Welcome to another edition of the Product in Public newsletter.
Where I give you an inside look at how I build products for companies and for myself.
The last few weeks have been really full. I’m working with a handful of my own customers, while building out my own products.
Here are some of the activities and lessons from this week.
Done for you vs. DIY
When I build out a product, I structure it for people within the target market, but across different budgets.
Meaning, DIYers who don’t have a big budget AND people who just want the thing done for them. The tradeoff is that there are often more DIYers, i.e. a larger market, but the Done for you crowd will spend more money.
But, I’ve been thinking about this structure a lot lately, especially with my consulting services.
For example, if you need startup funding but can’t afford to work with someone like me, I have a course that will teach you the bulk of what I know about the process.
But, the more founders I talk to, they just want someone who will actively raise capital on their behalf. Here’s my take away - if you are offering consulting, make them as much a “done for you” service as possible. Charge a higher fee and be more selective the company’s you work with.
Validating demand just got easier
There are a lot of ways to validate demand for a product.
Before agentic programming, validation exercises were more time-consuming.
Now, you can have an MVP life in minutes.
That’s exactly what I did with SBA Loan Analyzer.
I used Replit to quickly build out the first version of the concept.
I was able to use that early version to gauge demand and get user feedback.
Tools like Replit have completely changed the game when it comes to giving anyone the ability to start a software business and
Unfortunately, even early validation isn’t enough. Products need to be able to scale.
Failed Facebook Ads
For a software solution to scale it needs to leverage some combination of organic and paid growth.
After the beta period with my solution, I decided to see how paid ads would perform.
After some consulting with my friend Todd, I decided to test out ads on Facebook.
It didn’t perform like I would have hoped.
Impressions - 3,416
Reach - 2,069
Clicks - 29; @ 1%
Conversions (i.e. use of the software) - 0
There are a few things that could have happened:
- I targeted the wrong market. Whether the wrong keywords, audience, or even the wrong platform. I question if people are on Facebook looking for SBA loan information. Todd seemed to think it was a fit.
- The copy wasn’t compelling enough.
Next I’ll try out either Reddit or X.
Vibe Coding my Startup from 2010
One of the more fun experiments I've ran has been recreating my first startup, GoGrabLunch, using Replit.
Through just a few prompts it did a real nice job of building out a workable version.
If you don't follow me on YouTube, but sure to subscribe.
In my next video I'm going to take you through the step-by-step process I use when building new software in Replit.
Including how I use PRDs to improve the build.
If you’ve found this information helpful, I hope you’ll do two things for me.
1) Subscribe to this newsletter. That way, new copies are delivered directly to your inbox.
2) Share this newsletter with one other person that you think might benefit from the information I share.