Ask HN: How can I grow my $1000/month business?
I run fundedlist.com.
It provides weekly leads -- startup founders/CEOS that have recently been funded.
The value prop is that these startups have just had an influx of cash and are looking to use it.
The lead info is pretty standard -- verified emails, linkedin, funding amount, funding date, funding type industry (sample [0] in case anyone is interested).
I currently have a handful of customers. I'm cold emailing people at agencies (recruiting, design) and other B2B startups to drum up interest.
Two questions (perhaps really just one)
1. How can this become more valuable for my (potential) customers?
2. How can I grow this?
0: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14HMD1UJ3EeCsS4UU2H2oQ45m2SXFk_BctRx8IQ0nmSs/edit?usp=sharing
Published in 2022, this chronicle by @dhruvkar details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing. Key verified financial milestone: $1000/month.
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
Have you studied Nathan Latka's YouTube channel[1]? It might be interesting to see all of the different "products" he has tried to get more ideas.
Main distribution channel - Quick interviews with founders with a lot of metrics and details.
Main products:
- Founders Path - Micro VC
- GetLatka.com SaaS Database - Free (Was paid for years)
YouTube content iterations:
- Years ago he had "Shark tank for Startups"
- Detailed 1:1 founder interviews
- Newish - Founderpath Conference talks
Other distribution channels:
* He appears on mainstream media (Finance news) to give contrarian startup guy opinion
* He wrote a book
* Appearing on podcasts
For several years he spent something like 10 hours a day interviewing founder's one after another. Insane hustle. No break between interviews. Content pipeline to edit and publish interviews.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/c/NathanLatkawatch
Outstanding work! I'd say, disrupts your competitor's archaic methods perfectly! ....& I've always found that extra reports, op research, trends, and current stats factor greatly into some rounds. A paywall web journal to accompany you data is not out of the question if you are able to provide more relevant info than most free sites. Ex. https://firstsiteguide.com/startup-stats/ https://www.embroker.com/blog/startup-statistics/ https://clara.co/astonishing-facts-about-startups-that-will-make-you-question-everything-you-thought-you-knew/
This is a common model, I've seen it in ContactEcom (for ecommerce sellers) and CyberLeads (same as yours, startup CEOs that got funded). Consider looking into their business models and reading more about them to see how they got successful.
https://contactecom.com
https://www.getcyberleads.com/
Cool business model and congrats on hitting $1k/mo. One route might be to do customer interviews and try to figure out why they use your product and what parts are most valuable to them.
That means you have 12 customers?
You've barely scratched the surface on the amount of money you can make, congratulations!
If you need a partner hmu, mail on profile.