{15} The Subset Roadmap
Newsletter, App & Open Source
Today I’d like to share my plans for Subset as a newsletter, an app, and open source software. I’ll resume the maker Q&A tomorrow.
The Subset Newsletter (The Daily Subset)
First of all, thanks to everyone who reads the newsletter or has supported it on Twitter. 🙌
I know the format has shifted a few times, which can be disorienting as a reader. I’m not trying to bait and switch. I’m simply experimenting to find a sustainable way to talk to makers, founders, solopreneurs, designers, marketers, and investors daily.
Here’s what matters to me. I want to:
Build an audience. If I’m successful in growing the newsletter, I’ll be able to reach the people who’ll use Subset without investing in expensive marketing campaigns that stop working the second you stop paying the toll.
Be respectful of time. We’re all busy. I don’t expect anyone to clear their schedule to be interviewed for a newsletter.
Exchange value. I don’t plan to be an impartial journalist. If I have experience or an opinion on a topic we’re discussing, I want to give as much as I take from the discussion.
Give attribution. I want to encourage readers to follow and support the people who spend time sharing their startup war stories.
Keep the reader in mind. It’s easy to geek out with another maker on an esoteric topic. But I can’t copy and paste that discussion into the newsletter without context. If I’m having a discussion with a software engineer, I want to make that discussion meaningful for people who don’t write code for a living.
One thing I’ve learned building startups, it’s easy to focus on what YOU want. That fixation often leads to a product that fails to deliver what your USERS want. Knowing what your users want starts with a hypothesis that needs to be tested and validated.
Here’s what I believe matters to my subscribers. Readers want to:
(Please comment if this doesn’t resonate with you!)
Learn from the successes and failures of their peers. People often believe that there is either a recipe for success or that success results from luck and circumstance. I don’t believe in business recipes, and I don’t believe in luck. I believe in acquiring the experience and tools needed to adapt to a changing environment. Hopefully, readers see this newsletter as a space to gain experience.
Exposure to new ideas. I recommend reading ‘Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson’. Steven talks about a concept called the Adjacent Possible. Essentially, the future evolves by pairing new ideas or technologies with ideas or tech from other domains. Today AI is a great example. It’s a lego piece ready to connect with all the other lego pieces we’ve been collecting since the invention of fire. I hope this newsletter becomes a space to help connect ideas.
Network. Everyone has their own set of legos in their toolbox. Getting exposure to new ideas can be helpful. But it can be even better to discover people who are complimentary and eager to build. I want readers and contributors to feel like this is a space to find collaborators or even cofounders.
That’s an overview of my thoughts for the newsletter. It’s a work in progress, but I feel good about the overall direction. Let’s talk about the app!
SubsetHQ (the app)
A few months ago, I set out to build a space for experts to curate and share a collection of resources on a topic.
For example, maybe you’re an illustrator, and you want to help teach people to draw using a tool called Procreate. One approach might be to write “The Ultimate Guide to Drawing with Procreate”. But you’d quickly find that you can’t possibly shove everything there is to know about drawing and Procreate into a single article.
So what do you do?
Blog or produce content on channels like Youtube. Great approach for people with the time and ability to produce amazing content. Not every expert wants to be a professional blogger.
Publish a book (physical or digital). Similar to blogging but more appealing to experts who might not want to invest as much time in social media and audience building. The downside, books are often obsolete by the time they are published.
Teach a course. Also similar to blogging but great for experts who want a more personal connection to their audience.
I don’t want to take anything away from the above options. We need more experts producing more content. Traditional teaching methods are great for people who want to be “professional teachers”.
What about the experts who are more interested in applying their skills and knowledge than becoming professional teachers?
I believe expert curation will open the door for doers to share their knowledge. Let’s go back to the Procreate example. You are the expert. You spend the majority of your time illustrating. One day Procreate releases a new feature. You aren’t sure how to take advantage of it, so you spend time reading articles and watching Youtube videos. Eventually, a piece of content comes along and gives you that aha moment. That key piece of information unlocks the value of the feature.
