Ship it and Sip it

Founder Vanessa Franz sees a future where creators of all kinds can easily show their value, engage with their audience and carve out their space to grow.

And from her chats with them, she knows there is a huge demand and growing interest from viewers. But:

• the processes are opaque

• returns for creators are hit or miss

• and brands expectations don't always align with the creators.

Dive into the show to find out where Vanessa found inspiration for Privy and who she wants to get on the platform first.

"We have fallen before, we always get up. We don't know how to fail and we don't know how to stop. It's a little bit like that Kobe Bryant Mamba mentality — that's what we have absolutely in common."

That's the mindset Brittany and AR Bell bring to their startup Gametime Hero.

They're on a mission to build a better digital space for sports lovers to connect, plan or join events and play more, simply.

The pain is definitely there — games or events are organized now with a smattering of tools from group chats to Facebook to word of mouth.

It's hard to discover, hard to join and hard to manage. Especially if you're in a new place or travelling.

AR and Brittany have been scheming and working on the solution for years, and during the Nano Grit challenge they're gaining traction and building momentum towards launch 🚀

Find out why and how it all works in today's show!

Love sports? Sign up to be an early adopter on gametimehero.com 💪

That awareness and alignment is what Cameron is hoping to enable with FForwardAI. So how can that happen?

Well, you could be like Cameron and ask for a decision log after each pull request — but like he found out, that's hard to scale.

So FForward's here to automate and slot smoothly into the decision-making process.

Have a look, Cameron's been building startups since pre-iPhone days so he brings a wealth of experience and perspective to his new big idea 💡

When it comes to health, fitness and diet advice — everyone brings their own experiences and biases to what works. But we're all n=1 in our training journey.

That's where Hoku founder Kavita thinks that AI can deliver more personalized support.

We chat about how Kavita:• is learning the art of sales and marketing in Nano• believes Hoku will make healthy habits easier and more consistent• thinks other health and fitness apps miss the mark when it comes to personalization.

And we talk about the challenges of data accuracy, staying healthy as a founder plus a bunch more!

Dive in and give the Hoku demo a shot over at heyhoku.com 💡

Follow the progres of all the Nano Founders at nanohq.co

The instant success stories are mostly myths. But Maya's path as a startup founder uncovers the real thing. There are no magic hacks — she set out to build a solution to a problem she and her community experienced. But first she had to learn Bubble, talk through the features and eventually bring InterviewJam to life with a Product Hunt launch this spring.

Along the way, she:

🐦 Jumped into the Build In Public community on Twitter

🎥 Launched a Youtube channel to help other eager Bubble creators

⚖️ Kept burnout at bay with a full-time role as a data scientist

And she's not done yet, I bet she's only getting started. Now she's back in the 100 Days of No-Code challenge and has already bought a fresh domain for her next big thing.

Find out what that is in this week's Episode 55 of Ship it and Sip it.

Check out InterviewJam at interviewjam.io

Follow Maya on Twitter at @buildwithmaya to see what she builds next!

Late last summer, we welcomed Alena Lysiakova to our content and marketing team 🤝

During the interview, we asked her what she thought about going public and sharing about the work on social channels. She seemed willing but not overly excited — but this year that all changed 🚀

And now she's flourishing with Copy & Coffee and inspires us on a daily basis 💪

Here's what we got into on this episode:

• What kind of content she loves to write + what's the next experiment

• Who inspired her to really go all-in on posting in 2023

• How people and brands grow in different and similar ways on Linkedin

• Why you need to reach both potential customers and your tribe with content

Enjoy the show and have an amazing weekend 🍻

Maybe you heard about our Nano Grit challenge, or caught a founder interview from the recent Bootcamp, or took a peek at Momentum — and you're unsure if these new programs are right for you…

This interview answers all those questions and probably some you hadn't thought of.

Chris Fernandes and Victoria Antonovich are the guiding forces behind the Bootcamp and the Accelerator.

We outline:

🧭 the path for founders from Nano Grit 👉 Bootcamp 👉 Accelerator

📈 the outcomes from Bootcamp batch 1 + what's better for batch 2

📍 what founders will leave each stage with — hint: users, clarity, confidence 💪

Nano Grit is filling up fast, so throw your hat in the ring and join us in May 💡

This interview answers all those questions and probably some you hadn't thought of.

Chris Fernandes and Victoria Antonovich are the guiding forces behind the Bootcamp and the Accelerator.

We outline:🧭 the path for founders from Nano Grit 👉 Bootcamp 👉 Accelerator📈 the outcomes from Bootcamp batch 1 + what's better for batch 2📍 what founders will leave each stage with — hint: users, clarity, confidence 💪

Nano Grit is filling up fast, so throw your hat in the ring and join us in May 💡

His entrepreneurial journey started at 16 and now he's dedicated to helping founders find the perfect guidance to reach product-market fit and then scale beyond it.

Since PMF is an important, but often mis-understood concept, we went way into it and discussed:

* What the common blockers are for founders on the path to PMF

* How we can quantify progress towards it

* Why founders benefit from fractional coaching and marketing help

* Easy experiments to run to refine messaging and boost conversions

And, of course, we talked shop about #BuildInPublic — how it helps founders refine their value proposition and more.

Enjoy the show and check out Sparrow to learn more about PMF coaching 🚀

Meet our newest Accelerator advisor, founder and all-around fascinating fellow — Mash 👋