AMA with Noah Bragg 🐟
Top launch of the week AMA:
Welcome, @nbragg, who launched /hotpotato last week 🔥🥔
Reply below with your questions.
- You're already building a defi tool (/poolfish), what inspired you to work on a game?Shiny objects! 😁 I like building stuff on top of Farcaster and I think something there could do really well so I continue to play around with it. Thankfully /poolfish can take as much or little time as I choose. So if /hotpotato keeps doing well I may become a 2 biz founder. 🫣
- How was building a farcaster action? Anything weird about educating users to install or tracking usage? cc @deodadReally simple actually. Very similar to Frames. Did have some people confused with it and how it worked. Had my own little guide to point people to. Would have been nice if there was a FC guide or how to for users.
- How do you see hot potato evolving (if at all)? Are there plans to utilize for hot potato or other games you create on the DEGEN L3 in the future?I'm planning to add a second version that is opt in with stakes. Then go from there! I have thought of the DEGEN L3, are some thing I could do that could make sense there. Problem in my mind is onboarding people there.
What are the lessons you learned from building and selling Potion that have informed your approach to building Poolfish?The kind of user you want to serve! For me it's ideally someone who is making money with your tool so it's worth the cost. Also, distribution is the hardest part so having a strategy from day 1 on how you can get users.- what is the story behind the game? and who inspires you?Well I saw FC Actions and it reminded me of Facebook Poke. I was thinking that there should be something like that built on top of Farcaster as well. Hot Potato seemed like something that a lot of people would understand and be a fun interaction between people on FC. FrenPet founder @surfcoderepeat and @jessepollak!
- What did you wish you know before buying your first online business?Buying Poolfish was pretty straight forward actually so I don't feel like there is something I wish I knew. Something that was definitely important though was understanding how to value the business.
Whose idea was the name?It was mine. Wanted to name it something simple that people would understand pretty quickly.- @nbragg 1. What was the inspiration? 2. What are next steps?1. Facebook Poke! Saw actions and it immediately made me think of that. So was trying to come up with a fun way to have people interact with each other. 2. Main problem right now is people letting the 🥔 drop off and not caring about it. So plan is to make a version that is opt in with some incentives.
- How long have you been doing YouTube? 👍 the vidsWell I actually created 400+ gaming videos back in high school. (don't go find those! 🫣 the last 3 years or so I've been creating videos following my journey building potion.so. That was a lot of fun.
Is there any plan to bring Farcaster to the mainstream, I mean more than it is?Not sure if I'm the one that can do that. 😅 But if there is a way I can use /hotpotato to bring people in from outside of Farcaster, I will!- Would it be possible to play the game even if people do not follow one another? Or incentivize people to follow one another and see who else is playing? I find myself not being able to transfer the hotpotato to anyone because they don't follow me back and not being able to pass it those who follow me too.I think this is a good rule for starting a game or adding new people to your game. Idea is to have you interact with people you already know a bit. Don't want it to become annoying to users. But after you are already in a game, it doesn't matter if you follow each other. you can pass to anyone in your game.
- As a solo-bootstrapped founder, what tools / software do you use for setting up, managing and keeping track of all your businesses?I use Notion for about everything Notes, brainstorming, tracking tasks and expenses. Use Vercel for hosting. Makes it really easy!
- Advice for future solopreneurs?I'd say you'll learn a lot by building and doing. Being fast at building stuff will really help you. At the same time realizing your limits. So picking projects and ideas that you can pull off with your limited resources is really important. You don't want to kill yourself.
Where do you see hot potato in two years and how many "hands" would it have to touch for you to feel it a success. And what number of hands would blow you away?I don't think I can look that far ahead. 😅 If I'm still working on Hot Potato in 2 years I think it will be a big success. So hopefully that can happen!
how do you deal with the pressures of building on a fast moving app and updates being expected quickly?Good question. It definitely is tricky. You get pros and cons with building on top of another platform. Thankfully there isn't breaking changes too often.
