The Exchanges

Q businesses. And you know a lot, I feel like you know a lot about that sort of stuff. Um, before we move on to our next one, I think, I feel like, um, it makes sense, right? Cause like, if you, you know, if you spend 7000 dollars on a Louis Vuitton bag, like, you're wearing the bag not because it's great leather. You want other people to see you.

A Yeah, I think, I think it goes kind of hand in hand with the thing that we touched on earlier. It's kind of the, The credibility, it's the authority, you know, it's like, what do I want to be associated with? That's, that's, I think something that, uh, I mean, I, I, for example, like, why would I, why wouldn't I mind that people know that I'm superhuman or that I use superhuman, for example? Um, I think it's a great tool. You know, I think it's actually something that really helps me. I think it's, it looks nice. And I, I mean, like when, when I do my emails, it's just, It's just nice, you know, and, and, and the way it allows me to organize it, some of the AI features and all of that. So, um, just having those, those, you know, having a good experience and then also allowing that, you know, marketing to happen on its own behalf because of using the product is something, um, you know, I think, I think a lot of people would, you know, be okay with, but with those kinds of products, like take again, superhumans and as an example, it's, There's a lot of interaction. So just as how you said with, um, the, the, what was it called again? The button?

AI assessment note: “It's kind of the, The credibility, it's the authority, you know”

Q Before we move on to the next startup idea, I just have to ask on this. Um, sometimes when I'm building a product, I don't know if aesthetics should be in the MVP or not. How do you think about that?

A I think, I think spinning up a really nice, uh, Aesthetic landing page. And it doesn't even have to be, you know, like, I mean, define aesthetic, right? I think you can just, you know, pick a nice font, um, You know, bump up the font size, uh, get one nice, you know, good looking header, make a simple logo and, uh, and, uh, you know, well, you know, good rounded with some shadow, uh, email signup, you know, like, I think, I think that already gets you somewhere. Um, but then in, in terms of the product itself, yeah, that I would argue, unless it's going to take you a lot of time to make it look aesthetic, just, just run with it. Like I, I, Do firmly, firmly always refer back to that analogy that I used, you know, getting someone from A to B is, is, is the, is the main thing that we have to figure out, you know, and are we going to do it in style? Probably not, you know, but are we going to do it in style later? Yes. But, um, you know, a very nice looking car without the ability to drive doesn't make sense, you know? So I think if it's like not too much effort, Yes, the product can, you know, like have its design features and, and, you know, spend, and you can tell that, you know, the team spent some time thinking through the design just to make it look nice. But I would say just make the front end look as nice as possible to grab attention. If you're not as, you know, in a posi…

AI assessment note: “unless it's going to take you a lot of time to make it look aesthetic”

Q Yeah. I think, uh, I think there's something to this idea. I am a bit worried about, like, does it create, like, a dual class system for e-commerce? You know what I mean? Like, have or have nots? I mean, the reality, yeah, I'm curious your POV on that.

A Yeah, I think, I think, It's kind of like, you know, like, in all honesty, I feel like it would kind of suck, you know, like you would get on a website and he's like, oh man, I can get discounted. I'm cool. And then you find out, you know, cool enough, you know, it's like shit. Um, so I think if, if, if, if for this tool to like really, um, To live, I feel like it should be the other way around, right? You should kind of see if you can get access to the cool people and automatically, um, you know, expose them to these benefits. So let's take, um, you know, let's, let's take our personal brands as an example, and, and someone would, would, You know, reach out to us and be like, Hey, listen, there's, there's, there's zero catch. Um, we're a, um, we're a product and we gather, you know, people, uh, with, with, with like a following and we put you in a database and brands get to, you know, just, just give you benefits. They get to give you discounts, free items, you name it. Um, and that's it, you know? Um, and for those brands to then kind of like select and on the backend decide to, you know, give those to you. I think that, that could be something that would make more sense because I think publicly facing, yeah, you would really just, yeah, you know, like differentiate those two while, um, the, the percentage is only so small.

