Pratica di Shadowing: I make $32K/month from 3 simple, boring websites - Impara a parlare inglese con i video
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I run a portfolio of bootstrap SaaS companies that generate about $32,000 in MRR today.
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This is Rashid, and he's a guy who's built three websites that make him over $30,000 every month.
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The reason why they work is because...
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But here's the interesting part.
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These websites are not complicated.
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They're actually quite simple, and they all kind of do the same thing.
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To build a successful database product, I think it's possible in 2026 and the way you can approach it is.
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So I asked Rashid to come onto the channel to break all this down.
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And in this episode, we're going to dive into the exact three websites
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that he's built and that make him over $30,000 a month, the non-obvious secret to why these websites work and how they make thousands of dollars every month.
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And we're going to go over his advice for anyone who wants to build websites like these right now in 2026.
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All right, let's dive in.
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I'm Pat Walls.
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This is Starter Story.
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All right, Rashid, I am pumped to have you onto the channel.
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Tell me about who you are, what websites you built, and what's your story?
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Hey, my name is Rashid, and I run a portfolio of bootstrap SaaS companies that generate about $32,000 in MRR today.
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And the main product is AngelMatch.
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It's an all-in-one solution that helps startup founders find investors to raise capital.
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And today I'm excited to share with you what lessons I learned along the way.
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Yeah, I'm excited to be here.
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Awesome.
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Well, I'm excited to talk all about these sites you built.
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I think they're super cool.
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Explain your three different websites in just a few sentences, how they work and how they make money.
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Let's start with AngelMatch.
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It's a database of like 125,000 angels and VCs.
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We primarily focus on helping early stage startups who are raising capital.
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The other one is InvestorHunt.
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It's just an investor database product.
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And the third one is Journalist Hunt.
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It's a database of 200,000 journalists, which helps small businesses and media companies find journalists to get press coverage.
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I love these kinds of websites.
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Get all this data, put it in one place, make it useful for people that need to raise money or whatever it is.
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There's so many cool ideas around this.
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We're going to get into it.
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But first, show me this is legit.
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Show me how much money these businesses are making.
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Could you do that?
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Yeah, absolutely.
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This one is Angel Match.
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We are at 29,000 MRR as of today.
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Active subscribers is 360 users.
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Our trial conversion rate is 33%.
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And as of now, Angel Match is bringing about 800 to 1,000 clicks per day across organic,
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referral, direct, and a little bit of paid Facebook ads.
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The prices for AngelMatch starts at $59 per month and we have a few thousand dollar prices as well.
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So it depends on how many investors you want to reach out per month.
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And this is InvestorHunt.
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It's making $2,800 as of today.
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For InvestorHunt, we don't do any marketing, it's just an SEO.
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Also for InvestorHunt, it's basically $57, $97 and $297.
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This is Journalist Hunt.
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It's making $260 for Journalist Hunt.
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We don't have that many users, but we see that people buy the basic and the middle tier, which ranges between $49 to $99 per month.
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I personally love Rashid's approach to building, and specifically these businesses that he's built.
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Why?
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Because these business ideas don't chase some crazy AI trend or something like that.
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They are just simple websites that actually work and have made money over the course of years.
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Because I think the real lesson behind this story and these businesses is that these businesses solve a painful problem.
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And in my opinion, that is the most important thing you can do
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when you come up with a business idea and you want to make money online.
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So you might be wondering, well, how do I find a painful problem to solve?
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How do I find my idea and where should I even look for this?
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Well, we've got something for you.
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We've been working with the team at HubSpot to put together a free database of over 90 painful problems
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that are worth solving right now in 2026.
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Each of these problems and pain points can be turned into real businesses
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and will even show you real businesses that are making money solving these problems right now.
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We're going to map out all the data you might need, customers, cost to start, days to launch, everything.
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So if you've been searching for business ideas and thinking about this idea of solving problems, then head to link in the description, download the database and you can get started.
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Oh yeah, and it's 100% free.
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All right, let's get back to the episode.
