Google Chrome Bookmark: To access this report, register on this link and follow this very complicated task 🦹🏻‍♀️

Notion ($2 billion valuation) is one of the most famous nocode tool, an all-in-one workspace for you and your team. It is also 4 million users. If you use Notion, you will be able to duplicate GONG into your workspace. It’s always better to have everything in one app 😳

Mid-2020: From Substack to Airtable

Shorter content + freedom of speech

At first, TWR (Trends for Rhythm) was my MVP product. Put merely, TWR was a weekly newsletter on upcoming trends I launched in mid-2020. For obvious reasons (people have nothing to do, newsletters 📈), TWR was getting its rightful attention 💥

🖥 Nocode + Work From Home (WFH)

At almost the same time, during the pandemic, I learned a new skill that later became crucial for TWR’s next step: the No Code. In just a few weeks and through Contournement videos on YouTube, I built a database and designed a web app very fast (Bubble, Airtable, Adalo, Webflow, …), And here is how 5 years worth of resources 🎁  was born! This little project was a library of thousands of articles and new tools to use for literally everything! Think of it like my personal Chrome bookmark in 1 database! And you guys loved it!

🚀 Growth (Hacking)

I used a skill I learned from Germinal (or Scalezia) and hit the growth button!

I shared a quick post on Facebook groups and a few Slacks and get around a little feedback. Substack was showing good numbers (4,230 (4K) people (+7% vs. last week)) and people started resharing, retweet or repost, talking about my database of tools to their friends and colleagues. For some, the Slack+Airtable became a reference for tools and tech news.

TWR eventually pivoted and scaled-up to conceptualizing GONG, as Go Or No Go.

GONG 1.0

2021: From a yearly resolution to the most significant trend report in history!

As a resolution for 2021, I wanted to be a little more curious about the tech ecosystem in France, Europe, and the World and understand its complexity. So, on January 01, 2021, I started my subscription to Notion and created a personal diary. I called it “Stephane’s brain 🧠”

This weekly diary, very fast, became an organized mess: A sort of Wikipedia for trends. It helped me for multiple purposes: Apply for jobs, discover new startups, capitalize on trends when I need to build a project & the list goes on…

So, I shared this knowledge to you.

From picking up trends from various mediums (podcasts, newsletters, trend reports, etc.…), “Stephane’s brain” was shaping towards something bigger than just me. Seeing all these trend reports release from different sources and URLs, etc.… I was tired of compiling them into my personal trend database. So, I built one myself, for free: THE GONG REPORT 2021 (400 trends 📊 + 100 business cases 📝)

I created a fictional character (King GONG) that was supposed to be a Gorilla-looking hacker tracking every upcoming trend on the web! A sort of data scrapper but “monkier” 🦍 (my imagination is very vast)

Plus, on LinkedIn, discussion around Clubhouse or Substack was starting to arise. It was mentioned as information obesity (infobesity). I thought: GONG is, in a way, fighting against this massive information disorder that is called Google or Social Media.

& that is information overload! ⬇️

It was urgent to push further my skills and take GONG 1.0 to the next level.

GONG 2.0

I designed a Notion(space) that will function like a landing page for the moment and launched it. I called it GONG 2.0.

Market-fit: This is when I hit the 700+ daily users

Since the launch in early January 2021, +740 (40% weekly growth) entrepreneurs have requested access to this Notion. With little (or no) budget, I built a structural community of early adopters. All this and more with just a structural acquisition pipeline (Airtable) and a constructive content page (Notion).

As every entrepreneur out there, what’s next?

& Here is why I designed a DASHBOARD in the first place?

GONG DASHBOARD 1.0 looks like this.

And it functions like a newspaper, but on Notion 😊

It’s not yet a personalized trend dashboard (with filters & s***), but in a way, it’s a combination of all the weekly tech news in one big screen. The idea is that you will be able to drink your coffee ☕️ & catch-up on all the latest news there is out there: emerging trends, interesting business cases (new products, innovative & productivity tools, mobile apps, hit product on Instagram, resources & much more…

What next?

I am continually improving my scrapping method, but meanwhile, you’ll be able to check a quick view of every [Trend], with a possibility to click on [Source] to read furthermore. I’ll keep every month’s update, too, for archiving purposes.

Furthermore, I am trying my best to improve the GONG PRODUCT FAMILY. I am still unsure if it’s worth an incubator (to grow users from 700+ to 5K in 2 months 📈) like Y Combinator or eFounders, but it’s definitely a Product Hunt material. Am I right?

GONG 3.0

Help entrepreneurs succeed in their venture.

"Have you ever thought of creating a better version of Wikipedia with 100% no code? A society, only for members, that co-write the best trend content in history. A sort of Google but for trends."

Well, this is precisely why GONG is live today. Obviously, 90% of startups fail, but more than 60% fail because of Good Research* not done right. That’s huge. I am not your greatest analytical buddy but by just looking at these numbers, it makes me eager to help them (you) in any way I can. So, responding to the lack of well-structured information from valid [Sources] & regularly updated, GONG’s mission is to create a more Collaborative Tech Industry*.

Collaborative Good Information*

It’s GONG’s mission for 2021 🎉

1. Collaborative startup industry 😃: We want to bring CEO, ex-founders, freelancers, VC, angel investors together.
2. Do Good in society 🌎: We want our users to save $$$ of developing and succeeding in their entrepreneurial journey.
3. Sharing is caring, right? So, technically, Information should be free 🗞

It’s ok to fail (90% of startups fail). The most important is to understand why you failed and how could you have prevented it from happening in the first place (or next time)

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