after this viral thread — it's been a roller coaster ride.

```cv
tweet
https://twitter.com/elisabetguwanto/status/1678291984358998018
```

This post is about my reflection & lesson learned on building an early-stage consumer product with a team of two:

---

**choosing the people you want to serve:**

1. you don't want to appeal to everybody.

2. having specific people in mind helps a lot.

3. in building a community it's okay to exclude people (with empathy).

4. in the beginning, you want 100 people to love you than 100K people kinda like you.

when you trying to serve everyone, nobody gonna stick around.

pick the kind of people you want to serve, the people you want to hang out with, the people you want to be part of your day-to-day life.

---

moving fast is how you learned quickly.

but moving fast without direction is not.

---

**in building an early stage product**

at the early-stage of your product,

if something is working, double down on it.

you want to be really good at a few things.

trying to do everything all at once will do more damage than good to you.

your time is limited, move purposely.

---

**Marketing & distribution channel**

Find where your audience hangs out and invest your effort in one channel first. Do it for months, not days or weeks, if nothing is working—move on.

At first, we tried to work on 4 different channels for months, but there was no recurring way to make it work other than ourselves making heavy content daily.

then we went all in on twitter & work on it for a few months, now our users growing 10 - 20% per week & it's been good.

I believe when you gain enough traction in one channel you can always cross-promote & bring your audience into different channels later.

---

**Moving from paid to freemium**

when you have no audience, going freemium will be your main acquisition channel. you don't want to miss this opportunity.

at first, we were building a paid community, but for months only 20 people stick around & the growth is not there.

2 months after switching to free, we grew to 1K people—with invites only.

I believe if your product is valuable enough 5 - 10% of power users going to support you.

after you know who your 5 - 10% power users double down on serving & making them stick around. this is your people you don't want to lose them.

---

**What's next?**

the plan is to try to start monetizing the product & see who's the true supporter. So you can focus & double on these people.

consumer playbook: growing from 1 - 1000

this blog post comes from my Twitter drafts.

The best work happens when you work for yourself. The company is just a place to learn and grow. Keep in mind, that you don't work for the company, but yourself, and having a great team to work with is something that you should not compare with money. Most people forgot about these things, and I just want to remind myself that today I should be really grateful that I can make a living doing something I love.

Life will find you peace when you don't need to prove everything to everyone. When you do something for yourself you'll get used to ignoring what others would think or react about your life. It's a simple thing but not easy. Once I try to ignore external validation, my life became 10x better and I gradually find peace within myself.

I mean I can start my podcast, record myself singing, write a blog, learn something new, and do anything that I could imagine because I do it for myself and I don't need to please everyone. And the problem you'll frequently encounter was once you decided on your action and the choice that you chose, you have to be ready with all the risks and rewards that you'll gain, and there is nothing to complain about because you decided it for yourself.

I remember when someone asked me, which one do you prefer to choose?

1. focus on one thing and get better every day doing that one thing so it would be easier for you to prepare for a job later in life, or

2. learn a lot of things to accumulate a "broader" amount of knowledge, but your level of understanding will never be the same (means "deeper") than the former, and it might affect your chance of getting the job you want later in life.

All I can say is to do whatever feels good to you, do whatever makes you more curious, more motivated, more fulfilled, and happier. Why try to fit in? why not try to be you? why not try to be authentic? why not try to be your truest self and why not try to be the best version of yourself?

> "Your goal in life is to find out the people who need you the most, to find out the business that needs you the most, to find the project, and the art that needs you the most. there is something out there just for you" -@naval

be genuine, be authentic.

Apri

be authentic

* Life is not about how good you are but instead, how can you help others thrive and grow.

* Life is not about competition, but instead getting inspired by others to be the best version of yourself.

* Life is not about complaining about your choice but instead accepting what you have and getting the most out of it.

* Life is not about comparing yourself with others but instead converting your insecurities to motivate yourself to always be learning.

* Life is not about being average, but instead striving for greatness and keep reinventing yourself.

* Life is not about waiting for the opportunity to come, but instead unlocking new opportunities by trying and sharing more things.

* Life is not about making others happy, but instead making yourself happy so others can feel it.