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I think these sites are super cool.
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So how do you get to this point where you have these three different websites that are crushing it, making over $30,000 a month?
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So I'm not a technical founder.
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I always relied on finding developers to build the websites.
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I studied finance in college and in my last year of college, me and my college friend decided to build a fintech investment app.
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We raised $100,000 from family and friends.
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I maxed out my credit cards, got some personal loans.
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So that money was not enough.
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So we had to raise capital from like professional investors, so-called angels and VCs.
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We decided to manually search through the internet and build like a list of investors to reach out to.
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And that list actually helped us get into calls with some of the big VC names at that time and big angels.
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That made me realize that first, cold emailing works, but second, finding the list of investors is such a tedious and time-consuming process. So yeah.
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Yeah.
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I mean, this is like super common.
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I see this with a lot of founders is they go to build a business.
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They experience some sort of problem while they're building this business.
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And then that problem that they experienced was really painful and annoying like this, trying to find investors that you end up building another business on top of that.
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So what did you do next?
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How did you build it?
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How did you take the next step after you saw this problem?
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That time we were like early stage founders ourselves.
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So we thought if it takes so much time and effort finding investors, maybe there are other founders out there who face the same problem.
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So we decided to test this theory that we had by launching a product and seeing if we can get any traction.
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So we built like 40,000 investors with a few people, and then we launched on Product Hunt.
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That month we made like $4,000 and we saw that a lot of founders actually had the kind of issue that we had.
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So this idea basically happened accidentally, like trying to solve our own problem.
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Nice.
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Obviously you launched this on Product Hunt, it was a cool new idea, made $4,000.
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But how did you actually grow this into a business that now makes over $30,000 a month and has been, you know, a full-time income?
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What was your marketing strategy for these sites?
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So one day I was sitting in front of my computer
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and I was looking at Google Analytics and I saw
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that we are getting like 60 clicks per day on AngelMatch
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and idea hit me so I was like thinking what
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if I like 10x this traffic would that translate into like 10xing my MRR
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and that's how I came across SEO we hired six content writers we started publishing blogs consistently.
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At the same time with the tech team, we were building and launching like free tools and all types of valuable content for our users.
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By doing that for like six months or eight months, our traffic started to grow.
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And then basically from $3,000 MRR to $20,000 MRR, we grew through SEO and added like meta ads.
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At highest point, we reached 43K in MRR.
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Okay, cool.
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Well, thank you for sharing that.
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As someone who's been successful in this space, you built three successful sites.
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What is the secret behind a successful directory database product that you've been so successful with?
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The reason why they work is because they all solve a problem for our target audience.
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We were targeting from the beginning, like early stage startups that are raising capital because we were ourselves early stage startup founders.
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So I think that positioning also worked for us.
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And also like there are tons of different database products.
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You can build like a real estate investor database you can build like stock traders or something.
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I think finding a niche is also important.
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So on that point, I'd be curious if you have any ideas, if you were to start another one, you have any ideas on like where would be a good opportunity to start in 2026
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based on everything you've seen and you're in the space?
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I think there are lots of ideas you can work on.
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You could build like a database of influencers that are categorized by maybe locations,
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audience size, what they post about and put a paywall behind it.
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I'm pretty sure people will be willing to pay for it.
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And another idea would be a newsletter database.
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You know, like there are lots of like sponsored content happening on newsletters and doing it manually takes time, right?
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So if you just can curate and build a database of that, that could work.
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Okay.
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I mean, yeah, those are two great ideas.
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Influencer database.
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I've been seeing a lot of these pop up.
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On that note, I'd be curious because you built multiple of these database sasses.
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If you had to start over right now, what would be your actual steps that you would take if you had to start over in 2026?
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To build a successful database product, the way you can approach it is through getting three things right.
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So first, actually coming up with a database product or directory product idea.
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You don't want to just start any kind of database or directory.
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You need to start those that solves a particular problem, right?
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Once you're building a database that solves a problem, the next step is start collecting the data and to get the data, you can manually build it like I did at the beginning.
