🧱Build in Public #3
Well, dang..
Reading back over last months build in public- I felt a bit foolish. How much pressure we place on ourselves to know and do all.
This month, despite the numbers being “down”, the mindset, foundations and “right flowers” are being watered.
Build in public update- Where Are We?
Operating Costs this month
Total (including week long offsite) $3,645.17 USD
Standard costs - $1832.17 for the month (USD) Breakdown-
internet (starlink) X premium Linkedin Google workspace Canva Premium Descript Excallidraw premium
testing “collabstar” 247.50(TOTAL mistake- will be writing about this)
Offsite costs- flights 739.66
Airbnb -1,074.00
Uber and coffees 70
My “tech stack”
Will be switching to Zoom, less friction for guests. @Descript has been having lots of lagging and freezing Still have Opus Clip- paid for yearly so stuck with it.
Excalidraw paying for premium
Canva for social posts (which I’m terrible at)- going to see about cancelling
Notion for HQ- will be paying from May, currently have startup deal
GitBook for website- will be switching up soon. Using @carrd for landing page
Baserow for forms - no longer using but would recommend
Superwave for community- taking a backseat on this.
Tell me the numbers..
Newsletter
Substack followers have increased by 179+, but open rates remain low. (This is likely due to uninteresting subject lines and rushed updates)
Scaling back to a fortnightly format was a good decision, allowing for more thoughtful content creation. (Been enjoying Dominic Cooke Making Media for ideas on this)
Linkedin Followers have grown to 342 from 220, with steady impressions.
YouTube
Views are down significantly due to a lack of recent YouTube Shorts (me not posting them)
TikTok Engagement way down as I haven’t been posting.
Website clicks and searches are up! The handbook has seen a 300% increase in views, with 240 users in the past 28 days.
Community Building
This is the fun bit ;)
Slack Community Launch We launched a Slack community with 33 members and a dedicated resource page
(Resource), which has seen over 100 visitors.
Podcast
Despite missing one week, we released 4 podcast episodes this month. With Co-Founder of Vapi Two Conversations with Victor G 1, 2 With Ritendra Datta A mini trailer showcasing the project
The Big News Meeting My Co-Founder!
The most significant development this month was meeting my co-founder, Madisen Taylor, former Chief of Staff at Hugging Face. We connected through Twitter DMs and immediately aligned on a shared vision.
Within 48hrs of meeting, we had applied to SPC Founder Fellowship.
While our application to South Park Commons was rejected, we remain committed to building a flexible and supportive container for innovative forms of activism, education, and collaboration.
Madisen flew from NYC to Sydney for a 5-day offsite, where we recorded podcasts, built out our vision, and co-created the foundation for our future endeavours. Visit "thething.co" to sign up for the waitlist (newsletter, all new podcast format, irl events).
Looking Ahead
The current USL podcast, newsletter, youtube and branding/imagery will be making a switch over to “The Thing”.
We’ll be recording our updates, journal entries and have a very public attitude to building.
With mentors, babysitters and advisors from Wikipedia, People centred Internet, Open Future & more, we’re feeling lucky to be paying homage to Wolfgang Stahele and the founding group of art project “The Thing” with this stage of our non profit- the media studio.
What’s Next?
Working on strategy docs
Spending extra time in the community/Slack
Prepping for a “May madness” sprint (both Madisen and Renee are moving houses this month, May we’re intending on recording experimental episodes with our network).
Join our Slack community, subscribe to the newsletter, and follow us on social media to stay updated on our journey.
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