Week 3: I Hit My Free Tier Limits at 1am on a Tuesday

I posted a weekly update on LinkedIn.

Nothing fancy. Just what I shipped, what surprised me, what I learned. The same stuff I'd been posting every week for Nori, my AI email assistant.

Before going to bed, I give a quick look at my phone. Firebase was down. Not down. Maxed out. The free tier couldn't handle the traffic.

That LinkedIn post went viral. I didn't expect it. I never expect it.

What I learned that week

Lesson 1: Give it away first

I launched a free tier. Listened to Elena Verna on Lenny's podcast saying you earn paid users by giving it away first.

Felt counterintuitive. I'm a solo founder. No VC money. Every dollar counts. And AI apps have variable expenses.

But she was right. Free tier dropped friction to zero. People started trying Nori without needing a pitch. Some stuck around. Some will pay. The data's still early, but the logic is sound. 25 people registered that night.

You can't sell something people haven't tried.

Lesson 2: Friction kills conversion

I had mandatory onboarding calls. Thought I was being helpful. "Let me show you how this works!"

Almost nobody converted.

Killed the calls. Replaced them with a 3-minute video. Conversion jumped.

Turns out people don't want to talk to me. They want to use the product. The call was friction disguised as service.

Conversion went from 0% to 47%.

Lesson 3: Find your enemy

I listened to a branding expert: the best brands have enemies.

If everyone likes you, you're boring.

My enemy? Notifications.

Your inbox shouldn't own your attention. Email should work like physical mail. You check it once or twice a day, not every 30 seconds.

Nori is the assistant that protects your focus, not another thing begging for it.

That framing changed everything. I wasn't just building an AI tool. I was fighting against the notification economy.

People get that. They feel that.

The thing about building in public

I've posted weekly updates for 3 weeks now.

Most weeks? Crickets. 40 views. 10 likes. My mom commenting.

Then one week it hits. 34,000 views. 30+ comments. DMs from people wanting to try Nori.

What I did different: I didn't post an AI-generated preaching post. I posted about my learnings, tagged someone with lots of followers (who liked my post), and attached an image. I think all those things combined made it go viral.

What happened at 1am

Firebase hit the free tier limit.
Nori was down for 3 hours while I scrambled to upgrade to the paid plan. Lost some users.

Also noticed Nori was designed only for desktop, so the onboarding had a dead end for mobile users.

Good problem. Painful problem.

I'm now on the paid Firebase plan. Exploring alternatives for when this happens again. Because it will happen again.

Next week?

Fixing dark mode. The UI is gorgeous on light backgrounds, broken on dark. Also posting more consistently on X.

And probably hitting another limit somewhere. That's how this goes.

See you next week.

I'm Matias, and I'm building Nori: an AI executive assistant that protects your focus. Not another notification. Follow the journey.