Perfect Focus

Set your mode and get in the zone. Nothing can stop you now.

No Employees
Founders Code
Solo Founder
Productivity

I quit my job 10 weeks ago to create tech that helps the world and stops tech addiction. I'm building the app I want, having been inspired by Timeular, BlockSite, and Magnet, but having run up against their limitations

November 30, 2021 Name change from Merlin -> List Zero

Well, it turns out that the name Merlin was taken. I thought this was really the last time I'd have to change.

I used this as an opportunity to systematically find a name that's not trademarked, and that resonates well with my target audience.

I highly recommend the book Hello, My Name Is Awesome. It outlines a process for figuring out a great name.

List Zero was not a name I liked at first, but with systematic testing, it became abundantly clear that it jumped out at a lot of the right people, gave off the right impression, and is very brandable. E.g. helping people achieve List Zero.

I hope this change will be a multiplier for the business, which we're launching paid plans for very soon.

August 26, 2021 Made 2 big leaps toward product-market fit

In the search for product-market fit, one of the first things I look for, is a light in people's eyes when they hear about the product we're building.

I wasn't seeing that--it was conspicuously absent for at least a month of conversations. I knew because I was talking to potential customers, and no one really jumped at the solution I mentioned.

In early discovery conversations people had mentioned, among many dozens of other things, wanting a to-do list that would hack their psychology in some way, to make them more productive.

Some tools that "hack our psychology" make money, such as popular pomodoro tools, and FocusMate. So I know money can be made in this niche.

However, when I talked with people about this, they still weren't getting excited.

I approached an unofficial advisor with this issue, and he recommended something unexpected--to create a compelling story. So we tried it.

We played with Sifu.ai, a concept where you're a student learning TaskFu--it resonated nicely, but a few people worried that it might be cultural appropriation.

After some more brainstorming, the concept of Merlin--who teaches you the magic techniques of productivity and helps you "make your to-do list disappear", came up. I like the name, as it's simple, iconic, ambitious, and not too specific.

Now that we had a story, I set up a Facebook ad--unlike previous ads, where there were crickets, this one had some signups.

Here's the trick--at this stage, the way to maximize learning for us is not to get a bunch of random people installing the product. At this stage, onboarding customers by hand is the way to maximize learning. Superhuman, the email tool, has been an inspiration for us in this regard.

Currently we have them set up a 15-minute call, ask them a few questions about why they responded to the ad, show them some mockups in Balsamiq or just talk through some concepts--this learning is key.

Then we onboard them onto the product and see what works well, what really resonates (so we can double down on it), and what they don't care for.

One thing that around half of the early interviewees from the Facebook call mentioned, was that they had ADHD, so they wanted a tool that would keep them engaged.

I A/B tested a new version of the ad, changing it to mention ADHD, and we got 4x the responses!

Pretty wild. Now I can have lots of customer conversations for a reasonable amount of cash.

My new bottleneck is figuring out the details of the gamification concept for the app!

Wish us luck!

August 20, 2021 Rebranded to "Merlin"

Over the last few months, we've explored many names--and I've changed it many times, trying to get the foundation right.

I think a strong name is important--in my mind it should be sufficiently general and aspirational (like Uber, Google, Amazon), and easy to say and spell.

Oh, and it shouldn't be taken by another product in the same industry :).

"Intentive" was confusing to say and spell.
It turned out that "FlowZone" was taken.
"Sifu" was potentially offensive.

Recently changed the name to "Merlin".

I hope this current name works well!

June 2021 Tested 3 programmers - found a winner

The other programmer I worked with seemed good on paper--but was slow and went way over budget.

In order to mitigate risk this second time around, I hired 3 programmers to do a small test project.

This turned out to be a very good decision.

One programmer WAY outperformed all the others, and so we went with him.

We've now been working together for 2+ months, and I'm very happy with him. A good engineer is a core part of a startup's learning engine--so I'm glad we got this right.

June 13, 2021 Started systematically testing my assumptions

According to The Lean Startup, the fundamental unit of progress of a startup is learning.

This serves to help a startup learn how to build a sustainable business.

I read The Lean Startup 5-10 years ago, and my main takeaway after all these years was "create an MVP".

