2 builders who never spoke to each other
Rent the launch plumbing instead of building it
Storefront, file delivery, support inbox and update feed can all come from something that already exists, so none of them decide your date. Justin Jackson points at a hosted storefront, Tyler Tringas ran six months of support from a free email address, and Peter Steinberger serves installers and update files from his code host. Nathan Barry adds that the differences between these tools are smaller than the delay spent comparing them.
The method
- 01
Use a hosted storefront that supplies the product page, file hosting, checkout and delivery rather than building any of that.
- 02
Buy no support software at all in the early months: point the support button at a free email address and leave it there.
- 03
You can distribute and auto-update a desktop app with no hosting of your own: put the installer on your code host's release pages and serve the update feed straight from raw file URLs.
- 04
Stop comparing checkout and delivery tools and pick one: the differences are not worth the delay.
What it returned
- $1,000
The author ran roughly six months of Storemapper behind a gmail address, having tried HelpScout, Zendesk and Desk.com and judged all of them far too complicated for one person, while happily spending nearly $1,000 a month on other software and holding churn near 1%
Justin recommends Podia: upload the files and a header image, set a price.
Vibe Meter ships its DMG through GitHub releases and serves Sparkle appcast XML from raw GitHub URLs, with the feed files versioned next to the code and no separate hosting or static site involved
Sources
- What's on your hard drive?Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · What should you do? · undated
- How Nathan Barry and Sacha Greif Sold $39k Worth of eBooksNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Picking a Payment Platform · 2012-10-03
- Code Signing and Notarization: Sparkle and Tears | Peter SteinbergerPeter Steinberger · steipete.me · GitHub-Centric Distribution · 2025-06-05
- Customer Support for Solo Founders - Tyler TringasTyler Tringas · tylertringas.com · Tools of the trade · 2015-09-14
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.
More in product
- Give away a tool that pulls its own audience7 unconnected
- Take many small shots instead of one big bet6 unconnected · contested
- Get it into real hands, or shape it first6 unconnected · contested
- Cap the hours and let the ceiling design the business6 unconnected · contested
- Set the bar for writing code deliberately high6 unconnected
- Buy nothing until there is revenue6 unconnected