The Ultimate Guide to Unbundling

Reddit
By Greg Isenberg

Reddit is one of my favorite places on the internet. It's like an early

version of a metaverse, where people come together to create

interconnected worlds, each with its own culture.

That interconnectedness is what makes Reddit great, but for the system

to work, each community has to conform to the one-size-fits-all mold of

a subreddit. One size fits all, but it doesn't fit anyone particularly well.

That creates unbundling opportunities.

There are hundreds of wonderful startups waiting to be built using

this simple strategy: create a product that serves the unmet needs of

an individual subreddit.
A few months ago, I wrote an overview of unbundling Reddit. In this

post, I want to lay out a step-by-step process for creating your own

"unbundling of Reddit" business.

Reddit is a diamond mine of startup ideas, here's your pickaxe:

Step 1: Find a Subreddit 🔎

First things first, you need to find the perfect subreddit. Start by

browsing redditlist.com to see rankings based on subscribers, 24 hour

growth, and activity.

While you browse, look for a subreddit that meets these criteria:

1. It's growing fast.

Subreddits that have grown ~40% or more in the last 6 months are
the most promising (https://subredditstats.com/ has long-term
growth stats).
 2. It has a critical mass of subscribers.
It doesn't have to be millions of subscribers - anything over 50K
is an opportunity to build a multi-million dollar business. Beyond
that, focus on growth trajectory over current size. That's where
the hidden gems are.
3. You have a competitive advantage there.
The perfect subreddit is one that you're especially well-suited for.
For example, you could have expertise on the topic or existing
connections in the community.
4. You're passionate about it.
It's important to be passionate about the topic you choose. You
need to be able to connect with the community authentically.
Besides, it's hard to beat the competition if you’re spending on
time on something you aren’t obsessed about. Authenticity wins.

Step 1 Example
1. I'll be using r/fire as an example throughout this post. "Fire"
stands for "financial independence/retire early”. It's a community
of people focused on achieving financial freedom so that they can
live life on their own terms.
Here's my evaluation:
 1. It's growing fast.✔
It has doubled its subscribers in the last 12 months.
2. It has a critical mass of subscribers. ✔
It has ~285K subscribers.
3. You have a competitive advantage there. ✔
I have experience building some of the biggest financial
communities on the internet.
4. You're passionate about it. ✔
Financial literacy changes lives. It's like normal literacy
-it unlocks the world! I wish I had known more about
finance sooner.

Step 2: Join the Subreddit 🤗

Now that you've found the perfect subreddit, it's time to become one

with the community. Immerse yourself like an anthropologist in an

isolated jungle tribe. Learn their language and their rituals. Their memes

are your memes now.

Aim to spend 1-2 hours everyday on the subreddit.

Take notice of which posts resonate with the community (pro-tip: some

of the best posts have lots of comments but not a lot of upvotes). Ask

questions you're interested in and answer questions when you have

helpful knowledge. Share useful links.

The most important thing is to be authentic. Engage like a human - don't

spam or use marketing speak. At this stage, you aren't looking to

establish a brand or sell anything.

Your only job is to make genuine connections and learn from them.

Step 2 Example
The top posts on r/fire are success stories from people who have hit big

milestones. Comment sections are usually quite active, with lots of

members offering advice and motivation to each other.

I could interact with the community like this:

● Post a question asking, "What will you do in your first year

post-retirement?"
It would tap into the aspirational nature of r/fire and teach me
about the members.
● Answer questions about how to manage living costs in
expensive cities.
I've learned some tricks for reducing my expenses over the years
that could be helpful.
● Share a link to Bloom Tech.
Many members of r/fire struggle to save because their jobs don't
pay well. They might not know that it's possible to boost their
earning potential without going to college.
🔮
Step 3: See What They Want

While you spend time in the community, always be thinking about what

problems they face. Get used to viewing everything you read through the

lens of motivation. Instead of focusing on an action a member took,

focus on what motivated them to take that action.

Look for themes that emerge. Pay special attention to problems that your

startup could make a real dent in.

Here are some useful questions to ask yourself:

● What recommendations do they ask for?

