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Building a Startup in 4 Days: Day 1 Progress Report

Building a Startup in 4 Days: Day 1 Progress Report

This article is based on a conversation on a live session on Raw Startup. Please find a link to the podcast at the bottom of this article.

Can you build and launch a startup in just four days? That's the challenge a small team in Barcelona set out to tackle. Here's what happened on Day 1 of their ambitious project to create an AI-powered content creation tool.

The Project: AI-Powered Content Assistant for Creators

The team is building a tool that aims to solve a significant pain point for content creators: the time-consuming process of creating supplementary content for their primary content. This includes:

  • Show notes
  • Descriptions
  • Keywords
  • Social media posts
  • Platform-specific content variations

You can sign up for early access at www.justrelease.ai

Day 1 Technical Achievements

Content Injection System

The team successfully built a flexible content injection system that can:

  • Process multiple content formats (YouTube, RSS feeds, Apple Podcasts)
  • Handle various URL formats and structures
  • Automatically extract metadata and content information
  • Manage both audio and video content sources
  • Link related content across different platforms

User Experience Focus

Despite the tight timeline, the team prioritized user experience with features like:

  • One-click content import
  • Automatic content type detection
  • Preview capabilities for content selection
  • Team collaboration features
  • Simple content management interface

Technical Challenges Faced

  • Lost code due to AI mishap required rewriting several hours of work
  • Complex data structure design for different content types
  • Managing varying metadata formats across platforms
  • Implementing robust error handling for different input types

Business Goals and Strategy

The team set ambitious targets for their 4-day sprint:

  • Day 1: Build content injection system
  • Day 2: Develop AI-powered content generation
  • Day 3-4: Marketing and acquiring first paying customer
  • Target Price Point: €10-20 per month for basic features

Future Considerations

While focusing on their core offering, the team identified potential future expansions:

  • Thumbnail generation with brand consistency
  • Short-form video creation
  • Custom video editing capabilities
  • Advanced content repurposing tools

Key Learnings from Day 1

  1. Focus Is Critical: The team deliberately avoided feature creep by postponing video generation features despite user interest.
  2. User Experience Matters: Even with a tight timeline, investing in smooth user experience is essential.
  3. Market Validation: Having real users test the product on Day 1 provided valuable feedback and feature prioritization insights.

What's Next

The team moves into Day 2 focusing on:

  • Building the AI content generation system
  • Creating show notes automation
  • Developing social media post generation
  • Testing with real content creators

This ambitious project showcases the possibilities of rapid development when combining focused effort with clear scope management. Day 1's success in building a robust content injection system sets a strong foundation for the remaining challenges ahead.

Listen to the full conversation on Raw Startup.