
I got my first $50/mo customer - Malfunction92
https://www.alexwest.co/posts/129
======
thisisbrians
So, I checked out Cyberleads[1], and...this dude is just literally (and
brazenly) selling a list of startup executives' emails without their
permission or consent. Not sure if that's even legal, but it's definitely
scummy, and I hate when I get cold (and frequently, also technically SPAM)
emails like the ones this guys is enabling.

Here's a direct quote from the site[1]:

    
    
      Every day, we scour the web and find every single startup that just
      raised money. We collect information about these companies, like
      revenue, size, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles, CEO information,
      emails, and much more.
    
      We then further investigate, and verify manually every entry on the
      list. Every single data point is checked, every single email is
      verified. Manually. By a human.
    

1\. [https://www.getcyberleads.com/](https://www.getcyberleads.com/)

Edit: added quotes.

~~~
ivanfon
The other project, GitGardener[1] is... not necessarily sketchy, but it's
obviously designed to make your Github look "better" than it really is (not
that the contribution chart matters for anything, but that seems like what the
service is trying to convey).

1: [https://www.gitgardener.com/](https://www.gitgardener.com/)

~~~
qu4ku
I'm not gonna lie. From the perspective of somebody that commits every day
with purpose, this is even more scammy then selling email spam-list. This
invalidates my hard work.

~~~
gjs278
your hard work should be finished products not npm module spam of the next
left-pad

~~~
wazanator
My thoughts exactly, if you're holding yourself to commit every single day
your commits are probably not meaningful or are so broken up that reading your
repos history is a nightmare.

Just because you can commit every day means absolutely nothing if the commits
are garbage.

------
encoderer
There is sentiment that goals are bullshit and somewhat destructive. My take
is, it comes down to setting the right goals.

I've bootstrapped a moderately successful SaaS and have enjoyed many revenue
milestones along the way but those were milestones not goals. The goals are
_lifestyle_ based. Things like "I want to never have another traditional job"
or "I want to be debt free" are much more powerful than "I want to hit $2000
MRR".

That said, look, building and selling things is amazing and I suggest
everybody do it. If you only have a little time, build small things and sell
them cheaply. But there is a self empowerment that comes from creating your
own income that has an impact far beyond the actual dollars themselves.

Congrats Alex, good goal or not, it's a notable achievement.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
> there is a self empowerment that comes from creating your own income

This is something that's rarely said (or snidely dismissed as "lifestyle
business") but is so very important.

Realizing that you are not completely reliant on someone to employ you, that
you can derive income from multiple streams and then _actually_ seeing it
happen is an incredible feeling.

~~~
close04
> you are not completely reliant on someone to employ you

I don't think that's where the feeling of empowerment comes from. Instead of
doing a good job to impress your boss you do a good job to impress your
customers. That feeling, I believe, comes from the fact that generating your
own revenue stream makes you a "one man team". You pulled all the right
strings, you pushed the right buttons, you spoke to the all right people. You
took your idea from back of the napkin drawing to actual functioning and
successful business. You don't get to do that as an employee.

~~~
jfkebwjsbx
It is more regarding to impress your own customers than bosses (or customers
of your boss). The former is about something you did right. The second is (in
many cases) about asking for a raise. The last is mostly showing what a team
(or even others) have done.

By the way, most jobs are not about impressing bosses. You can make a career
just doing your work. The right people will notice, specially in small
companies.

~~~
close04
I was just oversimplifying but the core idea remains. You should take pride in
your work whether you are on your own boss or work for one. But sometimes
taking your own idea from 0 to fruition gives you a special kind of pride. The
"I wore all the hats and made it" kind. And indeed, the right people will
notice regardless of where you are.

~~~
jfkebwjsbx
Agreed!

------
DVassallo
I came to a simple realization: Only intrinsic motivation lasts. Achieving
external rewards and arbitrary goals feels nice for a while, but it always
wears off quickly.

Now I don’t have goals anymore. My idea of personal growth is to keep
rearranging my life so that I'm doing fewer things I'd rather not be doing.

