How do you validate your idea and increase the odds of finding a successful thing that people want?

What is it:

Virtual Mojito allows you to see a curated directory of 100+ tools for virtual events, remote teams, social gatherings and Hackathons.

Maker Insight:

Don't be a perfectionist. Launch and test! Get real feedback.

What did I learn:

1. Product Strategy: How do you build fast? By using tools you are familiar with. What if you are starting from zero. Using tools with low learning curves.

In this product Felix uses Notion - Speed in building is the main advantage of using Notion. However, you also need to take into account what are your goals? Because site speed is very slow with Notion, you need to assess what is your distribution plan for your product? If it is Google, that may not be the best path forward because it will not rank as high for being slower. Additionally, I have not personally seen how does Google read a Notion site? How do you add meta tags and the site description? These are unknowns to me. I know Notion is hugely popular right now, but I would caution against this as Notion is also lacking in other key areas like adding UI components that may make the site feel a little more polished.

That being said you may want to consider Notion if you are already using it, familiar with it and want to run a quick experiment. It is a great tool to use this for. It all depends on what you are using it for. I have seen many V1 sites use Notion as a starting point. Because these Makers already had a familiarity of using Notion, it was faster for them to ship something.

My recommendation would be to always remember validation > building. It is always greater. When deciding on what tool to use, try to answer, which one can give me validation faster, so that I can get feedback faster and keep a tighter feedback loop. Building quickly allows you to take advantage of a tight feedback loop. Tighter feedback loops help you gain momentum. More momentum allows there to be a general buzz and excitement around your product. That buzz helps carry you to more awareness and more awareness drives more people checking out your product.

How can you build quickly in Notion?

Using this open source site: https://fruitionsite.com/ you can get up and running launching a website very quickly.

2. No-code tool feature: Notion - What I like about how Felix implemented using this tool was how natively the discover new tools table and search works. If you are looking for a table of cards to display much more naturally in a page than using Airtable, I would check out how Felix has implemented it. It is a really smooth experience and feels much more native. My biggest issue with Airtable embed feature is that the UI sticks out like a sore thumb. Pory.io can solve for this but then you are integrating two tools if you use Pory.io and Carrd. Or you could just use Pory.io. My recommendation would be to use Pory.io if you have no experience with Notion. You can get going faster, assuming what you are trying to build Pory.io has all the things you are looking for.

Secondly, Notion has a really nice calendar feature that fits well into the landing page as well. Notion surprises me with how powerful of a tool it is to create a functioning website.

The only downside of this stack is the manual work that Felix will have to do when users submit their virtual event using the Airtable form. Notion doesn't have an API, (that I am aware of) to connect from an Airtable backend into a Notion table. But in the early stages this can be used to your advantage because Felix can keep quality control high, by manually approving each one to make sure its an event that is not spam.

3. No-code tool feature: Substack - Substack integrates nicely into the Notion page. as it appears native. The advantage of using Substack is it makes it simple to start an email newsletter and that you can make money through subscriptions for that newsletter.

It handles this all in one and is something that you can try. However, Substack does take a 10% fee from the subscription rates. Another advantage of Substack is that it can help with distribution. By sharing your content with other folks in the Substack network.