I have been trying to do an independent product launch for years.
I’ve only been able to do them for my employers.
Have you considered the following:
* Using an identity provider to manage and verify user accounts? I personally like Stytch.
* Using a WAF to protect your site? I personally like Cloudflare which can check for bots and automatically stop attacks.
* Using AI to initially triage support tickets? I would think your AI code could evaluate the support tickets and notify you which ones need attention.
Congrats on the success and wishing you much more.
Thanks so much, Miguel! I really appreciate your thoughtful suggestions. To answer the specific points:
* For user account verification, I currently use email validation with a DNS resolver, but Stytch sounds interesting—I’ll check it out.
* I’ve heard great things about Cloudflare for security. It’s definitely on my radar, and I’ll likely integrate it soon—if not for this product, then for the next one.
* I initially expected a low volume of support tickets, but using AI for triage could be a great addition as things scale.
The real work starts after the site has been launched. Bug fixes, security patches and operating system updates, database version updates, taking regular backups, adding monitoring and alerts, SSL certs updates, adding CDN support to reduce latency,updating CI/CD pipeline and myriad of other tasks that is invisible to most customers, but is essential for operating a secure and reliable system for longer term.
Providing customer support, adding new requested features and trying to keep up with the competition to reduce churn and doing marketing to generate more active users takes additional effort.
After years of effort you may have a committed user base, and a stable and robust system that requires less manual maintenance.
You've learned a lot, and can leverage your skills for the next project, and the cycle continues.
Thanks for highlighting the work that is often invisible to the users but essential operations.
Congrats - 100 organic users is huge!! Did you validate your product idea before building? This is a great story about the merits of building in public!
Thanks for sharing your journey.
I have been trying to do an independent product launch for years.
I’ve only been able to do them for my employers.
Have you considered the following:
* Using an identity provider to manage and verify user accounts? I personally like Stytch.
* Using a WAF to protect your site? I personally like Cloudflare which can check for bots and automatically stop attacks.
* Using AI to initially triage support tickets? I would think your AI code could evaluate the support tickets and notify you which ones need attention.
Congrats on the success and wishing you much more.
Thanks so much, Miguel! I really appreciate your thoughtful suggestions. To answer the specific points:
* For user account verification, I currently use email validation with a DNS resolver, but Stytch sounds interesting—I’ll check it out.
* I’ve heard great things about Cloudflare for security. It’s definitely on my radar, and I’ll likely integrate it soon—if not for this product, then for the next one.
* I initially expected a low volume of support tickets, but using AI for triage could be a great addition as things scale.
Thank you again for the kindest wishes!
Great story that I can relate to.
The real work starts after the site has been launched. Bug fixes, security patches and operating system updates, database version updates, taking regular backups, adding monitoring and alerts, SSL certs updates, adding CDN support to reduce latency,updating CI/CD pipeline and myriad of other tasks that is invisible to most customers, but is essential for operating a secure and reliable system for longer term.
Providing customer support, adding new requested features and trying to keep up with the competition to reduce churn and doing marketing to generate more active users takes additional effort.
After years of effort you may have a committed user base, and a stable and robust system that requires less manual maintenance.
You've learned a lot, and can leverage your skills for the next project, and the cycle continues.
Thanks for highlighting the work that is often invisible to the users but essential operations.
Oh wow! Thank you, Finn, for sharing such a deep and insightful perspective from your experience.
It really reminds me that there’s still a long journey ahead, but it’s also encouraging to see that you’ve reached a more automated and stable stage!
I look forward to continuing this journey and hopefully reaching that level of efficiency as well. Appreciate your thoughtful insights!
Congrats - 100 organic users is huge!! Did you validate your product idea before building? This is a great story about the merits of building in public!
Thank you, Claudia! Hitting 100 organic users definitely has been an exciting milestone for me! Appreciate your kind words and support!
To be honest, I didn’t do much formal validation before building, I mostly followed my intuition and built something I personally wanted to use.
I had the same question when Jenny told me about her idea! Turned out her intuition and assumptions were right on.