- Thoughts By Adel
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- Some changes to this newsletter
Some changes to this newsletter
INSIDE: Blackbird Sunrise Conference, LinkedIn Content Engine
Hey everyone,
There might be some changes to this newsletter. But before that, a quick update on the Sunrise conference I went to.
Brella is such an awesome app. It was the app we used all day for the Sunrise conference. Yes, it was technically just a calendar, but what made it awesome was its networking feature. It kinda was a mix of LinkedIn and Tinder. You have a list of matches, and you can message them directly if you want to meet with them. Perfect if you want to be extra intentional with the people you network with.
Uber Carshare’s origin story was my favorite talk. Well, partly because I missed the talk from Bluey’s creator. Nevertheless, it was still a banger talk. Will Davies, the founder, literally just hustled his way to the top, even when everyone wasn’t giving him a chance. He did all the right steps from the start. Things like validating before building, creating a content engine, starting with a non-scalable business, and never-ending experimentations.
I met some of the coolest people in Sydney. Two of which I had such a great time speaking with.
One was the founder of an early-stage SaaS startup that solves board meeting pain points. He had such an unfair advantage, he easily validated his idea just by tapping into his network. His main challenge tho was being non-technical himself. I happily directed him to the SaaS community I was part of. Hopefully, finding himself a capable co-founder.
Another person I met was the founder of a Blackbird-backed SaaS startup that optimizes the performance of engineering teams. We chatted all about the new products she was releasing. And also gladly gave her lots of feedback about it. Looking forward to our coffee chat soon!
I got sick. Yep, and it sucks. Sunrise was a 2-day event, but was only able to attend Day 1. I was already supposed to meet up with a couple more interesting people, including the Dataro’s Head of Sales. But, sigh, had to cancel all of them.
Overall, it was such a fun event. Even though it costed me $355 out of pocket, it was still 100% worth it! Alright, back to the newsletter changes.
I’ve been consistent with my newsletter for about 8 weeks now. But, it got me thinking. Recall, my goal is to learn all about starting and operating a business. Well, writing content takes up way too much of my time! It takes me an entire weekend, to be exact. I always end up working on my business when I’m already exhausted from all the writing.
And, y’know what, since I want to fix this newsletter priority problem, I might as well find and fix the root cause. And, no surprise, the problem that has been causing me to focus more on my newsletter than the business:
Procrastination.
Remember back in a previous blog when I listed ideas I want to validate. I hated all of them. None of it was interesting enough for me. I’d rather spend countless hours writing blog posts. This made me realize how important product-founder fit is!
So, we identified the main issue. What’s next?
I will go back to starting an AI Automation Agency. I want to focus on AI, and at the same time, start a beginner-level business. You can never go wrong with an agency, especially with a technical-related one if you’re an engineer yourself. Of course, part of the process is still finding the right niche to serve.
I’m thinking about moving my blog to LinkedIn. Since I want to start an AI-related business, I might as well change my content to an AI-related one. This is also an inbound marketing tactic to identify possible niches to target. Countless business owners are on LinkedIn and its a perfect lead generation engine if the leads see you providing value for free.
But moving to LinkedIn might not work. The content I’m planning on sharing is about creating cool AI solutions using little to no code at all. Problem is, content like that is pretty long for LinkedIn, not to mention, takes a lot of time too!
Then again, I’m in no rush. I want to test this AI Agency business model for some time. Of course, part of that is also becoming competent enough with all of the major AI tools out there. No point in creating an agency if you can’t even develop an AI solution for your clients! So yep, for now, I’ll focus a majority of my efforts creating content. It’ll allow me to build an audience of potential leads, and also, allow me to gain some expertise in AI.
Of course, cold outreach won’t stop. Since I still suck at writing, marketing thru content will take some time. It might still be a better idea to reach out to leads from different niches and identifying if there are common problems solvable thru AI.
To recap, I will stick to one business model and test the shit out of it. Hope it works. 🙏