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If you're tech savvy, maybe you can build some automated systems and collect that data.
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And the third step would be get as much eyeballs as you can, launch it and get the first feedback.
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If you see that someone is willing to pay for it, some people are signing up, you have a good signal.
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And I believe for directory and database products, SEO works very, very well.
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So I would focus on programmatic SEO.
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For us, it brings half of our revenue.
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And if you do it consistently, you will get there.
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If you are watching this far into the video, Rashid just gave up his sauce, which is programmatic SEO.
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Do a Google on that one.
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We also have some other videos on that.
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Let's switch topics a little bit and talk about TechStack.
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How specifically do you build a database SaaS in 2026?
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And what do you recommend tools to use?
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On the front end, we use Next.js.
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On the back end, we use Nest.js.
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We use PostgreSQL for database, and we use Ahrefs for SEO.
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For hosting, we use DigitalOcean, and we also use Niles, which powers our email outreach inside of AngelMatch.
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CloudFair to prevent bots from signing apps and for security.
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And we use Klaviyo for email flows and marketing.
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And finally, we use like J-Suite for emails.
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It's not expensive.
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It's like $62 per month on all apps.
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Awesome.
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Well, sounds like a pretty profitable business.
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Love that.
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The last question that we ask all founders who come on StarterStory, if you could go back in time before you had these successful apps,
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what would be your advice to yourself or for anyone watching this that is looking for that first right idea to build?
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I would say like, you should be patient, put in the word and never give up because there were like founders who were starting with me at that time.
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And they were like making a lot, a lot more than what we are making right now, but they gave up and I don't see them anymore.
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So I would say never give up, don't give up.
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That's great advice.
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What I love about this business, Rasheed, is we interview a lot of people who build apps that grow really, really fast, right?
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But what I love about this business is that it's not an AI trendy business.
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It's just a really, really solid business that will continue to grow
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and compound when a lot of people are building businesses that go like this and then go to zero.
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Thanks for coming on and sharing.
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I think it's going to inspire a lot of people.
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I'm sure there's going to be a lot of database products getting spun up after this video gets released.
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So thanks for coming on.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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Appreciate it.
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All right, Gus, producer of Starter Story.
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What do you think of Rashid and these three businesses he built?
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Well, one of the reasons I wanted to bring him on the channel is
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because it's super different than some of the other stuff we've been recently covering.
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I love that it was just like, I don't want to say old school business, because it's not like it's a brick and mortar or anything like that,
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but it feels like a little bit of a quote older type of business database information that's still successful
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and i thought
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that was the most interesting thing about it i think the
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question people are going to ask naturally is okay does this
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still work you know can i still do this obviously rasheed
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gave some ideas on what someone can go build things like
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that but what's kind of your opinion on something like this yeah no i think he made a good point
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that i might elaborate a little bit on which is like these work
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because they solve a painful problem when you're starting a startup you need to find investors or else everything's over.
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Your startup's going to go to zero and you're not going to make payroll.
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There's a very painful problem finding investors and businesses are willing to pay for that.
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And I think generally speaking, I don't think you're going to be successful with a directory or SaaS if it's not B2B.
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So if you're building a B2C, I don't know, here's a directory of dog trainers or something like that.
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That might be a little bit harder because he can charge $97 a month or whatever.
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I can't remember exactly what his pricing was, but it was something like that.
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So B2B, I think is really important.
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Yeah.
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A while back, we tweeted this thing.
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It was like bookamagician.com.
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Do you remember that case study?
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Yeah.
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But that's a good example, maybe of like a B2C thing that kind of didn't work versus something like this.
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I did or there's I know there's a lot of these popping up right now, like influencer databases.
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I've heard of like one called Side Shift that does kind of manages everything.
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Maybe that's like an example of something that doesn't work anymore versus something that is.
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So anyway, that's kind of what I was thinking about.
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Yeah, the influencer databases are actually really smart.
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I mean, influencers are sort of hard to find, hard to reach, and there are businesses that are booking those.