* Life is not about what the future holds but instead, making every day counts.

* Life is not about telling people what to do but instead, sharing how you did it.

* Life is not about waiting for appreciation to come but instead appreciating & celebrating sincerely those who deserve it. Including yourself.

* Life is not about criticizing why people failed, but instead being genuine to appreciate those who create and try.

* Life is not about showing that you are right and the people are wrong but seeking understanding from others' points of view.

* Life is not about doing many things and keeping yourself busy—but instead, ask yourself what matters the most to you and why.

* Life is not about changing the people around you but instead changing the people around you.

* Life does not always revolve around you but instead preparing yourself for the worst.

* Life is not about accepting this world as it is, but asking what could be better for you and the people you care about the most.

---

Apri

life is not about..

Most of the things you've learned are just a tool for you to solve the problem that matters most to you. Being fanatic about one tool or two is like using a hammer to solve every problem you encounter. Sometimes it works but most of the time it makes things worse.

Don't just learn about how to do X. Find the problem that matters most to you and start from there, not another way around. The mindset that I see from most people and our education today is:

**`"First I want to learn about X. Then I can do X. Now I need a problem to solve using X".`**

In our modern society today, people learn things because they need to meet the demand in the industry. Capitalism wants us to be specialized in a specific thing. But you are human, you are not machines that work only for a specific thing anytime is ready to be replaced. We often encounter that these people [hate their job](https://www.inc.com/jt-odonnell/how-this-1-question-can-make-you-choose-wrong-career.html). Most of us work just to survive. it's not wrong but It's a very limited way to live life. it sucks.

Why don't we encourage & make people learn about the landscape of how the industry works first. Then start learning things that are needed to solve the problem in the industry.

If we have that kind of mindset, I believe we will begin to do whatever it takes to solve the problem without having to worry about the next things that we needed to learn. When we have that kind of mindset I believe people will feel more fulfilled, more excited, and feeling alive to learn and do things without having to worry about what's coming next.

> "Do not ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman

Pick a problem, not a tool.

pick a problem, not a tool

I learned this the hard way.

The goal of onboarding is:

* to deliver the expectation the user already set.

* to not only make the user satisfied but also feel delighted about aspects they didn’t know they'd need.

Don't waste your time working on so-called "retention" mover features before you nail the onboarding part. 

Bad onboarding makes your user leave. This is one of the crucial parts why you should focus on it first, so you have better retention.

It's not the first 3 sliders on your app's screen.

For consumer products, It's a way to help users get the expected outcomes of your product in the shortest time possible.

frame the onboarding like when you play a new game—some people will follow the tutorial but most people will skip it. Make sure you serve both use cases.

The first 5 minutes is the most important moment for your product.

Nail it or lose it.

onboarding

Hi, i am [apri](https://x.com/aaprianil) 👋

currently, i am building [Closa](http://closa.me) — a smart discord server with a virtual coworking space for builders to stay productive in building passion projects. In the past 6 years, i’ve spent most of my time working on passion projects & turning them into side hustles. I believe all the great things that shaped our lives today started from a passion project & i believe this is the best way to unlock many opportunities you want in life.

```cv
tweet
https://twitter.com/aaprianil/status/1703608103491842425
```

The structure of this page is based on all the puzzles that i’ve collected from my experience over the years working on many passion projects. You can use this page as a little handbook to build & ship your digital product.

This resource is for builders/creators who build things for the internet & want to make $ on software/digital products.

Why i am sharing these resources:

* First, i love building passion projects & turning them into side hustles.

* Over the years these are by far the most high signal & practical resources that I wish i had when i just starting out.

* I want to save you time & i hope these resources help you build the right mental model to navigate & execute your ideas better.

* What i expect on each sub-list is you’ll find some set of patterns that will build up to your [mental model](https://jamesclear.com/mental-models) on how to find ideas worth building, what to build, & grow them sustainably.

* This will be a living document that I’ll update periodically.

* i hope you find these resources valuable.