No goals. Just anti-goals.

~~~
mattbuilds
In this video by Brandon Sanderson [0] he talks a little bit about goals and I
follow something similar. At one point he talks about setting goals that are
actually in your control. So you wouldn't set a goal like "become a famous
author" (although he says that would be nice). Instead you set something you
can control like "get better with each book you write". Then you break those
goals down into tasks.

I think he says something like "if I was 100 and looked back and wrote 100
unpublished novels, would I be happy with that?". I think using something like
that as a guide for setting goals is good because it keeps you pointed in the
right direction and makes the goals things you can actually control.

[0] [https://youtu.be/oH9sJrAVeC0](https://youtu.be/oH9sJrAVeC0)

~~~
thisisbrians
I think "be a famous author" is a goal, and "get better with each book" is a
strategy. In my view: the goal is a target, and the strategy is an action in
attempt of reaching it.

~~~
mattbuilds
But the goal isn't to be a famous author, it's to write quality books. It's a
different mindset. Becoming a famous author is something that is out of your
control. Instead of focusing on the outcome, which you can't control, you
focus on the thing you can. Doing quality work for something you enjoy. Sure,
selling the book and it doing incredibly well would be nice, but honestly
there is too much luck involved. It's obviously something you would think
about when you are writing, and like, but it shouldn't be why you write.

I don't write software side projects because I think they will turn out to be
the next big thing or make me famous and rich, I do them because I get
enjoyment out of writing code that solves a problem (usually my own).

~~~
temporaryvector
The thing worth mentioning is that becoming a famous author and writing
quality books are different goals, achieved through different means.
Cynically, I would say that they're unrelated, but in reality I'd say writing
quality books is one avenue towards becoming a famous author but likely the
least reliable one. Similarly, getting rich writing books is also another
separate goal, which can also be achieved without the other two.

Thus, I disagree that goals like "becoming a famous author" entirely out of
your control. There are definite steps one could take towards such a goal, but
as with anything in life there's never a guarantee. Granted, you do have less
control over the outcome if your goal depends on other people, like becoming
famous, but those steps still exist and could include things like networking
extensively, spending a lot of time self-promoting, polishing your image,
hanging out with the rich and famous, etc.

The problem, I think, is that a lot of people tend to think that goals like
"becoming a famous author" and "writing good books" are the same, or that the
latter will automatically lead to the former, and when they figure out that
the strategies for getting there are different they become disillusioned.

~~~
mattbuilds
I pretty much agree with everything you are saying and I do think a lot of
confusion comes from conflating the two goals together. I think I was speaking
more from personal experience that taking on goals that are more in my own
control leaves me feeling more fulfilled. I also tend to get better results
that way because I focus on the process.

------
michaelbuckbee
This is going to sound weird but there's this great interview with Seinfeld
and Obama where they talk about the "answer" to "why do you keep doing this
stuff when you're so successful and have 'made it'"?

Which I think is the real question OP is asking: "Why if I've hit this goal do
I keep doing this? Why does it feel so unsatisfying?"

I've linked to the spot in the interview but the answer is to really enjoy the
work and the process.

I feel this myself (as someone with a decent sized SAAS), that I still really
enjoy helping people, answering support emails, getting on calls with them. It
feels more satisfying than arbitrary revenue goals.

[https://youtu.be/UM-Q_zpuJGU?t=884](https://youtu.be/UM-Q_zpuJGU?t=884)

~~~
Reedx
Yeah, and the two are linked. Seinfeld's focus on the process and craft meant
he got exceptionally good at it. The money was a byproduct, not the goal. The
motivation was intrinsic and about improving his craft. To which there is no
end. So he continues.

This discussion with Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Louis CK and Ricky Gervais is worth
watching for anyone interested in that aspect of comedy:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKY6BGcx37k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKY6BGcx37k)

~~~
maest
Be wary of survivorship bias.

Not everyone that focuses on the process makes lots of money. However, some of
the people that make lots of money do it as a byproduct of focusing on the
process.

We're all familiar with the stereotype of the dev who's obsessed with
polishing their code that nobody is using.

------
seanwilson
Sounds similar to this:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill)

"The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed
tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness
despite major positive or negative events or life changes."

