How Kernal Built an All-In-One Startup Idea Hub

Every startup begins with a single idea.

With a bit of effort, that idea can translate from a neuron to a napkin.

However, at this point, most business ideas breathe their last breath.

The reason? The ideator couldn’t find the resources and the people to make their vision a reality.

Until now.

Kernal is a platform that connects startup ideas, founders, and investors. The membership site, in conjunction with its newsletter, allows the startup world to connect, share ideas, and gain the validation it needs to turn a concept into a venture-backed reality.

We recently sat down with Joel Hansen, Kernal’s marketing advisor and newsletter creator, to discuss his approach to building an ideation hub and marketplace for the startup world.

Joel was happy to share how he was able to leverage his expertise as a leading marketer and community-builder in the startup world to get Kernal and its newsletter to 10,000 members—two of which include the founder of HubSpot, Darmesh Shah, and the founder of The Hustle, Sam Parr.

Joel’s Backstory: Connecting Founders, Builders, Investors

Joel Hansen has always had a passion for startups. Whether it’s building them, investing in them, or founding them—you could say he’s been around the startup block once or twice.

As a two-time TED talker, a leading LinkedIn voice with 47,000+ followers, and the Head of Community & Marketing at LOI Venture, Joel has been in the startup world long enough to see there are plenty of ideas to go around. But, too many of them end up falling off because they weren’t given a big enough spotlight.

Joel shared, “I grew up in the Vancouver area. I have always been a fan of startup ideas and the movements behind ideas that make them worth following. I got connected with the Kernal founding team and fell in love with the concept of, ‘Why isn't there a marketplace where a founder can meet a startup idea that meets investor dollars? And helping to build a marketplace to validate opportunities that are worth working on.”

It’s true that there are several platforms that have accelerated the startup world. There’s Product Hunt for products, Quora for startup questions, and AngelList for fundraising. But, there isn’t a place to validate ideas so they can grow into real, viable businesses.

Joel shared, “I've always been somebody that is drawn from one shiny object to the next shiny object. I feel validation from mentors, from friends, and from colleagues has always been helpful. I and the Kernal team really fell in love with the idea of what it looks like to build a community that can actually give honest feedback and healthy criticism for the good of the idea versus the good of the relationship with the founder.”

He continued, “We are focused on that first-time founder. It feels like the serial founder that's maybe had one or two exits—they already have their community, they already have their group chat of buddies that are super well known.”

“But, the first-time founder that's making that jump away from working at a big tech company or away from their nine-to-five working on the side of the desk…I feel like there's not as much of a community for that first-time founder, first-time builder. So that's what we're really passionate about—helping that person along the journey through the startup idea wilderness.”

Gaining Traction Among Giants

Kernal has already started attracting giants in the startup space, including:

• Dharmesh Shah, Co-founder/CTO, HubSpot

• Shaan Puri, Founder of Twitch

• Ryan Holmes, Founder & CEO of Hootsuite

• Sam Parr, Founder of The Hustle

• Alex Lieberman, Co-founder of Morning Brew

• Jason Warner, CTO at GitHub

• David Rock, Creative Director for GaryVee

These major players in the startup space oftentimes take the role of investor, advisor, or mentor at Kernal. However, many of them are also sharing their own ideas, such as Shaan Puri and Sam Parr’s Michael Jordan Museum idea that began as a “kernal” on their podcast, My First Million.

You can read all about their idea on Kernal here, which is one of many from the MFM podcast.

Elevating the Hidden Founders

Many founders build in the dark, often alone, working evenings and weekends with little support. Kernal is a way to help build a community around founders and their ideas to make them a success.

Joel shared, “The startup founder journey is such a lonely path. Often, they're not really celebrated until they've raised a pre-seed round or they've met Mark Cuban for a selfie, or they've been a panelist at South by Southwest. What we wanted to create was a community where these founders could be celebrated from day one by seeing somebody share their napkin startup idea on Kernal.”

“If they're looking to get more validated exposure—When we feature them and they go and celebrate that with their community, we want to give them the right formula. “

Social media is a common breeding ground for startup ideas. But, the problem is that there’s limited validation that often ends with a little pat on the back, rather than a real, tangible business.

Joel shared, “If your community wants to upvote, or say that they'd invest in the startup idea, or pay for the startup idea, Kernal is that toolset that helps that founder further validate their idea versus just getting vanity metrics from Twitter.”

Growing the Startup About Startups

Kernal is a single place for creatives and entrepreneurs to find, share, and grow their startup idea. It’s an all-in-one platform to connect founders and investors with the latest ideas and opportunities in the market.

By encouraging ideators to lay it all out, they’re able to get early feedback from other founders and investors to help validate their idea–or help them move onto the next one.

And Kernal is taking off big time. In just a year and a half after CEO Paul Donnelly and the Kernal team launched the platform, they’ve already grown their membership base to five-figures.

Joel shared, “That’s what we're excited to be building at Kernal. We're thrilled to see there are already over 10,000 members and 2,000 ideas on the platform. There’s that line from the founder of Twitch—Justin Kan. He says, “First time founders are obsessed with product. Second time founders are obsessed with distribution.”

Using beehiiv to Get the Ideas Buzzing

Shortly after Kernal was launched, Joel joined the team to help fuel engagement and growth. Since Joel has his own newsletter of 20,000+ subscribers, he understood the opportunities a weekly newsletter could provide Kernal in serving its audience…