Enterprenuer
Tom is passionate about entrepreneurship and helping other creators and founders grow their income into something that pays the bills.
It all began in college when Tom, strangely, chose an entrepreneurship course over a finance class.
After graduating from college, he became obsessed with starting his own business.
This first occurred in 2014. Tom began to realize his weaknesses after raising capital.
He then went on to gain more experience in marketing, managing people, and building products.
Fast forward to 2021, and Tom and his co-founder decided to work again.
Tom realized that the most challenging part of building a product was not to create it. He had seen the many changes over the years.
It’s marketing, distribution, sales. There are hundreds of new tech products launched each day.
This means that there is fierce competition for clients. Most founders fail to make it.
After several weeks of trying to resolve this issue with Tom, he and Tom finally settled on Twitter Hunter, which helps users grow a following they can monetize via Twitter.
Where did the idea of Tweet Hunter?
We wanted to solve a problem. How can early-stage entrepreneurs/indie marketers find their first clients? Tibo, my co-founder, was testing products.
I was the “marketing guy” for our duo and brought in some clients.
However, this didn’t happen. Tibo was instead bringing in early users via his Twitter account (3-4k at the time).
My performance was disappointing. I created a Twitter account. It didn’t work out so well.
It was challenging to come up with regular content in the early days of Twittering.
We were playing with a Twitter database that we had created and trying to find its purpose.
The idea struck us to sort, classify, and then use the information as inspiration for our tweets.
This is how Tweet Hunter began. It evolved later into a powerful tool.
How do you stay productive?
I work between 8-10 hours per day and mornings on weekends.
Here’s how a typical day for me looks:
Notifications from Twitter and Coffee
Customer support emails
Yesterday’s traffic and sales numbers.
Product work (feedback and mock-ups, prioritizing, etc.
Marketing work
Customer support emails
Tweet a few words and interact with others on Twitter
How do you bring ideas to life?
My co-founder, and I, only accept one form of validation: revenue.
Not counting email gathering, asking people to say that they are interested in it or “would pay for” is not a good idea.
Either we make revenue, or we move on.
We need an MVP to test each idea. We set out to quickly build them with a landing page that is not coded, and then we wait to see if anyone enters their card details.
We may be onto something worthwhile pursuing if so.
What’s your favorite trend?
Web3.0 doesn’t seem to be the thing that will revolutionize the world.
Although I am fascinated by technology and its possibilities, I don’t believe it will change how we live. (Maybe I’m just an idiot).
People quitting their jobs to try to make a living for themselves is what I’m most excited about.
People need more freedom and passion in their professional lives. For many, the best way is to go out and do what you love.
This is a paradigm-shifting idea. This is a significant shift in what people consider necessary in their daily lives.
Remote work, digital nomads, and “side hustlers” are signs of a megatrend in which people hate their 9-5 jobs and don’t need as much security.
What habits make you productive?
I get up at 5:15 AM and go to bed.
I work immediately upon waking up.
For 3-4 hours, I am completely alone and can do any work that requires concentration.
This allows me to get so much done before the rest of the world awakes.
I find it much more challenging to concentrate later in the day.
What’s your advice for the Noob?
Do not go to business school. Do some dev boot camp, or go to engineering school.
You should also start your Twitter account as soon as you learn to write!
What is one thing we can all agree on?
It’s not risky to make changes. If you want to make a difference in your life, it’s a must.
Let me show you an example of what I mean:
Many people don’t intend to become entrepreneurs, and my friends are in that group.
They often tell me that it takes “some serious guts” to do what I do.
This is something I’m afraid I have to disagree with. If I weren’t a founder, I would be miserable.
The most significant risk that I accept is staying in the same place for many years without any end in sight.
Change isn’t a risk for me, and it’s what drives me to keep going.
What do you recommend as an entrepreneur?
This is not something I do every day, but it’s something that I do regularly.
My goals and targets are constantly reevaluated. Entrepreneurship can often be characterized by extreme failures or great success.
Rarely do early-stage founders achieve 90-110% of their goals? It is more common to see 5% or 500%.
As a founder, it can significantly impact your personal and professional life.
You don’t need to feel frustrated that you didn’t achieve a goal or get so excited over winning one by a large margin; it’s essential to keep your cool.
It will feel easier to continue by reevaluating and thinking about the next steps.
Tweet Hunter, for example, started with a $5K MRR goal.
It soon grew to $10K. It was then $40K. It’s now $100K.
The same goes for personal goals. I started by making enough money to pay my bills.
It’s time to buy a home, maybe.
What’s your rich strategy?
We found a partner who was both a marketer and had a specific audience that fit our target market.
This partnership quickly took us from $5K to $15K MRR and continues to deliver results today.
Everyone has probably heard the advice to “build an audience before building a product,” I believe.
Our audience was not significant when we launched, so we devised a way around it.
How do you overcome Failure?
My first startup was fraught with errors. My first startup was a mobile app that encouraged children to complete their daily chores.
– The problem was not mine
– I didn’t know the target market
– After making a massive MVP, we realized that our design was not suitable for children and had no choice but to start again.
– We have hired too many people
– Too little or too soon
There are just too many errors to be successful. It was fun!
It was not something I could overcome. I moved on and later returned to entrepreneurship.
Accepting failure and moving on is sometimes the best way to move forward.
Can you share a business idea?
Okay, so I have a fantastic idea that I’m not able to build (business school graduate here).
It’s not a very sexy idea, which is why it will work.
Startups scaling up have difficulty with SaaS and employee processes.
In a matter of months, they can go from 10 to 100 employees and suddenly need to take control.
These are some examples:
What SaaS services can we subscribe to?
What are our SaaS spending, and what departments?
– Who is the administrator?
– Who can access it/have a license?
– Who can cut access to employees who leave or are fired?
Spreadsheets and emails are used for most of the authorization and tracking.
Yuk.
For that, you can use a SaaS.
What’s your recent best buy?
A wine accessory allows me to store a wine bottle that I have already opened for several weeks instead of just a few days.
It’s an excellent investment as I open bottles that I don’t finish, and it loses most of its flavor after about 4-5 days.
What are your favorite Softwares or Apps?
I have three chrome extensions.
Loom
Colorzilla (pick colors from pages)
Copy URLs (copy all URLs from open tabs to your clipboard).
They are my lifeline.
Which book would you recommend?
I have only ever read one startup book, the 4-hour Workweek by Tim Ferris.
If you’re looking for a shorter book, I recommend Into Thin Air from Jon Krakauer.
I am obsessed with mountain climbing and have read through the entire book in one day.
What’s your favorite quote?
“Some people dislike change. But you must embrace it if the alternative to disaster is possible.”
Elon Musk
Lol, quoting Elon Musk. It’s so original!
TL;DR by Thomas Jacquesson
- Only revenue can validate an idea.
- Change is a necessary part of life, not a danger.
- It is important to adjust your personal and professional goals regularly in order to stay sane.
