Hey everyone!

Writing can be an incredibly solitary gig, so I recently put together a Discord server called The Writer's Nook. We're building a cozy, supportive community for writers to connect, share ideas, and keep each other sane through the drafting process.

A little about me: I write romance and dark romance, and I'm currently mapping out the beautiful madness of a 10-part series! You can usually find me fueled by a serious black coffee addiction and blasting classical music to get words on the page. When the burnout inevitably hits, I'm a huge advocate for taking nature breaks and hiking to reset the brain.

Whether you're outlining your first novel, tackling Kindle Unlimited algorithms, or deep in the trenches of a massive series, you're welcome here.

What to expect in The Writer's Nook:

• Goal Tracking & Accountability: Let's celebrate those daily word counts and gently nudge each other past writer's block.
• Plotting & Brainstorming: Stuck in a plot hole? We'd love to help you dig your way out.
• Off-Topic Chatter: From our favorite coffee roasts to our best strategies for avoiding burnout and finding inspiration.

We’d absolutely love to have more voices in the mix. If you’re looking for a low-pressure place to make friends, share your wins, and talk craft, this is it.

https://discord.gg/gh9XPrTnPP

-Martin

Hey everyone! Our tight-knit community has officially grown to 150+ members, and we are looking to welcome even more writers who are serious about keeping each other moving forward, swapping pages, and keeping the momentum alive. Whether you're stuck in the middle of a messy first draft or putting the final polish on a manuscript, let's keep each other accountable.

Here are the details:

• Genre/s: Any (we lean heavily toward adult fiction, romance/dark romance, sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, etc.)
• Goals/expectations/commitment: Flexible timelines and mutual feedback. Life gets busy, so there are no rigid weekly deadlines—just a mutual commitment to offer helpful critiques, review each other's content, and celebrate wins. We also feature dedicated breakout groups tailored to fit specific writers' needs, pacing, and goals!
• Community Perks: Beyond swapping pages, we host active, ongoing discussions on publishing strategies (including navigating Kindle Unlimited and maximizing author search visibility!) and maintain a comprehensive, shared library of resources for writers to help you hit the ground running.
• Writing/experience level: Any! Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, your perspective is welcome.
• Meeting place: Discord server (The Writer's Nook)
• Max size: Unlimited but discussions are split into sub categories.

If you're looking for a dedicated space to share your words, get eyes on your chapters, and actually hit your writing goals this year, drop a comment below or send a DM for the Discord link! Let's get to work. 🙌

-Martin

Hey everyone,

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably joined a few massive writing Discords only to get overwhelmed by the sheer noise, or worse, left hanging in an empty chat when you want to talk about character arcs or self-publishing strategies.

That’s exactly why we started The Writer’s Nook.

We wanted to build a focused, cozy, yet highly productive space where authors—whether you're working on your first romance novel, polishing a sci-fi epic, or figuring out Kindle Unlimited marketing—can actually connect and build real momentum.

What we’re all about:

• Craft & Strategy: Dedicated spaces to plot your story, workshop rough pages, or talk about the business side of writing (SEO, cover design, marketing, and launch strategies).
• Daily Accountability: Sprints, word-count tracking, and a community that will celebrate your wins and help you push through the dreaded writer's block.
• A Chill Atmosphere: No massive server chaos here. Just a grounded, supportive space for serious hobbyists and indie authors alike.

Whether you have a 10-book series planned or you're just trying to survive your current work-in-progress, you’re welcome here. Bring your coffee, bring your notebook, and let's actually get some writing done.

👉 Drop in and say hi here: https://discord.gg/gh9XPrTnPP

Hey everyone! We are looking to grow our tight-knit community of writers who are serious about keeping each other moving forward, swapping pages, and keeping the momentum alive. Whether you're stuck in the middle of a messy first draft or putting the final polish on a manuscript, let's keep each other accountable.

Here are the details:

• Genre/s: Any (we lean heavily toward adult fiction, romance/dark romance, sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, etc.)
• Goals/expectations/commitment: Flexible timelines and mutual feedback. Life gets busy, so there are no rigid weekly deadlines—just a mutual commitment to review each other's content, give honest feedback, and celebrate wins. We also feature dedicated breakout groups tailored to fit specific writers' needs, pacing, and goals!
• Writing/experience level: Any! Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, your perspective is welcome.
• Meeting place: Discord server

If you're looking for a dedicated space to share your words, get eyes on your chapters, and actually hit your writing goals this year, drop a comment below or send a DM for the Discord link! Let's get to work. 🙌

We are looking for a visionary Discord Community Manager, we need someone who understands the "creative soul" and knows exactly how to scale a community from a quiet workshop to a bustling creative powerhouse.

