What's New: Managing innovation in your startup

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

How do you manage innovation as a founder?

• To build innovation that scales, consider an innovation funnel. Remember, not all ideas are created equal. Focus on those that move the needle.
• For beginner indie hackers, getting started may feel totally overwhelming. Check out these resources for a crash course!
• Launch. Feature overwhelm. High churn. Justin Jagiello pulled back on the fancy features, and is now at $34K MRR.

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Creating an Innovation Funnel ✨

by Berkay Yavuz

An innovation funnel is a streamlined system that harnesses the power of both structure and agility.

Why startups need an innovation funnel

As exciting as the build in public approach is, it can become a double-edged sword. With a growing team, amazing ideas can easily get lost in the noise. Founders need:

• Priorities: Not all ideas are created equal. A funnel helps you identify the ones that will truly move the needle for your business.

• Alignment: Innovation is fantastic, but it needs to be aligned with your bigger goals and vision.

• Resource management: Startups have limited resources. The funnel ensures you're investing your time and energy wisely.

• Inclusion: Everyone on the team should feel empowered to contribute ideas. The funnel keeps the process transparent and inclusive.

Making ideas fly

We built our entire innovation funnel using Notion, a tool already familiar to our team. This helped keep things simple. Here's a quick breakdown of the key phases:

• Idea phase: This is the open forum where anyone can submit ideas, big or small. We categorize them as "proposals" (brand new ideas) or "requests" (improvements to existing features).

• Feasibility: Our cross-functional committee (think founders, devs, growth hackers) takes a closer look at each idea. They evaluate alignment with our vision, resource requirements, and a cost-benefit analysis. Only the strongest contenders make it to the next stage.

• Development: Once an idea gets the green light, the product and development teams take the reins. They create detailed plans, break the project down into sprints, and get ready to bring the idea to life.

• Launch: This is the final decision point. The committee reviews the completed project, and decides whether to launch it to the world.

• Fast track: This is the VIP lane for ideas that are critical to user experience, and have the potential for high impact. These ideas bypass the funnel and go straight to development, after being validated by a limited group of decision-makers (think founders and key stakeholders).

The power of GPT

The innovation funnel isn't just about filtering ideas; it's about streamlining the entire process. The key takeaway here is finding the sweet spot between the raw energy of a startup and the structure you need to grow sustainably.

Think of an innovation funnel as a work in progress. What works for us at Adsby might need some tweaks for your specific startup.

Check out our Innovation Funnel Manager for free if you have ChatGPT Plus!

Discuss this story.

Refer Qualified Sellers or Buyers and Get Rewarded 💸

This issue is sponsored by Boopos

Boopos is the #1 platform for buying and selling profitable online businesses, and the first with built-in acquisition financing for qualified buyers.

Boopos just launched its first Ambassador Referral Program, designed to empower loyal sellers, buyers, industry leaders, key opinion leaders, and organizations to leverage their networks. Earn referral fees by referring sellers and buyers of profitable online businesses (SaaS, subscription based, e-commerce, etc.)!

Unique benefits of the Boopos Ambassador Referral Program:

• Rewards for buyer and seller referrals.
• No cap on referral fees.
• Referral Partner Dashboard to track your earnings.

Find out more here!

Resources for Beginner Indie Hackers 📚

by Just

As someone just starting out, indie hacking felt like wandering without a map. If you're feeling the same, here are eight invaluable resources to help you find direction!

1. Getting started

If you're unfamiliar with the entire process of finding an idea, launching, and monetizing (or exiting), Pieter Levels outlines the entire game here.

This conversation between Arvid Kahl and Pieter Levels is also worth a listen.

2. Your "why"

Don't miss this valuable tweet thread for priceless insights on wealth creation, and developing a mindset geared for long-term success.

3. Is this a popularity contest?

Many founders believe that gaining followers is the only path to success. While it certainly helps, you can start earning from your SaaS even before that. Here, Danny Postma outlines an eye-opening process for finding underserved Google keyword searches where your SaaS could add value.

4. Speaking of followers...

Everyone wants to eventually build a following, but some engage in questionable practices, damaging their reputation before it even forms. Arvid Kahl's concept of value alignment provides a solid foundation for finding your audience amidst ever-changing algorithm updates.

5. Positioning

In this talk, April Dunford takes you through the experience of buying a toilet to show you what the sales process is like from the buyer's perspective. If you're not too familiar with positioning, this is definitely worth a watch!

6. Marketing examples

Harry Dry's collection of top-notch marketing examples are on point, and easy to understand.

7. Growing your product

Here, Andrea Bosoni has created a treasure trove of case studies. Check them out to uncover patterns in product growth.

8. Building as marketing

Passionate about building more than marketing? Check out this resource by Marc Louvion, where he concisely outlines what free tool marketing is, why it's effective, and how to execute it!

I've developed a visual finance tracker using Kanban boards, and recently launched on Product Hunt. Check it out if you're interested!

Discuss this story.

In the News 📰

from the Growth Trends newsletter

🧵 The Threads API is coming soon.

💡 20 profitable rental ideas that you can start now.

💲 Link to your product here. Our most affordable ad.

🚴‍♀️ Peloton is a media company now, with media company problems.

🫣 Dealing with the fear of local business reviews.

💻 The best free online marketing classes to help you level up.

Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.

Don't be Afraid to Let Your Ideas Fail 💪

by James Fleischmann

Justin Jagiello built a technical product for non-technical users, and was confronted with high churn. So, he learned how to communicate with his customers and not overwhelm them with fancy features. Now, his product is at $34K MRR!

The product

FormWise is a SaaS platform that allows non-technical business owners to create their own proprietary AI tools with no-code. My expertise is on the technical side, so making a complex product that was accessible to non-technical people was actually quite difficult for me at first.

I've had to become much better at translating difficult concepts, such as RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) and Prompt Chaining, into easier to understand ideas that anyone can use.

When we have a new feature, I create instructional content on it for the non-technical users, and run it by my non-technical friends! If they understand what I'm trying to explain, then I did my job.

High churn

When we first started the platform, it was all technical. We also provided every feature to every user right out of the gate.

We had issues with users understanding how to get from A to B, and that resulted in a high churn rate. So, we decided to overhaul our interface. We started from scratch, and cut it down to the point that many of our features weren't included.

That cut our churn almost in half. We now default all of our new users to this new interface. We only allow them to toggle on our advanced interface once they've created a few tools on the platform.

Cofounders and growth

We have three cofounders, myself included, and it's been really helpful. I've always been entrepreneurial, so I worked on other projects before this. But I'm more interested in building things, and not very interested in the sales side. That's where good partners come in.

I attribute some of our current success to having a team. Not every business requires a cofounder, but good partners can help provide insights that you might not see yourself.

Clear communication and delegating responsibilities are both extremely important. We segment our responsibilities between cofounders, and are very clear about who is responsible for what.

We grew FormWise exclusively through organic content marketing and a generous affiliate program. We haven't spent anything on paid marketing yet, and don't think we need to for the time being.

Advice for indie hackers

If you start a business because you don't want to work a 40 hour week, you'll be disappointed. As a founder, you can very easily find yourself working an 80 hour week. It requires a lot of sacrifice. I think most people are unaware of that until they get into the thick of it.

Don't let your work consume your life, and don't be afraid to let your ideas fail. There are good ideas and bad ones. You'll know which one is which by talking to your target audience. You might just have to let go of your bad ideas, or pivot.

Discuss this story.

The Tweetmaster's Pick 🐦

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Berkay Yavuz, Darko, Just, and James Fleischmann for contributing posts. —Channing