Greetings from Down Under {{First Name|fellow wayfinder}}! 🇦🇺
Last week, I shared the final installment of my 5-part series around lessons from a "failed" web3 startup. Here's a summary of all five newsletters, with lessons covering multiple areas:
Today I will summarize what I would've done differently. An essential reflection as we close out 2022.
Let's dive in.
☕️ Reading time: 4 minutes
Doing Things Differently
Now that we've gone through all lessons learned, there are many things I’d do differently. This will be helpful for anyone looking to learn from my mistakes.
The most prominent (for the idea behind Honā) would have to be the following:
Get to product market fit a lot sooner
Focus on user growth or monetization upfront (choose one)
Create or join a community sharing prominent pain points (e.g. on Reddit, Discord, or Slack)
Oversubscribe an email list before building anything (min. 100 subscribers is enough at the beginning)
Charge for a set number of pre-orders
Focus on obsessed users
After launching an alpha or beta, focus on power users (the “obsessed”)
Setup frequent times to speak with them
Incorporate their feedback into the roadmap until enough traction has been hit
Product-Market Fit
There were some specific guides I found that I wish I had access to earlier on, specifically around Product-Market Fit (PMF):
The PMF Playbook by John Danner
The Scientific Method to Solving Product Market Fit by Nick Kozmin
Tooling
Another really important area is tooling. The following management tools were what I used after a lot of experimentation, and I highly recommend them:
Linear - issue management for agile teams (really well-designed)
Notion - all-in-one productivity tool (e.g. tasks, wikis, etc.)
Sturrpy - financial modeling for startups
Runway - cash planning for startups
Cabal - investor communications
Intercom - a popular customer support tool
Hotjar - heatmaps and behavior insights tracking
Final Remarks
In conclusion, I'd like to point out how much of what I've shared isn't unique to blockchain or Web3. A lot of it is general startup advice and lessons.
What this should tell you is that:
Don't be afraid to enter the space
Web3 still has a lot of room to grow and mature
You don't need to be technically proficient (but it does help)
I hope you've enjoyed the last couple of weeks of lessons. Look out for a blog post soon bringing it all together for easier reference!
Until next time, remember: through patience & persistence, it will come.
Last week's premium newsletters:
Daily #165: The Orbit Model (A Community Framework)
Daily #164: Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough
Daily #163: What's your focus for 2023?
Daily #162: Lost Time, DNA & Family
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