🎨 The Mission

The server is dedicated to connecting writers and illustrators for collaboration, feedback, and professional growth. Your job is to build the architecture for engagement and drive consistent, organic growth.

🛠️ What You’ll Be Doing

• Strategic Growth: Implementing proven tactics to bring in new, high-quality members.
• Engagement Design: Creating events (writing prompts, art challenges, live streams) that keep members active and inspired.
• Structure & Optimization: Refining channels, bots, and onboarding flows to ensure a seamless user experience.
• Moderation Leadership: Managing a small team (or building one) to maintain a positive, constructive atmosphere.

📋 Requirements

• Proven Track Record: You must have previous experience managing and growing Discord communities (please be prepared to share portfolios or server links).
• Creative Literacy: An understanding of the creative process for writers or artists is a huge plus.
• Data-Driven: Ability to track growth metrics and adjust strategies based on results.
• Proactive Attitude: We don’t want a "placeholder" mod; we want a leader who brings new ideas to the table daily.

💰 Compensation

Pay is competitive and based on experience and results. We believe in rewarding talent that moves the needle. Whether it’s a flat monthly retainer or a base + performance bonus structure, we are happy to negotiate a package that reflects your expertise and the value you bring to the community.

Anyone who does not BID here 1st will be ignored in the DM's. This is a brand new community so no members added yet. We are looking for a long term partner.

I just posted this in our community but wanted to share itvhere as well so others can hopefully find some value:

​

​

Not all of these are applicable to all authors, and mileage will vary based on experience, time, goals, etc.

​

Cover Design & Visual Strategy

For a general book launch, don't skimp on the cover. There is a ton of AI-slop books hitting the market; their writing is low effort, and the covers are often fully AI-generated, so people pass on them.

​

Next, take a look at the genre you are in and study the bestsellers. You will see color commonalities and expected styles—mirror some of those when talking with your cover designer.

​

Don't be afraid to redesign and relaunch if you have made some mistakes, or even retitle your book.

​

Marketing & Launch Tactics

From a marketing perspective, there are a few solid approaches:

​

Initial Momentum: ARC readers help with initial momentum. Pre-purchasing also helps, and it’s what a lot of traditional publishers do. A mix of initial reviews and sales can do wonders, but that is not always economical for indie authors.

​

Social Media: Building momentum on social media is key. A few hundred followers who have gotten a trickle preview of your writing and cover design—and are vested in you as an author—are worth their weight in gold during launch.

​

Paid Marketing: Paid marketing should be focused on niche areas with high ROI. Think romance subreddits if it’s a romance book, or niche titles on Amazon Marketing. Don't compete for ad space in slots targeted at general bestsellers in your genre; that is almost always a negative ROI.

​

Long-Term Growth & Operations

Books have no shelf life, so don't be afraid to relaunch. Often, you will capture more readers on book one when book two launches—the real revenue is in series, regardless of where you publish.

​

Build relationships and network with other writers; every conversation is a potential reader or collaboration. Approach every interaction with the intent to give more than you receive, and you will see the payoff down the line.

​

Above all, be consistent, methodical, and track data. Make data-based decisions and remember: being a successful author is like running a business. Consistency is key.

​

-Martin

​

​

If you're tired of the usual surface-level writing advice, we're trying to build something a bit different over at The Writer’s Nook.

It’s a brand-new Discord space focused entirely on giving writers an industry-insider perspective on both the craft and the actual business of publishing. Instead of generic "just post on social media" tips, we’re putting together a centralized hub with real, actionable resources:

* Genre/s: Open to all genres (fiction, non-fiction, sci-fi, romance, fantasy, etc.).

* Goals/expectations/commitment: The main goal is to build a centralized hub for templates, plotting guides, and deep-dive industry resources so useful tools don't get lost in a generic chat scroll. There is no strict time commitment—just a casual, collaborative environment for trading constructive feedback and talking honestly about the business and craft of writing.

* Writing/experience level: All experience levels are welcome, whether you are just starting your first draft, actively working on a second book, or are already published. The only requirement is a desire to look past basic advice and seriously improve your work.

