Starting a business can be an expensive venture, especially in the fast-paced world of the Creator Economy. With countless tools, platforms, and resources available, it can be overwhelming and costly for aspiring creators to launch their own startup. But what if there was a way to build a successful business with just $1 per month?

That's exactly what Janis Mjartans , founder of Creator Economy Tools, has achieved. In a recent interview, Janis shared his journey as an entrepreneur in the Creator Economy and how he hit the second spot on Product Hunt with his tool. He also provided valuable insights on engaging audiences, building a community, and creating a financially savvy approach to entrepreneurship in the digital landscape.

In a chat packed with great points, Ty and Janis (his website or Linkedin) talked about how important it is for a product to get noticed. They touched on the importance of good networking and promoting products in the right way. They also shared their views on building a community in a market that's already busy. Dive into the blog post to catch the key moments from their conversation, or watch the full video.

Can you explain to me a bit product you've created and what it's all about  

So, I think like around two weeks ago I launched creator economy tools and it's basically a site and a database at the same time that people can download. And the reason why I created creator economy tools is because I was kind of frustrated with all these, SEO out there. And, whenever you look up startups in the creator economy. You just find, bunch of blogs of other creator economy startups that are trying to push the product forward and they just list like their alternatives to, to make sure that they rank highly. And there was no real one place where I could have an overview of this huge industry, Because it's a big industry over billion dollar valuation. 

So there are a lot of different tools, startups, apps, inside the creator economy. And Platforms like OnlyFans or Patreon, Snapchat and so on. They're all just the tip of the iceberg, So there's much more to it. And I spent the last five years essentially bookmarking all these different resources and tools that I would come across. And for me, it was just a no brainer to kind of like close this chapter by launching a product and at an end. Turning it into something that I can put out there and share with people, for free. So that was the most important thing for me to make it free. because I believe in the power of sharing knowledge and more importantly, I want to make sure that everyone gets access to it because there's also a bunch of resources out there that are behind the paywall. 

So you need to pay a lot of money to get access to it. It makes sense if you are a, startup or a big company based in the US, a hundred bucks, it's not much money for you. But I can imagine if somebody is living in a. In a, in a country with, with lower buying power, it like a hundred bucks is a lot of money. 

So I wanted to make sure that I can give it to people for free.

Creating Value

For me, it started out with a database, Like, it's straightforward. You just take your bookmarks, you export them, into a CZ file, and then you already have. A list of different, well, of the resources and startups. So, for me, I just added some more things like a logo to it, the category. 

So, I went through every bookmark and indicator in which category they belong. And then, that was basically the back end of the product. 

Will you be creating a paid economy?

I'm going to keep this product free forever. So like, I'm not planning to charge people anything about it because, like I said, it's also for me to, to learn. And more importantly, I get a lot of people into my email list. so at a later stage when I start monetizing and creating new products and,I move really quickly, like I, I've built this,I, I will maintain it for the next couple of months and years probably. 

Because it's a passion project, but later on, maybe like in two or three months, I'm going to release a new product, but I already have over people in my email list that I can activate any moment and reach out to, to promote my new product and more importantly, I can also confirm ideas very quickly,  

I just sent out an email blast, hey, I'm planning to launch this product specifically for a person like you. What do you think of it? Would you pay, or bucks for it? that's kind of like a good entry point into monetizing. My products in the future.   

Will you list prices for users to know which tools are free or paid? 

Like a pricing section. I have a pricing column and what we just started working on. but it's also going to take me some time to, to make sure that I get the pricing right. I think. For now it will be like free or paid. So basically indicating if a product is free, if there's a free trial, or if the product is paid, because also want to make sure that, a creator that, that doesn't want to spend too much money, if they open up, some tool and it's like per month, like there are a few, tools for creators, which are. High ticket, so to say, like they call, they have a high pricing point. there are other alternatives, which might be open source. , like also created by Indie hackers or Indie makers, which are the much lower price point.  

Are you planning on letting, other indie makers submit tools to you when they've created one?

I've already had a couple of requests, on LinkedIn and via email as well. I want to add a section in there letting people submit their startups. 

I don't want to become like ProductHunt or turn it into Reddit where people can upvote and leave reviews. 

It's more like centralizing knowledge and centralizing everything, but want to make sure that, if somebody. Let's say somebody in Australia, which is a completely different market to what I'm used to, like somebody from Australia or somebody in, Uganda, creating their own. startup, which runs in the creative economy. I want to make sure that I know about it and I want to make sure that I can share about it, with people. 