~~~
KerryJones
Thanks for this -- I continuously get reminded that many of our behaviors have
actually been studied and it's worth knowing them to forward our direction in
life. This is a good one

~~~
seanwilson
Yeah, it's a great feeling when you find an existing name for a concept you've
partially observed yourself, where sometimes you're sure there must be a name
for it already...is there a name for that? It's also great because now you can
read up on it and usually find a whole branch of related stuff you never knew
existed.

------
maram
> From now on, I have no goals. Nothing. I don't care about anything. I don't
> care about followers. I don't care about revenue. I don't care about
> anything. I just want to enjoy my every day life. Enjoy the process.

Nothing brings joy to entrepreneurs more than the “process of building” and
crafting products.

Your paragraph reminded me of Steve Jobs reply to Kara Swisher when she asked
for his thoughts on surpassing Microsoft in market valuation.

He said: “It doesn’t matter. It’s not what’s important. It’s not what makes
you come in the morning. Not why any of our customers buy our products. It’s
good to keep that in mind and remember what we are doing and why”

01:02 [https://youtu.be/i5f8bqYYwps](https://youtu.be/i5f8bqYYwps)

~~~
FailMore
I totally agree :)

------
ericmcer
I am always reminded of David Foster Wallace who wrote a successful novel
while still in his early twenties, and before even finishing his MFA. He had
to recalibrate his entire life expectation wise when he achieved his goal in
his 20s and found it empty. Where do you go when you are just 'starting out'
in life but have already grabbed this thing that was supposed to complete you,
and it doesn't change anything.

~~~
Baeocystin
As much as I enjoy DFW's way with words (and I do mean that in a complimentary
manner), I think his approach mostly serves as a warning as to what can happen
when you get too deeply stuck in your own head with no pressure release valve
to viewpoints other than your own.

------
Cyclone_
Has anyone else looked at his GitGardener project and thought it seemed pretty
shady? I'm not sure I understand why github would allow it.

~~~
scandinavian
It's also completely unnecessary. You can just create a repo and backdate
commits to do it instantly.

Like this for example:

[https://github.com/gelstudios/gitfiti](https://github.com/gelstudios/gitfiti)

------
jrrrr
> GitGardener is at $151 MRR.

TIL people are willing to pay for fake GitHub activity.

~~~
lostcolony
Why not if employers look for it?

~~~
kevsim
Because it's not particularly ethical? Doesn't seem less deceptive than lying
on a CV to me.

~~~
p2detar
But is it what the market wants, though? If customers are paying, then I think
the answer is obvious.

~~~
sundbry
you can also buy stolen credit card numbers on the darknet, the customers are
paying.

~~~
p2detar
But I don’t need it. If I really needed it, maybe I would buy it.

~~~
sfkdjf9j3j
Sorry, are you saying that it's a good thing to sell stolen credit cards
because there is a market for them?

~~~
p2detar
Good? Is it a good thing to sell caffeine-laden energy drinks to kids &
teenagers? Good and bad aren’t the steering properties of the market. Demand
is. Demand can also be artificially created, hence the github commits that
potential employers are interested in seeing.

------
zozbot234
Are we sure that this gitgardener stuff is even allowed by the GitHub ToS? I
mean no offense to the OP of course, but clearly some people are clogging the
site already by creating entirely fake users, with zilch useful contributions
to FLOSS or the dev community. I don't think GH would look kindly on this sort
of activity.

------
pearjuice
I just checked one of the author's projects and it's a service to
automatically feign activity on GitHub to... make the activity grid on your
profile look active. Is this some sort of post-ironic jab at the SaaS industry
I'm not getting or people actually pay for it unironically?

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
I think the point is that it creates positive feedback and that helps people
remain motivated. One of the reasons I give my team for trying to break up a
large task into smaller subtasks is the enjoyment of completing _something_
and closing out that task. It makes the overall goal seem like something
achievable.

