3 builders who never spoke to each other
Run a public waiting list and report its size
A waiting list is both the demand signal and the progress metric while there is nothing to ship, and it works for a version that does not exist yet as long as you name a date. Offering more than one way to follow along catches the people who will not hand over an address today.
The method
- 01
Run a waitlist while you build and treat its size as the progress number you report.
- 02
Take signups for a platform version you have not shipped yet, and give a date.
- 03
Give a pre-launch product three ways to be followed at once, a waiting list, a show, and a social account, rather than one signup box.
What it returned
- 215
The MDX.one waitlist reached 215 people during May, before launch.
- 2022
A dedicated page collected signups for the iOS beta while only Android existed, with release stated as around March 2022.
Sources
- May 2021: Retrospective & Income ReportBhanu Teja · bhanuteja.dev · What I got done during May · undated
- Why I'm building a new SaaS in 2018Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · What's next? · undated
- Take control over your smartphone usage with Unpluq - Ness LabsJorn Rigter · nesslabs.com · Take control over your smartphone usage with Jorn Rigter, co-founder of Unpluq · 2021-11-18
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 email
- Move the audience you rent onto a list you own7 unconnected
- Hold the schedule you promised to hold5 unconnected
- Decide whether cold email is worth what it signals5 unconnected · contested
- Settle who the publication is for before growing it5 unconnected
- Open the list before the product is real4 unconnected
- Send each subscriber the thing they told you they want4 unconnected