---

**The Classic**

[How to get rich without getting lucky by Naval Ravikant](https://twitter.com/naval/status/1002103360646823936)

**Essential books**

If you have time to read books, highly recommend reading these:

* [$100M Offers: by Alex Hormozi](https://www.amazon.com/100M-Offers-People-Stupid-Saying/dp/B09BK52JFJ?crid=3KBRVPQ1U7O0D&keywords=100m+offers&qid=1683020459&sprefix=100m+offer,aps,193&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&linkId=68ca2c8c243399ed194955fc80560605&language=en_US)

* [Anything you want by Derek Sivers](https://www.amazon.com/Anything-You-Want-Lessons-Entrepreneur/dp/1511366079)

* [The minimalist Entrepreneur by Sahil Lavingia](https://www.amazon.com/Minimalist-Entrepreneur-Great-Founders-More/dp/0593192397)

---

## **Shipping Ideas from 0 → 1**

### **Things that matter before you start building**

### **Market come first**

If you want to turn your side project into a profitable business, the first thing that you want to do is not to start designing or building your product. But to pick a market so you understand whether your idea & the problem you want to solve is worth pursuing or not. It will save you days, weeks, if not months from doing the wrong thing. the goal is to become a category of one, so what you’re working on is not a commodity that competes on price & goes downhill.

How to pick a problem & market that is worth pursuing:

* [Why the market is only thing that matters by Marc Andreessen](https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html)

* [Picking market by Alex Hormozi](https://www.acquisition.com/training/offers/picking-markets)

* [How to brainstorm great business ideas by Courtland Allen](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-to-brainstorm-great-business-ideas-ab51c3d51c)

* [Turning side projects into profitable startups by Pieter Levels](https://levels.io/startups/#:~:text=Start%20small%2C%20it%E2%80%99s%20better)

* [Extreme brainstorming questions to trigger new, better ideas by Jason Cohen](https://longform.asmartbear.com/extreme-questions/index.html)

### **Monetization & Pricing**

How to define what to charge & how much you charge to sustain or at least hit [ramen profitable](http://www.paulgraham.com/ramenprofitable.html):

* [Startup Pricing 101 by Kevin Hale](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwXlo9gy_k4)

* [YC guide to business models by Aaron Epstein](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/Gh-yc-guide-to-business-models#Startup%20School-3)

* [Charge what it’s worth by Alex Hormozi](https://www.acquisition.com/training/offers/pricing)

* [Value equation by Alex Hormozi](https://www.acquisition.com/training/offers/value-equation) — [more 1,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MHQr-Z17Hc) [2,](https://ambitiousdesigner.substack.com/p/how-to-make-your-product-irresistible) [3](https://creatoreconomy.so/p/the-value-equation-for-irresistible-products)

* [Pricing your SaaS by Patrick Campbell](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/saas-pricing-strategy)

* [Free Trial by Tomasz Tunguz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfQNJpnxmMw)

* [Reverse Trial by Kyle Poyar](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/your-guide-to-reverse-trials/)

### **Positioning**

How to position your product in the market so people get it, buy it, & love it:

* [Position, Position, Position! by Ryan Singer](https://m.signalvnoise.com/position-position-position/)

* [How to nail your product positioning by April Dunford](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdjlCLb9Hl8)

* [Obviously Awesome by April Dunford (book)](https://www.amazon.com/Obviously-Awesome-Product-Positioning-Customers/dp/1999023005)

* [Positioning Exercise by userlist](https://userlist.com/blog/positioning-overhaul/)

* [Positioning Exercise by Closa](https://www.notion.so/6079ad1482c54c29b46a27afbe64815e?pvs=21)

### **Craft your one-liner**

How to write a one-sentence idea that is easy to understand & helps your idea spread quickly:

* [The day you become a better writer by Scott Adams](https://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/06/the_day_you_bec.html)

* [Hook: craft your pitch by Lenny](https://www.notion.so/da446b5031a441a8b8583d2cb521af18?pvs=21)

* [Copywriting by Marketing examples](https://marketingexamples.com/copywriting/tips)

* [How to write a one-sentence product description by Dave Bailey](https://www.dave-bailey.com/blog/product-descriptions)

How to create a landing page that converts & validates the demand of your idea before building:

* [Above the fold by Julian](https://www.demandcurve.com/playbooks/above-the-fold)

* [How to create a more effective homepage by MKT1](https://www.demandcurve.com/playbooks/above-the-fold)