* Meeting place: https://discord.gg/BH3QVYE69c

Question for the group here with some background. I co-founded and own a fairly successful book agency where we handle book cover design, interior editing, marketing, etc. We get authors who write their books with AI fairly regularly, and we are able to position them to get fairly consistent sales.

Based on this, I'm thinking about bringing this in-house and leveraging our methods to create our own series. BUT, every time I have attempted this—meaning creating the prompts, wire structure, characters, and then finally writing the book—the overall structure of the book is inconsistent, lacks flow, and is generally unsatisfying to read. I have not asked our customers about their processes in detail and don’t want to alienate them, so I would not do that, but I am seeking input from the community here.

What are some of the challenges that everyone is seeing from a character consistency perspective and character interaction/personality consistency? And then, for those who have written multiple books based on the same characters, what are some of the main issues you are seeing?

Hello all,

I recently wrote a post about how to scale and grow startups in this current environment. I just finished building out an agentic marketing AI SaaS as COO/CMO, where we hit almost 2k users within a month of launch and scaled to 21k+ LinkedIn followers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/startup\_resources/s/MFkkzH6vg0

I now have the capacity to mentor and guide a few young entrepreneurs. If you have a project (whether physical or SaaS), have identified your customers, and have some initial traction but need help scaling up, DM me to see if we can work together.

Looking forward to the convo's!

-Martin

My post comply with the rules

Hello all,

I recently wrote a post about how to scale and grow startups in this current environment. I just finished building out an agentic marketing AI SaaS as COO/CMO, where we hit almost 2k users within a month of launch and scaled to 21k+ LinkedIn followers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/startup\_resources/s/MFkkzH6vg0

I now have the capacity to mentor and guide a few young entrepreneurs. If you have a project (whether physical or SaaS), have identified your customers, and have some initial traction but need help scaling up, DM me to see if we can work together.

Looking forward to the convo's.

-Martin

"My post comply with the rules."

I wanted to through out my observations after having started a few successful businesses, raised funding and even exited one. 20 years in the startup and corporate space has showed me that the landscape constantly changes and I wanted to share some thoughts. With the rise of AI creating is easier than ever and moats have been bridged, ideas that were not economic before have become so now.

Marketing can now be automated, sales channels can be staffed with agents etc. this has all created the illusion that things are now easier. These tools are fantastic and a real game changes when you are the only one using them but not when everyone has access to them.

With the changes over the last 12 months what has happened is an erosion of trust, most traditional channels especially in the b2b space have now been spammed into oblivion, when execs get a pitch it does not matter how you position the connection a pitch is a pitch. There has also been a flood of poor performing products in the market, programmers shipping hot garbage every week that people try and they get burned by and this impacts everyone's ability to sell across the board.

In the current landscape what works (based on my observations) is paid ads because most of the noise wont compete via paid ads. Trust signals and authority, strong real reviews on google, trust pilot etc, strong social media following where the company or representatives are an authority figure on the product they are selling. Finally the warm referral, this last one quickly cuts through all of the noise and creates a differentiator that no amount of AI will overcome.

My advice to someone looking to built today is as follows:

Identify a niche or focus area that you truly want to work in/build around.

Connect with decision makers in that area, tell them why you are passionate about soling problems in their field and ask them what problems keep them awake at night.

Build solutions around that, offer those products to those people for free in exchange for feedback.

Once you have solved their problems ask them honest questions about how much you should charge for these solutions in their industry and ask for referrals to others.

Build on that personal connection, provide quality, build authority.

It WILL take time but eventually you will get to the point where others will come to you for your solution and your moat is the trust you have built.

These are the people who get their companies funded, the ones that find people and industries that have problems and they solve them.

-Martin

I wanted to through out my observations after having started a few successful businesses, raised funding and even exited one. 20 years in the startup and corporate space has showed me that the landscape constantly changes and I wanted to share some thoughts. With the rise of AI creating is easier than ever and moats have been bridged, ideas that were not economic before have become so now.

Marketing can now be automated, sales channels can be staffed with agents etc. this has all created the illusion that things are now easier. These tools are fantastic and a real game changes when you are the only one using them but not when everyone has access to them.

With the changes over the last 12 months what has happened is an erosion of trust, most traditional channels especially in the b2b space have now been spammed into oblivion, when execs get a pitch it does not matter how you position the connection a pitch is a pitch. There has also been a flood of poor performing products in the market, programmers shipping hot garbage every week that people try and they get burned by and this impacts everyone's ability to sell across the board.

