We’ve found solace in hearing from Makers lately. Despite the pandemic, teams are still building and launching new products, often aimed at providing resources to people on the frontlines and mental support to those quarantined at home. We rounded up our favorite advice from founders lately to give you some inspiration today. 👇
How to build a product in a pandemic
Last week, Girls’ Night In launched Stay Home, Take Care, a resource-packed site that doesn’t prescribe one way of processing the global pandemic, but instead offers multiple ways of coping (comfort, entertainment, action, distraction, etc.) based on what you, personally, need.
The Girls’ Night In team built the site in seven days in response to COVID-19, and we talked to founder Alisha Ramos on what she learned building a full-fledge product in such a short period of time. Alisha says the rule book was “thrown out completely” and that her team needed to wear hats they weren’t used to in order to get the site live so quickly. 👀
“I personally learned that jumping on a quick Slack call to talk something out in 5-10 minutes is so much better than going back and forth typing on Slack. So much context can get lost. On a fast-moving project like this, it's important to not be so precious about wondering whether it's ok to call someone up.”
How to keep your mental health in check
Product Hunt recently spoke with Roni Frank, the co-founder of the online therapy app Talkspace, about how she “walks the walk” when it comes to mental health. Mental health is extremely important right now, and Talkspace has promised free online therapy to healthcare workers on the frontlines of the crisis. The app also started offering a special 16-day program (for subscribers) aimed at addressing coronavirus-related stress and there’s now a free therapist-led Facebook support group where non-users can seek guidance directly from licensed therapists. 🙌
“If I want to ultimately reduce stigma around therapy, I have to walk the walk and talk about my own struggles. But I’m not afraid of talking about it and I’m not afraid that people will think I’m a weak person because I suffer from anxiety, et cetera. It’s very important for me to talk about it and I think it inspires employees to talk about their own struggles too.”
How to foster creativity at home
Lightricks first built an app that allowed anyone to edit selfies (Facetune). When that took off, the team put all their resources into building more creativity-first apps. We spoke with co-founder and CEO Zeev Farbman about his advice on building a brand that promotes creativity. 🎉
“Recognizing we had an opportunity to provide creative enthusiasts with tools that translate their energy into beautiful and entertaining works of art, without users having to break the bank, is a great feeling. And being able to see the eclectic content users create has probably been the most rewarding aspect of the business.”
Submissions are open for our WFH Makers Festival! Start sharing what you're building.
It sounds crazy, but last year the ultra-wealthy spent over $65B on art. Why? Unlike gold or oil, the price of art is not regulated. When paintings sell for $100M, $200M, or even $400M, the potential returns can be huge.
And unlike the stock market, prices for masterpieces are unlikely to drop in times of crisis.
“Art prices went up in 2008, in fact. It’s better than gold.” –David Geffen
Beyond that, the art market is expected to grow by over $900B in the next six years.
So when a new platform comes along that allows you to add art to your portfolio—we’re bound to take notice. 4 out of 5 of their offerings are completely sold out, but there’s still room in their ’82 Basquiat.
Check it out before it sells out: www.masterworks.io
