My 2023 Adventure: From Zero to 100 Users
My Story
As a product designer, I've always wanted to launch my own product or business. Finding the right idea, though, was tough. I used to think I needed to solve some massive, world-changing problem, but that just left me feeling stuck and overwhelmed.
Other times, I'd dive into a project, work like crazy for a few weeks, then hit a wall of burnout and just drop it. Like, there was this one time I designed these cool dog leashes, got them made in China, and when they finally arrived, I had lost all interest. (Side note: I've still got like 300 of these in my closet. If you want one, hit me up!)
I was getting tired of this pattern of start-stop, feeling like I was constantly crying wolf every time I embarked on a new venture.
Changing My Habits
Then, one weekend at a cabin in Big Bear, I had a moment of clarity. I needed a change to really move forward.
Leaving Big Bear, I didn't have a concrete plan, but I did set a goal: read one book each month. The idea was to build the habit of doing something small but consistent every day, which could eventually lead to bigger things.
This new habit of reading daily, plus listening to podcasts, really opened my mind and got me thinking differently.
Finding the Idea
Inspiration struck when I was listening to the Indie Hackers podcast. They talked about not needing to solve huge, unprecedented problems. Instead, doing something unique in an existing space could work too.
I then found a website with a massive collection of app screenshots, which was super helpful for me as a designer. That sparked an idea: what if I did something similar but with video recordings of different app flows? I got to work, bought domain names, designed prototypes, and even posted a job on Upwork to find a developer.
The Daily Grind
I committed to working on this project every day. I remembered a quote from Marc Randolph's book "That Will Never Work" about loving the process. I promised myself to do a bit each day and to take a break if I felt even a hint of burnout.
My Routine:
- 5 am: Wake up & get ready
- 5:30 am: Hydrate and read
- 6:00-9:00 am: Work on my project
- 9:00 am-5:00 pm: My day job as a product designer
- 5:30-7:00 pm: Gym time
- 7:00-9:30 pm: Dinner and chill with my fiancée
- 9:30-10:00 pm: Bedtime
Pivoting
As I shared my work with colleagues, I recalled struggling to find design inspiration for emails in a past job. Conversations with marketers revealed a common challenge: they all kept tabs on competitors' emails but just had them cluttering their inboxes.
That was my eureka moment! I pivoted to creating emailemu.com
Validating the Idea
To quickly validate my email concept, I:
- Talked with marketers about their current solutions for email inspiration and competitor tracking
- Set up a pre-launch site for email signups
- Posted a "Coming Soon" notice on Product Hunt for early buzz
- Noted a few competitors in the space, signaling a good opportunity
Getting to 100 Users
With about 40 sign-ups from the prelaunch and some interest on Product Hunt, I was convinced there was potential. I hired a developer from Upwork, and we got to work.
While the developer was coding, I stayed active on Product Hunt and LinkedIn, building hype. A few months later, we launched on November 17, 2023, mostly through LinkedIn and word-of-mouth.
In the first week, we had 42 sign-ups. By the second week, a surprise Product Hunt launch brought us a spike in traffic and more sign-ups. Today, we've reached over 140 users with minimal marketing.
What I Learned
- Small daily changes can lead to powerful habits.
- Once a routine is established, it becomes easier to maintain.
- Love the process, not just the outcome.
- Just start somewhere, even if you don't have all the answers.
- There's always room for new players, even in solved problem spaces.
If you made it this far and want to improve your email marketing strategies by learning from industry-leading companies, then sign up at emailemu.com
🔥 Roast My Landing Page
Man i had chills reading this.
I feel you on the daily routine and by reading this post I realized a way I can make my day even more efficient.
From a glance at Email Emu, i noticed it's only free, any monetization plans?
Thanks! Im really starting to find tiny improvements in the day to day really snowball if you be consistent.
Yeah right now it is free. When the right time to turn on monetization I’m not sure. I want to provide value to people and don’t want to turn off people originally joining and using the product by adding in a paid plan just yet. When the right time to do that I wish I knew. Any thoughts?
That's really the way to go these days. Provide overwhelming value first everything else can wait. kudos to you for having that mindset early instead of trying to monetize right away. Keep going 💪
Thanks! Ya that’s the goal I think if I do that then people should eventually be so in love with the tool paying for specific parts later will make sense for them.
your daily routine is something I can resonate with. I have a similar schedule and I use daily OKRs as below:
Love it. It is deff about balance, too. If you aren't enjoying it, it's also hard to sustain!
I finally learned that successful people have some universal qualities!
Just posted a deep dive into everything I posted on LinkedIn
Hope it helps people
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/everything-i-posted-on-linkedin-leading-up-to-launch-a-deep-dive-7a81761ac9
I think explain your strategy of LinkedIn pre promotions would be very interesting.
Congrats for this experience you share with us and I hope you consider write other post whit waht I mentioned
Cheers
I like that! Are you saying to write a more detailed strategy around what kinda of things I post about in the months leading up to the the launch on LinkedIn?
You're damn it right Sir. It would be very interesting and helpfull
Sounds like I got a good idea for the next blog! Thanks
Terrific. Thanks to you
Here ya go! Hope it helps
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/everything-i-posted-on-linkedin-leading-up-to-launch-a-deep-dive-7a81761ac9
I’m proud of this young man Wyatt , probably because he is my son …and one smart guy as well . It must be genetic. Ha!
o from 100 good for you!
It reminds me of the book, Atomic habit by James Clear...wondering if that book inspired you too?
Haven’t read it! Maybe I’ll give it a go.
The strategies you employed and the lessons you learned along the way are invaluable for anyone in the startup space. Congratulations on your success, and I'm excited to see how your adventure evolves!
