07 Building in Public: Ducks in a row

Bueno Dias.

It’s been over a week since releasing a newsletter (apologies). But it has been quite the week. To put it lightly.

Here’s what we got going on:

1. We axed our Webflow site (as mentioned last week).

2. We’re now using NiceBoard.co (it’s amazing. So simple).

3. We’re in the process of finalizing branding. We’re hoping to receive our final brand book by Monday.

4. Strategizing pre-launch and launch.

The first three points are simple and self-explanatory. In a nutshell: we wasted one month and ~$600 pursuing the previous website. But now we’re starting to roll. So, let’s focus on the fun part, pre-launch and launch.

Launching is hard. Likely the spot most people get tripped up. I forgot how challenging it is to start creating content for a brand from day one. How do we convey our message? Do we just hop right in? Do we ease into it? What the hell are we doing?

These questions have been floating around this past week. But we’ve finally nailed down our must-haves.

First, it’s not going to be perfect. Nor will it be easy. We need to accept that some of it will be clunky and awkward and that’s totally okay. Companies and brands evolve as they mature and grow. Shooting for perfection will just further delay launch and also delay the inevitable feedback (which we want). Hell, look at AirBnB still shipping new features 15 years later. Perfection is never reached. The goal posts change and our ideas of “great” shift with them.

Don’t believe me? Look at CoinBase’s website from 2012 versus 2022:

2012:

2022:

I’ve found this exercise very comforting. You can do this for virtually any website. Just go to: https://archive.org/web/

It’s an amazing way to gain insight on initial brand strategy and also see how far these companies have come. Plus, the messaging is so simple. What is Bitcoin? And, want to send and receive Bitcoin? That’s it. No flash. Just getting the job done.

Oh yeah, they were also valued at $25 million at this point…

Okay, so we’ve accepted that our website won’t be perfect, nor will our content and marketing strategy. But we just need to do it. The best way to learn is through doing. So, we’ll do.

We can find our voice and style through repetition and feedback. All the books in the world won’t help at this point.

That being said, we still need a strategy. I don’t like “wingin it” too much. So here’s the plan.

1. Create a landing page to garner interest. Drive as much traffic as possible and collect email addresses. This is geared towards candidates.
2. Create a second landing page for employers. Different copy, same idea though. We want to collect emails and drive traffic.
3. Drip content. Through the emails acquired we will drip content out → Resume hacks, interview tips, how to exit the Big 4 gracefully, promote ‘jobs of the day’, etc.
4. Promote and cross-post through social channels → LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, etc.
5. Run this strategy for ~2 weeks (ideally by mid May once we have our branding complete).
6. Beta launch to friends and family. Websites will have kinks, and we rather our friends and family deal with those first :)

The strategy is actually quite simple: drive traffic, collect email addresses, and create a buzz before launch. That’s it. The goal is simple too: garner awareness and get it in front of the right people.

PS check out some draft screenshots of the site thus far:

It’s taken us longer than expected. Some hiccups along the way (to put it mildly). But it feels good to inch closer day by day. It’s not something that can be worked on full time, so we can’t set full-time expectations.

Hopefully we’ll have some good news to share with you all next week along with some landing page mock-ups.

Happy Thursday!