So, having submit functionality on my website is something I want to have in the future. 

You achieved, second of the day on Product Hunt, how does that feel?

It was surprising, to be honest, I didn't expect that, because obviously like I was competing against all these different AI tools and LinkedIn hook generators and, Twitter ad generators, like a lot of really, valuable tools. So, I was kind of surprised and obviously I didn't build a SaaS. Or a software it's more a resource directory and product been cracking down on these lately.

So, a year or ago, you could just upload a link to your gum road or to like, an, like a notion template and it will go crazy, like people, you would get tons of upvotes, and it would be featured almost like. All the time will be featured part of the day, but then AI came in and too many people were posting like, prompts download now, like, low effort. It's not low effort, but compared to a SaaS, it's, it is low effort, So people are posting a lot of these digital products, on production. So, they're kind of like cracked down on it a little bit.

I was surprised that I was even allowed to post my product on there. but like the fact that I also had a front end and a site. So I have the Gumroad -  download, the digital product, the database people can download and use it for their own projects, whatever they want to do. That's, that's the actual, product that people can download and use. But then on the other hand, I also have createeconomytools.com. The website, which is basically, the front end and it shows you like the backend and the more, in a pretty view, you can easily filter, search and do almost everything. 

So you could also like use the front end. And I think because I had both product hunt kind of like let me off the hook and, allowed me to post it and obviously posting on a Saturday. it's always a clever idea for like side projects and passion projects versus, you can basically compete against Spotify and Canva if you post on, a Wednesday or Tuesday, for instance. 

For your launch on Product Hunt, did you do much preparation beforehand, or did you just wing it and hope for the best?  

I'm a sucker for design, so I spent a lot of time designing the product images and, I even recorded the loom and stuff. I kind of like wanted to put my face a little bit out there in the story out there, making more personal, not just like a very anonymous product. So, it's also about putting my, my personal brand forward. I spent most of the time making pretty images, basically, because writing the copy and so on that just came naturally. I also didn't put too much thought into, like, like any strategy when I'm going to post it. I just wanted to have it out there, which I think, if I would have spent a little bit more time really, preparing and drafting out a strategy, I probably would have been a little bit more successful. But honestly, like, I can't complain, and it did its job, it exceeded my expectations and, that's what's important for me. Yeah. The only person I've ever heard complain about coming second was Latin. He Vic, who was like a second place as the first loser. yes, exactly. I'd rather be third than second.   

On the day, did you do anything else?  

Then you have like the kind of like the full hour cycle where your product is up. So I woke up. And, it was it had already been live for an hour, aI'm aware that you always need to engage with people. I already was getting some upvotes and people commenting. So I made sure that I just engage with people, ask them for feedback, and, and so on. And then the spam came in and when I say spam, I received so many LinkedIn messages from people, like asking me to, if I would like to boost my product. so they promised like, yes, we're going to guarantee that you're going to be the product of the month and so on for, euros. And I received at least, of them. 

Which is a huge amount. So, people, maybe some of them were bots, basically messaging me or messaging me on LinkedIn, on Twitter. emailing me, asking me like, “hey, you want to get first place on Product Hunt”. Obviously, this is something that you're not supposed to do on Product Hunt. And I think it's obviously difficult for them to regulate it as well, because you can't control what people do. Outside the platform, I received this message, and I was like, okay, well, if this is common and like, I'm not a big product maker, imagine the number of messages someone else gets, like, the big indie, indie makers. And then I can also imagine that a few of them probably even make use of it, and buy upvotes and, and buy comments and engagement and stuff. 

You don't know who you're competing against.   

Maybe you're competing against people that pay for these services to boost and make you go to the top. so that was kind of like a wake-up moment for me being like, okay, well, even if I get 8th or 9th or 10th or 15th place. I still have, I still know that the people that voted for it are real people and they genuinely like the product and that's important for me. 

Did you get as much traffic as you expected? 

