Smash Notes
Mubashar Iqbal
Episodes
Notes
Smash Notes · Special interview with Mubashar Iqbal, Product Hunt Make of the…
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What Do Friends Know About Mubashar That Most People Don't
Every failure is a learning opportunity. Mubs is a very positive person and he does not get held back by failure, instead he uses it to propel himself forward.
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How Did Traffic Make Mubashar Want to Work From Home?
During his first job, Mubs would spend over an hour sitting in traffic. He tried to beat the traffic by leaving the house super early in the morning, but three months in, he had enough of both. Work from home seemed like a much better option.
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How Is It Possible to Work From Home for 20 Years
Mubs started working from home nearly twenty years ago and never stopped.
During the first internet bubble, a company he was working for went bust, so he got another job, but needed to move away from the New York city. Talent was scarce, and he was good, so even though the concept of working from home was still entirely new, they encouraged him to keep working.
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Have You Heard of the Palm Phone
Palm is a little phone, the size of a credit card. It runs Android, has a camera, and is able to do everything your normal phone does.
Palm is a great phone for your family members that don't need a shiny new iPhone, as well as a fabulous second phone for anyone who wants to spend more time in the physical world.
If you'd like to try it out, go to Palm.com and use the discount code "raddad" to get $50 off your purchase, while supplies last.
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What Outcome Would Make Mubs Happy
Mubs says he has pretty low expectations for the outcomes of his project. He does not have VC funding, nor does it really cost him anything outside of his time. He does not have much to lose, only the upside to gain.
PodHunt feels like a long-term project, given how much the industry is growing. At the same time, he cannot predict where it goes, so it makes sense to keep making stuff and following along, and to catch the waves as it comes.
[editor's note:] Mubs shared this after we ended recording: WillRobotsTakeMyJob was a cool weekend project he created with a friend, which got millions of visitors, got him coverage on Lifehacker, Fortune, Ma
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Why Did You Start Working on PodHunt
Product Hunt used to have a games, podcasts, and books category. They eventually shut them down to focus on software. Mubs and his friends have been missing the podcast category though, and given the rising popularity of podcasts, it seemed now was a good time to launch PodHunt.
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Why Did Mubashar Iqbal Build HowMuchIsABitcoin.com?
Mubashar Iqbal, Product Hunt Maker of the Year in 2016 and the founder of Pod Hunt, tells Smash Notes host Kirill Zubovsky that HowMuchIsABitcoin.com came out of the years when people searched how much a Bitcoin was worth. He was into crypto himself and wanted a small thing in that space he could share. Kirill Zubovsky compares it to the Silicon Valley episode in which Gilfoyle tracks the Bitcoin price, and notes that visitors do not have to buy Bitcoin on the site for the page to earn affiliate money. Iqbal files it with his other side projects: take something you already watch and turn it into a small public tool.
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Has Mubashar Iqbal Made Money From His Side Projects?
The notes for this Smash Notes interview introduce Mubashar Iqbal as a developer and a dad behind Pod Hunt, Product News, Practical MVP, and about 80 other projects. Some of those projects sold, some shut down, and some still pay him passive income. The episode is about his newest product, Pod Hunt, about how a serial maker stays on the work without losing interest, and about his family. He has been featured by Lifehacker, The Next Web, Mashable, and Fortune. The short version is that the side projects have made money, unevenly, rather than as one clean win.
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Is Mubashar Iqbal Trying to Start the Next Unicorn
Mubs says that building a unicorn is not one of his goals. He is simply trying to solve his own problems, and sometimes those of his friends. If it turns out to be a good business, so be it.
In fact, he thinks the world is chasing the hustle culture too much. There is a huge value in enjoying the process of creating things. It's important to enjoy yourself.
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What Do You Think About No-code Movement
Mubs sees software as a tool that enables people to solve problems. If you can solve a problem, using whatever tools are available to you, that is great.
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What Is the Hardest Part About Making Side Projects
Coding is the easy part, especially with all the click-and-drag tools available today. It is a lot harder to figure out what it is that you want to build, and to then get people to use it.
p.s. Looking for a no-code tool to start with? Try Webflow!
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What Is Your Super-power
Mubs says that he truly does not need a lot of sleep. Once the kids are in bed and the day job is done, he is able to stay up and work into the night, 2-3 in the morning, then get some sleep and be up again at 6am to start it all over again.
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Why Is Mubashar Working on So Many Projects
He loves it, and has been doing it for a really long time.
Mubs has been coding since he was 8 years old, he studied it in university, and then worked as a web developer. He truly loves to code, and takes any free time to do it as his hobby.
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Who Is Mubashar "mubs" Iqbal
Mubs is a developer, dad, and a maker. He loves to code and to create products for himself and his friends, and to date, he has created over 80 different projects. Take a look at the list of projects by Mubs , it's extensive!