* [Step by step guide to landing pages that convert by Marketing Examples](https://marketingexamples.com/landing-page/guide)

Landing page design inspiration:

* [SaasLandingPage](https://saaslandingpage.com/) | [Landingfolio](https://www.landingfolio.com/) | [lapa.ninja](https://www.lapa.ninja/)

### **Validating ideas: look for signal**

Consumer

* [consumer playbook: validating ideas](https://read.cv/apri/validating-ideas) (my takes & experience)

* [Key takeaways: Lenny’s how to kick-start consumer business](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/consumer-business-find-first-users)

B2B

* [How to validate your b2b startup idea by Lenny](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-validate-your-b2b-startup)

* [Picking Sharp Problems by Oji Udezue](https://youtu.be/T8TQGbJhv6Q?si=cqoniIiKJgr9ZWgI)

* [Where to fish to land a Unicorn (in B2B SaaS) by Oji Udezue](https://ojiudezue.medium.com/where-to-fish-to-land-a-unicorn-in-b2b-saas-9bc93c96152c)

  * [Finding High Frequency Customers](https://ojiudezue.substack.com/p/finding-high-frequency-customers)

## **Building from 0 – 1**

### **Start small & do less really well**

When you just starting out you want to start small & keep it simple.

This is how you learn faster, so you can focus your energy on what matters

* [Why you should do a tiny product first by Amy ho](https://stackingthebricks.com/why-you-should-do-a-tiny-product-first/)

* [What I wish I had been told early on in my entrepreneurial journey by Mac Martine](https://stackingthebricks.com/why-you-should-do-a-tiny-product-first/)

* [Do less, so you can do it better by Courtland Allen](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/do-less-so-you-can-do-it-better-3ea77e92b4)

* [Your customers hate MVPs. Make a SLC instead by Jason Cohen](https://longform.asmartbear.com/slc/)

* [When should you start a SaaS by Amy Ho](https://stackingthebricks.com/when-should-you-start-a-saas/)

How to build & iterate your product quickly

* [A minimum viable product is not a product, it’s a process by Yevgeniy (Jim) Brikman](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/minimum-viable-product-process/)

* [MVP as process: Case study by me](https://www.figma.com/proto/xTOm20eNs1d3etpVAIbM2F/MVP?type=design&node-id=1-4&t=4JF3c8gmNeLSVIYL-0&scaling=scale-down-width&page-id=0:1)

* [Linear method: building software](https://linear.app/method)

* [Getting Real: Build Less by Basecamp](https://basecamp.com/gettingreal/02.1-build-less)

* [Do Things that Don’t Scale by Paul Graham](http://paulgraham.com/ds.html)

### **Design that doesn’t suck**

* [50+ UX case studies to improve your product skills by growth.design](https://growth.design/case-studies)

### **Talk to users**

You have two options:

* If this is the problem you have yourself & you can ship it in weeks then better launch it quickly & iterate.

* but if you have a specific user in mind & want better insights you should talk to users first.

How to talk to users:

* [The mom test by Rob Fitzpatrick](https://www.amazon.com/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyone/dp/1492180742)

* [How to talk to users by Eric Migicovsky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT4Ig2uqjTc)

Later stage (after launch) — finding product market fit:

* [How Superhuman built an engine to find product/market fit by Rahul Vohra](https://review.firstround.com/how-superhuman-built-an-engine-to-find-product-market-fit)

### **Launch & iterate quickly**

Most people think of launching as a one-time event but in reality, you can launch anytime again & again:

* [How to launch (again and again) by Kat Mañalac](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/Ir-the-best-way-to-launch-your-startup)

* [Build → Launch → Measure → Learn by me](https://www.figma.com/proto/p5N8DZ5Q768nndFCD6QDhF/Weekly-Episodes?type=design&node-id=386-16&t=AqIKH23Iy1LeLHM2-0&scaling=scale-down-width&page-id=382:2)

### **Prioritization**

How to set goals & prioritize your work in the early stage of your product

* [Setting KPIs and goals by Divya Bhat](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/Iu-setting-kpis-and-goals)

* [How to prioritize your time by Adora Cheung](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcCmMOWuAF4&t=629s)

