What's New: Is every good idea already taken?

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

Finding good ideas can be a huge challenge:

• For indie hackers, solving problems is at the core of our work. But some find it difficult to focus on a specific problem to solve. From starting with the tiniest audience possible, to asking yourself a few crucial questions, the tips below can help you get started.
• Transformative education occurs when students feel valued, acknowledged, and included in a community of like-minded learners. Dru Riley lays out the case for cohort-based courses, and how you can get in on them.
• Founder Gianluca hit over 140,000 users through organic growth on TikTok. Here is the strategy that helped Teta, a low-code fullstack appbuilder, go viral!

Want to share something with nearly 100,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing

💡 Is Every Good Idea Taken?

by Zach Ang

I'm getting tired of those who say that there are still countless problems to solve in this world. I do a quick Google search for whatever idea I come up with, and guess what? The niche is already cluttered with a bunch of competitors in the field.

How does one launch a startup these days? It's so discouraging to place your hopes on a market that is already filled with others who have made progress when you are just starting. How do you guys approach this dilemma?

The "tiny audience" trick

Alessandro recommends starting with the tiniest audience possible, tinier than any other competitor in that market:

This is something that I heard on one of Seth Godin's podcasts. The host asked him to come up with a business idea if he had $1K and 90 days to launch a product. Seth's answer? A concierge service that helps Californian families with young kids find the best place to stay in Paris for their holidays.

Once you trim your audience down to the bone, the problems that they face and the solutions you can offer all of a sudden become much more specific. This niche approach gives you an edge over competitors who run around like headless chickens trying to please everyone.

The checklist

Adam Wright says that, if you find your product idea is already taken, ask yourself these questions:

• Can you build it significantly better or simpler?
• Can you apply the solution to a smaller audience?
• Can you apply the solution to a bigger audience?
• Can you apply the solution to a different audience?

Don't look for a specific problem

Alexander Utz says that looking for a specific problem is counterproductive:

If you are looking for a specific problem, you will not find it. Often, there are tools or technologies that create new problems. Listen to people and analyze their work to discover:

• What is bothering them?
• What do they hate about current tools?
• What is holding them back from productive work?
• Why they are using specific tools and not alternatives?

There are often all-in-one tools that make everything more complicated. Simplify individual components, and you have a market.

We did this with Era, our markdown note-taking tool for developers. We saw that there were many tools on the market, but almost none were made for developers and their needs. The ones that were turned out to be overcomplicated and not intuitive.

So, we filled these gaps: Simple, intuitive, and for developers. We talked to many developers in the beginning, and we covered users of almost all tools. No one was really satisfied.

You just have to learn from the mistakes of others and make it better. Combine all improvements, and you have a better tool.

People are tired, so problems exist

Max Sinclair says that if all problems were already solved, there would be no problems in the world:

But clearly there are! We wake up feeling tired, we overeat, we feel lonely, and we struggle to find love, friendship, clothes we like, a home to live in, and a million other things.

The world is heating up, our food industry is messing up our planet, and governments are corrupt. These are all problems. Figure out solutions to a small part of a big problem. Or, figure out solutions to a positive problem, like helping someone decide what beer to drink on any given night.

There are still lots of problems to be solved even though some people are working at solving them already. Just find one that you really care about, and maybe with five years of effort, you'll end up solving it better than anyone else.

How do you find ideas for new products? Share your experience below!

Discuss this story.

📰 In the News

from the Volv newsletter by Priyanka Vazirani

📍 Instagram is making Google Maps irrelevant.

🚙 Automakers are betting big on subscriptions. Here's why.

🛍 Shopify is partnering with YouTube to revive communal shopping.

👓 Google is bringing its futuristic AR glasses to the real world.

📵 Netflix will further crack down on password sharing with this new feature.

Check out Volv for more 9-second news digests.

📚 Trend Alert: Cohort-Based Courses

from the Trends.vc newsletter by Dru Riley

Why it matters

Transformative education occurs when students feel valued, acknowledged, and included in a community of like-minded learners.