In the current landscape what works (based on my observations) is paid ads because most of the noise wont compete via paid ads. Trust signals and authority, strong real reviews on google, trust pilot etc, strong social media following where the company or representatives are an authority figure on the product they are selling. Finally the warm referral, this last one quickly cuts through all of the noise and creates a differentiator that no amount of AI will overcome.

My advice to someone looking to built today is as follows:

Identify a niche or focus area that you truly want to work in/build around.

Connect with decision makers in that area, tell them why you are passionate about soling problems in their field and ask them what problems keep them awake at night.

Build solutions around that, offer those products to those people for free in exchange for feedback.

Once you have solved their problems ask them honest questions about how much you should charge for these solutions in their industry and ask for referrals to others.

Build on that personal connection, provide quality, build authority.

It WILL take time but eventually you will get to the point where others will come to you for your solution and your moat is the trust you have built.

These are the people who get their companies funded, the ones that find people and industries that have problems and they solve them.

-Martin

I wanted to through out my observations after having started a few successful businesses, raised funding and even exited one. 20 years in the startup and corporate space has showed me that the landscape constantly changes and I wanted to share some thoughts. With the rise of AI creating is easier than ever and moats have been bridged, ideas that were not economic before have become so now.

Marketing can now be automated, sales channels can be staffed with agents etc. this has all created the illusion that things are now easier. These tools are fantastic and a real game changes when you are the only one using them but not when everyone has access to them.

With the changes over the last 12 months what has happened is an erosion of trust, most traditional channels especially in the b2b space have now been spammed into oblivion, when execs get a pitch it does not matter how you position the connection a pitch is a pitch. There has also been a flood of poor performing products in the market, programmers shipping hot garbage every week that people try and they get burned by and this impacts everyone's ability to sell across the board.

In the current landscape what works (based on my observations) is paid ads because most of the noise wont compete via paid ads. Trust signals and authority, strong real reviews on google, trust pilot etc, strong social media following where the company or representatives are an authority figure on the product they are selling. Finally the warm referral, this last one quickly cuts through all of the noise and creates a differentiator that no amount of AI will overcome.

My advice to someone looking to built today is as follows:

Identify a niche or focus area that you truly want to work in/build around.

Connect with decision makers in that area, tell them why you are passionate about soling problems in their field and ask them what problems keep them awake at night.

Build solutions around that, offer those products to those people for free in exchange for feedback.

Once you have solved their problems ask them honest questions about how much you should charge for these solutions in their industry and ask for referrals to others.

Build on that personal connection, provide quality, build authority.

It WILL take time but eventually you will get to the point where others will come to you for your solution and your moat is the trust you have built.

These are the people who get their companies funded, the ones that find people and industries that have problems and they solve them.

-Martin

I wanted to through out my observations after having started a few successful businesses, raised funding and even exited one. 20 years in the startup and corporate space has showed me that the landscape constantly changes and I wanted to share some thoughts. With the rise of AI creating is easier than ever and moats have been bridged, ideas that were not economic before have become so now.

Marketing can now be automated, sales channels can be staffed with agents etc. this has all created the illusion that things are now easier. These tools are fantastic and a real game changes when you are the only one using them but not when everyone has access to them.

With the changes over the last 12 months what has happened is an erosion of trust, most traditional channels especially in the b2b space have now been spammed into oblivion, when execs get a pitch it does not matter how you position the connection a pitch is a pitch. There has also been a flood of poor performing products in the market, programmers shipping hot garbage every week that people try and they get burned by and this impacts everyone's ability to sell across the board.

In the current landscape what works (based on my observations) is paid ads because most of the noise wont compete via paid ads. Trust signals and authority, strong real reviews on google, trust pilot etc, strong social media following where the company or representatives are an authority figure on the product they are selling. Finally the warm referral, this last one quickly cuts through all of the noise and creates a differentiator that no amount of AI will overcome.

My advice to someone looking to built today is as follows:

Identify a niche or focus area that you truly want to work in/build around.

Connect with decision makers in that area, tell them why you are passionate about soling problems in their field and ask them what problems keep them awake at night.

Build solutions around that, offer those products to those people for free in exchange for feedback.

Once you have solved their problems ask them honest questions about how much you should charge for these solutions in their industry and ask for referrals to others.

Build on that personal connection, provide quality, build authority.

It WILL take time but eventually you will get to the point where others will come to you for your solution and your moat is the trust you have built.

These are the people who get their companies funded, the ones that find people and industries that have problems and they solve them.