~~~
pearjuice
How is faking GitHub activity positive feedback? That's like a service which
retweets random tweets to look active on Twitter.

------
smoyer
This article would be WAY better in paragraphs that each contained one of the
sub-themes of the article as a whole. He starts by talking about tweeting and
it looks and feels like the article was written as tweets too.

~~~
DHPersonal
His Twitter posts are formatted in a similar way, so I think it's just his
writing style.
[https://twitter.com/alexsideris_](https://twitter.com/alexsideris_)

------
dirtydroog
Is this an ad for a company masquerading as a story about how marketing
finally worked for said company?

------
ryanwaggoner
I like this. I like the writing style, I like the humility and the openness,
and I like the recognition that chasing goals is ultimately an exercise in
futility. You spend almost all your time unhappy because you're not yet at
your goal, and then as soon as you achieve it, you're unhappy because you're
not at the next arbitrary goal. It's madness, but it's basically the way
almost all of us live.

I've been spending more time meditating and reading about mindfulness
recently, and it's helped me become aware of just how infrequently I'm truly
happy and present. I can be in the most idyllic setting and situation, and
part of my brain is wondering how I can improve it, or what I can do to feel
that way all the time, etc.

Why is it so difficult to turn off the past- and future-oriented parts of my
brain and just _be_? To just enjoy _this_?

~~~
dhuin
Pretty much the human condition. Seneca was writing about it in the first
century, Buddhists were talking about it from the inception of their religion.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
_What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they
labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at
night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless. A person can do
nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil._

From Ecclesiastes, one of the few parts of the Christian scriptures that still
interests me.

------
kodachi
(offtopic/meta)

> Me and my girlfriend wanted to watch a movie on Netflix (...)I watched the
> film on Netflix.

I'm starting to notice this pattern a lot both in person and on the internet.
How long until Netflix becomes a verb? It doesn't add to the story, but
somehow people feel compelled to advertise the service they use.

~~~
Minor49er
>It doesn't add to the story, but somehow people feel compelled to advertise
the service they use

People think of virtual sites and services similarly to how they think of
physical places. This link has been identified during the web's infancy: you
don't download documents online. You navigate and visit a site. Those words
are used for both physical and virtual activities. You "go somewhere".

The site or service conveys details about the nature of the activity too.
Watching movies on Netflix may paint a mental picture of adults relaxing while
watching a relatively mature show. Watching movies on Disney Plus might imply
that the adults were spending time with their kids or whatever. Same to real
life locations again, you might tell people that you went for a drive down the
beach rather than a drive through the city. These simple details can help say
a lot about the nature of the drive.

------
swyx
well said about the goals. goals make you feel like a failure if you don't
meet them, and leave you wanting when you do, and worst of all, don't tell you
how to reach them! Systems over goals every time.

regarding your luck, you may be aware of the 4 kinds of luck
([https://medium.com/@ameet/the-four-kinds-of-luck-
ea729970d71...](https://medium.com/@ameet/the-four-kinds-of-luck-
ea729970d71d)) - by putting your reps in, you exposed yourself to type 2 luck,
luck that just happens randomly, but it happens because you did something.
good for you!

------
donmatito
At one point, I was helping a great speaker build her first conference, which
was a smashing success. When we turned on the ticketing platform on, orders
started pouring in

In parallel, I was building my first side project, or more precisely I was
starting to add pricing for the first time to a side project

As a result I had, at the same time, a stream of several thousands of euros,
and MY FIRST 19€ from something I BUILT MYSELF

I was incredibly more proud of the latter. There is a sense of pride, of
accomplishment, in thinking that you've built something useful enough for
someone to open their wallet for you

Good job on your part and keep sailing!

------
djyaz1200
If any of that is profit you've surpased WeWork! Congrats! :)

~~~
scooble
There was a period (before Feb 2018) where 'more than twitter, less than
facebook' was my standard answer to the question of how much profit my startup
was making.

