Pieter Levels built 12 startups in 12 months | Lex Fridman Podcast Clips

Summary

In this engaging conversation, the speaker recounts their journey of launching 12 startups in 12 months. Starting with basic coding skills from a YouTube channel and a website, they delve into the challenges of rapid prototyping, learning on the go, and the importance of focusing on minimal viable products. The discussion touches on the rise and fall of Flash, the early days of the internet with animated gifs and banners, and the struggle to monetize browser extensions. The speaker shares insights on building a simple yet effective product, like their first startup 'Play My Inbox,' which aggregated YouTube links from emails, gaining thousands of users without a monetization strategy.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker launched a startup every month for a year to learn coding and build things quickly.
• 🎶 They had a YouTube channel called 'Panda Mix Show' featuring electronic music mixes.
• 💿 They sold CDs and used Flash for their album design, which was later discontinued due to Steve Jobs' stance against it.
• 🔧 The speaker learned ActionScript, which was then overshadowed by JavaScript, the 'dynamic thing' for the internet.
• 🚀 The first startup was 'Play My Inbox', an app to organize YouTube links from emails, which gained popularity without monetization.
• 🤔 There's a discussion about the difficulty of monetizing browser extensions and plugins, as they are often perceived as not valuable enough to pay for.
• 🛠️ The importance of building a minimal viable product (MVP) within a limited time frame was emphasized.
• 📬 The speaker mentioned using email protocols like IMAP for the first startup, which raised privacy concerns.
• 🔑 Simplifying login systems with temporary links or hash-based logins was a strategy to save time during development.
• 📊 The speaker discussed the challenge of marketing a new product without being seen as a spammer on platforms like Reddit.
• 💡 The idea of solving a specific problem for a community on Reddit, and offering a free solution initially, was suggested as a marketing strategy.

Q & A

What was the speaker's background in coding before starting the 12 startups in 12 months challenge?

The speaker had some coding experience, having made a website for a YouTube channel called 'panda mix show' and learned basic HTML and ActionScript for Flash, which was used for creating music mixes.

What was the name of the YouTube channel the speaker had, and what was its content about?

The YouTube channel was named 'panda mix show' and featured electronic music mixes such as dubstep, drum and bass, and techno house.

Why did the speaker invest time in learning ActionScript, and what happened to it?

The speaker believed ActionScript was the dynamic language that would take over the internet, but Steve Jobs declared it a closed platform with security issues, leading to its decline and the speaker's realization that Jobs was right.

What was the speaker's first startup project, and how did it work?

The first startup project was called 'Play My Inbox'. It was an app that logged into a user's Gmail, found emails with YouTube links, and created a gallery of songs, essentially functioning like an early version of Spotify.

What were some of the privacy concerns with the 'Play My Inbox' app?

The app had privacy concerns because it accessed all of a user's emails to find YouTube links, which could potentially expose sensitive information.

How did the speaker handle the privacy concerns of the 'Play My Inbox' app?

The speaker ensured that the app did not save any emails and only used them to find YouTube links, addressing the privacy concerns to some extent.

What was the speaker's approach to launching a startup every month for a year?

The speaker was strict about the one-month timeline for each startup, focusing on building a minimum viable product and learning coding skills along the way.

How did the speaker ensure accountability for launching a startup every month?

The speaker published their project as blog posts and shared them on platforms like Hacker News, creating a public commitment to complete the challenge.

What was the speaker's strategy for promoting their startups without being seen as a spammer?

The speaker suggested finding a problem that a subreddit's community was already discussing and offering their solution, positioning it as a potential help rather than a direct promotion.

What were some of the challenges the speaker faced when building startups in a limited time frame?

The main challenge was deciding what not to add or build due to time constraints, focusing on essential features like a landing page, product functionality, and a simple login system.

What was the speaker's opinion on the monetization potential of browser extensions?

The speaker believed that it's difficult to make money from browser extensions because people generally do not value them enough to pay for them, expecting them to be free.