My Progress Report
Jan
Mainly spent reconvering from the festivities, setting goals and prepping like a boss.
Feb
What did I launch?
Read why I built accessthisabibility.com.
What would I have done different?
I’m not sure that customer’s understand the value proposution. I’m not sure I understand the value proposition. Also, I don’t have a direct way to monetise with hindsight I would have a product to monetise and then launch on Product Hunt..
Tools used?
Namecheap,Carrd.
Success or Failure?
Failure.
Will I continue with this?
Yes; although this definitely has not been a success, it is a passion project of mine
Social channels?
Accessthisability is live on Product Hunt
March-ish
What did I launch?
What would I have done different?
Probably not bothering to launch.
Tools?
Namecheap,Carrd, Airtable.
Success or Failure?
Failure.
Will I continue with this?
No; It was an epic failure. I’ll leave it be for as long as the domain is live, but won’t put much love into it.
Social channels?
Nada.
Also March-ish
What did I launch?
What would I have done different?
Have a clearer value proposition.
Tools?
Namecheap, Carrd, Glitch, Twitter.
Success or Failure?
Failure.
Will I continue with this?
Yes — it for a good cause, and is relatively low level maintenance.
Social channels?
April-ish
What did I launch?
I had previously established a Slack Channel for a specific niche — which I wanted to rebrand & extend.
What would I have done different?
I previously got more traction focussing on a niche area so I should have just focussed on that niche and served it well before broadening. There was also no need to launch a seperate Medium publication.
Tools?
Namecheap, Carrd, Glitch, Medium, Slack, Twitter.
Success or Failure?
Failure.
Will I continue with this?
Maybe — is relatively low level maintenance, but I think it needs a community manager of sorts.
Social channels?
May-ish
What did I launch?
What would I have done different?
I initially launched on a different domain but changed midway through — not a problem but maybe something I could have expected. Biggest learning is that I could have done something on Twitter to crowd-source info, and still ended up with the same information. I put too much effort into this without knowing what my goal was first.
Tools?
Namecheap, Carrd, AirTable.
Success or Failure?
Failure.
Will I continue with this?
Maybe — I like the domain name, and I think there may be some opportunity in the#openmakers and #AMAopenmaker series. I also feel that there is something in Maker Deals ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Social channels?
Nada
June
Massive restructure at my full-time job, so I didn’t do much, but I did spend time setting up the #12startupschallenge.
At the start of the month I made a post on Indie Hackers which inspired me to have another bash at this.
Eventually I recruited some participants and we agreed on the challenge. I even got Mubashar Iqbal 😍to follow me on Twitter as a result of it.
July
What did I launch?
What would I have done different?
Nothing.
The timing of this launch was terrible. Product Hunt chat launched at almost the exact same time, and Dinuka’s Maker’s Kitchen also launched at almost the exact same time. I’m pretty sure Maker’s Kitchen launched the exact same day but there was a massive silver lining…….
Tools?
Namecheap, Telegram.
Success or Failure?
Success — this will sound weird as the actual startup will end up a failure but I immediately found what I was looking for myself when I found Maker’s Kitchen. The dude and dudette’s in that community rock ✊
Will I continue with this?
Maybe — it’s relatively low level maintenance. The emotion I have weighing on me right now is whether another community is needed. I actually found what I was seeking when I launched Indie Hunters when I joined Maker’s Kitchen.
Social channels?
Nada
Also July
What did I launch?
Techically I built this a coupe of years back now (I think 🤔) but I never did anything with it. Like anything. I think it may have been published but had 0 visitor so I class this as new.
At this stage it is too early to tell what is going to happen.
What’s in the pipeline?
I’m debating a couple of things but I think I will end up doing:
- Something Yoga related. Scratching an itch.
- Something Travel realted. Scratching an itch.
- Something Jobsite related. Focussing on a niche I know.
- Reinventing 12startups.com. Actually it’s not re-inventing, it’s executing upon the vision that I initially had years back. Where this counts will be debatable but if I don’t reach 12 it certainly will 😝
What have I learned doing this so far?
- I keep reverting back to community building
- I’m terrible at community building
- My copy-writing for landing pages suck
- My graphics skills needs work
- I need to move on from my throw enough mud and it may stick scatter-gun approach
- I should do more research (as an aside I am a Product Manager at a telco so I think my ‘just do’ attitude stems from there if I’m being honest)
- Being in New Zealand is a disadvantage for launching to Product Hunt and Reddit etc (disadvantage is the wrong word — it’s fine; I just need to plan better and post at better times)
- I am clueless when it comes to timezones
- I’m rapidly loosing respect for those that I initally looked up to as maker demi-gods
- ….
What have I learned at the end?
This will likely be a post by itself.
