Thread by @therealjayber

My reflection on the TOP 3 FATAL MISTAKES I made with @Zlappo that ended up killing my business:

(sharing so you hopefully don't make the same mistakes as me)

🧵

@Zlappo 𝟭. 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗠 𝗗𝗘𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗬

This killed my company, so yeah, it's impossible to overstate how monumental a mistake it was.

Elon pulled the plug, and my company was (mostly) dead in the water.

It was a flawed business model from the very start.

@Zlappo In 2020, I saw companies making serious dough in the Twitter space and thought:

"What's the worst that could happen?"

Well turns out, insta-death.

I didn't hedge against the risk of deplatforming (just as a YouTuber wouldn't want to think much about getting demonetized).

@Zlappo It's ironic, because I'm an avid reader of @asmartbear's blog, and he even talked about the dangers of building on Twitter... all the way back in 2010!

Yet I still made the exact amateurish mistake he warned founders against and paid dearly for it. 🤦‍♂️

@Zlappo @asmartbear I still recognize the tremendous value and necessity of platforms.

However, moving forward, I'll adopt a "bring your own API key" model and NEVER let APIs be my core value proposition.

Whether OpenAI or Stripe Connect, you bring your own key, I ain't putting my ass on the line.

@Zlappo @asmartbear 𝟮. 𝗡𝗢 𝗕𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗗-𝗜𝗡 𝗩𝗜𝗥𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬

I underestimated how apps don't just market themselves, even with solid word-of-mouth marketing from happy users.

This literally slowed my progress down 2-5x easily when it could have been automated by software from the very start.

@Zlappo @asmartbear IMO solo founders have NO BUSINESS working on ideas without a baked-in viral component.

People literally give away 50% equity to marketing co-founders because they never started with virality in mind.

It's an enormous strategic error most founders are too proud to admit.

@Zlappo @asmartbear Moving forward, if an idea doesn't involve my users sharing my URL to get value from my product AND doesn't allow me to plaster "Powered by" hyperlinks at the bottom of my product, I don't want it.

That's my #1 non-negotiable in idea evaluation.

I won't budge on this.

@Zlappo @asmartbear I highly recommend founders learn about Reforge's Racecar Growth Strategy Framework.

In B2C/B2A software, there are only 3 reliable growth engines (paid, content, virality).

Only virality is even halfway-realistic for a busy solo founder!

See:

reforge.com/blog/racecar-g…

@Zlappo @asmartbear Also "baked-in" virality is as opposed to "bolt-on" virality.

As @asmartbear would tell you, it's not the same.

Virality CANNOT be an afterthought, it must be prioritized from Day 1, at the ideation stage.

@joshk, partner of @firstround, stated this succinctly in 2009:

@Zlappo @asmartbear @joshk @firstround Also consider this Hacker News comment by @spencerfy that explains baked-in virality really well:

@Zlappo @asmartbear @joshk @firstround @spencerfy 𝟯. 𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗢𝗙 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗧 𝗜𝗡𝗡𝗢𝗩𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡

"What makes Zlappo different?"

Honestly, 9 times out of 10, I had the guppy-fish-at-feeding-time look whenever customers asked this question.

I was so scared of innovating boldly, because I didn't want to risk failing.

@Zlappo @asmartbear @joshk @firstround @spencerfy I'm not freaking Mark Zuckerberg who can just take a random gamble on the Metaverse.

I wanted to (needed to) play it safe and stay within bounds of the "state of the art."

So I let my competitors take the risk of validating new features, while I focused on getting paid.

@Zlappo @asmartbear @joshk @firstround @spencerfy But on hindsight, it was my #1 stumbling block to growth.

@Zlappo was just a "me too" product, it worked very well for what it was, only cheaper.

But that wasn't good enough to drive meteoric growth.

I didn't give my happy users enough substantive reasons to argue for my case.

@Zlappo @asmartbear @joshk @firstround @spencerfy Don't get me wrong.

I learned A SHIT TON from @Zlappo, it changed my life's trajectory, and I also managed to put aside [REDACTED] worth of savings from my 3-year adventure, sort of like a micro-exit.

It wasn't a complete bust -- I'm well-positioned to pursue my next venture.

@Zlappo @asmartbear @joshk @firstround @spencerfy But I feel like every entrepreneur has a legitimate fear of not being able to reproduce or even come close to their past success.

Starting over at 34 really hurts.

It feels like turning the clock all the way back to 2019 when I purchased the @Zlappo .com domain name.

@Zlappo @asmartbear @joshk @firstround @spencerfy I looked back at my Github commits, from the 1st in 2019.

I reread my customer support emails from 2020-2021.

I revisited all the 5-star reviews from my happy users.

Such a wave of emotions just seeing how far I've come, and then just have the ground ripped out from below me.

@Zlappo @asmartbear @joshk @firstround @spencerfy But, in the words of the Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong:

"What to do? It has happened."

I can see only 3 ways forward for me here:

1. Build my next business

2. Give up and get a job for life

3. Just pack it in, call it a good life, say goodbye forever

@Zlappo @asmartbear @joshk @firstround @spencerfy I'm very far from 3, I'd rather die than to settle for 2, so realistically 1 is my only option.

If you want to follow my journey as a 3rd-time founder, I'm currently building zylvie.com.

I'll be posting more as I build it out, so please come along for the ride. 😎