I think on the launch day I received 4,000 around, visits on the site. And I made around $300 in revenue. So, like I made revenue that day because people went on the site, they browse their database like through the front end basically. And then they, went on to the Gumroad page where I offered the digital product. And for free, obviously, and still decided to pay for it because it was like, zero plus. So you can pay whatever amount you want, so they end up paying. I've had some people, even from countries like, like Bangladesh and India pay like, for to get access to it, which is something I didn't, I didn't expect that because that's a lot of money, Yes, no, it is. So does that make you reconsider it being free for everybody? Or is it just that you're happy as it is and people can continue to pay what they want? Yeah. I think I'll keep it, keep it the way it is at the current moment, because I don't want to. I don't want to change anything. If people think it's valuable, they can, they can pay for it. But as I mentioned in the beginning, for me it's, it's the feedback, it's the connections that I'm making, like, this is not the only podcast that I've been talking to you. 

Like I've. I've been on two so far and I'm going to have another one next week as well. So, for podcast appearances, I connected with a bunch of CEOs and founders of big companies, even like some people at Twitch and so on. So, I think about the network effect and the number of things that I learned. On top of that, the money that I could make for it from it. Definitely. How much would it cost you to get those types of connections and to speak to those types of people? It's like some people that reach out to me, they were like, I went on the profiles also like on LinkedIn, especially, or the ones that reached out by email, went on the profiles, and notice they charge like for a one-hour consultation call, the fact that I can connect with these people and. The fact that they are extremely excited about me, not only about the product that I created, but also like about me because, they find out what I've been doing, outside of create economy tools. the fact that I created something in the past already as well, and launched it and they also see how engaged I am, especially on LinkedIn.   

LinkedIn plays a key role for me. I do post like twice a month, which I want to increase to two times per week because I have some momentum going on there right now. which in turn gives me so many opportunities when it comes to creating new revenue streams, learning something new, and more importantly, building my personal brand, which is one of my focus points for, for this year.   

From the feedback you have gotten from people on the website, has it all been positive or have there been some negatives? 

I think to be honest, 99% percent of them were, were positive. Like And which is a little bit annoying because obviously, no product is perfect and I'm aware, like I know so many things that I could improve and that I could change. but I think it's the fact that it's just saving people so much time and money because they don't need to pay. But also like they don't need to spend hours and hours of researching, and give you a specific example. Let's say you're an intern and you're coming into a startup that runs in the creator economy. And let's say you compete, you enable creators to build courses, compete against Mighty Networks, Podia, Teachable, and so on, Thinkific. As an intern, you need to do competitor analysis. so instead of spending all this time researching all these startups, you can go download my database, get already a list of different competitors of your startup, because they run in the same niche. and yeah, I'll go from there and then save so much time, because then you still have the list, but you can still research them and read more about them, but you at least have a list of the startups that, that compete with your startup. And that was important for me.  

I think because it was a free product, people are also less likely to criticize it. , if I would have asked people or for it, of course, people would come back to me like, Hey, I expected more, expected less, or expect this, this case. People expected a thousand startups in the create economy. other projects that have been done in the same kind of area in the past,I know that someone released a list of them in the past. that's a huge job of like startups. It was also like a paid resource. 

So, people in the past paid money for it, but now there's like a resource of, well, like a product of a thousand different startups. So obviously, the feedback is going to be positive, can see the value in that for people, especially because the alternative is, Google search or now using chat or whatever, generative AI. And then before it, you've got some information about competitors that isn't even true. it's generated something and it's had an hallucination and all of a sudden you're competing with Microsoft and you're not, so you think your idea is no good. You need to pivot somewhere when it wouldn't even have been the case. but when you're framed against them, it goes beyond being just a good deal, doesn't it? 

What is the future for you now?

 The most important thing is to continue building something and keep the momentum going. and that's something that I need to figure out because. Yeah, I have at least our ideas in it in my backlog in my notion right now. and all of them need some validation. And so, I want to connect and talk with as many people as possible, but I think when it comes to my personal brand, I want to be the guy creating valuable resources for people that work in the greater economy. If you're a founder, you're creating a new startup to compete with, let's say, Patreon, I want to make sure that you get as much value as possible from me in terms of resources, products, whatever it is, to then be able to successfully build a new startup. So that's what I want to do. And of course, also grow my, my followers meet new people on, on Excel, like on Twitter. because that's also where a lot of India hackers are hanging around. So, need to engage a little bit more and, focus more on content while at the same time building something, because while you're. 

Posting and creating content, you're at the same time confirming your ideas, you can also connect with people, ask them about what they think and instead of spending, a lot of money creating a product and then basically figuring out that nobody really wants it. You create content, you validate your ideas, you, talk to a bunch of people for free, you don't pay them, like you don't do any user testing. 