------
jansan
Anecdote: After I released my fist software in 2002 I received an order by
fax. Unfortunately my HP Office Jet had an error and refused to print the fax,
so I called HP customer service. They told me to shut the device off and on
again. I told them that this is not an option, because there is an order worth
real money inside the device's memory. So the great guy at the other end of
the line told me to take out the cardridge and give it a good wash and rub. I
placed it back in and the Office Jet started printing the order. It was a
1000$ order by Lehman Brothers! I am still telling my friends that this was
the final straw that broke Lehman Brother`s neck several years later :)

------
joshcramer
Some products should not be built. Here are a couple examples of such
products.

------
krm01
When we started our subscription design firm for Software companies, I used to
share milestones publicly (mostly on Reddit back then). We grew to 5 figures a
month in the first year. Like OP, I realized that the goals (and those
milestones) were extremely short flashes of fun that didnt last longer than
maybe a few minutes. It wasn’t after I stopped sharing business milestones and
just focussed on daily improvement that things felt so much better. Not only
that, it helped the business grow better as a result.

~~~
bosie
how do you decide to pivot on a feature/goal if you focus only on the daily
improvements? how do you connect the daily improvements to something bigger?

~~~
krm01
So the the insight was: Instead of focussing 80% of the time on the big goal
and 20% on what's right in front of me, I flipped that around. So yes there
are longterm goals and stuff we work towards, but instead of every day hoping
you're there, you set the goal and then focus on much smaller incremental
steps on a daily basis. These incremental steps, in a way, become goals, that
give you continuous feedback and satisfaction (instead of 1 big high, followed
up with a deep low)

------
ozim
He was not powerless, he was putting work for 2 years until he got lucky.
People hope they will stick in week or two into something and will get lucky.

~~~
blobbers
Cultivating an email list and writing a program to generate fake git commits?

------
tshanmu
gitgardener is downright unethical as well?

------
lostinroutine
Not sure if that's outdated but the home page says:

    
    
       I have a goal I'm working towards. Mine is to achieve financial independence in 2020.
       ...
       I've reached $800 MRR so far. My goal is to reach $2k MRR.

------
nixpulvis
Please ensure <a> tags (you know, links!) actually work on your webpages. I
hate copying and pasting on iOS...

On a brighter note, I appreciate your writing style; short, sweet, and clear.

------
mywacaday
Congrats Alex, any chance of a cheaper tier for Cyberleads, maybe limiting it
a single country?

------
alexsideris
Hey everyone, Alex here.

I was caught a bit by surprise to be honest, as I did not post the article
myself.

The article is very sloppy and it shows, so sorry for putting you through
that! I also left-aligned the text as people requested.

I'm happy that people enjoyed it and can relate :)

~~~
beervirus
GitGardener appears to be for letting job applicants trick employers into
thinking that have legit projects on git, while Cyberleads enables spammers to
shit into the inboxes of startup execs.

Congrats.

~~~
durpkingOP
'shit into the inbox'? jesus do you only like emails from your mother?

~~~
beervirus
I don’t like unsolicited commercial emails, so yes, that’s correct, I only
email with mom.

