Challenge: Tell me you have never launched a product, without telling me you've never launched a product

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Tell me you have never launched a product, without telling me you’ve never launched a product. I’ll go first:

Whoever said that clearly never tried to launch a product in today's hyper-competitive market. I mean, seriously? If that were true, we'd all be swimming in success like Scrooge McDuck in his money bin.

This week, I accidentally stumbled into the global spotlight on LinkedIn (more on that below) - and more or less missed the shot. Not sure if I should count that as a win or a failure. Anyways,

If you're new here, welcome to the chaos! And if you're a returning reader, thanks for sticking around - you love this edition. 

(No.. it’s not my English, read it again - you stuck around = you love it 😂).

In today's issue 

In no particular order:

• The most interesting question I got this week

• Went global, but.. got deported 😔 

• The "0 to 0.5" phase - know it, accept it, do it.

• Building an audience: Sort of like making friends, but at scale (i’ll explain in a bit)

So, let's dive into it. Grab a cup of coffee (or your beverage of choice) and settle in, I've got stories to share (last reminder, by next edition - I expect you to remember the drill 🤝).

Let's get this show on the road!

The most interesting question I got this week

Short Answer:

1. They are the past and the present, but not the future.

2. COGS. The more “service providers” you have, the lower control you have over pricing and your own margins.

3. More technical limitations in the long-run.

4. BUT, they are still better than AI-tools for now (until I drop my YouTube playlist 😉).

(Before the long version, for everyone that dropped a reply to the previous newsletter and didn’t get a response yet: My co-founder is an a**hole - he reads the emails on the shared mailbox, and forgets to ‘mark them as unread’ so I can respond to them later).

👉️ Note: You can ask a question by replying to this email, or give ‘recommendations’ - if it’s the most interesting one I receive that week, I’ll feature it in the Sunday edition).

😶‍🌫️ Side note from co-founder: On the bright side, my mistake gave Junaid the idea to make this a recurring feature of the newsletter. There are no accidents, young one. Sincerely, Mo Rassam.

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Long Answer:

No-code tools are great for quickly validating ideas. Build it there, 100%. They were absolute game-changers (no AI didn’t write this answer, I’m using the word ‘game-changer’ intentionally) for non-technical founders, and actually still are.

But in the long run, you need your pricing to be competitive, and your margins to be high. And the no-code tool vendor of course has their “own margins” which you’ll have to factor into your pricing (you want as fewer dynamic components/COGS in your pricing as possible).

Owning your stack end-to-end unlocks advantages you cannot have otherwise. See what the CEO of Brex says about it. 

AI powered development is the future of building and scaling products, offer more control and can significantly reduce long-term costs. I'd bet my last cup of coffee that AI-powered workflows will dominate the next decade. Sure, there's a learning curve, but the long-term benefits are worth it.

What do I mean by technical limitations? If you’ve used CMS (like Wordpress, Wix, etc.) and also built websites using MERN/MEAN stack, etc. you already know what I am talking about. Almost every business that started with a Wordpress website ultimately shifted to the latter, because you have more control in the latter. And you need more control.. eventually.

Best way to proceed for non-technical founders:

1. Start with Wordpress (sorry, no-code tools), or develop with AI.

2. Validate the idea/demand for your product.

3. Get the initial 500 to 1000 customers (revenue).

4. Depends on # 1:

   1. For No-Code: Hire a development team to redo the product from scratch (Best Case: The developers use AI-workflows).

   2. For AI-Dev: Hire developers, teach them your AI-workflows, have them ‘audit the app’ and then build on top.
      Get 2.718x the productivity.
      (Source: Trust me, bro).

Before you read further, I’ve got a burning question for you that will bring you a long streak of bad luck if you don’t answer:

Drop me an email if your answer is “it’s complicated”.

Or if you’re feeling daring, you can answer our complete survey here:

Promise it’ll take only 30 seconds and help us tailor our content better so we can be your best thing on Sundays 😉 

Small Wins This Week: Highlights and Progress

• LinkedIn Cohort Launch: Our LinkedIn cohort officially launched this week, we’ve shortlisted 50 participants and will gradually narrow down to a core group of 30. Quality over quantity is the name of the game here, ensuring each member gets the attention they deserve. No more space for new entrants, but you can join the waitlist for the next cohort here (free forever):

  Join the waitlist

• 2 micro-products cleared Milestone # 1 (technical validation), and have moved to Milestone # 2 (MVP). Milestone # 3 is MSP, Milestone # 4 is MMP.

