Category: 12 Launches 12 Months

• August 9, 2022

  Nextbox – Your Focused Inbox

  The Problem

  We are constantly bombarded by emails, both spam we’re better off without and emails we’re actually interested in. But going through a lot of email is a pain and maintaining inbox zero can feel like a pipedream.

  The Solution

  Nextbox helps you focus on the next unread email. When you’re in the Nextbox you only view one email at a time. No folder list, no email list, no distractions.

  You can use easy-to-discover keyboard shortcuts to mark read, reply, and forward emails so you don’t even have to point and click your way to the next email or action.

  In addition to make it easier for you to go through your email the app is optimized to be as quick as possible so you don’t waste time waiting for it.

  Going through your inbox, which may have once consumed your morning, will only take a few seconds or minutes. As you unsubscribe from spam (there’s a shortcut for that) it will get even faster.

  The Launch

  Nextbox isn’t done yet so I minimally “launched” it by creating a mailing list and tweeting about it. The UpwardLine Twitter account has 11 followers so that had about the expected impact.

  My brother is helping me test it in the interim but in August, when more functionality is completed, I plan to announce the beta more broadly and make it available to people who want to test it. If you’d like to try it out you can get on the list at GetNextbox.com
• May 18, 2022

  Your Friend At – Get Connected to Your Dream Job

  To get better at launching projects and learn how to launch them quick, I’m launching 12 things I wish already existed in 12 months.

  The Problem

  Getting a job is hard. It’s tough to know how much experience you need and which role is the right fit. More importantly, once you do find a job you like, it’s hard to get your foot in the door unless you have a friend who works there who can refer you.

  The Solution

  Your Friend At connects you with a friend at your dream company who can refer you to your dream job.

  Just upload your resume and a real person from that company will take a look. If they’re interested you can arrange to meet

  The Launch

  Yesterday I posted it on r/bayarea to gauge reactions. They were not good. They boiled down to trying to build trust. So I added my photo, more details about myself, and a link to my LinkedIn and scheduled a Product Hunt post for midnight. I’ll post it on hacker news after incorporating feedback from the Product Hunt launch.
• April 27, 2022

  12 Launches in 12 Months

  I recently had the unpleasant experience of shutting down an app I truly believed in. I built it with a partner who I admire as a person and enjoyed working with. We spent hundreds of hours over nearly two years adding features, listening to users, learning from competitors, crafting an app that we thought was the best solution in that space and finding creative ways to market it. We built it for a scale that could likely handle tens of thousand of concurrent users. This app was ready to change its industry.

  But it never took off.

  A lot of people seemed fundamentally resistant to the concept. We kept deferring an all in launch to improve the product until we lost confidence in the idea. As a result, it never got the network effect it needed to add value to users.

  Inspired by levels.io, and perhaps as a bit of a palate cleanser, I’m taking the opposite approach: 12 launches in 12 months.

  Why focus on 12 launches rather than projects?

  If a project launch is successful the next launch should iterate on it rather than an entirely new project. I don’t want aiming for 12 entirely different things to prevent me from growing what’s successful.

  Also, launching was the biggest hurdle in the app I’m shutting down. We spent far too long developing and put far too little time, effort, and thought into how to properly launch and grow it.

  Why a launch a month?

  The time constraint will force me to think about what the true MVP of each project will be. What do I need to build to appeal to users? What can wait until it’s clear there is traction?

  Most of the development will have to happen within a week or two. The other two weeks will be focused on properly marketing the launch and planning the next one.

  Why 12 months?

  I have a backlog of things I always wished existed but don’t. This is my opportunity to build some of them.

  Also, while I’ll never be able to reach a significant sample size, I don’t think one or two launches is enough of an indicator of whether this time boxed approach works well.

  Finally, I want to learn how to launch and it’s much easier to learn something while you’re putting it into practice. Launching and learning 12 times should help me learn the skill much more than another one off attempt.

  Why follow along?

  It’s a little early for me to encourage you to try 12 launches in 12 months. It’s going to be a tough journey and I’m having second thoughts even as I write this post. 🙂

  But I’m happy to share each launch before or when it happens. More importantly, I hope to share the lessons I learn along the way. I hope you’ll learn with me and discover some sites and apps you enjoy using in the process.