DeveloPassion's Newsletter - Launch too soon

Hello everyone! I’m Sébastien Dubois, your host. You’re receiving this email because you signed up for DeveloPassion’s Newsletter. Thank you for being here with me ✨

If you enjoy this newsletter, then become a supporter ❤️

If this email was forwarded to you, then don’t forget to subscribe.

Another week, another newsletter! I hope that you all had a great one 🤩

There are 30 more readers this week. Welcome to you all ❤️

This week I’ve been busy painting the house and doing small repairs. Since we’re going to sell it very soon, we need to finally put the finishing touches that we’ve delayed for 7 years. It’s no fun, but we don’t want to undersell it…

I’ve started moving and selling some of my board games too. I didn’t want to, but there are just too many, and I can’t afford to rent a castle yet 😂

I’m keeping up, although it’s really tough mentally. I’m going through a palette of emotions all day long.

About a week ago, I complained about having to go back to the office. But now I must admit that it’s been refreshing to change my environment a bit. I clearly needed some fresh air. So even though I still hate the fact that I have to go back to the office just to sit on Zoom calls, I’m going to try to make the best of it.

Last week, I was super happy about the impact of getting on top of Hacker News once more. This week, I’ve felt the second wave. And it was a really fun ride!

I’ve sold 26 copies ($567) of the PKM Library in the last 30 days, up from 9 sales two weeks ago. I’ve tried to push more people to leave a rating on Gumroad, but only got 1-2 more. I realize how difficult it is to gather ratings, feedback, and testimonials, but I’ll try again.

This week, I’ve also launched the Obsidian Starter Kit (more about it below). So far, I’ve sold 24 copies ($280), which is a wonderful surprise.

With these two combined, I’ve reached ~$850 in the last 30 days. I hope it’ll keep going up for a while 😂

The fun/risky part is that I’ve launched too soon (on purpose). When I launched, the user guide wasn’t ready at all. My goal was to validate that there was indeed interest (people actually willing to pay!) before investing more time and effort.

After the first few sales, I quickly felt bad because the first customers wondered how to use the product. I told them the same thing as above and offered them two options: (1) join my journey and let me help them 1 on 1 while I deliver on my promise, or (2) get a full refund on the spot. All of them were thankful for my honesty and gladly decided to give me a chance. They quickly turned from disappointed customers into enthusiastic supporters. Huge win.

So I started working on the user guide and started writing, knowing exactly what to focus on, and with privileged access to my customers.

My lesson here is simple: launch earlier than you feel confident to. Validate as quickly as you can and be honest with your first customers. Include risk reversal with your explanations for their peace of mind. If they stay on board with you, then make sure to ask the right questions to understand what you need to focus on first. Then deliver that and launch again 🚀

This week I’ve launched the Obsidian Starter Kit, my latest experiment.

The Obsidian Starter Kit is a ready-made Obsidian vault that includes my recommended organization system and plugins, as well as example notes to help you get started. It also comes along with a user-friendly guide.

It’s a great starting point for anyone willing to jump straight to stress-free note-taking, knowing they’re relying on a solid and scalable system.

It’s basically a 1:1 copy of the system I’m currently using, and it’s accompanied by an evergreen user guide. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be expanding the guide to cover various aspects, describe processes, as well as tips and tricks.

I also plan to add videos and a private community, but that’s for later ;-)

This week, I continued reading The Personal MBA, but still haven’t added my notes to Obsidian. It’s going to be super tiresome. So far, I have ~80 pages of notes 😂. I’m learning a ton.

I explored the idea that comparison is poison and will publish an article with my thoughts next week. I’ve also taken some notes about tiered pricing and why I’m a huge believer in that approach; at least for info products.