#406 Creating a Second Brain: Miguel Sarenas’s Framework for Scaling as a Generalist Founder

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Mehmet: Hello and welcome back to a new episode of the CTO Show with Mehmet. Today I'm very pleased joining me, Miguel Sarenas. Miguel, thank you very much for being with me on the show today. The way I love to do it, as all my guests know by now, is I keep it to my guests to introduce themselves. Tell us a bit [00:01:00] more about your background, your journey, and what you're currently up to.

Mehmet: So the floor is yours.

Miguel: Hey, thanks for having me. So I'm Miguel. I'm a third time Bootstrap founder. I recently just sold my AI company, JourneyPlus web interface for my journey. And I'm building a new product. It's called one price, uh, AB, a way to AB test your pricing. Um, and I'm also been investing a lot more in my personal brand.

Miguel: So if you, uh, I'll talk to them in it, but, uh, I've been creating a lot more content around the startup journey and entrepreneurship on short form videos. So TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

Mehmet: Cool. And thank you again for being here with me today, Miguel. It would be like a really exciting discussion. I can feel it from the beginning.

Mehmet: So, um, You know, you sold your AI startup just three months after launch. Like, this is way, way, way fast than what you usually see, right? So what do you think were the key moves or let's [00:02:00] say the strategies that made that possible?

Miguel: Good question. I think the main strategy was going bootstrap. So I think when you're going fully bootstrap, to take direction of your company.

Miguel: And we kind of got this opportunity to sell, uh, at the right time where we're, it was going really well, but also we wanted to see where we can explore other ideas, uh, from this product. So we decided to sell a, so we sold a private equity three months after launching and. There was like a good amount of alignment between both parties.

Miguel: So that's kind of why we decided to sell.

Mehmet: That's cool. Now, one thing usually, and when I talk to entrepreneurs like yourself, Miguel, is what worked well with you, especially when, when it comes to validating the idea, right? So especially when we talk about anything today, SaaS, AI, you [00:03:00] know, um, validation is key.

Mehmet: So any specific. You know, steps or maybe work or let's say, uh, method that you find it useful to validate and be able to onboard customers fast.

Miguel: I think early on what really worked for us was social media. So usually the way, uh, when you like write tweets or put any content on like what you're building, you can kind of see how tuned your audiences into it and like how receptive they are to the idea.

Miguel: So that's kind of how we started. Um, and I think like a lot more people should be going organic. So I know some people like started with like paid ads, but I think everyone should start organic since you get a lot better data from your customers. You get a lot better feedback from what you've been getting with organic.

Mehmet: That's super cool to know, you know, like it's, it's a, it's a good one to do. Now you, you're speaking a lot about content creation and, you know, personal [00:04:00] branding and honestly, um, my point of view, you know, especially In these days, is that as everything is changing, technology is changing, we are changing and reaching, you know, customers or even keep reaching people, you know, is also changing, right?

Mehmet: So, um, you kind of mastered this content creation, community building in the tech world. So, um, my first question, let's, let's You know, focusing a bit on this area. So the first thing, some of the founders that are some of the people that I used to speak to, they said, look, we, we understand what you're coming from, but you know, being in front of the camera or like, let's say, um, you know, writing content or, you know, whatever, you know, it's, it's working.

Mehmet: It's like not us, you know, like we, we feel like we are these geeky people, you know, that we should be coding or we should be doing this. So. [00:05:00] Why do you think, or do you agree with me that they need to do kind of a shift in their mindset so they really put time on their personal brand so they can stand out online?

Mehmet: Do you agree with me Miguel on this?

Miguel: Yeah, so this is the next vision for myself, like in my founder journey. So personal branding, this isn't going to be like a multi year long journey I'm going to invest into. Yeah, I think more people should be doing this. Like the thing is building Is good. Like with AI building and coding is a lot easier than what it is.

Miguel: So you need to be the next skill set. That's going to be really important. These next five, 10 years is going to be like grabbing attention. So building the founder brand, making content, because the thing is with personal branding is this branding sticks with you throughout your life. So any project you do, whatever endeavor you want to try to do, it can be amplified with your personal branding.