• 1 core product is close to MSP.
  
  P.S: I feel like a bit of a hypocrite for calling this newsletter a part of our “Build in public” motion, and .. not sharing details about what we’re building at all. Hmm, I’ll try and talk more about that maybe in next Sunday’s edition, but for now - let me just drop a quick screenshot here (color scheme looks ugly, no? 🤮).

Went global, but.. got deported 😔 

A single post reached about 30,000 impressions within 24 hours, attracting attention from around the world. Before I explain it’s importance, here’s the stats (I promised transparency, so.. there you go):

For the past three months, as many of my early newsletter subscribers know, I've been consistently posting and engaging on LinkedIn.

This persistence has paid off and the algorithm has finally decided to push my content beyond local boundaries (I have seen the same trajectory with my ex-YouTube channel that I made in 2018, and scaled to 700K views).

Most platforms usually keep your content in a local bubble at first (your locality). That is GREAT. But, for small scale B2B, or national-level B2C businesses only. Because their audience is in their hometown, or country.

For businesses that want to target a global customer base (like us), it’s a huge thorn in their GTM.

My post didn’t get as much engagement as I’d hoped—likely because the content was more triggering than I anticipated (or intended) — but that’s okay.

The real takeaway is that if you stay consistent, the algorithms will eventually work in your favor, taking you from 0 to 100 faster than you might think. What it do was bring in 50+ connection requests from complete strangers (across the globe) plus ~10 DMs. Remember this:

1. Branding is consistency.

2. Marketing is eyeballs (okay.. that’s an oversimplification but you gotta start somewhere).

This leads me to the next part which is .. building an audience.

Think of it this way: Remember how you made friends in school? You showed up regularly, shared interesting stuff (hopefully?), and gradually built connections/friends.

Building an audience works the same way, but instead of sharing your lunch, you're sharing insights and experiences.

It doesn’t have to be a monetary transaction always - people help people in dozens of different ways like being a devil’s advocate for your offering, a beta tester, an evangelist, an affiliate marketeer, etc. All of this is extremely valuable.

The "0 to 0.5" Phase: Climbing Everest in flip flops

Let's talk about a phase in business that nobody really warns you about – the "0 to 0.5" stage (out of 100 🤑). It's that awkward period where you're doing a ton of work, but it feels like you're moving at a snail's pace.

In business, you've got two types of tasks:

1. One-time, foundational tasks: These are the heavy lifters, the ones that might take up to 500 hours collectively but are crucial for setting up your business infrastructure. Think of it as building the launchpad for your rocket ship.

2. Recurring tasks: These are the ones that directly contribute to your progress, like revenue generation or operational efficiency. They're the fuel that keeps your rocket moving once it's launched.

Right now, we're in that "0 to 0.5" phase for a lot of different components of our business. It's not glamorous, it's not always fun, but it's absolutely necessary. We're laying the groundwork, setting up systems, and preparing for takeoff.

In the beginning, about 80% of my work was in this phase (May and part of June, 2024). But over time, it's shifted to about 20%, with the rest focused on value addition.

If you're in this phase too, don't get discouraged. Remember, even SpaceX had to build its launchpad before sending rockets to Mars.

In the meantime, you can just trade to pass the time

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Coming Up Next 👀

→ Sneak peek of our product progress and how we got here (In September & October - I’m going to step-by-step cover the 0 to 100 Roadmap).

• 0 = You have an idea.

• 100 = You have a Minimum Marketable Product with a defined-ICP.

→ Why LinkedIn newsletter is a great starting point… and how you can transition from that to a newsletter platform (+why). Hint: Monetization + control.

→ Random stuff that comes to mind on the go - life would be boring if you knew everything that’s coming ahead.

Eternally caffeinated,

Junaid

P.S. If you found value in this behind-the-scenes peek into our journey, share it with a friend who could use some entrepreneurial inspiration. And if you didn't... well, there's always the unsubscribe button. No hard feelings – life's too short for newsletters you don't enjoy, right? 😉

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