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independence3 unconnected · 3 more authors in those circles
standing

contested · 8 claims against 1

applies to

b2b and consumer, no audience needed

confidence

high

evidence

9 claims · 8 articles · 4 receipts

window

2021-11-01 → 2025-02-20

3 builders who never spoke to each other · contested

Ship the version that embarrasses you

Put the first release in front of strangers while it still looks unfinished, because the only judgement that counts comes from people who did not build it. Six builders here describe shipping something they were uncomfortable showing and finding that buyers paid anyway once the core value was real. Cory Zue released about five per cent of his eventual vision and Victoria Duben showed a build she found physically uncomfortable to demo.

Where this splits

Most members argue for releasing something visibly unfinished, while Jason Cohen holds that a first version should be small, complete and pleasant rather than a broken fragment of something bigger.

8 claims against 1

Arvid Kahl · Cory Zue · Jason Cohen · Justin Jackson · Justin Welsh · Luke Thomas

Ship it rough and let strangers judge

  1. 01Cut the scope of a first public version brutally and accept that it will embarrass you, because the alternative is months of private fiddling.
  2. 02Stop refining a product you are enjoying building and put the good-enough version out, because deciding whether it is wanted is not your call to make privately.
the objection · 1 claimJason Cohen

Ship something small, complete and pleasant to use

Ship something simple, lovable and complete instead of a minimum viable product: small enough to build fast, good enough that using it is a pleasure, and finished enough to do the whole job.

  1. 03Ship at roughly 80% of what you pictured rather than tuning towards a launch date that keeps moving.
  2. 04Ship a product with default interface components if it already solves the problem, and leave the polish for a later stage.
  3. 05An ugly product still sells if the value is there. Do not hold the launch for the interface.

What it returned

  • 5%

    Zue shipped a V1 of his secret project representing about 5% of his eventual vision and thought the release was poor, but shipped it anyway.

  • 80%

    Welsh's own newsletter went out at about 80% ready because he could see himself procrastinating out of starting altogether, and it has been refined repeatedly across the two years since.

  • Zue caught himself able to keep polishing his life timeline app for another week and named building in a vacuum for himself the cardinal sin of product building, then launched it rough.

  • The founder describes the early Friday interface as terrible and says customers paid anyway because they got enough value.

Sources

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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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.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

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