* [No Yes. Either Hell yeah! or no. by Derek Sivers](https://sive.rs/hellyeah)

* [Prioritizing at startups by Lenny](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/prioritizing-startup)

* [LNO Framework by Shreyas Doshi](https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1223816226918453253?lang=en)

* [Shape up by Basecamp](https://basecamp.com/shapeup/0.3-chapter-01#six-week-cycles)

## **Grow to 1000 fans**

### **Growth & Marketing**

### **Essentials**

If you just starting out & want to learn marketing, i highly recommend reading this, it will save you so much more time than trying to read a lot of articles about marketing:

* [The 1-page marketing plan by Allan Dib](https://www.amazon.com/1-Page-Marketing-Plan-Customers-Money-ebook/dp/B01B35M3SM)

* [Influence: the psychology of persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini, PhD](https://www.goodbooks.io/books/influence)

### **First 10, 100, 1000**

* [How seth godin would launch a business with a $1000 budget](https://www.indiehackers.com/@Louis_Grenier/how-seth-godin-would-launch-a-business-with-a-1-000-budget-2cc8c6c79c)

* [How we bootstrapped Tally to 11K users and $5K MRR](https://blog.tally.so/year-1-how-we-bootstrapped-tally-to-11k-users-and-5k-mrr/)

* [What we learned on our journey to $10,000 MRR](https://plausible.io/blog/growing-saas-mrr)

* [Here’s how I bootstrapped a SaaS to $10K MRR](https://www.bannerbear.com/journey-to-10k-mrr/)

* [First 1000 newsletter by Ali Abouelatta](https://read.first1000.co/archive?sort=top)

### **Sales**

* [Demand-side Sales 101 by Bob Moesta](https://www.amazon.com/Demand-Side-Sales-101-Customers-Progress/dp/1544509987)

### **Distribution**

How to generate leads & bring traffic to your landing page:

* [Traction by Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares](https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Customer/dp/1591848369) | [overview](https://www.designwithvalue.com/bullseye-framework)

* [Distribution by Ben Horowitz](https://a16z.com/distribution/)

* [$100M Leads by Alex Hormozi](https://www.amazon.com/100M-Leads-Strangers-Stuff-Acquisition-com-ebook/dp/B0CFDR3TYV)

### **Content creation**

If you’re just starting out & want to build audience, you can learn this first:

* [Creator Hieararchy of Needs by Peter Yang](https://creatoreconomy.so/p/creator-hierarchy-of-needs)

* [Creator Flywheels by Nathan Barry](https://nathanbarry.com/creator-flywheels/)

* [Articles for Solopreneurs by Justin Welsh](https://www.justinwelsh.me/articles)

* [Writing Well Handbook by Julian Shapiro](https://www.julian.com/guide/write/intro)

* [Market by being you: Marketing 101 for builders by me](https://tinyurl.com/ycymj8kn)

### **Consumer** **Psychology**

Learn about marketing psychology to understand consumer behavior better:

* [Coglode Research](https://www.coglode.com/research)

* [Marketing Psychology: 12 tactics for influencing buyer behavior](https://www.demandcurve.com/playbooks/marketing-psychology)

### **Growth loops**

one concept that helps thinking about product & marketing as interlinked parts. This helped me to understand how to grow a product strategically:

* [Growth Loops: Transcending AARRR Frameworks by Reforge](https://www.reforge.com/blog/growth-loops)

* [Growth loops: how to use them and real-life examples by Ortto](https://ortto.com/learn/growth-loops/)

* [My exercise on Growth Loops](https://www.notion.so/Closa-Growth-Loops-d1c79408807343cdb403e4a78564d708?pvs=21)

Product-led Growth

* [How they Grow — a newsletter about PLG by Jaryd Hermann](https://www.howtheygrow.co/)

* [What is Product-Led Growth by Blake Bartlett](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/what-is-product-led-growth/)

* [Product Strategy in Product-led Growth (PLG) companies by Oji Udezue](https://ojiudezue.medium.com/product-strategy-in-product-led-growth-plg-companies-560e775f4b36)

### Retain

Some components that affect your product retention:

* [Onboarding Case Studies by growth.design](https://growth.design/case-studies)

