I got to $200 MRR with a product I built in 4 hours. Here's how...

Below are the 5 steps I used to build my product TweetTailor followed by the Distribution Strategy.

Step 1 Idea:

I have been brainstorming about building a newsletter that delivers curated content personalized to each subscriber for a few months.

At the beginning of Feb, I had this idea of building ghostwriting as a service at a low price point with a standard quality of content for Twitter.

I loved the idea and saw potential and decided to take a crack at it.

Lesson learned: If you think long enough about a certain topic, you will start seeing patterns and identifying opportunities.

Step 2 Clarity:

I wrote down 4 paragraphs about what the product was about to gain clarity on what to build and for whom.

The structure I used was this:

1. Topic, Need & Problems
2. Existing solutions and shortcomings
3. Solutions for these shortcomings
4. Life of a customer after having used the solution

Step 3 Copy:

The above step not only gave me clarity but also provided parts of the copy for:

1. Website
2. Launch Page
3. Promotional content
4. DMs & Distribution

Step 4 Website:

I downloaded a decent-looking template and placed the copy before hosting it on a nice domain. Did some basic SEO and submitted to indexing engines, set up analytics, etc.

Step 5 Launch Page:

The same copy served the purpose of the PH launch page. I scheduled the launch for Feb 15.

Lesson learned: When starting a new project begin by writing down some good length of text. It helps you gain confidence in the idea, gain insight into its execution and get a reusable copy for the entire flow of the initial business-building.

The above was 4 hours of work for me as I have already done these steps quite a few times. First-time hackers might take some more time at this.

Cometh the launch day:

I was pretty clear my priority was to get paid subscribers instead of upvotes.

I don't have a huge following on any socials so that approach was out of the question.

I stuck to the approach that aligned with my strengths, building 1 on 1 connections with people on Twitter and having private interactions.

I DMed about 200 people who fit the following profile:

1. Have a PH account
2. Upvoted a product in the last week
3. Have a Twitter link on their PH profile
4. Twitter DMs are open

These 200 DMs resulted in about 61 upvotes on the product and got me to $200 MRR.

Lesson Learned: A huge following certainly brings more and easy success. However, you are not a lost cause if you don't have one. Play the hands you are dealt with!

There are many other aspects to startup building, but I have focused on the distribution part primarily as that's what I struggle with the most, and hope this helps a few people figure out how to solve their distribution.

Product Progress

In the last couple of months, the product has evolved to new offerings at higher price points with more hours worked, gained new subscribers, churned some old ones, and grew in revenue but the first 4 hours of working on the project and the launch day MRR of $200 will always be my best memory.

I am not an expert in all the things I did nor am I very successful. But utilizing what I have, I have seen some early signals of success. Let's keep going!