shownotes

The Power of Sharing Value through Public Notes: How Tech Founders Can Grow Their Audience

I've been exploring X/Twitter as my primary social media platform, along with ProductHunt and IndieHackers, for more targeted tech communities. Although I've had a Twitter account since 2008, I only became active after Elon Musk's acquisition. Like many, I was intrigued by Elon's technological achievements. However, X/Twitter has yet to resonate with me entirely.

Growing my presence through my preferred interaction style—sharing information, insights, and commentary on tech developments like the recent AI boom fueled by LLMs—has been challenging. I've observed that much of X/Twitter thrives on controversy, whether in politics or tech. As someone who prefers to avoid contentious topics, I've found this environment less conducive to meaningful engagement.

Nevertheless, social media remains crucial for tech founders promoting products and services. This realization led me to explore growth strategies that align with my values, avoiding the temptation to generate controversy in tech—a straightforward but ultimately unproductive approach.

Interestingly, I've noticed that some individuals have successfully built large audiences without resorting to controversy. Their common approach? Providing value through a simple yet effective method: sharing compiled information into bite-sized, engaging nuggets. Sharing their notes publicly has become a powerful tool for building authority and engaging audiences in the tech community.

Let's explore some practical ways tech founders can leverage public notes and note-sharing to grow their audience:

Tech Tip Tuesday

Create a weekly series where you share public notes on practical tech tips or productivity hacks. These could be shortcuts in popular software, lesser-known features of operating systems, or time-saving tools. Present these notes in visually appealing infographics or 30-second videos.

Founder's Journey

Develop a series of short, personal stories from your experiences as a tech founder. Each post should focus on a lesson learned, a challenge overcome, or insight gained. By sharing notes on your journey, you humanize your brand and provide valuable insights to aspiring entrepreneurs.

AI Explained

Break down complex AI concepts into simple, easy-to-understand explanations or analogies. Use your public notes to create illustrations or simple animations that support your explanations. Sharing notes on AI topics can position you as a thought leader in this rapidly evolving field.

Code Snippet of the Day

Share a helpful code snippet daily as part of your public notes. Please include a brief explanation of its purpose and potential applications. Sharing notes on coding can be invaluable for novice and experienced developers in your audience.

Tech News in TL;DR

Challenge yourself to summarize the day's most significant tech news in a single tweet. Sharing notes requires distilling complex stories into their essence while still providing value.

Startup Stacks 

Create visually appealing graphics showcasing the technology stacks of successful startups. Include these in your public notes to provide valuable insights into real-world tech choices.

Product Hunt Picks of the Week

Curate a weekly list of the most exciting or innovative new products from Product Hunt. Share your notes on each product, including your thoughts on their potential impact or use cases.

Tech Trend Tracker for Month, Year

Develop a monthly infographic or carousel post highlighting emerging tech trends. Public notes on these trends can help your audience stay informed about the rapidly changing tech landscape.

Founder's Bookshelf

Share concise summaries or critical takeaways from books that have influenced your journey as a tech founder. These book notes shared publicly, can provide actionable insights for your audience.

Tech Trivia Thursday

Post weekly tech-related trivia questions to engage your audience and spark discussions. Sharing notes on tech trivia can be an entertaining way to educate your audience.

By consistently sharing public notes on these topics, you can provide regular value to your audience, showcase your expertise, and build engagement without controversy. Sharing notes allows you to distribute your knowledge and insights in an easily digestible and shareable way, helping to grow your following organically.

Remember to adapt these note-sharing ideas to your specific niche and audience preferences. Pay attention to which types of public notes generate the most engagement and refine your approach over time. Also, don't be afraid to inject your personality into these notes – authenticity often resonates well on social media. For tech founders looking to grow their audience, the power of publicly sharing notes must be balanced. By consistently providing valuable, bite-sized information through public notes, you can establish yourself as a trusted source of knowledge in your field and build a loyal following.

🍪 Cookie for Scrolling Down Here 🍪

Thanks for reading or at least scrolling down here. If you create a ShowNotes.app account and create a public note that gets at least 5 minutes of view time, I will convert your account into a PRO account! Just comment below or DM me on ShowNotes.app.


My Plans for Finding Users and Customers

When I created Show [your] Notes, I had yet to make a plan to acquire users (free) or customers (paid). It's not that I don't want them; I built ShowNotes primarily for myself. I needed a note-sharing solution I loved. I tried powerful note-taking products like Notion and built-in apps like Notes on the Apple platform, but I wanted more. That doesn't mean these aren't great products; they didn't work well for me. 

So, I scratched my itch and built ShowNotes, a web-based note-sharing platform where users control creation. AI agents assist with publishing tasks, including proofreading, SEO, classification, tagging, link safety, and recommendations.

