A Better Lemonade Stand #316

💛 Sponsor

📧 Get Bigger Sales from Email & SMS

Omnisend handled the boring part of analyzing millions of emails for you, so now you get to geek out over some data, like:

• What’s the ideal subject line length? 

• Which magic words will make people actually open your email? (Spoiler: It's not "FREE PIZZA.")

• How many CTAs before you’re just yelling at people? (Asking for a friend.)

• How long should your email be before it feels like a novel? (Less Dickens, more tweets.)

• How big should the discount be to make someone actually care? (Because 5% ain’t cutting it, Karen.)

We’ve got all those answers wrapped up in one infographic. Check it out, then get back to more exciting things than reading millions of emails

📈 Trends

🪙 Public Data: The New Goldmine for Indie Builders

Public data isn’t just for big companies or developers to utilize. It’s a goldmine that no-code makers and indie creators can tap into to build useful, profitable tools you must put a UI over.

More and more public information is becoming freely available to embed, from shipping records to internet speeds, creating something that solves real-world problems without code is easier than ever.

This trend thrives on a straightforward idea: data is everywhere, but the real value lies in organizing, cleaning, and making it accessible for the average person in a clean user interface.

🌍 Why Public Data Matters

1. It’s Accessible to Everyone

Governments and organizations continue to open up their data on everything from city crime stats to weather trends, making it available to anyone with a good idea to build on top of.

Think city safety scores, healthcare stats, or housing permits.

Data that once required months to access is now easy to find.

👉 Here’s a list of 100s of available API’s (Ready-made code you can use to embed in your website to show off the data).

2. Sharing Public Data Made Simple with No-Code Tools

Integrating public data used to be reserved for developers who could wrangle APIs and write custom scripts. However, no-code platforms like Webflow and Bubble allow us to tap into data and build with it.

Here’s how these tools make public data easier than ever:

• Webflow: For example, do you want to display random quotes or real-time weather on your site? With Webflow, you can connect APIs to pull in and showcase this public data. (🔗Get a Tutorial Here)

• Bubble: For more complex apps, Bubble enables you to build dashboards, integrate multiple data sources, and even create interactive workflows, all while handling the backend heavy lifting for you. (🔗Get a Tutorial Here)

3. Scalable, Lean Models

Take Pieter Levels, for example. He created Nomad List by combining publicly available information to build this business with minimal input costs that now generate millions annually as a solo founder.

• What He Does: Aggregates data on cities, cost of living, weather, and internet speed for digital nomads.

• Revenue: $250K/month with 90% margins through user subscriptions and crowdsourced contributions.

Nomad List provides data on cities for digital nomads, but much of this information is publicly available and can be found for free.

So, the actual value of Nomad List lies in cleaning up this data into a nice visual format above and converting nomads to his community and networking opportunities.

⚠️ Challenges with Public Data Models

While the potential for public data-driven innovation is huge, challenges remain:

• Lack of Defence: Since public data is open to all, defensibility becomes a key challenge. Successful models need a layer of community, services, or even a newsletter on top of this product to stand out.

• Data Quality Issues: Public datasets often need to be completed or updated, requiring significant cleaning and validation for data reliability, as many people complained about this with Nomadlist on Reddit.

🤔 Examples of Projects Using Public Data

1. Import Yeti

   • What They Do: Provides detailed insights into global trade flows using public shipping data.

   • Use Case: Helps businesses track competitors and also identify the right suppliers.

   

2. BuildZoom

   • What They Do: Combines contractor reviews online with public building permit data.

   • Use Case: Helps homeowners find reliable contractors, while contractors use it to build transparency.

3. Zillow

   • What They Do: Uses public property records to provide real estate insights.

   • Use Case: Homebuyers and sellers rely on Zillow for real-time property valuations.

📈 Why Does This Trend Matter Going Into 2025?

The winners will be those who can extract, package, and deliver insights that solve real-world problems.

As Pieter Levels demonstrated, leveraging public data isn’t just about information access. It’s about combining this with community and utility.

💡 Insights

💔 Lessons from Trends’ Downfall

The closure of Trends by The Hustle marks the end of a media experiment that transformed how business insights were consumed as its acquisition by HubSpot revealed the cracks in media-tech marriages.

What We Can Learn:

1️⃣ Audience Misfit: Trends thrived on a passionate, paying community of ~15k. It wasn’t big enough for HubSpot’s revenue-focused model.

2️⃣ Cultural Clashes: The edgy, contrarian voice of Trends clashed with HubSpot’s polished corporate ethos, creating friction that alienated both audiences and the editorial teams.

3️⃣ Media ≠ SaaS: Tech companies aim to protect shareholder value, while media thrives on transparency and independent reporting. When the two collide, editorial integrity often takes a hit.

What now? The Hustle lives on, but Trends legacy reminds us that not every business needs to scale to survive.

👉 Dive Into the Rise and Fall of Trends

🧪 Refind Ads: A Low-Stress Newsletter Growth Experiment

Chenell Basilio tested Refind Ads’ new pay-per-engaged subscriber option for her newsletter and gained 500 subscribers in 35 days for $425.

Here’s What She Found:

• Easy Setup: No complex tweaking. Just set a budget and headline.

• Pay-for-Opens: Only pay for subscribers who engage.

• Personal Touch: Responsive support, even ad copy help.

