I joined Hirad Arshadi's podcast to discuss my entrepreneurial journey, from building CreativeFlow to launching AudiowaveAI, and the lessons learned from doing 52 startups in 52 weeks.
Topics Discussed
The CreativeFlow Story
- Growing from 0 to $110K ARR in 12 months
- Building for the Figma plugin ecosystem
- Co-founder conflicts and eventual buyout
- Why designer communities are special for viral growth
52 Startups in 52 Weeks
- The power of timeboxing experiments
- Learning what you enjoy through rapid iteration
- Finding AudiowaveAI through personal need
- Why most projects won't get to 3 customers
Building AudiowaveAI
- Converting Paul Graham's essays to 63 hours of audio
- Making text-to-speech 10x cheaper
- The vision for productivity tools
- Growing to 60+ paying customers
Marketing & Distribution
- Why I prefer sales over marketing
- The unpredictability of viral content
- Product Hunt vs Hacker News experiences
- Building atomic habits for marketing
Founder Insights
- The importance of business coaching
- Why you don't always need a co-founder
- Balancing product quality with shipping fast
- The real definition of product-market fit
Key Quotes
"If it's not painful enough for your customers to not have it, you're probably building the wrong thing."
"The better question isn't 'Can I do this by myself?' but 'How far can I take this by myself?'"
"Your job as a founder is not to give traffic to Product Hunt - it's to get traffic for your product."
Current Focus
Building AudiowaveAI as a productivity tool that makes any text listenable, while searching for the right co-founder to help with marketing and growth.
Connect with me: