It took four months, three failed ideas, and one embarrassing cold email. Here’s the whole messy timeline, including the parts that make me wince.
Idea one was a template shop that sold nothing. Idea two was a newsletter that gained eleven subscribers, four of whom were my own email addresses. Idea three worked — not because it was better, but because I finally asked someone to pay before I built the thing.
The cold email that started it misspelled the recipient’s name. He replied anyway. The lesson I took: shipped and flawed beats polished and private, by a margin that still embarrasses me.