Problem

Self-paced courses require self-discipline and dedication.

Solution

Cohort-based courses give you a sense of community. Support and accountability improve student outcomes.

Players

Cohort-based courses:

• District 3: Validate ideas and business models.
• Ship 30 for 30: Fundamentals of writing.
• altMBA: Become an effective leader.
• Brand The Change Academy: Develop and test your brand strategy.
• Practical Data Science: Data science and machine learning.
• Ultraspeaking: Become an effective communicator.

Cohort-based tools:

• Teachfloor: Create and sell online live courses.
• Eduflow: Design and build social courses.
• Virtually: Create and automate live online courses.
• Disco: Learning platform for virtual classes and bootcamps.
• Clickto: Create and manage cohort-based courses and communities.

Cohort-based instructors:

• Rosie Sherry: Build your online community with Minimum Viable Community.
• Kevon Cheung: Build in public with Build in Public Mastery.
• Gbenga Adebiyi: Scale freelance business with Scale Up.
• Laura Evans-Hill: Create compelling visual stories with Pencil Pirates.
• David Elikwu: Career development with Career Hyperdrive.

Predictions

• Companies will use cohort-based courses to train employees. You'll learn from others via mentorship, conversation, and collaborative work, gaining tacit knowledge. Nomadic teaches managers how to become effective team leaders. Networking for Attorneys teaches lawyers how to network effectively. Rapid Product Mastery Experience teaches product managers how to do proper product development.
• More cohort-based courses will flow into lifetime membership communities after completion. You'll get continuous support from a network of like-minded people. 34 Elements gives access to a community of startup founders. OnDeck gives access to various networks of tech professionals. Product School promotes you to an alumni community after graduation.
• Blended courses will deliver the best learning experience, combining cohorts and self-paced learning. This highlights flexibility and group support. PBL Design complements live lessons with self-study materials. Love Circular complements self-paced tutorials with live sessions.
• Hyper-niche cohort-based courses will emerge. Instructors will stand out by teaching long-tail topics. Backlink Building teaches how to build backlinks at scale. Twitter for Founders teaches Twitter marketing for startups.
• More professionals will use cohorts to pass professional exams, getting support and guidance around complex topics. Qpractice helps interior designers pass NCIDQ exams. IAAP Academy offers IAAP-certified leadership courses. Benext offers courses in human resources with HRCI-approved certificates.

Opportunities

• Start small. Build a mini-course and offer beta access. Take an iterative approach to save time and energy.
• Promise clear results. Tell the students exactly what they will achieve by the end of the course.
• Offer recordings. Address objections upfront about busy student schedules.

Risks

• Format risk: Cohort-based courses are expensive and hard to scale.
• Platform risk: You are subject to events out of your control. Classcamp was a platform for cohort-based courses. It proved not to be viable, and shut down.
• Reputation risk: Poorly designed courses lead to false expectations, underdelivery, and loss of trust.

Key lessons

• You don't need a big team to run a cohort. Flavio Copes runs Javascript Masterclass and Web Development Bootcamp on his own.
• Building an audience lowers the cost of acquisition. Cam Houser says that free workshops are great for building in public.
• Cohort-based courses are great for learning soft skills. Recent research proves that group work leads to effective soft skill development.
• Cohort-based courses sacrifice scalability for interactivity.

Hot takes

• Top performers can excel with self-paced or cohort-based instruction.
• Peer interactions are more important than star instructors.
• Courses that heavily depend on student interaction should vet students to make sure that they have similar levels of need and experience. Co.Lab matches you with other learners based on teamwork styles, experiences, and interests.

Haters

"Cohort-based courses are expensive."

There's no free lunch. Additional value comes at a cost. Since money was invested, this also stops you from giving up.

"Cohort-based courses are not flexible."

It can be hard to juggle cohort-based courses and other commitments. Choose self-paced courses if you prefer flexibility over interactivity. Some cohort-based courses offer lecture hours to choose from.

"Managing large student groups is demanding."

Poor group management skills will spoil student experience. Try teaching small cohorts first. You can revert to a self-paced course later.

