a single source, nothing corroborates it

Treat the first products as paid practice

Launch something small enough that failing to sell it costs you a week, then work out why nobody bought. Justin Jackson frames early products as sales training and sets the opening revenue target at a single dollar, and Nathan Barry took a newsletter from idea to launched inside a day on roughly three hours of work. The diagnosis is the same lesson on a small product and far cheaper.

The method

1. 01

   Treat early products as sales training: launch, and if nobody buys, diagnose the reason, since the lesson is cheaper on a small product than a big one.

2. 02

   A newsletter can go from idea to launched in a day with only a few hours of real work.

3. 03

   Start on a deliberately small opportunity, put the project out in public, and set your first target at earning a single dollar of revenue.

What it returned

• 17

  Ingvar Kamprad sold matches door to door by bicycle, moved on to Christmas decorations, fish and ballpoint pens, and founded IKEA at 17; the company did $37 billion in sales the year Justin wrote this.

• 18

  18 hours from idea to launch, about 3 hours of actual work, producing 279 subscribers from 732 unique visitors in the first week

Sources

• How to startJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · How to start · undated
• Business is like surfingJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Final thoughts · undated
• iOS Design Weekly: Launch Story and StatisticsNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Permission & Launch · 2011-08-16