So, That Didn’t Go as Planned.

Nope, it’s not going as well as we expected. Even getting friends to sign up is proving harder than we thought. But hey, you’re here, and you’re now part of our rags-to-who-knows story.

We’re going to keep doing what we think we’re decent at, and with your participation, hopefully build something fun and actually useful. We’re definitely stimulated. We’re definitely having fun.

And because we promised to build in public - we’re sharing everything that’s worked (and flopped) so far. Scroll down.

Need a second brain to help you think through ideas and make smarter decisions?
This week’s idea dump features Borrowed Brain - a voice-note app that lets you borrow other people’s thoughts when yours hit a wall. Quick, human perspective without the pressure of advice.

We’re also spotlighting a founder from our community building RocketBay - a platform that makes it insanely easy to sell digital products globally, with built-in payments, delivery, and tax handling. Catch it in the Meet the Community section below.

✨Validate Your Idea in 5 Minutes for $0 ✨

A conversation-based framework to test if your idea is even worth building.
👉 Check it out 👈

More templates, docs, and chaos coming soon.

Stuff We’ve Learned Since Last Week:

• Posting consistently matters. It’s the only way to stay in people’s feeds and in their heads.

• CTAs should feel like invites, not asks. “Here’s something useful” > “Please click this.”

• Outreach is harder than we thought. There are growing pains. Cold DMs don’t always land, but that’s part of building anything real.

• Flow matters. Shoutout to one of our readers for pointing out that not everyone knows what we’re talking about all the time. If sections don’t flow into each other, it can feel confusing or random. So we’ve added a brief description under each section to give you some context, at least until you get used to it.

• Shareable resources are gold. Templates, frameworks, and resources people can actually use - those get saved, forwarded, and remembered.

Steal this idea

We post free ideas every week for you to take and turn into a full-fledged product, chat with your friends, or just get your mind stimulated. If this strikes a chord, this is your sign to finally take that entrepreneurial leap

Idea: Borrowed Brain 🧠

When you’re stuck, rent someone else’s thoughts.

Problem

When people hit a mental block, with a startup, creative project, or life decision, they either overthink alone or get overwhelmed by generic advice.
There’s no quick, human way to get fresh, thoughtful perspectives without asking friends or posting in public forums.

Solution

A voice-note-based app where you explain your problem in 60 seconds and get three real, unfiltered voice responses from strangers within 24 hours, giving you new ways to think, not just advice.

How It Works

1. Record a 60-sec voice note explaining your situation or challenge

2. The app anonymously sends it to 3 people (can be random thinkers, curated users, or themed groups)

3. They reply with their thoughts in 60–90 sec voice notes

4. You receive all 3 takes, anonymously, and can tip or upvote the best one

5. Option to join a thread if both sides opt in (totally optional)

Target Users

• Indie builders and solo founders

• Creatives, writers, designers

• People facing personal or professional decisions

• Overthinkers, self-reflectors, and curious minds

• Students, early-career folks, anyone who craves perspective

Business Model

Freemium core, with optional upgrades:

• Free tier: 3 anonymous replies from public users

• Paid tier:

  • Get replies from vetted thinkers or niche experts

  • Priority response time (under 2 hours)

  • Weekly “brainstorm packs” for startups, teams, or coaching

• Tipping system for quality responses

• Eventually: B2B plan for teams, coaches, or mastermind groups

From the community

In this section, we feature entrepreneurs building cool products. We share what they’re working on, get feedback from you - the community - and eventually, as the newsletter grows, help them find early users, collaborators, or even investors. We meant it when we said we’re here to promote real collaboration.

RocketBay

This week, we’re featuring RocketBay - a digital marketplace built by Cyril, an early-stage founder in our community. It makes selling digital products as easy as dragging and dropping a file.

Whether you're shipping eBooks, templates, SaaS plans, or music packs, RocketBay lets you set up your storefront, handle payments, automate delivery, and generate tax-compliant invoices - all without writing a single line of code.

No tiers. No monthly fees. Just a flat 3% per sale, so they only win when you do.

Why it’s cool:
Selling digital stuff globally is a mess. RocketBay fixes the chaos - payments, downloads, support, taxes - and gives creators a clean cockpit to actually grow.

Ideal for:

• Designers & devs selling UI kits or snippets

• Educators dropping bootcamps or video courses

• Musicians with sample packs

• Indie SaaS builders with paid plans

• Agencies delivering digital work securely

It’s currently in beta and onboarding creators. If that’s you or you know someone, check it out:
👉 rocketbay.co

Give it a spin, and share your feedback.
We’re adding a quick form to collect thoughts from the community, what worked, what confused you, what you’d build with a tool like this.

Ask yourself:

• Would you use RocketBay to launch your own product?

• Have you considered selling digital products. What’s the first thing you’d sell?

• Is anything missing that would make this your go-to platform?

Your perspective could help shape how this thing evolves - and you might just find the perfect launchpad for your next digital drop.

What we’ve done so far

In this section, we share newsletter metrics, strategies we’re testing, and the tools/platforms we’ve discovered while building this newsletter and community from scratch.

• Did some outreach, kept it organic, picked up 23 new subscribers

• hung out with our (very elite, highly curated group of friends we begged to subscribe) community, asked for feedback, and shaped this version based on real 1:1 convos and polite bullying

• Started putting ourselves out there, posting on X, showing up on Indie Hackers, lurking in Product Hunt comments, DMing on LinkedIn, even reaching out to startups on IG (scroll below, they actually responded). early days, but it’s movement

Money spent

Just 11$ from the domain purchase ideatbd.com

Our not-so-secret strategy list

1. As mentioned in last week’s newsletter
   Featuring early-stage founders (and hoping they share it). We’ve been asking early-stage startups to promote Idea TBD in exchange for a guaranteed feature in the “From the Community section”. Win win. Here’s how it’s going:

   

   Maybe one day we’ll be big enough to have a submission form startups actually want to fill out. And getting featured becomes a badge of honor. A boy can dream :’)

2. Product Hunt and Indie Hackers
   We’re showing up in the comments where it makes sense. No shameless plugs, just joining convos and being real. We’re not trying to growth hack our way into people’s feeds. Yet.

   

3. There are platforms everywhere
   Reddit, Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, founder communities. Cold DMs are fine, but they’re not the only move. We’re experimenting with outreach that doesn’t feel gross.

4. LinkedIn
   Low-key DMing connections from our personal accounts. Casual intros, no pitch decks. Just “hey, we’re building this, thought you might vibe.”

   

5. Repurposing as threads on X (Twitter)
   We launched an account and started repackaging newsletter content into threads. Turns out GPT can write shockingly human, non-cringe threads if you guide it right. Not growth bro garbage. Just decent stuff that sounds like someone with a brain wrote it. Honestly, it’s like having a free social media manager that actually gets your voice.
   Should we give away the prompt? Maybe next week.

Want to be featured here?
Whether you’re looking for feedback, a collaborator, or just want to show what you’re building, reply to this email or fill the form below and tell us what you’re up to.

Feel free to drop:

• Any startup ideas you’ve had

• Stuff you’re building and want feedback on (we’ll feature it in the newsletter)

• Questions you want the community to weigh in on

• Or just general thoughts on the newsletter and how we can make it better

Fin.