"This model has scaling problems. You can't help lots of people at once."

Cohorts are limited to the number of participants per call, room, or platform. Self-paced courses are a better option if you prioritize wider reach over personalized teaching.

"Cohort-based courses require self-discipline and dedication too."

Sure. It's a matter of independent vs. group learning. Which one do you prefer?

"Self-paced courses can offer asynchronous feedback."

Self-paced courses can have discussion boards, though they can't replace the interactive and immersive experience of belonging to a dedicated student group.

Links

1. The Essential Guide on How to Create Cohort-Based Courses: A comprehensive guide.
2. How to Gamify an Online Course with Octalysis: Yukai Chou talks about how to gamify your online course with the Octalysis gamification framework.
3. The Future of Online Learning: Gagan Biyani talks about how to build and operate cohort-based courses.

Related reports

• Online Courses: Self-paced, flexible online education.
• Education Platforms: Tools that help you build, sell, grow, and operate online courses.
• No-Code: No-code tools help you build your course platform.

More reports

Go here to get the Trends Pro report. It contains 200% more insights. You also get access to the entire back catalog and the next 52 Pro Reports.

Subscribe to Trends.vc for more.

🧠 Harry's Growth Tip

from the Marketing Examples newsletter by Harry Dry

The power of metaphor.

Go here for more short, sweet, practical marketing tips.

Subscribe to Marketing Examples for more.

🎶 Gianluca Hit 140K+ Users Through TikTok Growth

by Gianluca

Hi all! I'm Gianluca, cofounder of Teta, a low-code full-stack appbuilder. It was first published in September 2021.

Today, after nine months, Teta is in over 170 countries worldwide, and has over 140K registered users. 80% of them were acquired organically through our socials, particularly TikTok. We have 50M+ global views, 400K+ global followers across social media channels, and a Discord server with 12K members and 11 language channels.

Let's dive right in!

Initial numbers and launch

• September 28th: 130 alpha testers by invitation.
• September 29th: First viral video on TikTok.
• October 1st: 285 alpha testers by invitation.
• October 6th: Second viral video on TikTok.
• October 9th: Third viral video on TikTok.
• October 10th: Fourth viral video on TikTok.
• October 14th: We opened the alpha version to everyone without invitation.
• October 29th: 22K registered users.
• November 28th: 60K registered users.

Check out our full 2021 recap video here!

Competitors, trend research, and a lot of fun

TikTok has been a super important acquisition channel for us. Thanks to TikTok, we reached 60K registered users (80% of them acquired organically) in two months.

We wanted to be disruptive to the current competitive market. All of the other players were always on the same social media channels, and had very formal, robotic communication. Our intent was to create catchy content, have it go viral, and acquire as many leads as possible in a very short time. We started by analyzing the content that was doing well on TikTok at that time:

• Horizontal: Global visual and music trends.
• Vertical: All the trends in the tech and dev world.

We decided to add a playful tone to our messaging by having fun, joking around, being self-deprecating, and laughing along with the community. Why not indulge in a TikTok dance by showing some of the behind-the-scenes of the startup?

In the beginning of November, we had 40K registered users. Here are some links to the videos that generated our first 30M views:

• 3.2M views.
• 7.1M views.
• Product meme.
• From scratch, part one.

What have we learned?

We've learned that consistency is everything. We also learned that users were fed up with structured, institutional, formal tones in communication. They needed normal people with relatable conversation. We simply spoke our own language, which was fresh and natural.

I learned that well-researched content can really win, even on TikTok Business, which typically does not help with large acquisition numbers. All of our likes and comments were coming directly from people who started seeing our content on the "For You" page.

The audience coming from TikTok is mainly B2C (developers, product managers, or flutter students) but some companies have also found Teta on TikTok. Many investors and angels got in touch with us through TikTok.

Our CMS launched on Product Hunt on Monday, and we are super excited about it!

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 Zach Ang, Priyanka Vazirani, Dru Riley, Harry Dry, and Gianluca for contributing posts. —Channing