User of One

I built ShowNotes on a straightforward foundational platform I've developed over the years. From concept to initial version, completed in a few weeks, I've been continuously improving it. January 11, 2024, is the first real version, and since then, I've been creating daily notes on countless topics.

So far, I have over 120 ShowNotes shared with friends, family, staff members, and the public (via Twitter and ProductHunt). My notes have garnered 8K unique sessions totaling over 70 hours. You can see my ShowNotes profile here:

https://shownotes.app/@mjkabir

My friends and I used travel research notes I created to plan a massive Yellowstone trip. Some friends printed the note – it was 19 PDF pages long. Others loved my notes on my 6th-grade son's summer activities, mimicking the educational aspects and informing me about courses they purchased for their kids based on my recommendations.

I created a show-note for a multicultural parent presentation at an elementary school and shared it with the principal. She distributed it to many teachers, and I received excited feedback from several. Sharing notes has been an excellent experience, which justifies creating this platform.

Getting Users and Customers

Although I didn't initially consider other users and customers, I've decided to open ShowNotes to the public for free in July/August 2024. I built it for everyday internet users who research, learn, and want to share knowledge on any topic with friends, family, and the world. Users can build an organic following they control with no platform lock-in; data ownership remains with the creator.

However, everyday folks won’t actively seek my tool, and it's not easily discoverable yet! So, I must narrow my audience to a smaller niche—low-tier content creators who struggle with social media or are frustrated by how it handles their data and followers. When I experimented with YouTube, I realized they must provide a subscriber list. Losing my channel meant losing all subscribers.  The same applies to X/Twitter and Facebook. None of these platforms give creators ownership of their data and followers.

Creating a new social media platform wasn't my goal. I wanted to share everyday research on various topics and build a valuable email list for direct audience communication.

Since most topic research is ongoing, blogs aren't ideal for sharing such information. I wanted a note-sharing communication form. I continuously add and rearrange notes as I learn, benefiting recipients by saving them time.

ShowNotes – a web app – allows note creation on any topic. I can write code snippets, share research on camera equipment, or discuss summer programs for my kids. Built-in AI agents handle proofreading, categorization, tagging, and link safety. They flag potentially dangerous code snippets, harmful links, etc. These AI agents perform all publishing checks and provide creators with information to improve their notes.

Given my B2B background, I incorporated analytics to track note views (clicks and time spent) and added social media features (comments, likes, etc.). Since January 11, 2024, I've written hundreds of notes using ShowNotes. These have been read by friends, family members, and the public for over 70 hours across 8K+ unique sessions.

Narrowing My Initial Target Audience

My vision of widespread daily ShowNotes use is ambitious but needs to be narrower. Given my budget, targeting low-tier content creators seeking organic growth is a more realistic goal. Even better, it focuses on startup founders eager to share about their products and industries through the note series. I've joined ProductHunt, IndieHackers, and relevant subreddits to engage with founders and marketers in this niche.

My First Target Users: Solo Startup Founders Needing Exposure

I can help startup founders create off-site content highlighting their products and services. They can share industry expertise as notes, benefiting them through (a) increased credibility, (b) backlink/SEO advantages, and (c) expanded reach.

I've implemented an intelligent daily digest email for all users. Rather than sending identical content to everyone, it delivers unseen public and new notes to recipients, increasing visibility for user-generated content.

My Offer to Solo Startup Founders 

If you share notes about your product/service and target industry and provide valuable insights from your experience, I'll upgrade your account to PRO-level for free for one year.

Sign up, create public notes, and identify yourself as a founder in your profile. Our system will automatically upgrade your account once you have at least three public notes with 5+ minutes of viewing time by others.

How to Reach Solo Founders

I'm active on ProductHunt and IndieHackers to connect with solo founders. I'll provide value by creating notes about your products, ranging from brief overviews to in-depth reviews, depending on the product category and my interests.

I'd greatly appreciate it if you created your entries, gaining exposure through consumer-friendly, easily digestible note-sharing with safe links, images, videos, automated classification, tagging, and SEO optimization.

About Kabir

I'm proud to be part of the American immigrant success story. After high school, I came to the US to study computer engineering. In my second year of college, I developed my first shareware, selling it for $25/license through CDROM.COM. I also built DSP benchmark software for a UC Berkeley startup, collaborating with brilliant UCB hackers who inspired me to believe in my potential.

This led me to start my entrepreneurial journey with a financial product and a web programming book contract. I have authored a dozen books on web programming and infrastructure, secured VC funding, and found myself at the top of the World Trade Center. Today, I run a 22-year-old niche B2B company that operates almost on autopilot with a small team. This freedom allows me to explore B2C tools, learn from new challenges, and share knowledge with my sons and the wider community.