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Howdy Founders 🤠,

Ever have one of those moments where you stumble upon a tool that completely changes your workflow? This week, that tool for me has been v0.dev

Let’s talk about

• Playing around with v0 and ShadCN 🤖💬

• Focusing on what’s in my control 🎯

• Idea of the week 💡

Playing around with v0 and ShadCN 🤖💬

I just started playing around with v0.dev this week and my god it’s good.

What is it? — It’s a chatbot for building out full UI’s. Giving you code for React components that are easy to plug into NextJS projects with ShadCN as the backing UI library.

It comes up with some pretty sweet stuff. Here’s a dashboard I had it generate for a b2b training app.

This preview on the app is fully functional and the chatbot can handle making multiple components split across different files and even different pages of the preview app. You can actually navigate through the UI like it was a real app hosted locally.

Why I love this? — I love building frontends but I don’t always have a good picture in my head of the design I want to go with. Using v0 you can just describe the basic functionality you’re looking for and it goes to town.

We’ve seen similar chatbots before, Framer tried to do something a while back (maybe 6-8 months ago?) But it just wasn’t good at all. With v0 it's locked to using a UI library and writing React so it makes the UI a whole lot more structured and has less chance for weird design hallucinations.

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Focusing on What's in My Control🎯

Lately, I've been on a quest to find meaningful problems to solve—the kind that not only challenge me but can also scale to a decent sized business. But if I'm being honest, it sometimes feels like finding these problems is just outside of my control. It's like I'm fishing in an ocean of possibilities without knowing where the fish are.

And that's when I have to remind myself: Focus on what's in your control.

Embracing My Sphere of Influence

I can't control market trends, the next big tech disruption, or when inspiration will strike. But here's what I can control:

• My Effort: I can show up every day, ready to put in the work. Whether it's coding, brainstorming, or reaching out to potential users, the effort is entirely up to me.

• Skill Development: I can continue to sharpen my skills, learn new technologies, and learn about new industries. The better equipped I am, the more prepared I'll be when opportunity knocks.

• Networking: I can build relationships with other founders, mentors, and potential customers. Engaging with others often opens doors to opportunities I hadn't considered.

The Intersection of Preparation and Opportunity

I’ve written about this before but there’s a saying I love: "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." By focusing on what I can control—my preparation—I'm increasing the chances that I'll be ready when the right problem presents itself.

For example:

• Exploring Interests: I've been diving into different industries, attending Austin meetups, and participating in online communities. Each interaction is a potential goldmine of ideas.

• Experimenting with Projects: Even if a project doesn't become the next unicorn startup, it teaches me valuable lessons and might pivot into something unexpected. For example, FormBee (which I’ve talked about before) is my experiment with implementing Programmatic SEO. I generated a few hundred blog posts with AI and spent a ton of time doing keyword research.

Letting Go of the Uncontrollable

Yes, part of finding meaningful problems is outside my control. I can't force the perfect idea to appear, and I can't control external factors.

Instead, I'm choosing to:

• Stay Open-Minded: Sometimes, opportunities come from the most unexpected places.

• Focus on Actionable Steps: What can I do today that moves me forward?

• Practice Patience: Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a successful SaaS.

Turning the Journey into the Destination

By concentrating on what's within my control, I'm not just passively waiting for the right problem to solve—I'm actively creating the conditions for it to emerge. This shift in mindset transforms the journey from a stressful search into an engaging adventure.

So, if you're like me, searching for that meaningful problem and feeling a bit frustrated, remember to focus on your sphere of influence. Keep learning, keep building, and keep connecting. The rest will fall into place when the time is right.

P.S. I've found that when I stop stressing over what's out of my control and start embracing what I can do, not only do I make more progress, but I also enjoy the process a whole lot more. And isn't that what being a founder is all about?

Idea of the week 💡

AI-Powered Employee Scheduling Platform

ChatGPT has gotten really good at handling scheduling in some of the prompts I’ve been giving it. You can use a prompt like —

“I have 4 employees, Mark, John, Jeff and Riley. They all make $10/hour. Mark and John want a full 40 hours and Riley can only work weekends. Create a schedule for my M-F business that saves me the most money and gives me full coverage for my store”

The idea would be to expand on this, create an interactable schedule webapp. Allow users to setup their employees in the system and let the AI rip into the next schedule.

You could even have the AI handle rescheduling requests via a Text message bot.

John - “I’m sick today”

AI - “No worries, Jeff can cover your shift.”

I'd love to hear from you:

• What new tools or technologies have you discovered that changed your workflow?

• How do you stay focused on what's within your control amidst the uncertainties of entrepreneurship?

• Any exciting projects you're currently experimenting with?

Feel free to hit reply and share your thoughts. Let's keep the conversation going and continue to learn from each other's journeys.

Until next time, keep building, keep exploring, and remember—the journey is just as important as the destination.

Love you 🙂,

Ronald