Wazel Brothers Build
25 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 3 years ago -Two brothers have honest conversations about how they are building businesses on the internet.
Brandon is the Co-Founder of usecodex.com, a dev tool that makes sharing code context easy. Adam is the founder of swordandsource.ca, a company helping people connect through storytelling games like Dungeons & Dragons.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Big News | Ep.25
August 25, 2021 19:02 - 1 hour - 88.2 MBAdam has joined the team at LegendKeeper Adam published his thought process on finding a team on his blog. Summary of Adam's thought process of why he wanted to find a team. His story so far. Why Adam did not join Codex Worldbuilding software is highly competitive within the TTRPG software niche. The big jumps in business maturity Adam has to go through now. Feelings of overwhelm. The importance of taking a step back to look at the big picture. The shift to LegendKeeper was not driven...
Creating a marketing strategy | Ep.24
June 11, 2021 14:35 - 1 hour - 88.2 MBCertain laws restrict what you can say about fundraising. Fundraising is going really well. Brandon gives it a score of 13/10. Line tracking in VSCode gets tricky when the file is in an 'edited' state. Waiting list of 20 teams for Codex. Comparing the fintech whitepaper that Dignified created with the one that Accenture created. The rationale for creating an in-depth whitepaper on fintech. How to leverage a whitepaper when Dignified has moved past its original goal. The "reverse pyra...
I made my first software sale!! | Ep.23
May 21, 2021 20:20 - 1 hour - 88.2 MBShow notes Closing out agency work was surprisingly hard because of the demand for talent. Pushing to ship a VS Code extension for Codex to gain early traction from a waitlist Basic Job to be Done for Codex Fitting into customers current tooling seems important for Codex The expectation for real time communication when sharing context at work VS Code's liveshare mode Fundraising went above expectations but Brandon needs to show at least 1 big customer using Codex in production VCs ar...
How much should I charge? | Ep.22
May 13, 2021 10:00 - 48 minutes - 43.9 MBFocus on building new generators for Here Be Taverns Premium Adam's process is design and build at the same time Adam's approach to interlinking products together and how his projects drive traffic to each other Emotion driven development Heraldry generator The potential for GPT-3 for Here Be Taverns Can AI do visual design? Decisions that needs to be made: When should I launch the premium pass? Adam's rationale for his prices Launching sooner so that you don't sit on value you've ...
Pitching Tier 1 venture funds and ideal workdays | Ep.21
May 06, 2021 10:00 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MBFinding the ideal customer for Codex Tier 1 funds are interested in Codex which surprises Brandon. He assumed he needed to play a long game but got invited to pitch. Founders used to need investors. Now investors need founders. What's the one thing Brandon can't screw up in the pitch meeting. Brandon discusses mistakes he made in a pitch recently. Adam grills Brandon on the question: What's your mission? What connects the big vision to his current tactics. Adam is focused on premium o...
Finding quick wins to get out of a rut | Ep.20
May 04, 2021 13:26 - 37 minutes - 34 MBFundraising update on Codex 🎉 Brandon is structuring an LOI (Letter of Intent) for Codex. Adam is back in his groove. Discusses a slump he has been in recently. Alpha readers have delivered their feedback on The Quickstart Guide to Game Mastering Adam reviews the launch phases for the guide and his rationale. Adam walks through his current build of the Guide. Plan for scaling the guide to other game systems IF the project has traction. Brandon advertises the Holloway guides again. T...
On Writing | Ep.19
April 12, 2021 10:00 - 1 hour - 76.6 MBClearing the creativity faucet as a metaphor for writing from David Perell How to improve at writing Writing prompts Writing every day Creative writing VS Business writing Brandon's experience using a pre-written adventure module for our D&D game Adam is learning about "adventure writing" which is a unique format that combines game design, utility, and creative writing Adam started an "Adventure Reading Club" to learn more about the format Product Managers should take more notes to ...
Adam's most important lesson of entrepreneurship | Ep.18
April 09, 2021 10:00 - 1 hour - 74.2 MBBrandon's caffeine intake cycle and the dangers of caffeine intake. Opportunity for a business focused on decaf? "The brightest flame burns quickest" Adam's death-consciousness What is a life well lived? Putting in too many hours is a bad strategy when you do knowledge work Consider the review process when you need to launch on a platform like the Google App store 🎊 Codex is now available in the chrome store! Brandon's favourite Codex feature: "Request context" Capturing an enginee...