------
durpkingOP
ya'll honestly be overreacting.

~~~
durpkingOP
"i want people to put in work to find my email address" \- all the derps in
this thread

------
jldugger
> I tried many things. Reddit. Facebook Groups. Quora. LinkedIn. Direct Sales.
> Twitter. ... On the 21st of April, completely unexpectedly, a tweet of mine
> blew up big time.

"Fortunate favors the prepared." The highly random nature of internet karma
should probably be more well publicized by now. If ten years ago, I gave
myself all the blog posts I'd write over the next ten years, I would not have
predicted correctly which ones would be most popular. Not that I write for the
pageviews, or even write all that often. If you think of it as a multiarmed
bandit problem, you kinda have to publish without a goal in mind in order to
have enough arms to pull to find and iterate on the few good ones. This is why
IMO, it helps to have a few input goals as well as outcomes.

AFAICT, content marketing is basically posting good stuff and hoping some of
the traffic rubs off on your sales funnel. Like that Sparkfun rotary cell
phone from way back when, though obviously it helps when you sell the parts to
your ironic nobody-would-buy-this product online.

> I smashed my infamous $500 MRR goal. It was a huge mental barrier for me.
> The sad thing is that once again I was tricked. I was chasing this goal for
> more than two years, and now it means nothing to me. It's dead. Cold.
> Meaningless. Like it was never there in the first place.

Elsewhere on his site Alex describes his goals as 'humble' but that may be
part of the psychological problem here; even he believes they're not the same
as even modest success. $500 MRR feels meaningless because it _is_. Why does
500 MRR matter? If you borrow the OKR framework, perhaps he would reframe the
Objective (goal) as 'build a business capable of sustaining my preferred
lifestyle', and then the MRR target would have meaning as a key result?

The Objective/Key-Result framework provide two major benefits:

First, it gives you the means to tie your metrics to something meaningful, and
the ability to fact check your assumptions. Make more money isn't necessarily
meaningful, but 'quit my day job' or 'send my kid to art school' can be.
Perhaps the $500 MRR goal feels meaningless because the lifestyle goal _is_
the real Objective, but the $500 MRR Key Result is insufficient to meet it.

The second thing it does is provide a process for breaking Big Problems into
smaller ones. You'll probably need multiple strategies to reach any important
Objective, and the KRs help you break them into smaller steps. Which
themselves can be treated as Objectives with their own KRs. Using
[https://stripe.com/atlas/guides/business-of-saas#the-
fundame...](https://stripe.com/atlas/guides/business-of-saas#the-fundamental-
equation-of-saas) as a guide for how to break down the 'big number' can help,
but there is no predictive formula for maximizing it.

------
emagdnim2100
Please left align this text!

~~~
julianlam
I couldn't get through the blog post.

Here's why.

Nearly every thought is a separate paragraph.

Throw in center alignment and it's enough to drive me batty.

Decent blog post content, though.

~~~
sixhobbits
Do you know why?

Let me let you in on a secret.

People LIKE reading text formatted like this.

No, they LOVE IT.

It's so easy to read.

So seductive. So .... enticing

Every line like honey. So much sugar. It makes you want more

And it's easy to write.

Easy to read.

Always feels like something is coming.

Just.

One.

More.

Line.

~~~
misterhtmlcss
In my mobile device it's just irritating how much padding he has. It's
basically 3 words at a time. I'd need a phablet to get through this piece even
though it's enjoyable righting.

------
rchiba
Boo to all of the people on this thread who are hating on what you've built.
Why can't you build a business selling emails, or automatically posting to
GitHub?

If you hate getting spam emails, hit "spam" and get that domain blacklisted,
it creates a natural balance where the quality of cold outreach grows. And I
doubt real hiring decisions are being made from git commit history badges.

Kudos for going out there and adding value to the people that are paying for
your products.

~~~
viklove
Because "automatically posting to GitHub" is the exact kind of bullshit that a
society driven by capitalism comes up with. Employees lying to employers lying
to investors lying to customers, all so they can make themselves slightly
richer. No value is being created, no progress is being made -- it's all just
a house of cards.

Then there are people like you praising it, and just because the goal of
capitalism -- to amass as much wealth as you can -- is being met. Even though
it's a complete fucking waste of human potential.

Makes life seem pointless.

~~~
rchiba
Yes, with that kind of attitude life does seem pointless.

My opinion is that not everything we do in life needs to aimed towards the
lofty self-actualization of mankind... or even the lofty self-actualization of
one's self, which is the point being made later in the blog post.

Sometimes you wanna build something and see what happens. Hell yea I'll praise
that.

Most human progress is made incrementally and in all directions, with many of
the paths failing. The original versions of many extraordinary things seemed
like meaningless branches of a capitalistic society.

There was a time when people played chess over telegraph, and considered
telegraphy as a technology nothing more than a strange novelty.*

* For more, I highly recommend checking out the book "The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers"

~~~
viklove
Playing chess with a friend across the world is not a waste of human
potential. Writing a script so you can lie to your next employer is.

