3 Ways to Scale Startup Ideas in the Comments
Who else missed out on the Yacht parties in Miami last week? Sadly, I was too busy writing this newsletter to grab a “whale pass” and discuss Bitcoin’s latest trends in the market. All jokes aside, I’ve dug up some timely startup gems for today that are gonna keep you and your interns busy this week. Let's jump into the latest 😎
Party in the Comments
Before a startup is launched, it usually starts as an idea. Well, what if I told you, there's been some serious dialogue happening between founders and investors in the comments section after an idea is shared?
Picture Twitter DMs meets startup Tinder. That's basically the trend we’ve been seeing on Kernal. 🙊
On Kern.al, founders and investors are dishing ideas, sharing contacts and linking up on calls to break down their concepts. Wanna get in on the fun? Here's a couple ways you can jump on the opportunity: 🔦
1. Earlybird Gets the Worm 🐦
Jack Smith isn't your typical guy. Techcrunch calls him "just about the biggest (actual) hustler I’ve ever met" from a LinkedIn stunt he pulled. The hack? Tweaking the newly shipped filters of LinkedIn (before they had 1000s of engineers) to land a video meeting with Thomas Korte, founder of AngelPad.
With the meeting, he landed $120k of funding to grow Vungle. He then grew Vungle, with Zain Jaffer (another Kernal fan) and later sold that startup to Blackstone for a reported $750M+. Not a bad pay day. 🤝
This story made us think he was the perfect fit for Kernal. He agreed and emailed us back with this idea:
Not a bad first post. An obvious problem ripe for any hungry founder. Within minutes ⏰, Honey Syed responded with:
Honey was quick, a key pillar in any startup story. This interaction is a great example of the magic that can happen when you're an early bird at a ripe opportunity. Stay tuned to see where their call takes the idea.
🔎 Find, share or help grow this idea
2. The Hand Off 🏈
Ryan Lee, a serial entrepreneur based out of SF, recently posted an idea on Turning blogs into Podcasts. The TL;DR? A service where he can "send a text and receive an audio file of any blog he wants to digest". I know I could use this for the 40+ substacks I'm signed up for 😅
Rather than Ryan wasting 10 years building only to be getting turned down live on shark tank in front of his hometown, another Kernal member swooped into the comment sections.
Elaine Zelby, Partner at Signalfire (VC fund that's backed brands like Bubble, Clubhouse and Grammarly) jumped in to share with Ryan that she's already got a head start... and she's willing to give him the keys to bring it to the finish line. 🏁
Turns out she's actually already built this but has ran out of bandwidth to carry over the finish line. She drops the URL and mentions she'd be happy to pass it off to another founder to run with. This is where the story ends... for now. 🎬
Wanna chat with Elaine and Ryan to help build this idea? Click below. Nothing beats a VC with cash in your corner. 💰
🔎 Find, share or help grow this idea
3. Spill the Beans 🥘
Alexis Grant is someone you'd wanna meet. She was the former EVP of Content at The Penny Hoarder, having helped scale the company from to 100+ staff and millions of readers. She's started and sold multiple newsletter businesses and on top of that, she's raising two kids and consulting with other media companies. Her full life explains the signal behind her meal prep idea:
Now, anyone that's in the food world knows you gotta work with a team that understands the market. This is where the voting system comes in handy. Instead of a dopamine inducing Twitter RT that fizzles out, y'all can vote to qualify your support 😏
This is when our boi Piers Rollinson stepped up to the plate. His resume? Engineering Manager at Doordash. He read the idea, smashed the build button and Alexis was able to validate his background and connect with him directly. Can I get a yes please? 💯
Creating connections like this gets our team pretty jazzed. Want a piece of building the idea? Jump in below 🍰
🔎 Find, share or help grow this idea
Major Keys from the Comments:
🔑 Keep an eye on startup topics you wanna pounce on
🔑 Qualify your vote with a comment on what you can help with
🔑 Get friendly, nobody's gonna bite. Ask questions, share ideas and say hello!
That’s it for today’s round up of startup ideas. Liked the deep dive? Let me know on twitter @joel_hansen_ or drop me an email at [email protected]. Have any feedback to suggest on these startup ideas? Drop a comment below and I'll pass the feedback to the idea poster.
Want to submit a startup idea to be featured?
Post one here or sign up to be a Kernal member with this special indiehackers code.
Stay out of trouble and see you next week.
Joel