 ● Do they keep complaining about something specific?
● If you were trying to achieve their goals, what would make it
easier?

Whatever your hunches are, try to confirm them by talking with the

community. Collect clues that support or refute your hunch until you feel

confident in your understanding.

Step 3 Example
On r/fire, I've noticed that newcomers are overwhelmed by all the

information. They don't know where to start. It's so common that asking,

"How do I FI/RE?" has become a meme there.

I also see lots of posts from people feeling discouraged and looking for

moral support. The flip side of this trend is that posts about reaching

goals get a lot of traction.

Those patterns point me towards two needs: guidance on how to

achieve financial goals, and motivation to reach them.

 ☕️
Step 4: Create a Closer Space
for Communication

The subreddit format has low bandwidth for communication.

Interactions are almost never real-time and rarely one-on-one. They can

also be limited by the norms and rules of the subreddit.

Once you've gotten comfortable with the community, take your

connection from dialup to fiber by creating your own gathering place.

The goal here is to have more personal and direct interactions.

The best options are usually Discord servers, Slacks, Instagram pages, or

Skool communities. You'll have to make a judgement call on which to use

based on the demographics of your subreddit. Whichever you choose,

curate it as much as possible for the community.

The trick: make it feel like their own special corner of the internet.

Once you've created your new space, use the subreddit to spread the

word. Make a post about it, mention it in comments, invite people

personally with private messages. Do NOT spam though.

Be like a gracious host inviting someone into your home, not a pushy

salesman trying to hit quota.

Step 4 Example
For r/fire, I would go with Slack. It's a community focused on early

retirement, business-oriented (so I'd do Slack > Discord).

I would create channels like #investing, #milestones, and #savingtips. I'd

also create a #welcome channel with links to the best FI/RE resources.

To set the tone, I'd personally welcome each new member that joined.
 🧱
Step 5: Build Something for
Them

Now that you've gotten to know the community and can talk to members

directly, you're finally ready to build something for them!

1. Figure out what to build

Figuring out a community's needs is the hardest part of knowing
what to build, but you've already done that. Next, brainstorm
ways you can help with the needs you uncovered. Try to think of
the smallest thing you can build that will solve a problem for
them.

2.
3. You're still exploring, so think of this as setting up camp. You can
start developing the city after you find out if the land is farmable.
4. Build it
Once an idea has come into focus, get building. (I won't get into
 how to build product in this guide, but here's an awesome
overview by Michael Seibel if you're interested. Late Checkout
also occasionally partners with leading brands to do this)
This is where the space you created becomes really valuable.
Share what you're building and ask for feedback, then
incorporate that feedback into the product. Repeat!
5. Launch it
You can use the same strategy you did in Step 4 for spreading the
word.

Step 5 Example
The biggest need I saw from r/fire members was a need for guidance on

achieving their financial goals. There's lots of information out there, but

it's overwhelming.

The idea I landed on to help with that is an "investment checklist".

The checklist would show users where to put their money, in what order,

to minimize taxes and maximize interest as they build up their savings. It

would be interactive - they could enter their monthly saving amount and

other details, then see a projection of how they should progress.

Before I started building, I would ask the community if they thought the

investment checklist would be useful and what features would make it

great. Building is old, co-building is the future.

As I co-built, I would check in regularly to make sure I was still on the

right path.

🏰
Step 6: Build on Top of What
You Built

At this point, you have two very valuable resources: your space and your

product. Those are the twin boosters that will get your spaceship to

escape velocity.
You now have everything you need to build a big business.

To do that, find opportunities to build on top of your product. There

should be no shortage. Ask yourself how it could evolve into a

community or marketplace. Build in social components. Add on features

to cover more of the community's problems.

Iterate, iterate, iterate.

It's also helpful to use your predecessors for inspiration. Try to reverse

engineer how Discord evolved out of the League of Legends community,

or how IndieHackers evolved out of the bootstrapping community.

If you pay close attention to the community, they'll show you the way.