AI assessment note: “in all honesty, I feel like it would kind of suck”

Q But one day, you're not gonna, in your content, you're not gonna promote a product, or, like, how do you, how do you think about that?

A I mean, I mean, like, the way I look at it, it's, it's, I promote my stuff all the time, but there's a very big difference between showing what's happening and talking about what has happened. So for me to document how we're building a brand and sharing the lessons along the way is the best form of marketing that you can ever do without, you know, making people feel like you're, you're screaming in their face or wanting to sell anything to them. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's just something that Is so different, especially within, um, because it's like, it's really funny, like you mentioned, right? Like there's, there's, there's two types of audience that listen to, to this podcast. There's one type of audience that probably has never heard of me. There's one type of audience that, you know, like is, is heavily invested in my content. Um, Now, like, um, anyone who watches my stuff, um, and if I were to like actively promote or like talk about things, I feel like in some extent it, it, with me building the business that I'm building, it just takes away a little bit of authenticity because my goal is not necessarily to promote these businesses to them. It's to take them through the learnings of me building these businesses where I just get to experience the upside and benefit of, of, you know, me just actually building something that they're interested in, you know? So Um, that…

AI assessment note: “I promote my stuff all the time, but there's a very big difference”

Q A hundred percent. I mean, if we're lucky, if we get 75% good insights, you know? Yeah, yeah. Do you, do you think a lot about, or how much do you think about the Shopify app ecosystem? You know, do you think there's a lot of opportunity there for people to create businesses there?

A Yeah, so I actually invested in a company. They're called instant.so. Um, and it's, it's, it's like an instant page builder. Um, and what I see a lot within Shopify, and even when I look at some of the things that we are building, um, We, for example, um, yeah, those guys. Yeah, exactly. So instant is a tool that allows you to, and, and I'm, I'm also launching a product myself because my audience has been asking it so much and, um, they have also, um, like, like we run a fulfillment business in China, right? So even the fulfillment itself for econ brands, it's just a beautiful case study. So I'm going to launch these glasses, the ones that I always wear, um, Um, and I've used instant to build the entire website. Um, now I gave this to, uh, one of our designers who basically span up Epic looking store in as quick as I think it was, I think it was like two to three hours. Um, now the cool thing is that they've run, um, or they've ran so many different split tests on all of the different designs that they're also CRO optimized. So you have all of these different templates that really allow you to just plug and play, um, and launch super quickly. Um, so it's, it's, it's one of these Tools that is built on top of the Shopify ecosystem using and, and, you know, having built tools that automatically using AI generate liquid themes or, or liquid components, which is the, the native, um…

AI assessment note: “I actually invested in a company. They're called instant.so. Um, and it's, it's, it's like an instant page builder.”

Q creating a startup, you have to ask yourself, am I Zoho? Am I trying to be the Costco? Or am I superhuman? Am I trying to be the Louis Vuitton? Or am I, um, Daniel Daylin? Am I trying to go after aesthetics? I think those are the three. That's the spectrum. Um, and maybe we can draw this out somehow. Um, where, yeah, what do you think about that?

A I think, I mean, I think the aesthetics just help, um, because in all honesty, like the, the, I, I've taken one year of computer science just because I wanted to figure out how to build stuff myself. Um, I did that when I was, I think it was like, 16 or 17. It was my last year before I dropped out. Um, but that made me realize that, um, I would always have so much higher perceived value of everyone around me Building like really nice looking products with a terrible backend, but just because it looks so nice and just because it made so much sense, um, because I think, you know, like when, when, when talking about aesthetics and especially when product, like the way I, the way I think of aesthetics within products is it just has to make sense, you know, and especially within a world where you're being bombarded with like so much information for stuff to just look clean and clear and just blend in. And be very, very, very, um, you know, just clear on what this is. I feel like that's something that, that is, is really important. So when, when building products, um, um, or at least from my experience, when, when actually building products, that's something that I always obviously try and leverage, but ultimately, um, the most important thing to me is obviously that it makes most sense and that you can actually, that you can actually, you know, that it has an impact because, um, Um,…

AI assessment note: “I think the aesthetics just help, um, because in all honesty”