12 Startups in 12 Months : Second Brain

This year I'm making every month a start-up project. The first one is going to be a Pocket-like application. I've named it Second Brain. Since I have only one month to write and promote it I'll take a minimum viable product approach. Taking the most important features to solve the problem. Reduce the solution to its essence.

In this article I'll design the Second Brain MVP and a plan to make it happen. The first step is the analysis of the problem. Later I'll take the most important features for the solution to be viable. Finally I'll describe the Playbook for this startup.

The Problem

The way the Internet is structured favours consumption over production. We're overwhelmed with information and we need to curate it and read it afterwards. Sometimes we find gold but we never read it.

The Internet surfing routine can be disorganized. There are solutions out there like Pocket and many others (Trello, Notion, Keep) for personal organization but nothing that unifies everything.

In summary:

• We're overwhelmed with information.
• There are many solutions out there that can help solve this issue but not in an unified manner.

Hypotheses

These are the hypothesis for the solution:

• Convention Over Configuration: I don't want to have tools and options to fix the chaos. I just want a solution and follow a path.
• Temporary: Reminders tend to stay in the existing solutions for a long time. It would be nice to make it easy to delete and a time to live.
• Simple List: There's no need to reinvent the wheel.

Why?

Jut by checking the different solutions:

• Trello
• Notion
• Google Keep

I see that people gives a high value to order. We're supposed to be tidy and responsible in our work life and home. Why shouldn't we be like that in our computers?

Solving this problem would give us a place to store our thoughts online. Have an anchor on the Internet. Like a second brain.

Most Important Features

Here are the most important features:

• Login and Registration - Security.
• Landing Page.
• Create and Remove Links.
• See Links:
  • Today
  • 7 Days
• Pricing Infrastructure.

I want to keep things real lean. Therefore I won't focus that much on design but instead on shipping it as soon as possible.

Playbook

A good plan is simple:

• Buy DNS.
• Create and publish the landing page to find people.
• Contact people. Start showing what I want to build.
• Create the MVP.
• Promote.

Conclusion

So there you go. I've taken a lean MVP approach to build Second Brain.

In summary:

• Problem: Too Much Information. Too little time.
• Hypothesis: Solve the problem with a clear solution. Avoid too many options.
• Why? To have an anchor on the Internet.
• Most Important Features: Security, Links, and Pricing.
• Playbook: Make and promote as soon as possible.

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What do you think? Do you follow a similar process for your projects? Let me know on Twitter