I'm Dru Riley, I've spent 4,000+ hours researching business models and marketing strategies. AMA 👇

@mobilemediamania Did you have an audience before starting the newsletter? I had less than 300 Twitter followers and 0 email subscribers. But an amazing mastermind group that supported reports. How often do you move around to a base location while nomading and traveling? Where have your most favorite, project friendly places been? I typically move every 1-3 months. I feel most productive in Mexico City. How has nomading opened your horizons towards ideation and trends? It prevents habit rot and mind rot. It's harder to get into routines although I'm one of the most habit-obsessed people in the world. It's less about ideation and trends and more about people and systems. After a while, you start to see the throughlines in humanity. For creators not traveling the world, what would you do to keep creative trend setting observations flowing? I highly recommend comfort challenges. I'm working on an essay around this concept now. See my response to @stewartfortier. How are you keeping track of the hours? Everything (including sleep) goes on my calendar. If something is under (or over time) I update my calendar to reflect it.

@mobilemediamania @stewartfortier @dru_riley what mastermind group supported reports and how?

@5harath How do you timebox research? It's embarrassing to say but I was never good at this. I would research and edit reports until moments before reports are released. Working under deadlines has taught me that perfect is a myth. But for some reason, I still try.

@stas_voronov (Maybe because I have perfectionist tendencies) it would take me 20-30 hours a week for research.

@dru_riley Thanks!

@ayushtweetshere One way to look at this is to invert the problem and ask "How do mastermind groups die?" The most common cause of death I've seen before starting our own groups is the lack of administration or poor administration. i.e. No one is willing hold the group accountable to attendance, size, format or other standards. "...any advice or tips you may have for running mastermind groups?" Actively manage groups. Take feedback but don't lead by consensus.

@dru_riley This is very helpful, thanks Dru 🙌

@sweatc 1) How often do you update your reports? We don't update past reports but we completely revisit topics. i.e. We've done Micro Private Equity 3 times. The cadence of when we revisit past topics varies a lot. What were the most challenging things about building your community, and how did you solve them? The hardest part was writing reports while trying to build the community. Since we had a "magnet" in the form of reports, it wasn't hard to find community members. I'd done reports on paid communities before starting one. So had lots of theses. The hardest part was not burning out while writing reports and building a new community.

@marchg If you're optimizing for de-risking. Choose competitor risk over market risk. See my reply to @lax_mariappan. I'd question whether de-risking should be the first priority though.

@juurikasjaan "How did you start co-creating the reports with other (rather notable) people? Referring to the parts of "We had a great time jamming on this report." This came from talking to community members who have expertise around topics that we cover. Trends Pro Members started responding to reports and I started asking questions about upcoming topics. And, how long did you create everything solo until you had some help? ≈ 8 months before I got an assistant to schedule reports ≈ 2 years before anyone else wrote a report

@jorgevmendoza Despite the name Trends.vc, we focus on helping bootstrapped founders. One of our core values is freedom over fame. "...in the new scenario for tech industry under non hyper liquidity cicle, what are the best options for funds both for new and already running projects?" I don't know enough about funding options to give a great answer.

@thisiswenzel "Many people argue that web2 solutions offer the same product. What's your take on this?" Generally speaking, it feels like Web3 teams are trying to replace Airbnb and Uber when they should focus on blue oceans. Things that Web2 does not solve well. The products that are winning have done this. i.e. Sending money without intermediaries. Uncensorable hosting. Digital property rights. Etc. "And what would be your suggestion how to grow a web3 brand." In my experience, brand building tactics are highly context-dependent. Depending on what you are building and who you are serving, the answer would vary wilding.

@kaisen2350 Network effects are hard to beat. So marketplaces and social networks. This would withstand the past 2 years constraint and the next two years constraint. Even if we're looking at NFT projects in 3 years. They still employ network effects. The question becomes more interesting if we ask the same question for business models that are easy to bootstrap.