Marketing focal points & a debate on hiring | Ep.17
April 08, 2021 13:53 - 1 hour - 65.1 MBLearning SEO by trying Moz Marketing is hard when you don't have a product or service to focus energy towards. SEO as a focused practice can't start yet. Chris Gimmer on SEO RPG Twitter trends: giveaways, support each other threads, etc. Adam would rather have a smaller number of engaged fans then a huge follower count as a vanity metric Positive sum thinking in agencies Agencies are being acquired for talent acquisition War for talent in tech Debate on how hiring process should wor...
Rapid intro to fundraising for your startup | Ep. 16
March 08, 2021 18:33 - 1 hour - 88.2 MBMoving is very distracting Codex has a landing page. Adam critiques it on air. Brandon got slammed on his pitch deck. Walks through some of the highlights. Us Canadians should brag more. Brandon explains how to set up a fund raise. Adam understands about 60% of it. How much Brandon wants to raise for Codex. Secures a commitment for his "first cheque". Adam does not think working alone is his ideal scenario. Has been thinking a lot about how to work with others. Feelings of frustratio...
Our Only Goal is the Western Shore | Ep. 15
March 08, 2021 17:51 - 1 hour - 88.2 MBBrandon is moving to Vancouver Quiet vs busy seasons in agency work Process for booking customer discovery calls The importance of building a network Is Adam actually wise? Finding the benefits of life challenges Engineering teams are ahead in async work patterns Figma as an example of adopting Engineering tooling in design teams How to do cold outreach and why you should RPG marketplaces and Adam's plan to research them and produce content Being a better client for freelancers A...
Chief Adventure Experience Officer | Ep.14
February 11, 2021 14:43 - 1 hour - 88.2 MBLessons from being a performer: Embracing the fear of the stage Codex customer development How Tuple acquired enterprise customers by focusing on developers The ideal path to selling Codex Progress on The Quickstart Guide to Game Mastering. Adam thinking about secondary projects to work on when guide work is blocked. Chief Adventure Experience Officer How to do early releases of the guide when quality is a core concern Adam is not thinking about the guide in terms of MVP because he...
Launch Analysis for Here Be Taverns with Numbers | Ep. 13
February 02, 2021 16:57 - 1 hour - 88.2 MBUsing Secfi to invest in stock options at private companies. Scott Adams the creator of Dilbert and his tactics for making Dilbert a smash hit. Hard to find good resources on investing. Brandon explains /r/wallstreetbets and GameStop saga to Adam. Here Be Taverns launch analysis with numbers. Adam still doesn't understand Twitter for Sword & Source. Adam started Sword & Source partly because he saw so many indecipherable tools in that market. Making deliberate time to prepare for ...
Context sharing for developers & Launches | Ep.12
January 26, 2021 16:24 - 1 hour - 88.2 MBBrandon's new project: Codex - context sharing for developers When to raise venture capital rather than bootstrap How do you decide to focus on a product when you run a service agency? Applying The Mom Test Should you ask people to "click to tweet"? How to get more reviews for your products Adam focusing on launching Here Be Taverns - random tavern generator for RPGs Happiness as a function of expectation setting Setting goals are valuable to help you focus efforts in the right plac...
Live Idea Validation Workshop | Ep. 11
January 19, 2021 15:46 - 1 hour - 88.2 MBHow we ship wbb.fm every week Deciding not to launch a Sword & Source podcast... yet The risk of recurring content commitments How long it takes to make an episode of Null to Zero podcast How much time should you spend on marketing? Should you be marketing products that are themselves marketing products? Adam may be short-selling his next project Here Be Taverns. It is launching Jan.22. The power of twitch streamers as top of funnel in the games industry. LoreCraft Twitch channel. ...
How to understand your customers | Ep. 10
January 12, 2021 20:50 - 1 hour - 85 MBTabata workout Not being able to start a meditation practice. Mindfulness in every day life. Parenting as a form of rapid, painful, personal growth. Brandon's year in review vs Adam's Personal data that no one else has as a unique selling point. Adam wants to do more favours. Brandon wants to do less. What gives? Brandon's paused project focused on the creator economy. Adam considers focusing on learning marketing so he can teach it to RPG creators. The challenge of identifying ...
