The MVP Pod

Mathusan Selvarajah & Harry Sivashankaran

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) Podcast is the best podcast for those who love to talk about products and learn how to build them! Hosted by Mathusan and Harry, two friends that are building cool things in the tech industry.

Episodes

  1. 04/22/2023

    Ep 1.4 - The Future of Local Media and Advertising: Chris Dinn's Vision for Torontoverse and Beyond

    In episode 1.4 of The MVP Pod, we sit down with Chris Dinn, founder, and lead engineer of Torontoverse which is a local publication platform designed to empower local businesses and writers. Chris discusses the gap he noticed in the advertising space for local businesses, with Facebook currently being their only viable option, and how he aims to disrupt local media by leveraging open city datasets and building innovative tools for writers. He envisions the ideal Torontoverse user as someone who is curiosity-driven, data-driven, and not looking for conflict, striving to create "curiosity-driven informative media." Chris also shares insights on building an MVP using open data sets, targeting "lean forward users" who are actively searching for information, and employing direct response advertising to engage his audience. Inspired by his experience playing City Skylines, Chris talks about the challenges of building Torontoverse in 2023, its potential expansion, monetization strategies, and how to build an audience for a local publication in the age of digital media. He delves into competing against Facebook for local business advertising and his approach to building an MVP by staying lean and keeping a small, focused team. Finally, Chris touches on the impact of AI on journalism, sparking a fascinating discussion on how journalists are reacting to the advancements in AI that are disrupting their field. Join us for an engaging and informative conversation about innovation, entrepreneurship, and the future of local media in the digital era. To learn more check out what Chris and the team are building at torontoverse.com, give them a follow @torontoverse on Twitter, and check out Chris's tweets @chrisdinn. As always, we are constantly looking to improve The MVP Pod as our goal is to make building successful products easier by sharing stories and learnings of other products and builders. We would appreciate it if you could tweet or dm us⁠ @m2s4n⁠ and⁠ @harrysiva_⁠ with your feedback! Check out⁠ themvppod.com⁠ to learn more about the pod!

    54 min
  2. 03/23/2023

    Ep 1.3 - Differences between VC Backed and Bootstrapping, Building off of other platforms, Acquiring startups, Navigating the current economic climate with Chao Lam from Next Small Things

    In episode 1.3, we talk to Chao Lam, the founder of Next Small Things. Next Small Things is a company that develops and operates multiple consumer-oriented apps and websites, and one of their more prominent apps is the Thread Reader Twitter app. Which some of you may have used or seen while scrolling through your Twitter feeds. It's one of the first Twitter bots to address the readability of long ugly Twitter threads where the app unrolls these Twitter threads and displays them in an easy-to-read blog format. Chao has a really interesting background and he has essentially seen it all when it comes to founding and running internet businesses. Chao founded venture capital-backed companies such as ShoppingList and AdKnowledge during the dot-com boom, between 1996 and 2001. After this, he went on to explore different areas in tech, including working at eBay and leading product management at a nonprofit. Some topics we cover with Chao in this episode include, how to focus your efforts when bootstrapping, building on platforms such as Twitter, and evaluating when to acquire versus when to build. To wrap it up, we discuss how the current economic climate affects people that are currently building internet products and his advice for navigating this environment. Make sure to check out Chao's Substack, Next Small Things, if you want to learn more about Chao and what he has learned during his adventurous journey in, entrepreneurship, tech, and life. Also, don't forget to check out the Threadreader Twitter app if you haven't been using it already! As always, we constantly look to improve The MVP Pod as our goal is to make building successful products easier by sharing stories and learnings of other products and builders. We would appreciate it if you could tweet or dm us @m2s4n and @harrysiva_ with your feedback! Check out themvppod.com to learn more about the pod!

    1h 7m

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) Podcast is the best podcast for those who love to talk about products and learn how to build them! Hosted by Mathusan and Harry, two friends that are building cool things in the tech industry.