That's important, but there's a lot more nuance that can accelerate learning even further, and multiply my chances of success.

I've started a Trello board to test my fundamental assumptions systematically.

This morning I tested one assumption that I'd been building my product idea around--and it only took about 10 minutes!

It sounds simple, but the testing wouldn't have happened without the process in this video:
https://www.loom.com/share/de3a039e3ed6428aa65b133c90ecb84a

June 11, 2021 Demo of MVP in case you're curious

Here's one concept that I'm working on. It allows you to seamlessly track, reflect on, and celebrate completing your tasks so you can be more focused.

This design is one of many that I'm working on, and I find it helps me to learn faster than building a product, for now:
https://www.loom.com/share/1665fbe45e814e618fc05539d97f6233

June 11, 2021 Finalizing partnership with former coworker

For about a week I've been discussing terms with a former coworker about some initial funding for Perfect Focus.

We both trust, like, and respect each other and have worked well together in the past.

This arrangement helps me cap the potential downside of burning through a significant amount of money creating MVPs, while allowing them to capture some potential upside if I'm able to create a successful product.

We're creating terms in a Word doc, without any lawyers involved. I feel the most important thing is to be clear about what we're agreeing to, because it can matter down the line. We've each verbally agreed to move forward, and I expect us to sign documents in a day or two!

I think both of us are thinking a lot about risk mitigation, which I think is a great thing. Many years ago when I started companies, I did not think in these terms reading Charlie Munger and Nassem Taleb has expanded my thinking here a lot.

June 8, 2021 Started customer development

To be honest, I should've started customer development at least a few weeks ago--but I'm glad I've started now.

Talking with potential customers can teach you so much, and shatter assumptions you're not aware of so quickly.

In 5 calls, which I arranged on respondent.io, I've had some fundamental assumptions overturned. One big learning, for example, is how much people use their calendars as TODO lists instead of using a task management app. This affects what MVP I build.

May 19, 2021 Hired MacOS Programmer

Last week I had hired a Chrome extension programmer to do a separate project--and I was blown away by her quick execution and the overall low price of the project. ($65 for v1)

Since I used to be a web developer, I'm able to communicate pretty well with developers even if I don't know the specific environment or language, so this can help drive the price down, but having hired such a competent person on UpWork--a platform I've used many times--opened my eyes to the possibility of also hiring a macOS programmer to create an MVP for < $1k, instead of programming the MVP myself.

I put up job descriptions on UpWork.com, Djinni.co, and I talked with TopTal. TopTal may be good for non-technical people who just want to get the project done, but it seems like there's a large markup, and I'd rather work closely with an engineer I hire, and play idea ping pong.

Anyways, to filter out all the job spammers on UpWork I asked people to "Please explain the your understanding of the job in your own words".

I interviewed those who responded reasonably well. I found all 4 to be sincere people, but one guy who charged 50% more than the others was someone I felt I could play "idea ping pong" with very well--and it seems he'll get the project done 2x as fast, and with a better foundation.

He thinks he can get v1 ready to demo by this Sunday! I hope so--I'll share the demo here, soon!

May 11, 2021 Came up with my idea

For 3 weeks I've been noodling on both the coolness and limitations of Timeular.

Timeular is a time-tracking dice that you turn to track your time in 1 of 8 customizable categories.

I'm using it to track my reading and my writing, which I make sure to do 1+ hours a day, each.

However, for all the coolness of Timeular, in my experience it doesn't make time tracking on the computer as easy as it could be.

When meticulously mapping out a better Timeular interface to reduce clicks and context switching, I realized that you could automate a lot more to happen when you change a Timeular mode.

For example when a mode changes you can:

  • Change the layout of your applications. Browser on the left, Kindle on the right
  • Make different tabs shown or hidden, different websites opened or blocked
  • Play different music, or white noise or silence for different modes

You set your intention by changing modes. Perfect Focus reinforces your willpower by blocking all that's unnecessary. It's your blinders, your guard rails, your willpower on steroids.

About

I quit my job 10 weeks ago to create tech that helps the world and stops tech addiction. I'm building the app I want, having been inspired by Timeular, BlockSite, and Magnet, but having run up against their limitations