-Martin

I wanted to through out my observations after having started a few successful businesses, raised funding and even exited one. 20 years in the startup and corporate space has showed me that the landscape constantly changes and I wanted to share some thoughts. With the rise of AI creating is easier than ever and moats have been bridged, ideas that were not economic before have become so now.

Marketing can now be automated, sales channels can be staffed with agents etc. this has all created the illusion that things are now easier. These tools are fantastic and a real game changes when you are the only one using them but not when everyone has access to them.

With the changes over the last 12 months what has happened is an erosion of trust, most traditional channels especially in the b2b space have now been spammed into oblivion, when execs get a pitch it does not matter how you position the connection a pitch is a pitch. There has also been a flood of poor performing products in the market, programmers shipping hot garbage every week that people try and they get burned by and this impacts everyone's ability to sell across the board.

In the current landscape what works (based on my observations) is paid ads because most of the noise wont compete via paid ads. Trust signals and authority, strong real reviews on google, trust pilot etc, strong social media following where the company or representatives are an authority figure on the product they are selling. Finally the warm referral, this last one quickly cuts through all of the noise and creates a differentiator that no amount of AI will overcome.

My advice to someone looking to built today is as follows:

Identify a niche or focus area that you truly want to work in/build around.

Connect with decision makers in that area, tell them why you are passionate about soling problems in their field and ask them what problems keep them awake at night.

Build solutions around that, offer those products to those people for free in exchange for feedback.

Once you have solved their problems ask them honest questions about how much you should charge for these solutions in their industry and ask for referrals to others.

Build on that personal connection, provide quality, build authority.

It WILL take time but eventually you will get to the point where others will come to you for your solution and your moat is the trust you have built.

These are the people who get their companies funded, the ones that find people and industries that have problems and they solve them.

-Martin

I wanted to through out my observations after having started a few successful businesses, raised funding and even exited one. 20 years in the startup and corporate space has showed me that the landscape constantly changes and I wanted to share some thoughts. With the rise of AI creating is easier than ever and moats have been bridged, ideas that were not economic before have become so now.

Marketing can now be automated, sales channels can be staffed with agents etc. this has all created the illusion that things are now easier. These tools are fantastic and a real game changes when you are the only one using them but not when everyone has access to them.

With the changes over the last 12 months what has happened is an erosion of trust, most traditional channels especially in the b2b space have now been spammed into oblivion, when execs get a pitch it does not matter how you position the connection a pitch is a pitch. There has also been a flood of poor performing products in the market, programmers shipping hot garbage every week that people try and they get burned by and this impacts everyone's ability to sell across the board.

In the current landscape what works (based on my observations) is paid ads because most of the noise wont compete via paid ads. Trust signals and authority, strong real reviews on google, trust pilot etc, strong social media following where the company or representatives are an authority figure on the product they are selling. Finally the warm referral, this last one quickly cuts through all of the noise and creates a differentiator that no amount of AI will overcome.

My advice to someone looking to built today is as follows:

Identify a niche or focus area that you truly want to work in/build around.

Connect with decision makers in that area, tell them why you are passionate about soling problems in their field and ask them what problems keep them awake at night.

Build solutions around that, offer those products to those people for free in exchange for feedback.

Once you have solved their problems ask them honest questions about how much you should charge for these solutions in their industry and ask for referrals to others.

Build on that personal connection, provide quality, build authority.

It WILL take time but eventually you will get to the point where others will come to you for your solution and your moat is the trust you have built.

These are the people who get their companies funded, the ones that find people and industries that have problems and they solve them.

-Martin

I wanted to through out my observations after having started a few successful businesses, raised funding and even exited one. 20 years in the startup and corporate space has showed me that the landscape constantly changes and I wanted to share some thoughts. With the rise of AI creating is easier than ever and moats have been bridged, ideas that were not economic before have become so now.

Marketing can now be automated, sales channels can be staffed with agents etc. this has all created the illusion that things are now easier. These tools are fantastic and a real game changes when you are the only one using them but not when everyone has access to them.

With the changes over the last 12 months what has happened is an erosion of trust, most traditional channels especially in the b2b space have now been spammed into oblivion, when execs get a pitch it does not matter how you position the connection a pitch is a pitch. There has also been a flood of poor performing products in the market, programmers shipping hot garbage every week that people try and they get burned by and this impacts everyone's ability to sell across the board.

