From Idea to "Oh Sh*t, This Might Actually Work" (Part 2 of 2)

If you missed the previously email on this, you can read it here: How to come up with product ideas. I'll wait. aggressively taps foot

All caught up? Great! Now, let's talk about what happens after you've had your "eureka" moment and built something that doesn't immediately burst into flames when you turn it on.

The Marketing Marathon (Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Hustle)

Here's a fun fact that'll make you cry in your sleep (been there): Marketing is often harder than building the damn product.

Why? Because:

1. Building stuff is fun. Marketing is... well, marketing.

2. Your first attempt at marketing will probably fail. So will your second. And third. (Don't worry, it gets better less soul-crushing eventually)

3. Marketing is like a muscle. The first time you try to flex it, you might pull something. But keep at it, and eventually, you'll be the Arnold Schwarzenegger of marketing. Or at least the Danny DeVito.
   (… who’s Danny DeVito? Sorry, I just feed my brainstorming notes and ideas, and AI turns that into a full-fledged newsletter 😔).

💡 Pro tip: Plan to spend more time on marketing than development. Yeah, I know, it hurts. But trust me, your future self will thank you. Probably. Maybe.

Dream big but start embarrassingly small

Quick question: What's your goal for your startup?

If you said "become a billionaire," I want you to take a deep breath and repeat after me: "I will not be the next Zuckerberg. I will not be the next Zuckerberg."

Look, dreaming big is great. But you know what's better? Actually achieving something. My initial goal for our new product? 10K MRR. That's it.

Even that is more of a “1 year goal”. My monthly goal is my LinkedIn tagline, lol:

Is it sexy? Nope.

Is it achievable? Yup.

And guess what? Achieving it will teach me more than daydreaming about billions ever will.

Listen very carefully… what is marketing? Standing out, in the crowd. Getting eyeballs. (I learnt this while learning how to design thumbnails for youtube videos - you want your thumbnails to stand out in the YouTube feed of the users).

When everyone else is creating generic AI-Generated content, what can make you stand out? Authenticity. When everyone is following the “fake it, till you make it?” bandwagon, what can make you stand out? Fail, publicly. Build in public. Be transparent.

But speed is also king.. content is king.. creativity is king, timing is king, everything is a goddamn king. Which king do you pledge to? Generic usage of AI gives you speed, but it takes away the authenticity. Do everything yourself, and you're back to spending 5 hours creating a newsletter issue.

I think I’ve figured out the balance (this and the previous newsletter edition is a living proof of that). I’ve built a second brain. It captures my unique voice, my opinions, perspectives about different things, etc. It’s a mini-me that can now write LinkedIn posts, tweets, newsletter issues. Creepy? Maybe. Effective? I’ll see.

And this feature is the next in line for LiGo as well. So that you can do it as well.

The Product That Shall Not Be Named (But Totally Should Be Because Marketing)

Remember that two-day coding bender I mentioned in the previous email? The one where I built a thing for Rassam to use? Well, turns out, it's not just useful for overworked co-founders. Who knew?

We're calling it LiGo. Why? Because it helps you go places on LinkedIn. Also, because "That-Thing-Junaid-Built-While-Hopped-Up-On-Energy-Drinks" was too long (actually.. doesn’t sound too bad).

We're in beta now, and like any good beta, it's held together with duct tape, hope, and the tears of junior developers (me, I’m the junior developers). But hey, it works! Most of the time. When Mercury isn't in retrograde.

Want to try it out? We've got a free tier that lets you:

• Generate 20 post ideas (60% of which might not make you sound like a complete tool)

• Create 5 full posts (that may or may not make you the next LinkedIn influencer)

• Rewrite 5 of your own posts (in case you want to see how an AI interprets your caffeine-induced ramblings)

What if it doesn’t work?

But sir… it already does. If LiGo saves me and my team 20+ hours every week, it’s already done its job. Anything beyond that is a big golden plus.

Now, you might be thinking, "But Junaid, aren't there already a billion tools out there for LinkedIn?" And you'd be right. Sort of.

Yes, there's EasyGen, Taplio, AuthoredUp, and probably 17 new ones that launched while I was writing this sentence. But here's the thing: none of them are us.
(See how little I care mentioning the competitors so openly?)

Our secret sauce? I’m building this thing for my team first. Every feature, every update, it's all stuff we actually need and use. We're our own guinea pigs, lab rats, and crash test dummies all rolled into one.

Plus, being a tech-savvy founder (humble brag alert) with AI as Mjonir Mjölnir, means I can iterate faster than a cheetah on a caffeine drip (gotta tell AI to tune these references down a bit).

We don't just talk to our users; we are our users.
(Seriously though, it’s a bit lonely out here.. try it out 🫠 ).

What's Next in This Wild Ride?

Well, tomorrow I'll wake up, question all my life choices, then get back to building. Rinse and repeat.

But for you, dear reader, we've got some exciting stuff coming up:

1. How to market your product - and not just the cliche traditional methods (I’ll be using them and showing you how effective each was, so that you’ve got a baseline of what works and what doesn’t).

2. Tutorials on how to not suck at LinkedIn (featuring yours truly as the "before" picture)

3. A deep dive into how we're using AI without losing our souls (or at least, not all of it)

Stay tuned, keep failing upwards, and remember: if your product doesn't make you want to pull your hair out at least once a day, you're probably not doing it right.

Until next time, may your code be bug-free and your coffee be strong!

Junaid

P.S. Remember that 100-day YouTube challenge I mentioned yesterday? I'm on day 7 and I've only cried twice. Progress!