⚡Validate Your Idea Fast

Yes. This is the CityChad, your financial sensei, teaching you the ancient art of turning cents into dollars. Let's start training!

In this week’s edition:

• Markets: The Rally Continues

• Article: ⚡Validate Your Idea Fast

• News: Saudi and China Warm Up

• Power Move: Redditors Fight Back

• Chad of the Week: Silvio Berlusconi

Grab a cold one and check this one out: the global equities rally is on fire, with stocks pumping up over 2% in just one week.

Talk about gains.

In fact, stocks are heading for their best week since March.

Why the hype, you ask?

Well, the tech stocks, especially those riding the AI wave, are sending waves of optimism through the market.

However, not everyone is so optimistic.

Investing legend, Jeremy Segel, is cautious and expects a recession will hit the US.

It’s starting to feel like things markets may be getting ahead of themselves.

Crypto on the other hand, is faring a lot worse.

Ethereum dropped almost 10%. Ouch!

Bitcoin also saw losses during the week, though less extreme, it dipped below $25K.

Hardly surprising given the negative sentiment coming from regulatory pressure on the industry. Crypto bros be hurtin’.

⚡VALIDATE YOUR IDEA FAST

TLDR: Let’s explore the steps of validating your idea. Connecting with potential customers, visualising needs in the market and developing a MVP are all part of the game. Have the flexibility to cover market demands instead of just focusing on an initial ideal product. Remember, the customer is king!

• How to Market Research like a Chad

• Creating you MVP

• Testing the Waters

• Adjusting to Demand

PART 2: HOW TO VALIDATE AN IDEA FAST

Now that we've strengthened our inner game, it's time to dive into the practical side of things.

Validating your side hustle idea is crucial to ensure its viability and potential for success.

Let's explore three effective strategies to validate your idea swiftly:

1. MARKET RESEARCH

You can dive deep into your target market.

Identify their pain points, desires, and unmet needs.

Some suggest conducting surveys, interviews, and analysing existing data to gather insights.

This can all be very valuable information, however, don’t get too hung up on having perfect information before taking action.

Usually it is as simple as spending time on Facebook groups or Reddit forums to find out what your potential customers may need or want from you.

Even a WhatsApp message to your close friends can be a good starting point.

For example, rather than spending months doing research, text a friend saying “hey, I have this thing for sale at $X, do you want one?”.

Go straight for the jugular before even developing the product or service.

If they are not interested, then you didn’t waste time doing it. Start from the end, the actual sale!

2. MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT (MVP)

Ok, once you know someone wants what you want to create you should develop a very simplified version of your product or service that addresses the core problem your target market faces.

Launch it early to gather feedback and iterate based on real-world responses.

This approach not only saves time and resources but also ensures that you're building something people actually want.

And when we say simplified, we mean it.

You don’t need a website, business cards, landing pages or anything like that.

Say you want to be a working-from-home consultant, and provide the best WFH setups anyone could want.

Just create a Word document with a description of the service, put links to Amazon for the products you would like to purchase for your customers.

Use that to get your first 10 clients, then move the Word document to a website.

Always keep in mind what it is that you are solving for, and what is the bare minimum you can do to it.

3. TEST THE WATERS

Following from the above, once you have gained traction, before going all-in in product development, test your idea through pilot programs, beta launches, or pre-sales.

Offer early bird discounts or limited-time promotions to gauge interest and collect feedback.

This approach allows you to fine-tune your offering and build a community of early adopters who can become brand ambassadors.

Remember, start with a very small niche of customers as those early customers should be shaping the product you offer together with you.

In the end your idea may be completely different to what you had in mind, but that’s OK.

You should be offering what the market wants, not what you wish it did.

Test and modify your product as needed, there is no shame in that.

Remember, you are helping your customers and they are the ones who should drive the shape of your product.

The thing you focus on during this validation journey is sales.

Sell and see if it sticks, if it doesn’t it probably needs changing.

And that’s it. Not really that complicated.

As you can clearly see, the word of the game in validation is ACTION.

Take action and ask your customers to buy before you make.

Sounds crazy? It’s not.

Give a try and let us know how it went.

NEWS: SAUDI AND CHINA

What could have been just another boring conference, turned out to be a quite important development in geopolitics.