Knowing yourself so you can find the right business model | Ep. 9
January 09, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 79.7 MBAdam's Year in Review Brandon's Year in Review You can't pass on wisdom. You need to experience some pains. 0 to 1 VS incremental improvement. Zero to One by Peter Thiel Why you should not go 0 to 1 as a bootstrapper. Good business models for bootstrappers. CEO = Chief Everything Officer. The challenges in RPGs as a bootstrapper. The advantages to being in an early market. Defining what rich looks like. How to optimize for income in the tech industry. "Clarify what you value mo...
Our Most Important Lessons from 2020 | Ep.8
January 06, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 79.7 MBAdam's Year in Review Brandon's Year in Review Year In Review template on yearcompass.com Adam pushes Brandon to write his year in review and keep it raw The power of having a high baseline for your emotional state How Brandon improved his emotional baseline using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy How Brandon became a lot better at sales The answer to anything that matters is usually simple: consistent work Personal finance Bitcoin and libertarians Failing at social media Tell your c...
The Importance of an Experimental Mindset | Ep. 7
January 05, 2021 17:17 - 1 hour - 79.8 MBStruggling with burnout How to be productive as a knowledge worker The power of the subconscious mind Priming the subsconscious mind with the Josh Waitzkin approach https://tim.blog/2016/03/23/josh-waitzkin-the-prodigy-returns/ Lucid dreaming Adam's interest moving away from coding The value of writing to accelerate your career Tactics for improving your writing Adam's idea to build a digital graveyard. How will he justify trying it? Buying pixels to raise money for charity Adam...
Adam's Year in Review 2020 | Ep.6
January 01, 2021 20:08 - 1 hour - 66 MBHighlights Work, Studies, Profession Relaxation, Hobbies, Creativity Friends, Community Health, Fitness Intellectual Emotional, Spiritual Finances Personal life and family Belongings (Home, Objects) Bucket List Lessons learned Intentionally designing my life with Amanda shielded our family I am here to serve TTRPG creators Being a better writer is mostly about being interesting I thrive in uncertainty Inspiration, constraints, and NoCode leads to remarkable results Focus on...
Finding a likeminded community as a founder
December 15, 2020 17:04 - 1 hour - 66 MBMarketing community by Corey Haines: https://www.swipefiles.co/ The substack model Designing the ideal bootstrapped business by Jason Cohen MicroConf community Adam should obviously join Microconf community Dave Gehardt Community Patio11 Art of Product Podcast and Ben (@r00k) OnDeck fellowships - reach out to Erik and ask about agencies Adam seriously thinking about finding a CoFounder. How would you do that? Shane Parrish of Farnham street Great by Choice
The ONLY question: What should I work on? | Ep. 4
December 08, 2020 06:00 - 1 hour - 66.1 MBCheck out the awesome guides at julian.com The Quickstart Guide to Game Mastering Game mastering as a deep craft. Founders should learn to be an RPG Game Master SPI Podcast mentioned by Brandon Todd Tresider is a financial mentor Brandon's spreadsheet for hypothesis testing Talk to Adam Waselnuk on Twitter about Game Mastering
Vasectomies, Client Proposals, Value Based Pricing, and Building to Explore | Ep.3
December 01, 2020 20:51 - 40 minutes - 37.5 MBIn this episode, us Wazel Brothers discuss Vasectomies and World of Warcraft for the first 10 minutes. Feel free to jump to minute 10 if you want to skip past that and get straight to business. We then dive into proposal writing, benefits and drawbacks of value-based pricing, and how Adam is exploring and meeting people in the RPG industry by building things on the internet.
Masterminds, Communities, and Audiences | Ep.2
November 24, 2020 21:43 - 41 minutes - 37.5 MBAgency masterminds. Ratchety marketing engines. Communities are distractions. Signs of early adopters.
NoCode. What is Product Management? | Ep. 1
November 24, 2020 21:42 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MBKP is the Program Director of the @beondeck No-Code Fellowship. Brandon Chu wrote The Black Box of Product Management.