VC's HATE HIM! Destroy YC companies with this one easy trick.

What started as research for an email platforms quickly turned to a call for a change in how we buy our software. I’m Levi Robertson, founder of technomancy, and I recently launched double-zero as a solution to what I saw was lacking in the SES space. It seemed like the only options were either: pay a monthly subscription for a SaaS with questionable security and unnecessarily high pricing, or build my own tool and host it myself. It was then I shifted my focus from the product I was currently working on to building my own email platform.

I came to the realization in my search for a solution that people no longer have access to buy the software they use outright. Instead, we risk it with SaaS products that take advantage of users through their pricing and lack of basic features. I thought about the WordPress community and how those tools empower developers to make recurring revenue from their client. I wanted to make something developers could buy and use to make income. Double-zero would not be another SaaS, the goal was to give power back to the developers. From the beginning there would be a free, open-sourced version and then a pro version that would be a one-time purchase- allowing you to ****self-host at a fraction of the cost you would pay towards a SaaS.

On June 21, the product was launched on Product Hunt and within an hour it would be rise to the spot it ended up claiming, 5th Product of the Day. On the same day of the launch, WebDev Cody uploaded a video titled “This self hosted emailer might just kill [REDACTED].io” which talked all about double-zero and in just a month garnered over 21k views. This video also resulted in the Git project going from 160 stars to over 600 in just a few days time. Currently the project has 851 stars and is still growing! The impact of this video also had a tremendous effect on the pre-order sales.

I decided to launch with a pre-order sale that was set for the first 50 purchases- a deal to get the product for a huge discount at $99 (reg. $250). All 50 sold out within the first 24 hours- an unexpected result with the minimal marketing for the product. It’s popularity was all credit to the open-source community and WebDevCody, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive with people purchasing the product simply for the idea that developers should be able to own their software. This was becoming seen as a product truly for the people’s benefit, not one dependent on making hidden VC’s happy.

It has been only a short time after the launch and already Contacts and Broadcasts are completed features, with Teams, Automations, and an Editor on the horizon. For each feature release, a small sale will be held giving users a short opportunity to pre-order the product at a steep discount. This will be a space to definitely watch!