Miguel: Um, And for me, like when I first started writing on Twitter, I'm now in this like indie hacker community that's helped me a lot with like partnerships, uh, collaborations that [00:06:00] help like, uh, boost my products, but now I'm doing a bit more of the short form video since I think. Especially for consumer, it's very important for you to be on video because that's where everyone is consuming.

Miguel: Um, so if you want, especially if you have a mobile app, for example, I've been seeing a lot of people make a lot more videos and getting a lot of traction much quicker than you would just specifically without, uh, with personal branding per se.

Mehmet: That's super cool. Good, good enough. Good to know. Um, so, so for you, you use Twitter and, uh, you know, I know like you run your newsletter.

Mehmet: Um, so let me ask you this, how do you make sure you're keeping, you know, you're, you're getting like new things every time you share something. I mean, because of course there are some kind of content and I think you'd agree with me, Miguel, which is that what we call it evergreen. So even if I, let's say this podcast is an [00:07:00] evergreen.

Mehmet: Because you know, we, we might come to it like later and then people will find, and you know, the, some of the information would still relevant, but in, in the founder journey, and because, you know, they're doing things, especially if they are, for example, building in public, which we started to see a lot of people also doing as well.

Mehmet: So what is the, um, I would say strategy, let's call it to keep the content fresh, to keep coming with new ideas and not sound like, as if you are repeating yourself, because see, I know like some people, they, you know, Talk about repurposing and then you bring something old and then you bring it again But you know the audience, you know, and people are becoming more and more smarter and they can differentiate, you know How people they are acting online whether it's written video audio, whatever it is So how we keep how we can keep the content fresh and relevant to the audience in your opinion, of course

Miguel: Yeah, I think The thing that's awesome about content is the depth that you can go [00:08:00] to.

Miguel: So specifically on Twitter or short form video, it's very short, very surface level, but on. Platforms like YouTube or like a podcast, for example, you can go a lot deeper. And so there's a different type of formats you can play with in terms of depth, like how, how long you want to go into a second, provide a lot more value.

Miguel: But also I think for me, my process for kind of keeping up with ideas is I can just look at what I've been doing in my daily life and kind of just reframing it in a way that's very valuable to the people I'm speaking to. So I think that's like the main thing. Um, and that kind of keeps it coming fresh because usually it's, I think it's like what you think, you know, like.

Miguel: Really, a lot of people don't, don't know, like sometimes, um, I guess what I'm trying to say is like the things you've learned, you've already learned some people maybe on a different pathway in your journey, like much earlier. And so this information might've been very useful to them, like early on, like when you're way early on in your journey, like just starting out, for example.

Mehmet: That's cool. Now let me ask you also one thing, Miguel. [00:09:00] Sometimes founders will be working on something which is obvious, mainly a problem which everyone has it, you know, everyone knows about it. So making content around that, especially if it's a SAS product, it's easy, but let's say you're solving really a problem, but you're taking a kind of a different approach and now you want to make it digestible, let's say to, to the, to the audience.

Mehmet: So what are like some of the tricks that, that we can do. So to make it Understandable by everyone that can watch or like read our content.

Miguel: Sorry. Can you rephrase that again?

Mehmet: So what I was saying, um, again, so sometimes we are, we're, we're, we're building a product, whether it be to be B2C doesn't matter, which is like very obvious, right?

Mehmet: So the concept and you know, the way that they're going to use it and you know, the way they're going to interact with it, it's easy, super easy. So it's easy also to create content around it. But sometimes, We need to go and explain [00:10:00] something which is a little bit like more complex, right? Uh, especially in the SAS, right?

Mehmet: So how we can make it more digestible for the general audience. So is there any, any Process for that.

Miguel: I think specifically for my content, I try to keep the language super simple. So any type of jargon, um, especially in like the tech world, there's a lot of jargon. So I try and break down the jargon to like much simpler terms as I can.

Miguel: So it's a bit more mass appealing. Uh, I think, I think that's definitely like a challenge since like the, the stuff we work with is very confusing, very high tech and like the general person won't be able to. Uh, understand it, but I think just very keeping simple with your language. So when it comes to my writing specifically, I try and keep it under like.

