✴️ #31 - hi, I'm not certain.

Author

Ben Jang
January 05, 2025 

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Hi, my name is Ben. And in case you didn't know, I'm not certain.

I've been building Wordrobin for the past few months. The core product is built, and I made what I wanted - a tool that makes me a better writer.

For the past week, I've been running ads to my landing page, improving the onboarding process, and making my value proposition clearer. But is my product actually useful to the people I want to serve?

I'm not certain.

I've been polishing up the user experience, and added features to make the creation of a new document more seamless. But is that actually what people want?

I'm not certain.

I've been messaging people, trying to get new organic signups. There have been a few sign-ups, and a lot of rejections. Does that mean I need to work on my offer? Or is it a problem with my audience selection?

I'm not certain.

The Uncertainty

Think about a journey you'd love to take. For a lot of people, the ideal journey is something they know and love. A trip to your favourite restaurant, a visit back home. It's something that doesn't cost much time, effort, and sacrifice, and something with a nearly guaranteed outcome.

Entrepreneurship is none of those things. Sure, there's a payoff, but it's never guaranteed. It takes all your effort and sacrifice, and always takes longer than expected.

A lot of times, you find yourself at the edge of a foggy cliff, without the foggiest idea what's at the bottom. It could be jagged rocks, it could be a lake that saves you, or a trampoline that sends you higher than you've ever been.

Taking the Leap

Uncertainty can be draining. It feels like you're in the middle of a busy intersection, looking around at all the cars driving past, screaming "I don't know!!"

But if you accept the fact that uncertainty is baked into entrepreneurship, it can start to look a lot more hopeful. Like alchemy, it goes from something negative to something positive. It turns into a signal that you're on the right path.

There are three things you can do when you're uncertain. You can turn back, stay there, or take the leap.

If you can, take the leap. Even if things don't work out, you'll learn what NOT to do. If they do, you win. Either way, you learn something.

I will be focused on making the most out of everything I don't know over the next few weeks. Check in to see how that's going!

🔗 Progress Update

Getting People!

People are hopping on Wordrobin!

Progress feels slow, but things are moving.

I still need to find a better way to get people on the platform, and actually using what it has to offer. I’m trying these out:

Tutorial buttons that lead to video instructions.

Time to put on my director hat!

I’ve also been constantly working on redesigning and reformatting things to make them clearer. Somehow I keep finding bugs and unexpected issues. Just the life of a solo dev!

I also had a bit of an epiphany - where I want the product to end up. It’s such a huge goal, and basically means what I have now will be a sub-sub-subsection of the total product.

Before I build it though, I will validate it. Still figuring out what that might look like…

What’s Next?

Like I mentioned in the post above - It’s about iterating through the goal cycle! Build, measure, repeat.

That’s all for now!

Enjoy the newsletter? Please forward to a pal. It only takes 18 seconds. Making this one took 2.5 hours.

Ben | X