The results were 170 engaged subscribers (opened emails) and 21 hyper-engaged subscribers (those who clicked links), costing you $20 per hyper-engaged subscriber. So, it’s ideal for B2C or sponsorship-based newsletters, but proper onboarding is key to a better ROI.

👉 Get the Full Ad Experiment Here

🧠 Every AI Tool Ranked: What’s Worth Your Time?

The Next Wave Podcast dropped a tier list ranking 22 of the most popular AI tools, and some fan favorites didn’t cut.

Here’s What Stood Out:

1️⃣ S-Tier Winners: ChatGPT and Perplexity led the pack for setting the gold standard in reasoning, research, and shipping updates that matter.

2️⃣ Hidden Potential: Google’s Notebook LM impressed with its AI podcast feature but fell to B-tier due to execution issues and Google’s patchy product history.

3️⃣ Biggest Miss: Adobe Firefly’s heavy-handed censorship and underwhelming output landed it in the F-tier.

👉 Get the Full List

🌤 Bluesky: Do You Need Another Social App?

With Bluesky’s rapid growth, 20M+ users, and a 500% surge in U.S. activity. It’s making waves a possible alternative to X. But should you add it to your social media strategy?

Here’s the Deal:

• Why It’s Buzzing: Bluesky offers what many feel X and Threads lack: a focus on real-time conversation (think Twitter’s golden days), less talk around political topics, and greater control over what you see.

• Why You Might Wait: Despite the hype, Bluesky (20M users) trails far behind Threads (275M users) and X (500M users).

For now, Bluesky is a niche player, ideal for tech-focused conversations and early adopters. Reserve your handle to stay ahead of future trends and start repurposing your existing content archive from Twitter.

👉 Get the Full Bluesky Analysis

🧰 Apps & Tools

🌉 Sky Follower Bridge: Connect with your Twitter network on Bluesky in just a few clicks.

📰 ReadPartner: Summarization tool that condenses articles, videos, and documents for efficient content research.

👁️ BuzzLens: See what people say about your brand on Instagram, TikTok, and X with AI insights.

📞 Pine: AI assistant for managing customer service tasks, lowering bills, canceling subscriptions, and resolving disputes.

My Top Black Friday Deals:

🎯 Omnisend: Simplify your email and SMS marketing with 30% off all paid plans for 3 months. Use code BFCM30OFF before December 6, 2024, and let the sales roll in effortlessly. Claim the Deal.

🎨 Kit Creator Plan: Start your email marketing campaigns with 30% off the powerful platform. Grab the Deal.

📬 Beehiiv Newsletter Builder: Build and grow your audience with 20% off with my go-to newsletter platform. Claim Now.

🤖 Machined.ai Unlimited Plan: Streamline content creation with AI by getting 4 months free on the annual plan (nearly 35% off). Upgrade Now.

🏄 Surfer SEO: Create high-performing, traffic-maximizing content. Enjoy 30% more credits (lifetime), 30% off annual plans (lifetime), and up to 40% off AI packages. Get the Deal.

🤑 MindPal: Automate business processes with AI agents and workflows. Snag 60% off all yearly plans with code BLACKFRIDAY24. Explore More.

⭐ Macaw: Boost your organic traffic with AI-written articles people actually love to read. Get 50% off your first month with code BLACKFRIDAY. Start Writing.

✍️ Typefully: Grow your audience on 𝕏, Threads, LinkedIn, and more with AI-powered content tools, scheduling, and analytics. Get 30% off for 1 year with code BF2024. Level Up.

🔥 Looking for even more deals? This curated list covers hundreds of offers across software, tools, and services for entrepreneurs, creators, and developers. Explore categories like AI, SEO, email marketing, and more to grab the deals that fuel your business. Don’t miss out! 🚀

🤖 Product Updates

🌍 Breaking Language Barriers

Imagine your videos instantly accessible to millions worldwide despite any language barriers. YouTube’s new AI automatic dubbing will make this a reality.

Here’s How It Works:

• New videos will automatically include dubbed audio tracks in Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, and English for global accessibility.

• No extra work is needed - upload your video, and YouTube converts it. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to all your older videos.

👉 Discover the Future of Video

🧑‍💻 Claude AI + Google Docs Workflow Upgrade

No more toggling between tabs. Claude AI’s Google Docs integration allows you to sync your documents directly into chats instead of uploading the doc file itself.

Why It Matters:

• Upload Google Docs or paste URLs to let Claude instantly process their content for better assistance.

• Real-time syncing ensures Claude always uses the latest version of your files. No manual updates are needed.

⚠️ Heads-Up: While still in beta, it supports text extraction only (no images or comments…yet).

👉 Get a Demo Here

🖇️ Everything Else

🔎 AI's Influence on Search: This analysis of 200,000 AI Overviews unpacks what types of queries industries search the most for and how they influence SEO rankings. (🔗 Explore Key Insights Here)

📷 Instagram’s 2024 Glow-Up: Gone are the old days of blindly praying hashtags will deliver reach. Instagram is evolving, and so should your strategy. (🔗 Here’s the New Playbook)

🤖 Humanoids Are Evolving Fast: Figure’s second-gen humanoid is now 4x faster and 7x more reliable to transform businesses and homes. (🔗 How Robots Are Changing Industries)