Miguel: Grade four, grade three level, like extremely simple. So like almost like everyone can understand it basically.

Mehmet: Got it. And yeah, this is exactly a Miguel. What I was, the answer I was [00:11:00] waiting from you is not to use jargons and, you know, like make it more, uh, understandable to, to, to the folks who would be, um, you know, watching, listening, whatever.

Mehmet: Um, So from, from, you know, another perspective, which I want to ask you also as well, which is mainly about, uh, the community building, right? So of course you, you establish a brand and the, I believe the next natural step is to start building communities, right? So now, Walk me through and this is because, you know, a lot of founders, they wonder about this and I think, you know, what you are doing in this space is really important, uh, Miguel.

Mehmet: So because we are just kind of putting the roadmap for them to reach where they want to reach. So how do you start building a community and what are like some of the things you should do? building the community. Is it like hosting events? Is it like, I don't know, [00:12:00] uh, do like gathering? So what have you seen working in, in, in that space?

Mehmet: Hmm.

Miguel: I think specifically here. So I'm based here in New York. Uh, so hosting events is very big here. So I've seen series events, uh, being hosted here all the time. And I think that's a very great, uh, very intimate way for community building. But if you want to take it digital, I think having like a community, like online, for example, on discord, uh, where you'd be hosting workshops and webinars would also be really helpful if you don't have that, if you don't live in a specific place where you can build that community, like in real life.

Mehmet: Got you. You know, uh, great, great answer Miguel again. And, uh, yeah, so, so I agree with you now. Um, if, if we want to, like, for example, give some advice to founders who are looking to host their tech or SAS focus event, uh, So, or if they are [00:13:00] like new to the, to the community building. So like what tips or hints you can, you can give them, uh, Miguel.

Miguel: So I think especially studying on community building, I think people just overthink it a lot. So how I started was literally my first event. I just pick like a bar nearby me. So I just like walked into multiple venues, ask if I could host something and usually can get a pretty good deals if, um, if they're like a bar that's, or like an establishment that doesn't get as much of a traffic.

Miguel: So from that, I was able to get a free venue. And then from tech week, New York tech week, I was able to get 500 signups and I had around 250 people come to my event. Uh, so honestly, I think just keeping it simple at first is very important. So you can kind of figure out the logistics of hosting an event, um, like getting signups and all of that stuff.

Miguel: But I think like mainly. What's important is putting a lot more into the marketing than like actually like sourcing the venue and all of that.

Mehmet: Perfect. Now I want to go back to, you know, [00:14:00] the social presence and I know you mostly you like X or what used to be known as Twitter. Um, so why, you know, you prefer X or Twitter, uh, as a place to, to be in, um, like more than other social media platforms.

Miguel: Yeah, yeah. Honestly, yeah, X is awesome. I mean, the community there is much more vibrant and friendly, and it's very relevant to what I'm doing. So, for example, I'm very deep in the Indie Hacker community space, and then the community there is just awesome. Everyone's super helpful. Um, there's a lot of, like, knowledge that they share online, and they're very public about what they've been doing.

Miguel: So, I think that's really why I, like, like Twitter the most. It's been great. I've been, I'm now in like multiple like discord communities of like super great communities just from Twitter. So it's great, great, um, opportunity just being on that platform.

Mehmet: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I, I'm, I'm not by any mean, you know, an indie [00:15:00] hacker or something like this, but you know, one of the things that, um, I, uh, noticed also as well is that like people, they like to help each other a lot there.

Mehmet: Right. Right. So, so I noticed, um, talking about, you know, in the hacking and about, you know, solopreneurship and all this, um, what's your take about the future of, you know, startup founders? Are we going to see like more in the hackers? Are we going at some stage, go back to the, you know, What we used to say before, like decades ago, people go to the garage with a co founder and start things and bring it up.

Mehmet: Like what's, what's your vision on, on, on that?

Miguel: Yeah, I think it's going to be pretty exciting. So with AI, it's just going to be so much easier to do more with less. So like solopreneurship or maybe like teams of three to five people, it's much easier to build a bigger company than what was possible before, because AI can [00:16:00] automate so much more stuff and like.

