For over a year I have been running a SideProject community for fun, but I am realizing that it is quite serious. I think we are playing with a dam that could open a new wave of startups all over the world – and not at least in Norway.
It started quite simply. I needed someone to help me with marketing for a SideProject I had, but didn’t know anyone. So I started inviting all the semi-intense creative people I knew, the relentlessly resourceful, to join “Project SideProject Project”. Soon we were 400 people. Here people could find people to do sideprojects with, get input on their active projects or just get inspired. Some shared their projects. Some started collaborating.
For quite a while I thought the point was to match people on side projects. But it wasn’t until I needed some fullstackers for a new project that I saw the real value: the relationships.
Because It’s not about the project you are currently working on. It’s about getting to know others of the rare breed of creators – and building trust, so they’re ready for the next time you go on an adventure and need someone to join you. It’s always about the people. So it’s no surprise that it applies here too.
The cost of building digital products is approaching zero. The number of startups will increase. But the number of side projects will explode. And these delicate projects – they are the real start of startups. They need a home to grow into something bigger. Nobody has made that home. Nobody has taken a role at the real start of startups. Thats pretty insane.
Also, the investors who hunt for the best cases as early as possible, the VCs, are hanging out in the wrong place: at the incubator stage. But things dont start there. Antler is onto something – they let people participate without an idea or a partner – but the real gold mine is right above Antlers heads in the funnel: at the side project stage. Where you don’t have to quit your job. Where you don’t have to physically go to Oslo. Those two factors open this up to the potential of being one of the biggest global revolutions within innovation we have left.
The value creation "at the start of everything" could of course be massive. But I think the business models and everything need to be founder aligned because this is such a fragile space and integrity is a core trait in both the relentlessly resourceful and the whole community. That's why we have no other plan than to cut the queue in front of the investors of the whole world, and invest in the most promising projects that meet their cofounders here.
I'm really just a poor investor with an original product.
The indie hacker scene is flourishing and will accelerate. But I still believe that the greatest things in the world are created in teams. And for that you have to meet someone and build trust. Today, most cofounder relationships are created in places that are not made for it: school or work. People can go to NHH for five years and conclude that the most valuable thing they are left with is the relationships. What does that say about the value of relationships, when it trumps everything the concept was intended to create?
Some try too hard – cofounder meetups, YC's “Meet Your Cofounder”. It works for the few people thats a match for, but they miss out on an insane amount of people who are not hardcore-ready to consciously look for cofounders. Im pretty intense, but Im not looking for a cofounder.
And do you realize how many important things in life we all just happen to get involved in? Have you ever gotten more responsibility in your life because of coincidence?
The same goes here. We just have to start nerding out about something – and then it all starts to happen.
No, he wouldn’t say he was ready to be CTO today. But give him a week of building, let him get his teeth into it – and suddenly he’s CTO. And he won’t give it up! It’s awesome! We didnt do this because it was easy, but because we thought it would be. Lets just embrace it :D
We’ve found that the perfect balanced way to find cofounders is to spar on SideProjects. It’s the perfect storm. Pretty intense people nerd out and spar informally on harmless stuff. It doesn’t take long for them to find each other – and then it all starts to happen. This is better than school, work and cofounder meetups.
Also, its pathetic that we in this world haven’t cracked the code for creating relationships across the fictional borders we’ve created on earth. We'll soon laugh that Amir from Ethiopia didn't previously have a way to discover and connect with Tore from Tromsø - and build a startup together. Maybe we finally are onto a digital way to create relationships. I built an app last week with a designer I've never met. I trust him and consider him a friend.
We're building a way for Relentlessly Resourceful people to bump into each other. Because we see that that's how relationships are created that later turn into startups.
And if YC became a big deal by letting students drop summer jobs and move to Cambridge, then this will be a thousand times more effective because we are time and place independent.