my own approach for you to immediately start on your journey to problem discovery.

Start from the market

Pawel Brzeminski says:

• Select the market first,

• Work with the market to select the problem,

• Pre-sell your solution,

• Finally build the smallest solution to the problem.

When to use this: this approach is great for finding early product-market-fit in B2B markets. Plus, I love the practical advice of going out and talking to people in the market to identify a problem - but, not everyone has access to specialists in given markets who can provide reliable insights, and often solopreneurs don’t have the ability to invest such a significant amount of time in user research. If you can afford it, this approach is extremely valid to find a long-term B2B SaaS idea.

Watch the video where Pawel goes in detail on this framework.

Start from a dialogue

Abdo Riani says:

• Publish useful content,

• Test ideas through content,

• Invite subscribers to a call,

• Presell an idea.

When to use this: the article where Abdo talks about this framework is more than 4 years old, but is even more relevant now in the age of TikTok and its global outreach potential. There are countless examples of solopreneurs who have started their journey by posting content on the platform, engaging in discussion with other users, heard their challenges and requests, and then building services, products or productized services to solve for those. As of today, I recommend this option to founders who have limited time to invest in starting their venture (e.g. are still working a 9-to-5) and want to get creative with their problem identification approach.

Read the article for more details.

UP NEXT

In the next edition of this newsletter, I will share how to build an audience and use social media as a platform for problem discovery, and why it is a smart approach for founders in 2024.

In upcoming editions, I’ll share more resources that help you (solo) founders in choosing the right AI tools, building your products and getting them to market.

If you have specific questions, or would like me to go deeper on specific topics, let me know by replying to this email.