Miguel: Automate away all the annoying tidbits you don't really want to do and just generate a lot more value overall with the amount of time that you have. So I think in the future, we're going to see a lot more smaller scale, um, more nimble startups. So maybe like between five to 10 people going after like much bigger problems than what, um, what was possible before.

Mehmet: Yeah. That's, that's a, um, you know, point of view, I would say, um, within that space, um, Miguel, like, um, I know also like founders nowadays that, uh, you know, they need, they need not only to find, you know, a product that people would want, they need also something that, uh, you know, they can validate quickly.

Mehmet: And we just talked about the validation, like few moments ago. Uh, here I want to ask you about something because maybe I have missed to ask you before [00:17:00] in the validation, you know, the, the landing page is something very important. And I know like you've reviewed over 300 landing pages. Um, what are the mistakes usually you've seen people doing and what are the things that they should avoid?

Mehmet: So they have high conversion ratios from, from these landing pages.

Miguel: Yeah. So I think one main thing, if you're not really used to building a landing page, I would just stick with the template. Cause I think if you stick with a custom built landing page, it's very easy to mess up the design and kind of screw up the flow of the landing page.

Miguel: So I would use something like framer and use some of their templates, uh, very simple, very good looking templates, but I think in terms of like conversion rates, I think people mess up most on is the headline and sub headline. So they don't really craft the message to their customers as well. Okay.

Miguel: Because the thing is, people think you can really only have one landing page, but really, you can have multiple, like, for example, you can have a landing page for one specific niche, like, for example, [00:18:00] if I'm targeting SAS, I can have a landing page for SAS people, and then I can have a landing page for e commerce people.

Miguel: So you can have multiple versions of the landing page and redirect people to the specific landing page you want. So it can be very specific with your messaging. which helps a lot with conversion rate. So I, I'd highly recommend it. And that's kind of like a small hack I've learned.

Mehmet: Okay. And you know, and keep it simple, right?

Mehmet: Miguel, like they don't, they don't need to exaggerate in the design. So, because I've seen like people, they spend more time on just the designs and you know, the, uh, cosmetics and aesthetics side of it more than actually, you know, delivering the message. Am I missing something or do you agree with me on that?

Miguel: Yeah, I think people love to like make it super calm, like make it super pretty at first, but that unfortunately doesn't really convert as much as you think it would.

Mehmet: Yeah. Because, you know, I, and this is what I tell people when I meet them and said like, guys, focus on, on something that works, believe it or not, if [00:19:00] you really are solving a problem and you deliver the message in, in your landing pages, like you're going to convert.

Mehmet: And of course, I'm not saying like, keep it ugly, but I mean, spend time first on, on that. And then let's, let's, let's take it later. Um, We share something in common, um, Miguel, and let me ask you about it. So you are an advocate of being a generalist, right? Uh, how that gave you an edge in your career?

Miguel: Yeah, I think being, being a generalist is super fun.

Miguel: So like, I think in the past, like six to nine months, what I've learned is like SEO, uh, content, uh, landing pages. Um, hosting events and community building. So I think that's the surface area of what I've learned in the past year. Um, I think it's like, if you can really do a lot of stuff, you can move your company and your products forward and really not get stuck as much as someone who only [00:20:00] knows one or two things, you know, so like right now for me, like before I was like very deep into engineering, but now I'm focused a lot more on growth, growth, marketing.

Miguel: Um, and that's been also really fun, really enjoyed. So it's like a very fresh take on like. new stuff I can learn, like new things that can be obsessed about, but also this can help me move forward with a business at the same time. It's a very deadly combination. So if I can like build and sell, uh, like Naval says, it's very, it's very great, uh, skillset.

