Hi.
It smells like spring in Vienna (again, after it felt a lot like winter is coming) and I am looking forward to the weekend. The desk I am writing this newsletter from looks like this today.
Hello to all new subscribers: this newsletter is for curious marketers, content/web creators, and entrepreneurs. Content & tool curation as a service, that’s the mission. Expect stuff about social media, design, marketing, tech, and productivity (twice a month). Stay fresh! Rolf
🧠 Hand-Picked Content
Motivating Startup Story (Blog, 5min)
We all like reading those David vs. Goliath stories, with a nice ending. Missive is an email app startup, it took 3 years to get to $1mio annual revenue, and they achieved all that without taking investors’ money. More
A Conversation about the Creator Economy (Video/Article, 30min)
Gumroad is positioning itself as the platform for creators that is not interested in hypergrowth or taking money from investors. How is it different from Substack and others, what drives the founder of the platform and much more is discussed in this interview. More
Make Payments inside Signal Messenger App (Article, 3min)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg started using Signal (according to leaked information). In the future, there should be a safe way for Mark to pay for a therapist without anyone knowing. More
Interpreting Design Trends (Blog, 10min)
This one is for design nerds. Reading this might help you to distinguish between real trends and fads in the future (and there are many in the design world). More
🛠️ Tools & Apps & Services
Fresh and in Beta: New audio app Racket
There hasn’t been an issue of this newsletter without mentioning at least one audio app in the last few months. So here we go again. The creators of CapicheFM, an app I really like and used a few times to host conversations (audio only), are launching a new take on the audio space thing. The app is called Racket. You can record a conversation with others by just sending around a link and enabling your microphone. After you are done, you can share it instantly. Right now it is in beta, to get in, you need to create an account and amass 10 followers. Follow me, I follow back. Screenshot 1 | Screenshot 2 | More
Open Source alternative for Trello
Focalboard is an open-source solution you can install on your server or your desktop to manage your work. It is developed by Mattermost, the company that is working on the Slack competitor with the same name. More
Asynchronous video communication
Threadit is an app by Area 120, which is the in-house incubator from Google. With the app, you can quickly create and send video messages. It’s a Chrome extension that isn’t available in all regions. Reminds me a lot about Loom. More
Presentation Software Pitch
Pitch is a new kind of presentation/slide deck creation app, that focuses on the collaborative aspect of the process and on the design aspect. It’s purely made for working on slide decks, nothing else. Something I do not have to do often these days (and I am happy about it).
You create a workspace, add team members, pick a fancy template and start working on your pitch deck. The app has lots of cool templates, that looks way better compared to Google Slides PowerPoint. More
Figma Announced Design Conference Config
Not only interesting for Figma users. Free to attend from your couch. More
📣 Fresh van Root
Listen to an audio version of this newsletter
I am continuing my experiments with audio formats as a companion format to this newsletter. You can listen to an audio version of this newsletter (the previous edition) created using SpeechKit. A tool I took for a spin years ago, and I gave it a try again this week.
Looking for a Hootsuite replacement
The pricing changes from Hootsuite are not cool. So I am on the lookout for a social media management tool in the price range of 10-30 bucks a month. Yes, there are lots of solutions available, but if you can recommend a specific solution, please let me know. (aka hit reply)
🔗 One More Link
Groove Machine
All in your browser. Takes a bit to figure it out, but you can load one of the presets and get going. For your next break with headphones. More