4 builders who never spoke to each other

Ship into the wave while it is still forming

A new platform, a newly cheap technology or a shift in taste creates demand that has no tools yet, and whatever arrives in those first weeks gets paid immediately. Pieter Levels sold $100,000 of generated avatars in ten days while the novelty held, and Glen Allsopp documented tools built around one new game earning thousands a month within weeks of its release. Justin Jackson's counter-example launched years before the bandwidth existed and lost to a rival that waited.

The method

1. 01

   Move within weeks when a new platform or game creates a demand that did not exist before, because the early tools around it get paid immediately.

2. 02

   Get a product out while a technology is still novel, because the window in which people will pay for the novelty itself is short.

3. 03

   Watch what your own community starts buying and ship into that trend, especially if you already have the code sitting there.

4. 04

   Time the launch to the moment the enabling infrastructure reaches ordinary users, and aim to be slightly ahead of that curve rather than years early.

5. 05

   Time the launch of a narrowed message to a shift already happening in the market rather than announcing it whenever you are ready.

What it returned

• $9,829

  After Pokemon Go launched, Pokesnipers was making $9,829 a month sharing coordinates for rare finds, Pokedex100 $5,446 a month on a hunting platform, and PokeGo++ over $6,000 a month from more than 1,200 patrons at a $5 minimum. Glen Allsopp notes two of these could not have existed a few months earlier.

• $100,000

  $100,000 of sales in the first ten days of AvatarAI.me.

• $2.7k

  Boilerplates became popular in the community late in the year; his launched in early December and took $2.7k in a few weeks.

• 1997

  iFilm launched in 1997, the year the 56k modem arrived and most consumers were on dial-up, and lost to YouTube, which started in 2005 as broadband took off and North American high-speed connections grew 40% over the next year.

Sources

• #HYPERGROWTH18: The Cheat Sheet | Corey HainesBarney Waters · corey.co · Barney Waters · 2018-09-07
• 54 of the Biggest Earners on Patreon (And What They're Selling) - Detailed.comGlen Allsopp · detailed.com · Doughboys: $11,402+ per month · 2023-01-04
• What affects customer motivation?Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · What affects customer motivation? · undated
• @levelsio's blogPieter Levels · levels.io · Sold $100,000 in AI-generated avatars with AvatarAI.me in 10 days · 2022-11-07
• 2023 wrap-up. What a year 🎢Luca Restagno · solopreneurtofreedom.com · Chapter: Bright Light ✨ · 2023-12-31