a single source, nothing corroborates it

Build the tool your own next project needs

Make the thing you reach for yourself, prove the hard capability inside one of your own products, then port it into the version you sell and only then raise the marketing. When that product cannot earn on its own terms, the codebase behind it may still be worth selling to the people who wanted to build the same thing.

The method

1. 01

   Build the kind of product you yourself need for your next launch, so every project you ship feeds features and lessons back into the product you sell.

2. 02

   Sequence a big roadmap so you build the hard capability once inside your own product, then port it into the product you sell, and only then turn up the marketing.

3. 03

   When a product cannot earn as a product, sell its codebase to developers who want to build the same thing, and treat the code as the sellable asset.

What it returned

• 2019

  Zue's published plan ran multi-tenancy in November 2019, subscriptions in one of his own products over December and January, subscriptions in Pegasus by March, and marketing from April onward.

• Zue found his Django SaaS boilerplate let him stand up new MVPs far faster, and each new project he built with it produced features, docs and cleanups that went back into the product for all customers.

• Scriv barely covered its hosting and OpenAI bills as a product, but selling the Scriv codebase through the Pegasus marketplace to people building LLM and RAG apps turned into a profitable line.

Sources

• Solopreneurship: Year 8Cory Zue · coryzue.com · Other projects · 2024-12-20
• The Master PlanCory Zue · coryzue.com · Themes · 2020-01-01
• My Most Profitable Month EverCory Zue · coryzue.com · The Pegasus Master Plan · 2019-12-02