3 builders who never spoke to each other

Read a plateau as a leak, not a verdict

If people keep paying every month the product is not the problem, so look for where the funnel is losing them instead of concluding the thing failed. Watch the velocity rather than the absolute figure: a good idea shows accelerating returns on unchanged effort, and how hard each new customer is to find is the signal, since more hours on their own do not convert into more revenue.

The method

1. 01

   A plateau is not failure: if people keep paying every month the product is fine and the leak is somewhere in the funnel.

2. 02

   More hours do not convert into more revenue, because revenue follows traffic and the fit between the product and the people seeing it, and most marketing experiments fail by default.

3. 03

   A good idea shows accelerating returns on unchanged effort, so measure velocity rather than absolute revenue when deciding whether to stay.

4. 04

   Track how hard it is to find each new customer as a signal, not just whether anyone buys.

5. 05

   You can grow revenue while traffic falls, so decompose growth into average order value and conversion rate before crediting or blaming acquisition.

What it returned

• $1.5k

  Revenue moved from $1.5k to about $2k MRR across seven months, roughly $70 of monthly growth.

• $1,530

  September brought $1,530, close to 50% growth on August, on slightly lower traffic: average sale price up about 22% from $4.10 to $5.00 and conversions up more than 20%

• Going from an hour a day to full days on the products did not move revenue proportionally.

• Sean McCabe told Justin that six years of maximum-difficulty work had barely kept him afloat, and that in his new business he puts in a tenth of the effort for ten times the result.

Sources

• Fear of launchJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · How can you get over this fear? · undated
• Good idea or bad idea?Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Good idea or bad idea? · undated
• That strange feeling when everything sort of seems to be workingCory Zue · coryzue.com · Revenue · 2018-09-30
• Making $80K a month with a problem-solving Slack-first AppAlex Kistenev · failory.com · What are some sources for learning you would recommend for entrepreneurs who are just starting? · undated
• Going back to a 9-5 job. Why it's the right thing to do.Luca Restagno · solopreneurtofreedom.com · Working full-time on my products · 2024-04-14
• I Disappeared for 7 Months. Here's What Happened.Luca Restagno · solopreneurtofreedom.com · 🤔 What Plateau Taught Me · 2026-02-06