GitShip

Effortlessly monetise your GitHub repos

No Employees
Founders Code
Solo Founder
Communication
E-Commerce
Marketplaces
Payments
Productivity
Programming
SaaS
Sales
Task Management
Utilities

GitShip.com automates private repo collaborator invites and removal, generates fresh zips of your production releases and distributes your code to 3rd party repos on demand.

October 1, 2021 Launched MVP!

I shipped GitShip today! It's designed to help developers monetize their code/themes/plugins etc. The first release includes automated GitHub collaborator flows for private repos and automated zipping of the latest release for sellers on GumRoad. More coming soon! https://gitship.com

September 16, 2021 New domain name $$$

Against my better judgement, as I've not launched and zero customers, I decided on changing the product name from 'GitShipper' to 'GitShip' with my biggest financial investment to date in the premium domain 'https://gitship.com'.

I purchased the original name just to get started without investing too much time into it. However, as the project has moved on, I received consistent feedback on the name shortening.

I wouldn't change my path to getting here, as I know I would have been stuck in a loop for a while trying to decide on the name in the first place. My idea wasn't tangible enough until I had the website to point people to. If all else fails, I can resale the domain with a small markup 馃榾.

August 31, 2021 Time saved

Using The React codebase generator divjoy.com, I'm saving so much time bootstrapping the MVP dashboard and functionality. Gabe has made integrating with Firebase and Stripe a much simpler proposition. I have a final list of tasks to check off before hitting the launch button!

Please feel free to ping me a message if you have any questions about using the framework.

August 29, 2021 First public feedback from the landing page

After launching the MVP landing page a few weeks back, I took the first steps in approaching a few target customers. Approaching them directly via email and chat channels. Being open and honest seems to illicit genuine and honest feedback responses.

The feedback validated some early assumptions and dispelled a few big ones I had made.

I've iterated the landing page based on the comments and now need to be bolder about reaching out to people and posting on my personal social feeds about the project.

In the meantime, I'm continuing to chisel away at the code and UI to make a releasable first iteration. Although, I know this should take a back seat until I have further validation of the idea 馃槈

August 5, 2021 Launched MVP landing page!

After testing out the copy on a few friends via a Google Doc, I took the plunge and invested some time in creating a basic branding and landing page. My plan is to start reaching out to the target market via Indie Hackers, Slack communities and Reddit.

Target market:

  • developers who sell code via a 3rd party marketplace e.g. GumRoad
  • developers who gift code when teaching via YouTube or Code Academy etc.

Tools used:
Logo generator: https://designs.ai/logomaker/
Landing page builder: Carrd https://try.carrd.co/6sy8y7j4

Website: https://gitshipper.com/

August 5, 2021 Launched MVP landing page!

After testing out the copy on a few friends via a Google Doc, I took the plunge and invested some time in creating a basic branding and landing page. My plan is to start reaching out to the target market via Indie Hackers, Slack communities and Reddit.

Target market:

  • developers who sell code via a 3rd party marketplace e.g. GumRoad
  • developers who gift code when teaching via YouTube or Code Academy etc.

Tools used:
Logo generator: https://designs.ai/logomaker/
Landing page builder: Carrd https://try.carrd.co/6sy8y7j4

Website: https://gitshipper.com/

June 17, 2021 Idea!

After commencing a work sabbatical in April, I started researching various product ideas. A key component of my time off was to top up my coding skills (I eventually stopped being a front end dev around 2012 to transition to Product Ownership) to enable me to design, build and launch my own product sometime soon.

Around the same time, an ex-colleague launched a REACT boilerplate codebase on GumRoad as a way to earn some passive income. I purchased the code, downloaded a static zip file and started tinkering with making a test SAAS product. A few days later he messaged me to say there was a bug in the code I had purchased. He would send me a new zip file...

This got me thinking -

  • is there a growing market for passion workers selling their code on GumRoad, SendOwl, Thrive Cart, Woo, Shopify etc?

  • do these developers push their code in private Git repos and generate a static zip file to reupload to the shop front on GumRoad etc?

  • what happens when they need to ship a new version?

  • how do they easily engage and grow an audience of customers who have purchased their code previously?

  • how do they manage to licence the code and keep their release notes up to date?

Feels like there's an opportunity to solve this problem!

About

GitShip.com automates private repo collaborator invites and removal, generates fresh zips of your production releases and distributes your code to 3rd party repos on demand.