Thanks! Me too. I think a large part of of is just trying things you have never done to see what things work and what don’t. Something that may work for me may not work for another person!
I really appreciate your summary. It was very encouraging for me too. Thank you!
So glad! It’s really amazing how little things make a big difference. I also think so many people are in a similar boat so it’s nice to know we aren’t alone
cool, what do you do to stay active on PH? jumping to discussion with others right?
A combination of engaging and providing feedback to other discussions and posting general questions to the community that I thought would get good engagement!
I see, thanks
Hey there, Wyatt! As long as we're making something people enjoy, who cares if it's not solving world hunger? Keep on hustlin'!
Thanks! Yup yup as long as we are enjoying it and it solves a problem that people have that’s what matters
Discipline is really the key here. My routine looks similar, just evening is filled with time with my 4 year old and my wife. After kid goes to bed, then it's gym time to unwind from all the stress.
What I also find helpful, is networking with like minded people. It works as a great reality check, that everybody is grinding hard and success never comes over night.
Love it
That’s one thing I’m trying to do more this year. What have you found successful when it come to networking?
I found that people are very kind and willing to help as long as you're not afraid to ask. Most of them most likely been there and knows exactly what you're going through.
We want to start our adventure in 2023, building a project from scratch and gaining an initial user base of 0-100 people. Through strategic marketing, user engagement, and continuous improvement, we want to lay the foundation for growth and success in the coming year.
You got it! Little bit a a time!
Creating a new email is hard, and creating an email is hard if I create a NoCode tool that can quickly help others create an email. Would anyone be willing to use it, or even pay for it?
I think if you ask people there is always space for more players!
Thanks, I'll try!
While reading your story, your journey sounds so easy for you and it sounded that it happened so quickly, which I'm sure it wasn't. I'd believe some days were harder than others, but it's very inspiring to read your morning routine. Great job on finding your product and getting so many users so quickly!
I’ll I could see that. I deff didn’t include ever single small project I started and gave up on or bad ideas I had. Thanks! I feel like I have product market fit so we should keep growing
The most common advice I've heard in the past is "This is an area where others have already done it badly!" Your thoughts give me confidence that "There's always room for new players, even in solved problem spaces."
Love it! And glad it helped. There really is so much pace even in wolves markets
What was your LinkedIn launch startegy?
Just posting about it every few weeks for a couple months prior to launching.
Awesome!
Thanks! I'm excited to continue to get more and more people on and provide value.
Hi Wyatt. If you don't mind would like to give you some free customer analysis report. From this customer analysis, you could understand what you potential customer are doing online and change your marketing strategy accordingly mainly on reddit posts, and blogging.
Here is the customer analysis : EMAILEMU CUSTOMER ANALYSIS
From the customer analysis "Email Marketing" are one of the most frequent subject your potential customer are searching online ( google traffic 450K and on average around 114 up vote and 436 comments on reddit on this subject ).
If you adjust your blog posts and reddit using these analysis, your posts will be closer to getting your potential leads.
Going deep on the subject here are top things that your customer are interested about the subject :
Email Marketing strategies for brands
Email Marketing best practices
Email Marketing software tools
If you blog posts and reddit posts include these as the title, there is very high chance people will click on it and pay attention to it.
Hopefully you will look into the full analysis as it will help you gain more leads.
You can also do the analysis your self using decentool.com
Thanks! I will take a look
Congrats and great work on the product!
Thank you!
Can you share a bit about how you did your pre launch?
Sure!
I spent a couple of days putting together a website on Webflow, then posted on social media (mostly Linked In) that I was in the process of building a product, and it would be up soon.
I linked my pre-launch in those posted and told people to join if they were interested.
At the same time, I put up a coming soon page on product hunt, with my prelaunch site linked as the primary site. They only let you put up a product if it is within 30 days or sooner of launching, though. What I did with that was I kept moving back the date of the launch, So in reality, I have my coming soon page up for 2-3 months.
Hope that helps!
Small daily habit changes can go a long way.
All the best for 2024.
Yes! and thank you
I've seen first hand in 2023 how small daily habits create magical results if you just give them time.
Thanks for calling it out in your post. All the very best for 2024!!
Thank you! Excited to see where it takes me.
One thing that is smart about your daily routine (imo): When you have a normal day job it is a really nice strategy to work on your own stuff first. The first hours of working will always be the most productive. Later in the day we all are way more prone to procrastinating. If you want to quit your day job at some point anyway it makes a lot of sense to get up early and spend the most productive hours of the day on what you are passionate about. And this is coming from someone who hates waking early :D
Yup! SO true. I used to go to the gym in the morning, but what I realized is my brain works best in the early morning hours, and after spending all day on a computer, it is a lot easier to force myself to go to the gym than to want to get back on a computer.
Plus I am excited to work on it each morning with fresh eyes.
And yes the hope is within the next couple years to go full-time into my own stuff.
It’s great to read we most share the same problems when launching a company.
I struggle often between starting small and iterating -with respect to communicating my website-, and expecting to know all steps from the start avoiding mistakes and losing time.
Yup! I also feel like that's just a part of the journey. Learning what things to focus on and what things to not. Trial and error.
I've also been finding a lot of value in constantly talking with target users. It helps with knowing what things to focus on.
What have you found to be helpful?
Congratulations on taking the leap and launching your own product! Your dedication to making small daily changes and maintaining a routine is inspiring.
Thanks! Ya, it was definitely not something I was expecting to happen, but it is amazing that it did. It opened my eyes to how significant small changes can make big impacts on your routine and discipline.
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Hope you found some value in it!