* [Onboarding by me](https://read.cv/apri/BJKc7hGLDBToZNOrsOJO)

* [Hierarchy of Engagement](https://sarahtavel.medium.com/the-hierarchy-of-engagement-expanded-648329d60804)

### **Referral**

[How to Launch a Customer Referral Program in 6 steps (plus examples)](https://www.demandcurve.com/blog/referral-program)

---

**Interesting read:**

* [Come for the tool, stay for the network by cdixon](https://cdixon.org/2015/01/31/come-for-the-tool-stay-for-the-network)

* [Why Figma Wins by kwokchain](https://kwokchain.com/2020/06/19/why-figma-wins/)

* [Mochary method curriculum](https://docs.google.com/document/d/18FiJbYn53fTtPmphfdCKT2TMWH-8Y2L-MLqDk-MFV4s/edit)

* [julian.digital](https://julian.digital)

---

## **The pocket guide of essentials side hustle mental model**

* Pick ideas with sharp problems, niches with purchasing power, easy to target, & growing market.

  * sharp problems – problems with high frequency (daily).

  * niche with purchasing power – they throw money to solve the problem instead of time.

  * easy to target – you know exactly where they’re hanging out.

  * growing market or at least a normal market that is not declining like newspapers.

* Create an irresistible offer that is 3x - 10x better than the current solution to become a category of one.

* Validate the demand first before building.

  * craft your one-liner pitch that is easy to understand, so it spreads quickly.

  * create your landing page / show design how are you going to solve the problem.

  * share it with your community / the people you’re offering it to.

* Start small & do less really well.

* Create a remarkable product. It’s a product that your customers simply can’t live without; they love it so much that they tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends.

* Make your product & marketing an interlinked part. Meaning when a user uses your product at some point in your product cycle they are bringing another user to use it.

* Launch fast & iterate quickly.

* Set a clear goal for how you’re going to grow & help user success. Review every 1-2 weeks.

* Let the user try your product for free / with a money-back guarantee. Confidence is the key to earning trust.

* A great onboarding is your biggest investment to make users come back over & over.

* Make the time to the value of your product as short as possible. Don’t confuse the user with too many steps.

* Market with people, not at them, it means involving them in the process from the start.

* Do things that don’t scale—Recruit your early customers one by one. Delight them. Talk to them to understand what’s working & not.

* You don’t sell to people, you help people make progress to help them succeed.

* Focus on a high-frequency customer that no matter what kind of version your product begins, they will pay & still use it.

* Focus on finding one distribution channel that works.

* Give a channel time to work. Don’t spread your effort too thin in the beginning.

* hit ramen profitability.

* Keep shipping & launching.

* Give it a time. no matter how long it takes to find that one idea that works, don’t forget to have fun & enjoy the journey.

---

**end of page**

side hustle mental model

If i can start over my indie hacking journey. I would treat my life as i only have 3 months of runway—and start working backward.

---

**phase 1: look for a signal**

• pick a problem you or your community have

• pick a market that is easy to target, has purchasing power, & growing.

• make your ideas easy to understand, so it's spread quickly.

• bet on 1 core feature with 1 user journey, do less really well.

• share the design/landing page with your community first before building it.

• look for signals— a lot of people care/nobody cares

• if the latter, start over.

---

**define "a lot of people" ?**

idk but, for me at least one of these in the first week:

• 10K views or,

• 100 sign up or,

• 10 quality people in a group chat actively engage,

• 1 person asks you to "take my money" instantly.

because it's sad to build something nobody wants and try so hard to grow it.

---

**phase 2: build it fast & grow**

• if a lot of people care—then build & launch it in weeks not months.

• Design how you'd grow it before building the product (learn [1](https://ortto.com/learn/growth-loops/), [2](https://www.reforge.com/blog/growth-loops), [3](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/magical-growth-loops))

• Find the first 10 people who love your product.

• try to grow at 7% week over week in the next 3 months

• invest in one repeatable channel to grow it.

• if you can't meet the bar, move to the next experiments.

---

**phase 3: monetize powers users & grow to 1K MRR**

• charge as early as possible.

