Levels launched Nomad List as a public, editable Google spreadsheet rather than building a website first. He crowdsourced city data from followers, and only converted it into a website after the spreadsheet went viral and accumulated hundreds of cities worth of data.
Nomad List, which is like this website I made to figure out the best cities to live and work as digital nomads, it wasn’t a website. It launched as a Google spreadsheet. So, it was a public Google spreadsheet anybody could edit.
Scaling often forces founders into unwanted management roles
Levels avoids raising funding because he dislikes the stressful life it brings. He notes that many heavily funded founders secretly regret becoming managers instead of doing creative groundwork, feeling trapped in CEO roles they don't enjoy.
I have a lot of founder friends and they tell me secretly, with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and stuff, and they tell me, “Next time, if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it like you, because it’s more fun, it’s more indie, it’s more chill, it’s more creative.”
Validate ideas by launching fast and charging money
Without VC funding, Levels builds mini-startups alone and launches within about two weeks. He validates ideas not just through sign-ups, but by checking if users actually pay with credit cards, accepting that most ideas will fail.
I have an idea in my mind and I build it like a mini startup, and I launch it very quickly, within two weeks or something, of building it. And I check if there’s demand and if people actually sign up and not just sign up, but if people actually pay money.
nafyi.