Last week, China and Saudi Arabia announced a potential free trade agreement between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and China, creating waves and drawing attention from major global powers.

Why?

Well, this agreement holds significant geopolitical implications that could reshape alliances, influence regional dynamics, and impact the balance of power.

Things that most politicians tend to be scared of.

This evolving partnership has caught the eye of Western countries, who may face challenges in maintaining their influence and interests in the region.

In the midst of rising tensions between China and the US, and the conflict in Ukraine, our American friends are surely not too pleased with this development.

Is Saudi the real ally they think they are?

This is yet another sign of potential changes in the World order.

With the BRICS currency push, and people calling the end of the dollar, these events seem to be piling up the pressure.

Status quo may not last forever.

POWER MOVE: REDDITORS FIGHT BACK

Back in April, Reddit announced that they were changing their API pricing to 24 cents for each 1000 requests, starting in July, a quite absurd claim taking into consideration that 1000 requests should cost them less than a penny.

Why are they doing this? Let’s find out.

Profiting using the API might be one of the reasons but definitely is not the main reason.

Reddit makes its profit by an incredible business model in which users make free valuable content which Reddit can monetize with advertisements.

However Reddit’s user interface is bad, especially their mobile app, so there were plenty of these third party apps that functioned as an alternative to their official app, and that’s bad for advertising.

What would be the sensible option here?

I would say that improving the mobile app is the best option or integrating those third party apps.

Reddit doesn’t think the same, instead they think that killing the competition is the way to go, so by jacking up the price of their API, they effectively force those alternative apps to retire early or go bankrupt.

It may well be a strategy to become profitable as they plan to IPO sometime in the future.

But wait, here’s the Power Move.

Around 7000 subreddits have gone private as a way to protest against the API pricing, this means that users can’t access them, preventing Reddit from advertising.

No ads, no money.

What was made clear is that Mods wield incredible power in the Reddit business, which will surely scare investors if they don’t change things.

But how can they?

Reddit is driven by real users, with real communities.

Which is part of what makes it so great.

But trying to value a business with such an uncertain ingredient, will certainly make it a headache when it comes to going public.

CHAD OF THE WEEK: SILVIO BERLUSCONI

In this edition, we bestow the prestigious title of Chad of the Week upon Silvio Berlusconi, the iconic Italian media magnate turned politician who passed away this week.

From revolutionising communication channels to wielding power as a kingmaker, Berlusconi's indomitable spirit left an indelible mark on the nation.

Despite encountering legal battles and controversies, his entrepreneurial prowess and exceptional communication skills propelled him to the zenith of power.

Berlusconi had quite a journey.

He started as a dynamic real estate developer, which granted him some wealth swiftly.

Then he ventured into the realm of television, and without lack of ambition, he pioneered Italy's first commercial network, Canale 5, before expanding his media empire across diverse sectors, including retail, publishing, and ownership of the AC Milan football club.

Basically the man did everything, even transitioned into politics, founding the centre-right party Forza Italia.

Despite facing legal battles and criticism regarding his media control, Berlusconi always came back on his feet, winning national elections and promising comprehensive reforms such as tax cuts, job creation, and pension reforms.

His profound resonance with the electorate solidified his significant role as a pro-EU leader.

Sadly he left this Monday. His departure signifies the end of a captivating chapter in Italian politics.

Regardless of what some may say, he left an undeniable impact, as any Chad would, forever shaping Italian politics.

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DISCLAIMER

The material on this email and our website is for informational and entertainment purposes only and we make no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of its content – it is subject to change. Please conduct your own due diligence and research.

None of this information is financial advice, and you should consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Your capital is at risk and you may lose more than you initially invested. We do not provide any offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment products, nor does this constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services.

The Chad index (“the index”) is a combination of historical returns for the following:

Equities: Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Acc
Fixed Income: iShares Core Gl Aggregate Bd UCITS ETF USD Hgd Acc
Real Estate: iShares Developed Markets Property Yield UCITS ETF USD (Acc)
Gold: Gold Bullion Securities Limited
Ethereum
Bitcoin

The index is rebalanced quarterly to the target weights shown in the table. The target weights are subject to change. The index does not represent the performance of a real portfolio and does not imply a recommendation to invest in any financial products. Past performance is not an indication of future performance.