Like, nowadays I see some platforms that charge upwards of, $150 per user session. We'll just get like some feedback from people for five minutes and that's it. You can do all of that for free. If you're just actively providing people with value, with ideas on platforms like LinkedIn or X. that's also how I got the idea for Creator Economy Tools, primarily, I was making a product for myself. So, I was solving a problem for myself, but then I've heard a lot of people in my network tell me about like, yeah, like,,I, I, really want to download this database, but it's costing money on, or like, it's difficult for me to have an overview of everything.

What do you think Janis? And I'm like, yeah, I agree with you., that's wonderful because I have a list of bookmarks. I've gathered like over bookmarks in the past two, three years. So let me create something out of it. So that's how I'm continuing to move to move and then keep it lean, keep the costs low while low while getting as much engagement attention. As possible, That's a very interesting way to look at it and obviously your plans for the future make a lot of sense based on what you've created now and you're able to sort of segue easily aren't you into this is what we created now me you trust me I've created something good it was free I've given you a lot of value and this is the next thing I'm doing I think you're right it's a solid foundation you For you to move forward on, so from your experience that with creating this tool and then releasing it into the world and then going through product hunt,  

What would your one key piece of advice be for somebody wanting to follow in your footsteps? 

I think best piece of advice would be, I don't think there's one best advice. 

Like, oh, obviously, like if there was something that everyone could apply for, then everybody would be number one on the product count or number two product count. I think keep going fast, so don't, don't overthink it. And that's something that I learned, I was even like before I could have launched in January, but I launched at the end of February. and that's because I was thinking, oh yeah, I need to do this. I need to like make the perfect, make the perfect banner. Like I said, I'm a sucker for design. banner, the perfect kind of like product images and stuff. of course that's important, but don't spend too much time thinking about it. 

 Create them instantly, know, like instead of spending five minutes thinking about how the banner look like should, just start creating the banner. Because that's going to save you so much time. and then most importantly, try to prelaunch the product somewhere else. And that's what I did. 

I don't think it necessarily resulted in me getting it. Like a lot of upvotes, but I did promote the product. Like I launched the product via LinkedIn first. So, I am LinkedIn post and then three or four days later, I put it on product hunt. so obviously there was some traction, site visits, downloads, and the digital product already had, I think like or downloads by the time it was uploaded on product hunt. When people click on it on product hunt, they would then see. there would be social proof around it. They would see that people have already downloaded it. It also makes people more likely to use it and download the product. 

Try to launch it in your own network. And that comes, if you reverse engineer it, that comes back to build a network, find a community, find like-minded people that you can trust, that you can. Exchange information with, in my case, I did a lot of favors for people in the past. I give other people feedback on their products, on their ideas, even proofreading their email marketing, templates and so on. So then now I can go back to them and be like, “Hey, look, now I'm doing something, how about you help me out then? And, reshare it or comment under my post to spread it around”. 

Reciprocation is often very, very undervalued  

Yeah, definitely. And I did receive a few LinkedIn connection requests and people messaging me on Twitter, and they're telling me, “hey, I bought your product. It's amazing. And gave proper feedback and I knew that they did dive deeper into the product, not just read the copy of the page. and then at the end, they said, Hey, like, I'm planning to launch a product in the next couple of weeks. I would appreciate if you do the same for me, of course, I think that is also a good piece of advice.” if you really like. Like a product, upvote it or, share it with, with your friends, whatever you like, do something that, that spreads it around and then tell the maker or the, or the indie hacker, hey, look, “I really believe in your product. It is awesome. Next month, I am also launching my would appreciate your support.” 

Many opportunities are missed when someone just spams you with their product on LinkedIn, only to push a different product the next day. It's not just about properly promoting the product, but also about building a network and connecting with potential early users. Founders need to show that they are not just a faceless entity, but are available for feedback and concerns. The key to standing out amidst the flurry of product launches is creating your own tribe or community. 

These community led startups, community led products, they're doing really well. And it could be even like a creator making TikTok's every single day. And then suddenly realizing there is a certain problem in the market and then creating a SaaS based on that. have an audience who are extremely engaged. If they put the product out there, they do not need product hunt. They can just put the product out there, even if they get, only like a fraction of their audience paying for it, it is still enough to like a percent of the cases cover the cost of the product and make a profit. Especially nowadays with software and with no code out there. It does not cost much to run a paid product on the internet. You can even run it for . And to give you an idea, like my only costs were the domain that all I paid for. If you calculate it, that's per year, like per year, per month. 