Mehmet: And I think this, and this is my two cents on this being generalist to, you know, to add to what you said. So when things change fast, you'd be able to unlearn the things that doesn't, you know, You know matter anymore or like they become kind of obsolete and then start to learn, you know, whatever is new so this is why i'm big advocate also of Of being generous i'm not saying like it's wrong to be specialist that there are super Smart people who are specialists and I really admire, you know the work they do But [00:21:00] at least for me this would have worked and you know, I believe the future is for journalists More than uh, uh specialists, uh funny enough a couple of weeks ago I just shared like it seems we are going back in time because if you look at the the old greek civilization the romans so you see this guy who's a philosopher You know, scientist, uh, you know, he knows biology, math, you know, and he knows all these things and They write books about all these topics So, you know and they are the super smart people and you know in the modern era also like Leonardo da Vinci so yeah, that's why I'm a big fan of being generalist now one One term, uh, I know also, you know, when I was preparing for, for the episode today, Miguel, um, you talk about it is the second brain, right? And we always hear, you know, this term second brain, right? So tell me a little bit more about your own way is [00:22:00] it like, what is it and how do you Manage that second brain and, you know, be able to, again, because you are a generalist be able to go across all the things that you do, which being founder, creator, community host, and so on.

Miguel: Yeah. I think honestly, my second brain like amplifies all my skill sets as a generalist.

Miguel: Um, so I use obsidian and then I have this literal Wikipedia of knowledge from everything I've learned from each skill in obsidian. So they're just like a bunch of markdown notes, but they're all linked together and all very organized. Okay. So If I ever forget to do something, I'll just pull up my notes and it's very powerful.

Miguel: I think more like, I think everyone should be doing this. 'cause I, I think especially if you're a person that wants to be more entrepreneurial, you need to be learning a lot of skill sets and there's a lot of context and like nuance in each specific skill. So I write down a lot of notes and those, a lot of notes help me keep context of all of it.

Miguel: And it's basically like if you, if you steal my second brain, it's. You'll be like, you'll have superpowers in each specific [00:23:00] skills. Cause like I have all my playbooks done in there. Like everything I do, it's written down. Everything is on there. So honestly, it's a massive, massive life hack. Cause especially with like nowadays, there's like so much knowledge out there that's scattered and you need a way to kind of distill it and put it all in one place.

Miguel: And that's going to be your second brain.

Mehmet: Cool. Some people use notion, right? So notion is also another great tool, I believe for, for using that. Yeah. Am I correct or wrong?

Miguel: Yeah, I think Notion is also very popular. Um, and I think like something like reflect notes, I think, but personally I like Obsidian because it's very fast.

Miguel: It's local first. Uh, yeah, yeah. And it's, it's like VS code where it's very extensible and I really liked extensibility.

Mehmet: Yeah. Yeah. I have, you know, I, I tried it once. I didn't continue, um, because I was lazy to migrate everything I have in Notion, so Everything stayed there. But yeah, I like the fact that, uh, you know, I can access it also on my own machine, even if they, if I [00:24:00] don't have internet and you know, it says local and so on.

Mehmet: So absolutely. Now we're going to do a couple of very quick questions before we wrap up this with you, uh, Miguel today. Um, majority of people like yourself, usually you would find them in the West coast in the Bay area, but you, Selected to be in New York. Why?

Miguel: I just really like New York in terms of the diversity of the culture here.

Miguel: I think specifically, um, especially as they're working on different problems, the problems really you're exposed to kind of help, um, direct the direction of your startup. So like, for example, if on a. Delve a deep, a bit deeper into like a fashion startup, for example, I can, there's a big fashion scene here.

Miguel: I can really just like talk to a lot of people in this space. And then I don't know, there's just so many things you can get exposed to here that you really didn't think was possible or just a very different perspective. So I think that kind of helps me kind of be a bit more [00:25:00] creative. And then I think if I didn't really like move here, I wouldn't be as much focused on my personal brand.

Miguel: Cause here, there's a lot of people that have very. Brands and kind of helps them with their businesses. And so that also like inspires me at the same time. So I think that's kind of why it shows here.

Mehmet: Cool. Now I gonna, you know, ask you again, name me. You know three figures in the indie hacker space that You know, you can't get Uh, I would say, you know, you you like, you know, or you admire that the work they do in in the indie hacking space Any three names?

Miguel: Yeah, so I think top of mind is mark lubion. So the thing is mark, you're a really good indie hacker Um really good at building products, but also he's really really good at content. So he's grown very quickly in youtube I think he has like Over like a hundred K now, but I think the reason why his businesses are doing well is because he does YouTube really well.

