Table of Contents
- Tell us about your product and what inspired you to start it?
- How long did it take you to acquire your first 50 customers, and what was your growth strategy?
- Which technology stack are you using and what challenges and limitations does it pose?
- What are some of the most essential tools that you use for your business?
- What have been some of the biggest insights you've gained since starting your entrepreneurial journey?
- Your recommended books/podcasts/newsletters etc.:
Kevon Cheung is the founder of Public Lab - Info. products to help creators get heard and cultivate a community around their work
Tell us about your product and what inspired you to start it?
At Public Lab, I publish content & books, run courses, and coach entrepreneurs. Actually, when I started showing up online at the end of 2020, I had no idea where things would take me.
Prior to doing this, I was running a funded startup. I couldn’t get us the growth we wanted, so I decided to stop working on it. At that point, there was an internal voice saying “Dang, Kevon! After working hard for 8 years, you’re still a nobody!” The reason was that I worked very hard for all the companies in my career, but if you google my name, you would only find a LinkedIn profile with nothing else to show.
At the same time, my first child was coming along. So I started rethinking how work and family fit into my life. I wanted a family-oriented life with more time and flexibility. From that day onwards, I knew I had to build a presence and a voice online and then grow a sustainable business with them. But, I had no idea how to start and get people to notice me.
The first logical thing was to start writing online.
How long did it take you to acquire your first 50 customers, and what was your growth strategy?
I spent my first 6 months making $0 online, and that was intentional. Because I was taping into a space where I had no experience, no friends, no followers, and most importantly, no niche. I knew that I needed to put in the time to grow a community around me and build trust.
At first, I was just writing standalone blog posts reflecting and sharing my failures in the past. Then I stumbled upon “Building in Public” after 2 months of soul-searching and instantly felt connected. The values of honesty, transparency, and helpfulness are exactly how I live my life.
After finding out that more entrepreneurs are trying to build in public and seeing there weren’t any good resources to help them, I decided I could be the person to help. And I started writing a “Building in Public Guide” in public. That was the start of my journey.
I spent a full 2 months researching the topic and learning as much as I could. I wrote the “Build in Public guide” in public by involving everyone around me. Then when I finally launched it, 100+ people helped me spread it and 2,100 people read it in the first 3 days! Suddenly, I became the “Build in Public guy”.
So it took me a total of 4 months to get to this point. Even though no one was my customer yet, I could sense that I could build a business around this niche by helping other people build in public.
Which technology stack are you using and what challenges and limitations does it pose?
The best part about being a creator and an educator is that I don’t have to rely on particular technology. All I needed was a social media platform to reach people and a web hosting platform to run my website. But very quickly, I learned that I needed a couple of tools to accelerate my growth.
I chose Webflow to host my websites because of its CMS capabilities. I write a lot of content and I need an easy way to publish them.
I chose Hypefury to schedule and automate parts of my Twitter workflow. Twitter is where I have conversations and build connections with the community, so I show up every day to share and talk to many people. Hypefury made it easy for me.
I chose ConvertKit for my email marketing needs because it is designed for creators. I like that it does email broadcasts and sequences well and it is not trying to be the “everything tool”.The biggest challenge as a creator is to come up with new content to share all the time. This means I need to figure out a system to come up with new ideas, process them with my own spiky point of view, and create them in a way that is intriguing.Happy to share it with anyone of you reading this interview: https://meetkevon.gumroad.com/l/content-creation-system/founderbeats
What are some of the most essential tools that you use for your business?
Other than the 3 I mentioned above, there are some tools I use to run my education business.
I use Notion to store all my ideas and content
I use Loom to record screen-sharing for my students
I use Zoom to host my live workshopsI use Ecamm Live to film my videos
I use Descript to edit my videos
I use ThriveCart for checkout and course hosting
I use Blackmagic to keep track of my interactions with the community
What have been some of the biggest insights you've gained since starting your entrepreneurial journey?
One thing we should know is that a lot of new creators create a lot of content but can’t figure out a way to monetize it. The tricky part is that there are actually a lot of ways to generate income and a creator has to identify the best ones that fit her skills.
For example, my first paid product was a community. In 2 months, I was able to grow it to 65 paid members. But I shut it down in another 2 months because it wasn’t exactly a fit to my skills and goals.
I found out that I enjoy teaching others what I know and helping them make progress. I enjoy listening to their struggles and coaching them to overcome them. This is likely because of my background in education at the start of my career. And I didn’t want to spend all my time connecting members. So I shifted my focus from running a community to running a course. My business has been growing ever since and I cannot be happier.
I believe too many creators are looking at what’s hot in the space and blindly doing the same thing. For example, cohort-based courses are incredibly hot these days. But to run one that can grow and scale requires relevant skills, effort, and commitment. The best way for me has been to ask myself the question “What is your best way to take someone from point A to point B?” Then from there, create a learning experience that does the best job. It can be a book, a course, a community, or even something hybrid. Now, this is truly unique.
Your recommended books/podcasts/newsletters etc.:
There are a couple of newsletters that shape my journey:
Creator Science by Jay Clouse: https://creatorscience.com/
Create & Sell by Brennan Dunn: https://createandsell.co/
FtheHUSTLE by Kim Doyal: https://kimdoyal.com/fthehustle/