Like it costs me per month right now to run create economy tools. So I already made a profit, even though I offered the product for free, because people paid it by being free. that's the craziest aspect.  

That was not possible years ago, years ago, you would need to hire a developer, you need to know how to code yourself and so on and build something like that. But now I think anyone can just build something, whether it is a resource directory, a job board for their specific niche, like construction workers in Melbourne, Australia, and the ones that are going to send out are the ones that have. a certain following online and why is it following? I do not mean like you need to be Kylie Jenner or some big influencer. enough if you just have a thousand people that are extremely engaged with you, that follow your content and this is the future for me, at least community led or community based. Startups and side projects.   

Were you involved with the internet ten years ago when it was that bad? You don't look old enough to have been. 

  No, I will. No, I was not. Like I knew a lot of people as well that, that wanted to create this. I am only at the criminal. So years ago I was coming into it, yes. Yes. I was already Like years ago, exactly. I was doing video editing for YouTubers and game creators. So I was kind of like involved in the whole freelance space already and years ago, I was already following a couple of indie hackers  and that is where like, it started popping off like ,increased people started building something and started realizing that it is getting easier and easier to create your own. Startup, but the amount of people that would still spend K hiring a developer team, and then realizing, okay, we just put this product, but nobody wants it and just, putting money down the drain. Nowadays people move fast, things are constantly evolving. Um. And to keep it sustainable, create content, build a personal brand. And like I said, that's also the focus for me because that, that has helped me a lot in meeting new people and also even getting the product out there.  

I think for a lot of people, some founders build a personal brand first, and some get it as they go along the road. but I think that there is, I have not investigated it much, but there seems to be a correlation between the two. when you have strong founders with big brands, then their products can do a lot better and often a lot cheaper. then somebody who doesn't have one, Yeah, exactly. like Elon Musk releases something tomorrow, half of the people who follow him are going to have a look just because it's Elon Musk. Whereas if, Jeff Bezos releases something, he might have to go down a different process because he seems to be almost semi retired from  building anything, exactly. Because like the amount of money you save on acquisition costs, you do not need to run any paid ads. Like all people are coming in organically. This is why the Instagram funnel works well nowadays for a lot of service-based businesses. And I am also sure it works for SaaS businesses as well. Like I see coaches just post-free value on their Instagram. They do not spend a cent on ads or anything like that. People watch their videos, get careers. Click on their profile, link in bio, or get free coaching from me. Click on it, one-hour free coaching. And then they upsell them a coaching program worth. 

So, people are more than happy to pay for it, because they are already like committed in the process. this is what, what is working well, like right now. And I see that. And I also work with creators that are, doing that and it is already like picking up also with, with indie makers, I see the trend with game developers. 

So a lot of indie game developers are creating content around. Oh, like I spent week, creating this indie game and they just make a really a static. Instagram or TikTok, Instagram Reel or TikTok, and then they get like, on the first page of the steam reviews, because out of nowhere and outperforming like the big companies, the big game developers. 

What are your thoughts on VC in this industry? 

I might be obviously biased because I am not a major fan of the huge VCs and raising million dollars without having any revenue, for example, because it is not sustainable. And we are in the phase where there is a lot of correction happening. You look at layoffs as well, there's a, there are a few startups and scale ups that raised too much money. While not really having any, even like proof of concept, or having a very little amount in revenue compared to the money they raised. So they hired like crazy, tried to get product market fit. 

Now they're realizing they didn't reach any product market fit, laying people off and, millions and millions of dollars going down the drain. But like I said, I might be biased because for me, this is like a world that I don't want to get into. I want to be more in the, on the side of. By yourself, like you hire a contractor by yourself, creating something, putting it out there day one or day two, you're already profitable. Your runway is going to be infinite then, if you get people in sustainably and more importantly, you already are covering the cost of running your startup from day one. I know I've talked to a couple of people that are running startups only with like, you need a CRM system. Google workspace costs per month, CRM system. You can go as low as, Trello, something like that. Slack, if you add everything up, Notion, max. To run a business for under a thousand pounds a year, from a, fixed cost perspective, it is outrageous.  

That wraps up our chat with Janis.

A huge thanks to him for sharing such insightful thoughts and to you all for reading. Be sure to check out Creator Economy Tools and support his work. Stay tuned for more exciting conversations.

Find him on Linkedin