Miguel: Um, so I think like YouTube, [00:26:00] like, like once I get more time, I think I'll send up doing YouTube since it's like, you get a lot more conversion, uh, from YouTube. Um, so that's the first one. Let's see. I think Peter levels, like he's like the OG, like India, like he's been there the entire time he knows he's done it.

Miguel: And then he just keeps. Doing it again. I think he also big inspiration for everyone. And I was kind of really happy. He was on that podcast with Alex Fridman. That's a very good one for the community. Yeah. Uh, let's see. And then I think Sandra and Dan from the morning maker show there, they've also been doing a lot more content, but I'm in the community and the community is awesome.

Miguel: I love their community. It's a full of great people and I've been getting a lot of help. I've been giving a lot of help over there and it's just overall great group to be around. So I'm very happy about it.

Mehmet: Absolutely. And finally, uh, which, you know, I would not tell you, ask books, but I mean, what are, you can choose books, resources that you advise, you know, new [00:27:00] founders, tech founders to go and, and, and read or grab.

Miguel: Interesting. I think. Some of the UX UI design ones are very interesting. So one of them is like, don't make me think. Um, and then there's like a partner book to that called rocket surgery and made easy. And so it kind of gives you like a really good framework, a very simple framework for deciding like, okay, like how do you want to craft your app?

Miguel: Or it kind of gives you that kind of really good baseline for design that you can really apply like any, any other place, like graphics or landing pages or like, um, content, uh, I, so I, I, I'd really recommend that one. I think I just finished zero to sold, uh, by Arbit call. That one's also really good, very comprehensive, literally goes over like every single thing you'd, uh, stumble upon in the journey of building a bootstrap.

Miguel: Companies also recommend that, um, And it also there's also the sass playbook on by rob walling That's the one i'm gonna read next so pretty [00:28:00] also really excited about that I think that was also gonna be really good. I've heard only good things about it So

Mehmet: yeah, you know, i'm i'm big fan of arvid also as well with his podcast and you know for me He he is and i'm sure he his his uh, new gig will pick up this because we mentioned his name so the what I like about his style is he kind of He was able to join this mature figure, right?

Mehmet: With the indie hacking style. So, um, and you know, like he got things into really, really a way that everyone can understand what the guy is, is trying to do. So absolutely. I'm a big fan also as well. Uh, Miguel, as we are coming to an end, any final thoughts, any where, and where people can, can get in touch with you.

Miguel: Yeah. So you can find me on Twitter. Uh, my first name, last name, Miguel Sarnes. And then you can also find me on YouTube, uh, under the same handle. So, and then if you want to read more of my stuff in def house up and newsletter, it's called the maker's report. So [00:29:00] it's a beehive newsletter, so you can also find it anywhere.

Miguel: Um, and I guess final thoughts. Yeah. Just, I think just start making videos. I think videos are going to be the next generation of content. Everyone's going to watch everyone. All the platforms are going towards it. So I think if you're to start making content, start making videos. It's also really fun. So

Mehmet: absolutely, absolutely.

Mehmet: Uh, you know, Miguel, really, I enjoyed this conversation today and I'm very happy that, uh, you, you were able to, to make it, to, to be on the show with me today. So I really appreciate your time and your thoughts and your advice also to the community. Thank you very much for being with me here today. And I'm sure like, you know, a lot of, uh, to be in the hackers or even like tech founders will, will benefit out of it.

Mehmet: And. I agree with you on on the branding part and you know making content which is video mainly 100 percent on this And this is usually how I end my show. This is for the audience if you just discovered this podcast by luck Thank you for passing by. I hope you enjoyed it. [00:30:00] If you did, so don't forget give us a thumb up Subscribe and share it with your friends and colleagues who are available on all podcasting platforms while available in video on YouTube also as well.

Mehmet: And if you are one of the people who keeps coming back and listen to us and watch our episodes, thank you very much for doing so. I really appreciate all your feedbacks, questions, and suggestions. Keep them coming. I read them all. Thank you very much for tuning in. We'll meet again very soon. Thank you.

Mehmet: Bye bye.