In the current landscape what works (based on my observations) is paid ads because most of the noise wont compete via paid ads. Trust signals and authority, strong real reviews on google, trust pilot etc, strong social media following where the company or representatives are an authority figure on the product they are selling. Finally the warm referral, this last one quickly cuts through all of the noise and creates a differentiator that no amount of AI will overcome.

My advice to someone looking to built today is as follows:

Identify a niche or focus area that you truly want to work in/build around.

Connect with decision makers in that area, tell them why you are passionate about soling problems in their field and ask them what problems keep them awake at night.

Build solutions around that, offer those products to those people for free in exchange for feedback.

Once you have solved their problems ask them honest questions about how much you should charge for these solutions in their industry and ask for referrals to others.

Build on that personal connection, provide quality, build authority.

It WILL take time but eventually you will get to the point where others will come to you for your solution and your moat is the trust you have built.

These are the people who get their companies funded, the ones that find people and industries that have problems and they solve them.

-Martin

I wanted to through out my observations after having started a few successful businesses, raised funding and even exited one. 20 years in the startup and corporate space has showed me that the landscape constantly changes and I wanted to share some thoughts. With the rise of AI creating is easier than ever and moats have been bridged, ideas that were not economic before have become so now.

Marketing can now be automated, sales channels can be staffed with agents etc. this has all created the illusion that things are now easier. These tools are fantastic and a real game changes when you are the only one using them but not when everyone has access to them.

With the changes over the last 12 months what has happened is an erosion of trust, most traditional channels especially in the b2b space have now been spammed into oblivion, when execs get a pitch it does not matter how you position the connection a pitch is a pitch. There has also been a flood of poor performing products in the market, programmers shipping hot garbage every week that people try and they get burned by and this impacts everyone's ability to sell across the board.

In the current landscape what works (based on my observations) is paid ads because most of the noise wont compete via paid ads. Trust signals and authority, strong real reviews on google, trust pilot etc, strong social media following where the company or representatives are an authority figure on the product they are selling. Finally the warm referral, this last one quickly cuts through all of the noise and creates a differentiator that no amount of AI will overcome.

My advice to someone looking to built today is as follows:

Identify a niche or focus area that you truly want to work in/build around.

Connect with decision makers in that area, tell them why you are passionate about soling problems in their field and ask them what problems keep them awake at night.

Build solutions around that, offer those products to those people for free in exchange for feedback.

Once you have solved their problems ask them honest questions about how much you should charge for these solutions in their industry and ask for referrals to others.

Build on that personal connection, provide quality, build authority.

It WILL take time but eventually you will get to the point where others will come to you for your solution and your moat is the trust you have built.

These are the people who get their companies funded, the ones that find people and industries that have problems and they solve them.

-Martin

I wanted to through out my observations after having started a few successful businesses, raised funding and even exited one. 20 years in the startup and corporate space has showed me that the landscape constantly changes and I wanted to share some thoughts. With the rise of AI creating is easier than ever and moats have been bridged, ideas that were not economic before have become so now.

Marketing can now be automated, sales channels can be staffed with agents etc. this has all created the illusion that things are now easier. These tools are fantastic and a real game changes when you are the only one using them but not when everyone has acess to them.

With the changes over the last 12 months what has happened is an erosion of trust, most traditional channels especially in the b2b space have now been spammed into oblivion, when execs get a linkedin pitch it does not matter how you position the connection a pitch is a pitch. There has also been a flood of poor performing products in the market, programmers shipping hot garbage every week that people try and they get burned by and this impacts everyone's ability to sell across the board.

In the current landscape what works (based on my observations) is paid ads because most of the noise wont compete via paid ads. Trust signals and authority, strong real reviews on google, trust pilot etc, strong social media following where the company or representatives are an authority figure on the product they are selling. Finally the warm referral, this last one quickly cuts through all of the noise and creates a differentiator that no amount of AI will overcome.

My advice to someone looking to built today is as follows:

Identify a niche or focus area that you truly want to work in/build around.

Connect with decision makers in that area, tell them why you are passionate about soling problems in their field and ask them what problems keep them awake at night.

Build solutions around that, offer those products to those people for free in exchange for feedback.

Once you have solved their problems ask them honest questions about how much you should charge for these solutions in their industry and ask for referrals to others.

Build on that personal connection, provide quality, build authority.

It WILL take time but eventually you will get to the point where others will come to you for your solution and your moat is the trust you have built.

These are the people who get their companies funded, the ones that find people and industries that have problems and they solve them.

-Martin