3 builders who never spoke to each other
Check the platform rules before you depend on them
Read the terms and the rate limits of any API your product needs, and find out whether the behaviour you are selling is actually permitted, before the build rather than after a test account is suspended. Building on a pond somebody else owns means one company decision can shut you down overnight.
The method
- 01
Do not build on a pond somebody else owns, where a single decision by one company can shut you down overnight.
- 02
Check the platform's own usage limits before you build a product on its official API, because business messaging rules can shut you down at a volume a real user would generate.
- 03
Before you build on a platform's API, check whether the behavior your product depends on is actually permitted, and whether rate limits leave the experience usable.
- 04
Screen an idea out when you cannot see how it charges money or when building it would break the terms of the platforms whose data it needs.
What it returned
- 36
Zue discovered bulk-following another account's list violated Twitter's rules after a test account was suspended, and rate limits meant users would wait around 36 hours instead of seeing the new feed immediately.
He frames it as a commandment of control: ask who could kill the business with one decision, and what is left of it when that channel disappears.
Going through Twilio as the sanctioned WhatsApp route got his number blocked for sending too many messages, so he moved to the Baileys library, which also needs a residential IP to avoid a ban
Zue flagged his chat analytics and git analytics ideas as having no clear monetisation path, with the chat one also risking violating the terms of service of every messaging platform involved
Sources
- Business Idea Evaluation Qustions – Jakob GreenfeldMJ DeMarco · jakobgreenfeld.com · Business Idea Evaluation Qustions · 2022-04-21
- ClawdbotPeter Steinberger · steipete.me · Humble Beginnings · 2026-01-02
- Shifting PerspectivesCory Zue · coryzue.com · Griffin · 2022-05-03
- Six Product IdeasCory Zue · coryzue.com · 2. Chat Stats · 2017-04-03
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
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