Step 6 Example
For my example, I think the best play is to create a FI/RE knowledge hub.
I could build out other valuable tools and host them on the same site,

like a savings calculator that tells you how much you need to save each

month to hit your retirement goal by a certain year.

To monetize, I could create an online course for how to retire early. The

tools would drive traffic to the site, where people would discover the

course.

Since online courses are a great way to build community online, I could

create an accompanying Slack for students.

From there, I could expand into podcasting and YouTube to grow the

community, drive traffic to the website, and generate ad revenue.

Bonus: r/manga 🎁
I believe so strongly in the unbundling Reddit approach that

Late Checkout does a weekly unbundling of Reddit scrum, where we pick a

new subreddit to unbundle. It’s a fun, creative way to come up with

startups ideas.
 Welcome

Unbundling

Reddit
r/manga

Community
 What is Manga?

Late Checkout 1
 Natsuki Takaya
Manga Artist Behind Fruits Basket

I think that nationality has no relation to

that which gives rise to manga. Even
among the Japanese, manga creators are
making their creations everyday reflecting
their own individuality, with none being the
same. What is important isn’t the
differences between the creators but their
love for manga”

Late Checkout 4
 Fact

$120 Million
Annual manga sales in America

Late Checkout 5
 Manga Dominates
Adult Comics and
Graphic Novels 16%
Manga

5%
regul ar

comics

Late Checkout 6
 Who is buying
manga in the US?

16%
of manga buyers are men

76%
of manga buyers are

between the ages

of 13 and 29

Late Checkout 7
 Where do they gather
01 r/manga 1,2 million members
Everything manga related

02 r/mangacollectors 15,6k members

For people to showcase their manga
collections

03 r/[insertmanga] 90k members on average

For people to discuss and post fan art
for specific mangas

Late Checkout 8
 r/manga

Most common post

types n e ws

Source art

discussion

Late Checkout 9
 But it’s a mess
of content

Late Checkout 10
 Vision

An Organized website where people can

1
Discuss 2
Find
Their favorite mangas New Mangas

based on recomendations

3
Showcase 4
Post
Their progress
Fan art and cosplays
and collections

Late Checkout 11
 Aesthetic

Late Checkout 12
 Competition

MyAnimelist

Late Checkout 13
 Where MyAnimelist
Fails

01. anime focus 02. design 02. user Experien

Site is tailored to anime watchers

Limited manga recomendations

Late Checkout 14
 Recommendations

Late Checkout 15
 Where My
Animelist Fails

01. anime focus 02. design 02. user Experien

Site is tailored to anime watchers Aesthetic is bland

Limited manga recomendations All pages are uniform

Late Checkout 16
 Rankings

Late Checkout 17
 Where My
Animelist Fails

01. anime focus 02. design 03. user Experience

Site is tailored to anime watchers Aesthetic is bland Site navigation is extremely difficult
Limited manga recomendations All pages are uniform Not enough ranked categories
Search is extremely broad

Late Checkout 18
 Search

Late Checkout 19
 Where My
Animelist Fails

03. user Experience 04. Community

tic is bland Site navigation is extremely difficult Style of engagement is slow and
es are uniform Not enough ranked categories old fashined

Search is extremely broad No room for sharing

Late Checkout 20
 Community

Late Checkout 21
 In short MyAnimelist is a
garbage website

Late Checkout 22
 But it has over
7 million users
+ 120 million
monthly
visitors
If something that poorly made
can get those figures, I think
we’re onto something here

Late Checkout 23
 What about the $$$?

affiliates

Publisher Online Marketplaces

Late Checkout 24
 A lot of people want to buy

manga but the avenues for

doing so are unclear and free

scanlated content is simply

ubiquitous and easier to

find’’

Late Checkout 25
The Possibilities Are Andless

Granular Algor
Discord Integration
recomendation

User pages to track Virtual Even

reading/collection progress series finale

Social Media space for fan

Private m
artist to gather followings
 The Possibilities Are Andless

Granular Algorithmic
gration
recomendations

s to track Virtual Events for collectors and

ollection progress live series finale discussions

Media space for fan

Private messaging
o gather followings
Late Checkout 28