Your daily LinkedIn post idea, by The Content Lab

Question: Your last failure?

Post Template:

Hook:

Cluely broke $5M ARR in under two months.

But it wasn’t our first idea …

Tease:

Before this, Roy Lee and I launched:

- A note-taker for Columbia classes

- A B2B sales tool for liquor distributors

- A dating app for blind dates …and more.

While these ideas “failed”, here’s what we learned about finding a startup idea:

Value:

1. Validate quickly.

You’ll never know if your idea is good if you don’t test it with real users.

When we launched Interview Coder (initial version of Cluely), we built the MVP and shipped it publicly in 10 days. While it didn’t immediately go viral, we knew it had potential after seeing early reactions.

2. Don’t listen to opinions… even from qualified people.

The nature of building a startup is that it should be different, and that some people will inherently oppose it. It doesn’t matter if your idea is hated or loved; the most important thing is that you believe in it.

3. Pick an idea that is inherently viral.

It's easier than ever to build a good product, but it's harder than ever to capture attention. After our first few ideas didn’t take off, we started focusing on ideas that would go viral and working backwards.

CTA:

While Cluely wasn’t our first idea, it’s the one that stuck. Try it yourself here: https://cluely.com/

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