Now imagine having a tool to capture all those aha moments. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t produce any of the original content. That collection is gold to an aspiring illustrator. 🤩
Things I’ve learned so far:
My initial approach was too “social heavy”. I built a system for experts to reward peers with “xp” for sharing valuable resources. That system could build a feedback loop to motivate curators and help improve the quality of the collection over time. But that system only works when you hit a critical mass of users. At this stage, the system is not adding value, so I’ll simplify.
My initial messaging was too heavy. As people are exposed to new solutions, they aren’t going to invest a significant amount of time reading to understand if your tool makes their life easier. You’ve got to drive home the value in as few words as possible.
Experts want to build their own brands. I’ve seen many people build their own websites to share their curated list of links. Just check out Product Hunt. Every day you’ll see a dozen new examples. I’ll create a much more minimal design that is easily rebranded. This realization is also inspiring me to create an open source publishing platform. 👇
The SubsetHQ beta is available today. But I wouldn’t recommend using it until I release the next iteration based on the above learnings.
Subset CMS (open source)
I’ve neglected the newsletter this week partially because I’ve been kicking around the idea of building an open source publishing platform. A few things were happening that contributed to the idea:
I chatted with Dev By RayRay last week about personal branding for developers.
I was thinking about people hacking resource apps from scratch and wondering why they didn’t just use existing social tools, such as Substack.
I was reminded of behavioral economics concepts from my discussion with Pierre Jacquel.
I miss writing code. Sure I’ve written code for v1 of the SubsetHQ app. But starting an open source project is a different beast. 🐗
I eventually came to the conclusion that I could help people do what they are already doing. Instead of taking weeks or months to build a custom website, I can provide a highly configurable solution that could be deployed in under an hour. Here’s how:
Low-code CLI (command line interface)
People who don’t write code avoid the command line like the plague. A web interface could eventually turn this into a no-code solution. For now, you’ll just need minimal frontend experience and enough courage to open a terminal and copy/paste commands.
App scaffolding
After running a few commands, the CLI will generate a NextJS app. This will install all the basic software needed to run your app, such as React. You’ll also get a prebuilt layout, components, styles, and everything you need to start customizing your brand.
For basic customization, there will likely be a single file where you add your brand colors, fonts, headers, navigation, and footer information. It’ll also walk you through adding assets, such as your logo and icons.
More advanced customizations will be easy for anyone experienced with javascript or React.
Manage your content in a spreadsheet, not a database!
This is something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about over the years. Databases are fine. Some are much better than others. If you are going to build a large-scale app with a lot of users, you’ll likely need one. But they are a pain to build, maintain, and scale.
On a small scale, they are rarely needed. I’ll bet most bloggers would prefer to manage their content in a spreadsheet. The first version of the Subset CMS will likely integrate with Airtable or Google Sheets.
Don’t worry about hosting, performance or scaling!
Managing hosting can also be a pain. You don’t really want to deal with heavy tools like AWS or Google Cloud for simple websites.
I’ll be designing the CMS for Vercel. Deploying your app to Vercel is as easy as a few clicks. Better yet, they start hobby pricing at $0/month. You won’t even have to pay Subset to get started. You’ll be able to get up and running for the price of a domain name!
Here is an example of an app I helped build powered by Vercel and Airtable. Influencer Marketing Jobs
What’s the revenue model?
I’m going to release the CMS under the MIT license and make it completely free to use however you want. Attribution will be appreciated but not required. To make money, I’ll likely do 2 things:
Sponsorships. The newsletter and open source code will likely have sponsors.
Paid support. I’ll create a paid Discord community for people who need help customizing and extending their apps.
Feedback
The beta release of the CMS is likely going to take at least a month. I’ll share small updates on Twitter and larger updates here. If you have any ideas or want to contribute, leave a comment! 🙌