35 min listen
51: Recast - The Origin of Level from Startups for the Rest of Us
51: Recast - The Origin of Level from Startups for the Rest of Us
ratings:
Length:
35 minutes
Released:
Aug 9, 2018
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Ben is out of town on a retreat with his Tuple co-founders, and Derrick is deep into building Level. So, this episode features Derrick as a recent guest on the Startups for the Rest of Us podcast. Rob Walling interviews Derrick about Level - what inspired the idea and how he went about trying to validate it.
Today’s Topics Include:
Level’s landing page and current query of number of members; scarcity play is effective
Level is a Slack competitor, but much less interruptive and more asynchronous
Derrick discovered Slack does not scale well as a team grows, interrupts people’s flow; Level is Derrick’s take on the solution to those issues
Derrick hit the ground running with his manifesto and getting people signed up for Level
His efforts on Twitter were effective because it’s a product marketed toward developers
Dealing with feedback, ill-informed comments and conversations
Derrick wanted to talk to too many, rather than too few people about value of creating a new product to address pain points
Differentiation from Slack: Level niched down to developers and open sourced
Derrick plans to offer free and on-prem versions of Level
Whiteboarding to go over ideas and transform them into something tangible
Derrick is working on mock-ups; challenging to lay out UI elements, such as the Inbox
Risks are involved; when building something new, the challenge is to validate your most risky hypotheses - the ones that are most likely to fail
Level is the third Saas startup that Derrick has worked on; first time he will not earn income or revenue while building Level, so had to make adjustments
Links and resources:
Derrick Reimer Website (http://www.derrickreimer.com/)
Derrick Reimer on Twitter (https://twitter.com/derrickreimer)
Ben Orenstein Website (http://www.benorenstein.com/)
Ben Orenstein on Twitter (https://twitter.com/r00k)
Level (https://level.app/)
Derrick’s Manifesto (https://level.app/manifesto)
Tuple (https://tuple.app/)
Fostering a Culture of Creativity with Rob Walling (http://artofproductpodcast.com/episode-42)
Exploring the Open Source Business Model (http://artofproductpodcast.com/episode-44)
Startups for the Rest of Us: How Derrick Reimer is Validating His Ambitious Third Saas (https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-399-how-derrick-reimer-is-validating-his-ambitious-third-saas-application)
Application (https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-399-how-derrick-reimer-is-validating-his-ambitious-third-saas-application)
Drip (https://www.drip.com/)
Codetree (https://codetree.com/)
MicroConf (https://www.microconf.com/)
Today’s Topics Include:
Level’s landing page and current query of number of members; scarcity play is effective
Level is a Slack competitor, but much less interruptive and more asynchronous
Derrick discovered Slack does not scale well as a team grows, interrupts people’s flow; Level is Derrick’s take on the solution to those issues
Derrick hit the ground running with his manifesto and getting people signed up for Level
His efforts on Twitter were effective because it’s a product marketed toward developers
Dealing with feedback, ill-informed comments and conversations
Derrick wanted to talk to too many, rather than too few people about value of creating a new product to address pain points
Differentiation from Slack: Level niched down to developers and open sourced
Derrick plans to offer free and on-prem versions of Level
Whiteboarding to go over ideas and transform them into something tangible
Derrick is working on mock-ups; challenging to lay out UI elements, such as the Inbox
Risks are involved; when building something new, the challenge is to validate your most risky hypotheses - the ones that are most likely to fail
Level is the third Saas startup that Derrick has worked on; first time he will not earn income or revenue while building Level, so had to make adjustments
Links and resources:
Derrick Reimer Website (http://www.derrickreimer.com/)
Derrick Reimer on Twitter (https://twitter.com/derrickreimer)
Ben Orenstein Website (http://www.benorenstein.com/)
Ben Orenstein on Twitter (https://twitter.com/r00k)
Level (https://level.app/)
Derrick’s Manifesto (https://level.app/manifesto)
Tuple (https://tuple.app/)
Fostering a Culture of Creativity with Rob Walling (http://artofproductpodcast.com/episode-42)
Exploring the Open Source Business Model (http://artofproductpodcast.com/episode-44)
Startups for the Rest of Us: How Derrick Reimer is Validating His Ambitious Third Saas (https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-399-how-derrick-reimer-is-validating-his-ambitious-third-saas-application)
Application (https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-399-how-derrick-reimer-is-validating-his-ambitious-third-saas-application)
Drip (https://www.drip.com/)
Codetree (https://codetree.com/)
MicroConf (https://www.microconf.com/)
Released:
Aug 9, 2018
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
2: From Good to Great: Welcome to the Art of Product podcast. Derrick is rocking his “I ♥ yoga” shirt because he started practicing yoga at a studio down the street. He also gives us an update on new changes and features at Drip. Derrick was inspired by Ben’s newsletter and decided to work on his own newsletter, which gave him a great opportunity to use his own product. Ben is discovering that unemployment is a roller coaster. His stress level has been about 5X his normal baseline stress level. He started working at the co-working space and attending mixer events. He is emailing people on his list and sharing his ideas to get feedback for possible products for him to work on. Ben has been reflecting on how people and relationships make him shine and is considering finding a co-founder for his product. by The Art of Product