• look for product usage,

• define what to keep free & what to charge. ([1](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/saas-pricing-strategy), [2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfQNJpnxmMw), [3](https://youtu.be/9FHYtjw6mjs?si=BCX_LuEhlgJZFwXQ))

• bet on 5% to 20% power users, then charge.

• if you can reach this point, then congrats!

---

**what's next?**

Pick a minimum bar to continue working on your experiments:

* hit ramen profitability.

* have a meaningful growth rate (7 - 10% weekly).

* have a meaningful retention (30% - 50% monthly retention) ([1](https://www.june.so/benchmarks), [2](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/what-is-good-retention-issue-29)).

after 3 months If none of the above is achieved, just move on.

unless you have an unlimited runway, it's up to you to grow it even further.

that's one of the playbook i'd like to go with.

i wish i do it earlier.

consumer playbook: validating ideas

I asked myself this morning. We had a conversation.

---

**"How to feel alive?"**

"Find a project that you want to do in the next 10 years that is worth remembering for the rest of your life."

**"But how?"**

"Find something that you can't wait for tomorrow to do it."

**"But I don't have one."**

"I know right, that's life. It's something that everyone needs to figure out. All it takes is to try more things until you find the one. But you know, most people don't even try. They are stuck in the current broken system of society and accept the reality as it is".

**"Ah, that's deep. Okay then, if it's all it takes. I'll try and will let you know later how it goes."**

"But remember, it's not going to be easy and you have to believe at the end of your life it will be worth it".

*-fin-*

the conversation of one

Starting something new is relatively easy.

Maintaining what you've started and consistently focusing on the things that matter is another level.

Most people start and suddenly quit because things didn't work the way they expected.

When starting something new some people juggle 1 - 3 things at a time. I have rarely seen this approach work to create a thing that is remarkable. The worst part is nothing is working yet on those projects.

Most projects failed because there will always be a new thing that will excite you more.

It takes time, focus, and perseverance to build one thing that works. The one who keeps going is the people who enjoy the journey and understand the why.

I have questions for you who are currently working on your project:

* Are you still enjoying what you've started?

* Do you still remember why you started?

on starting & focus

A few days ago I learned something new from a good friend of mine.

This is what he said to me.

> "I just want to create things. I don't need to be famous. I want my creation to speak for me. I don't think I need status in society and I think I've already had enough friends to live this life."

> " I just want to take full ownership of my time,  to do the thing that makes me happy and that's what I defined living the life to the fullest"

> "The first year will be a trial and error phase when you started something new. The next five years will be the time you'll gain value from what you've built. And I bet the next decade there will be a peak time of your journey where the result speaks for itself and that's what people used to call it "an overnight success"

We learned by trying things and getting used to it every day.

It takes a decade. We don't need to be in a rush.

Life is short. Move purposely and fix things along the way.

it takes a decade

* Today I realized that I was born into a family where I can be anything I want and the only thing that I should be grateful for having parents who always supported my choice to do my thing.

* Today I realized that I lived in a life where reality hits me early in my life and some people told me that I am mature enough before my age so I can handle the problems better later in life and I feel that today.

* Today I realized that I live in a world where the only limitation is my willingness to learn and my perseverance to act.

* Today I realized that if I want to live my life to the fullest, I just need to keep going pursuing what I believe and remove all of the external validation from people.

* Today I realized that I don't need to fit in only to please everyone, because I believe the right people will always be there just for me, and the right people are enough for me to be my truest self.

* Today I realized that I love talking 1 on 1 with the not-so-close people in my circle and it brings me so much joy and happiness and sometimes it feels magical.

* Today I realized that the requirement to do a great thing is to be ready to make a million mistakes and be ready for the ups and downs of the journey that is worth remembering.

* Someday I'll live nomad and start a new chapter of my life.

* Someday I'll find the one who accepts me the way I am and support me to do what matters to me.

* Someday I'll live in a family where my kids are my best friend and my wife is my everything.

* Someday I'll live in a world where people is working together to strengthen human relationship and empower the local economy that drives the economic growth so all people be more social, connected, and happy without even thinking about "whom I need to talk to, what I need to do, and how can I do it"

In the past 23 years, I am fortunate in everything in my life.

Aprianil S. Rangga

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