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So I think that is probably one of the reasons those work.
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Really, when it comes down to businesses like these, specifically his three successful database products, they solve a painful problem.
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And that is the best thing that you can do if you want to find a business idea, find a painful problem and solve it.
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So we're going to put in our description down there, our list of million dollar painful problems.
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You can check out a bunch of painful problems and you can see examples of businesses that solve those painful problems.
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That database is down there in the description.
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I think you'll find some interesting ideas from there.
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Maybe plug that into chat GPT or Claude, start playing around and find your database idea.
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All right, guys, we'll see you in the next one.
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Peace.
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Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione
Questo video contiene 227 frasi e 2797 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 14:26. Chi parla va veloce, circa 194 parole al minuto: aspettati suoni legati e ridotti. Il 84% delle parole rientra nelle 3.000 più comuni dell’inglese; conviene studiare le altre prima di iniziare.
Vocaboli chiave di questo video
15 parole del video che vale la pena imparare, con pronuncia e significato:
| Parola | Pronuncia | Significato |
|---|---|---|
| database sostantivo | /ˈdeɪtəˌbeɪs/ | database, base di dati |
| solve verbo | /sɒlv/ | risolvere |
| investor sostantivo | /ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/ | investitore, investitrice |
| painful aggettivo | /ˈpeɪn.fl̩/ | doloroso |
| founder sostantivo | /ˈfaʊ̯n.dəː/ | fondatore, creatore |
| directory sostantivo | /dɪˈɹɛktəɹi/ | elenco, lista |
| startup sostantivo | /ˈstɑɹtˌʌp/ | avvio, inizio |
| angel sostantivo | /ˈeɪ̯n.d͡ʒəl/ | angelo |
| manually avverbio | /ˈmænj(u)əliː/ | manualmente |
| lesson sostantivo | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | lezione |
| curious aggettivo | /ˈkjʊɹ.i.əs/ | curioso, interessato |
| journalist sostantivo | /ˈd͡ʒɝnəlɪst/ | giornalista |
| collect verbo | /ˈkɑlɪkt/ | raccogliere, bottinare |
| versus | /ˈvɝsəs/ | contro |
| consistently avverbio | /kənˈsɪstəntli/ | coerentemente |
I phrasal verb che sentirai
| Parola | Significato |
|---|---|
| give up verbo | arrendersi |
| come up with verbo | ideare, escogitare |
| pop up verbo | spuntare, saltare fuori |
| check out verbo | investigare |
| come across verbo | dare l'impressione, avere l'aria |
| end up verbo | andare a finire, finire |
| put together verbo | assemblare, montare |
| reach out verbo | protendersi |
Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione
Chi parla usa 46 contrazioni e forme ridotte, come don't, I'm, you're. Pronunciale nella forma breve, così come le senti.
- I suoni “sh” e “zh”: conversion /kənˈvɝʒən/, crush /kɹʌʃ/, publish /ˈpʌblɪʃ/, traction /ˈtɹæk.ʃən/
- Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: directory /dɪˈɹɛktəɹi/, manually /ˈmænj(u)əliː/, consistently /kənˈsɪstəntli/, portfolio /pɔːtˈfəʊ.liˌəʊ/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/
Come esercitarsi con questo video
- Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
- Inizia a velocità 0,75×, fai shadowing frase per frase e torna alla velocità normale quando diventa facile.
- Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come database, solve, investor.
La grammatica di questo video
Le strutture che chi parla usa di più, con le parole esatte del video:
| Struttura | Nel video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — un’azione iniziata prima e ancora in corso | We've been working · you've been searching · I've been seeing |
| Frasi condizionali if + frase, will/would + verbo — una condizione e il suo risultato | if I like 10x this traffic would that · if you do it consistently, you will get |
| Present perfect have/has + participio passato — un’azione passata che conta ancora adesso | have made · has been · who's been |
| Frasi relative who / which + frase — un’informazione in più su una persona o una cosa | anyone who wants · sauce, which is · people who build |
Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?
Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.