✦Business · 12 recordsSolo founder

For somebody building alone. The goal is a paying customer rather than a launch, because a launch is something you can do without anyone caring.

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Free on any plan. You will see this list again in the app, and nothing is created until you press install.

✦ Everything it creates

The whole plan, before you install it

Goal

Get to the first paying customer Month 3

Not traffic, not signups. Somebody paying.

Ship the first version Week 6

The smallest thing somebody could pay for.

  • Write down what it does in one sentenceDo firstDay 1
  • Cut the scope to what ships in a monthDo firstDay 3
  • Put up a page that explains itWeek 2

Talk to people Month 2

The part that gets skipped, so it gets a project of its own.

  • List 20 people who have this problemDay 2
  • Send the first five messagesDay 4
  • Write up what the first calls saidWeek 3

Routines

  • Weekly reviewweekly
  • Ship something smalldaily
✦ It comes with a note

The one number

First paying customer. Everything in here either moves that or it does not.

When a week ends and nothing moved it, that is the thing the weekly review is for — not to feel bad, to notice.

✦ Questions

Solo founder, answered.

Because a launch is something you can complete entirely on your own, without anyone caring. A first payment is the smallest event that cannot be faked by effort, which makes it the only honest thing to point the whole plan at.
Because building feels like progress and talking to people feels like an interruption, so the second one loses every time it competes with the first. Giving it its own project and its own tasks is what keeps it happening.
Noticing, not judging. Its only job is to make it obvious when a week has gone by without anything moving the one number, which is very easy to miss from inside a busy week of real work.
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A goal for the fortnight, work that fits it, and a review that is honest about what did not land.

Install it and start this evening

It takes one press. Everything it creates is tagged, so if it turns out not to suit you, it is easy to find and remove together.

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