⛏ Curation as a Service: No-Code Directories, Personal Brands, Digital Products

Hey there, Welcome to the 430 new entrepreneurs who joined last week. Congrats to starcoder]( for becoming a Lifetime Trends Pro Member by collecting the MetaTrends #0086 NFT. We have another up for grabs this week. 👉 To check it out, [click here](. ⛏ Let's talk about Curation as a Service. Thanks to [Emin Yagubov](, [Gina De La Rosa](, [Soma Mandal](, [Sari Azout](, [Samantha Patil](, [Breno Ferreira](, [Yarty Kim](, [Tom Arbuthnot](, [Darren Travel](, [Abhishek Verma](, [Sean Hua](, [Rick Marti](, [Rahul Prakash](, Ross Kinkade, [Dan Flatt](, [Jamil Abreu]( and [Shayla Price](. We had a great time jamming on this report. What you'll learn: - What’s curated commerce? - What’s programmatic curation? - How to find high-value B2B use cases? - How to build directories with no-code tools? - What’s your most valuable resource? - What are community curation platforms? - How to accelerate your learning process? report is brought to you by [Proxycurl](…  Are you a VC with a data team that uses LinkedIn data in your sourcing model? VCs use [Proxycurl’s LinkDB](: An exhaustive database of LinkedIn profiles to shortlist companies and founders of interest. You can monitor companies with the [Proxycurl API]( and fetch LinkedIn data in real-time. One customer uses [Proxycurl]( to build a list of software engineers of FAANG companies You can monitor profiles for changes in employment. Such as when engineers switch jobs. Want to gain insights from LinkedIn profiles? Learn more at [(  []([Curation as a Service]( “All curation grows until it requires search, and all search grows until it requires curation.” — Benedict Evans 💎 Why It Matters You need help finding signal in noise. 🔍 Problem It’s hard to sift through content and make good decisions without [Information Overload](. 💡 Solution Curation as a Service saves you time, money and energy. ​​🏁 Players Curators - [Rob Hope]( • Curates design and dev resources. - [Janel Loi]( • Shares tools and learning resources. - [David Senra]( • Picks biographies to study and share lessons from. - [Danielle L. Vermeer]( • Focuses on circular fashion and Web3. - [Sari Azout]( • Building a community-curated search engine. - [James Clear]( • Sharing short ideas, questions and quotes. - [Dru Riley]( • Picks topics and explores throughlines, tactics and strategies. Directories - [Cold Email Templates]( • A collection of 250+ cold email templates from Hunter. - [Startup Stash]( • Directory of tools and resources for startups and entrepreneurs. - [Love Curated]( • A network of inspiration websites. - [Community OS]( • Resources on building communities. - [Landing Page Checklist]( • Landing page builders, tools, and resources. - [Founder Resources]( • Content and templates for your startup. - [Video Tool Stack]( • Video tools for creator economy. Newsletters - [Trends.vc]( • New markets and ideas. - [Farnam Street]( • Timeless lessons to help you think better. - [The 3-2-1 Newsletter]( • 3 short ideas, 2 quotes and 1 question. - [TLDR]( • Byte sized news in startups, tech and programming. - [Flow State]( • Recommends two hours of non-verbal [music]( every weekday. - [Refind]( • 7 links from around the web each day. - [Sprezza]( • Exploring independent menswear. 🔮 Predictions - Community-curation platforms will help crowdsource research. - [Startupy]( highlights topics such as Web3, DAOs and The Creator Economy. - [Column]( highlights topics such as history, mental models and economics. - [Yup]( is a social network for curators. - Curated commerce will help brands stand out in commoditized markets. - [Butcher Box]( is a meat delivery service with curated boxes. - [Craft Beer Club]( membership offers 12 beers each month. - [Thingtesting]( helps you find new DTC brands. - [Bakersons]( sells curated dog goods. - Indie Hackers will increasingly launch curated [digital products](. - [SaaSFrame]( generated ~[$14,000]( with SaaS marketing inspiration resources. - [Xavier Coiffard]( made [$25,000]( with [Spread the World]( and [UserBooster](. - [Patricia Mou]( reached [$5,000 ARR]( in one week with [Rabbit Holes](. - [Ana Bibikova]( made ~[$1,000 in 1 day]( with [Marketing Playbook](. - [Sudharshan]( made [$3,000 in 2 weeks]( with [Community List](. - [GrowthList]( generated [$10,000]( with growth tactics. - [Quentin Villard]( made [$5,000]( with [TIMS](. ☁️ Opportunities - Use [no-code]( tools to build directories. - [Startup Cemetery]( is built on Webflow. - [LetterHunt]( and [Toolmeup]( are built on Airtable. - [Side Hustle Stack]( and [MindVault]( are built on Notion. - Build curated products for high-value B2B use cases. - [Crunchbase]( is a private-company data platform. - [Nexis]( is a collection of business news and resources. - [Newsletter Spy]( is a database of 100,000+ newsletters. - [PR Database]( lists 4,000+ business and tech journalists. - [Factiva]( is a collection of global news and company data. - [Listen Notes]( sells podcast API access to enterprise customers. - [Angel Match]( lists 90,000+ angel investors and venture capitalists. - Use programmatic curation to build products. - [Qrator uses Craftar]( to find and share the best of Hacker News. - [GummySearch]( scrapes Reddit to help you find ideas and leads. - [Exploding Topics]( uses keyword research to find fast-growing topics. - Curate resources to use as [growth tools](. - [Hunter]( showcases a collection of 200+ email templates. - [Startuply]( lists 2,000+ Slack communities. - [Snov.io]( has an email finder. 🏔️ Risks - Uniformity • As curation becomes more popular, the value of differentiation (even for its own sake) goes up. - Bias • By definition, curation is biased. Beware of blindspots. Reference multiple curators if you rely on curation. 🔑 Key Lessons - Time is your most valuable asset. Unlike money, it’s nonrenewable. - The more creators we have, the more curators we need. The value of curation increases with options. 🔥 Hot Takes - Automated curation will not replace human curators. Despite Skyscanner’s powerful algorithms, [Jack’s Flight Club]( has 1,500,000+ members and ~[$800,000]( in revenue. - Curation is most effective when done by personal brands. See [Oprah’s Favorite Things](. 😠Haters "Curation is biased."This is a feature. Not a bug. Curators exercise judgment in what to include and exclude. Those who follow curators should take this into account. Consult multiple sources to reduce blindspots. “Everyone has free access to quality information.”The value of curation lies in accuracy, ease of access and trust. Most information can be found for “free” but time is our most valuable resource. “I’m not an expert.”That’s even better. Curation helps you document and accelerate your learning process. You can help newcomers without the [curse of knowledge](. 🔗 Links - [Who should we talk to about Curation as a Service?]( • The tweet behind this report. - [Case for Curation as a Service]( • Jeremy Brown on Curation as a Service and CaaS which he coined in 2014. - [The GAP by Ira Glass]( • A timeless piece on taste and patience. 📁 Related Reports - [Digital Products]( • Curated resources are packaged and sold as digital products. - [No-Code]( • No-Code tools help you build directories fast. - [Personal Brands]( • Curated content is backed by personal brands. - [The Creator Economy]( • Creators and curators are the heart of this movement. - [Data as a Service]( • Programmatic curation is behind premium databases. What else? [Trends PRO #0087 — Curation as a Service]( has more insights. What you’ll get: - 15 Curators (114% More) - 16 Directories (128% More) - 21 Newsletters (200% More) - 6 Predictions (100% More) - 9 Opportunities (125% More) - 4 Risks (100% More) - 4 Key Lessons (100% More) - 4 Hot Takes (100% More) - 10 Links (233% More) With Trends Pro you’ll learn: - (📈 Pro) How to build and grow a curated newsletter? - (📈 Pro) How to build a Data as a Service company? - (📈 Pro) How does niching affect the growth of directories? - (📈 Pro) How to use your personal brand to build value? - (📈 Pro) How to build curation products within existing ecosystems such as Amazon, AliExpress and Poshmark? - (📈 Pro) What does Programmatic SEO tell us about the future of curation? - (📈 Pro) What are vertical social networks? - And much more… Unlock Trends Pro ✅ Access All Trends Pro Reports ✅ Stay Accountable with Daily Standups ✅ Meet Curious Entrepreneurs in Weekly Meetups ✅ Discuss Reports with Domain Experts ✅ Collaborate on Upcoming Reports [Become a Trends Pro Member](  To sign up for Trends Pro, [click here](. 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