$750 MRR, cats everywhere, sites for inspiration and workspace inspiration
September was pretty warm, humid, it was also productive and busy for me. How did your September go? Also this issue is going to 37 amazing people 🤩
Side Project updates
Pika.style has crossed $750 in MRR this month. The start of this month was pretty slow with racing churns and new users, but it improved as the month progressed
September went mostly in working on product, adding new stuff like Mockup templates, 4K exports, user suggested features etc. The focus is to increase the use cases Pika covers and help users create different type of assets, easily and instantly
I am also experimenting with advertisements in Pika to support free plan, if this works out I’ll be able to improve experience for free users
One thing I learned about retaining users is to make them very comfortable in sharing their questions, requests, feedback etc. from the start. So comfortable that they should be able to tell you their thoughts about your product openly and without thinking twice. This increases trust and builds a healthy relationship with the user. Also this works only when you as a founder are very open to feedback, critique and plan on acknowledging the feedback
This issue is written in Substack
From this issue on, I’ll be using Substack for sending newsletter
Previously I was using Revue, which is good and integrates with Twitter well. But Revue lacks on the experience of writing newsletters, plus after being acquired by Twitter there’s not much updates in Revue and product seems to be paused
Substack’s editor is minimal, distraction free and gives you more power over the formatting of the content. And Substack is constantly bringing more features for the creator community
Great people make simple things look interesting
What could be so good about a countdown app, right? It’s a simple idea, and can have a simple solution
Up Ahead is a countdown app by Dan Gauthier. But Dan’s take on this simple idea is what makes his app so interesting. If you see the video of the app shared by Dan in the tweet, it tells how he has worked on little details. From a beautiful timeline view, patterns, colour themes to beautiful widgets and a great onboarding, this app would be a goto countdown app for many just because IT MAKES YOU LIKE THE IDEA OF COUNTDOWNS
Ghost of the mountains
Such fascinating photos
Sites for creative inspiration
I’ve been exploring creative ideas to keep my perspectives updated and these are some sites which I absolutely love to visit on regular basis
Godly Website: Astronomically good web design inspiration from all over the Internet, every day
Lovers Magazine: Interviews of creatives around the world. Very insightful reads on how they think, kind of challenges they face and their routines
One Page Love: showcases best single page websites, apps, templates and resources
CSS “border-radius” tip
This tip has changed the way I do nested rounded corners
Cats everywhere
A very realistic looking video by this artist placing cats everywhere
A song for Indie lovers
Everyone knows how good Lucky Ali is, and I feel a lot of his old songs from 90s are underrated. They’re soothing and also good music to work on. I’ve been listening more of his old songs recently and they make make me want to go to Goa and live a peaceful life
Look, a purr-ger
Workspace inspiration
Copy is important
That’s it for September!
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. I would be back with another one soon. It’s been 4 months now since I’ve been working from home, and now I think I need a vacation. Where should I head to? 🤔
What’s your plan for October? Do share by replying this email :)