Framework
Distribution first: audience is the hard part, product is easy
Sam learned from a NerdWallet founder to work backwards from distribution. The insight: acquiring customers is the hard part, so bake distribution into your cost to acquire a customer, then figure out what to sell, citing how many low-quality products win simply because they're in every store.
“And he goes, He's like, dude, raise this money and go big. And I was like, I don't know what I'm going to sell. And he goes, you'll figure it out. Getting the audience is the hard part.”
Steal thisPick a distribution channel you can win first, then reverse-engineer the product that fits it.
Framework
Work backwards from high-value Googled questions
Shaan reframes NerdWallet's model: they answer highly Googled questions that have valuable answers (like 'which credit card should I buy?'), working backwards from the questions to build SEO authority.
“The way I would say it is they answer highly Googled questions that have valuable answers, right? So people say, which credit card should I buy? So they go backwards.”
Steal thisPick a niche, find the highest-value questions people Google, and build content backwards from those.
Number
NerdWallet hit ~$100M revenue with zero funding
Sam notes NerdWallet reached close to $100 million in revenue with zero outside funding, making the bootstrapped content-affiliate model a compelling argument.
$100M
Revenue reached with no outside funding · USD
“But they got to close to $100 million in revenue with zero funding.”
Idea
Build a NerdWallet for software products
Sam is fascinated by review/affiliate sites for software (G2, SoftwareReviews + Capterra, J2 Global's Mashable/PCMag) and thinks they're all missing the mark. He sees a big opening to do NerdWallet for digital technology products.
“So I'm incredibly fascinated by these guys that are doing the exact same thing for NerdWallet, but for technology products, specifically digital technology products. I think that all the companies that I just named are completely missing the mark on solving that problem. So I think that's an interesting one.”
Steal thisBuild a review-and-affiliate content site for software, the way NerdWallet did for credit cards.