TIL: I don’t want first mover advantage.

I was planning on launching my marketing strategy automation tool Tangram this summer.

I’d put out a rough MVP a year ago, got some traction, had a waitlist of about 50-80 emails.

I’d put down the deposit with a no-code dev agency to build a cost effective real MVP.

It was gonna be funded by my day job - I own the SaaS brand & marketing agency Ignore No More.

But yesterday, after crawling out of an intense 2 months of growing pains, i’ve decided i really don’t want to put in the work to build, launch, and market Tangram right now.

Why?
Because right now business is fun. FUN!

The team is growing, but not too fast.

We’re gelling well and getting work done that’s higher quality and better for our clients than I could ever have been able to do before (and certainly not on my own).

It’s having the perfect marketing team, and as a marketer whose worked in a half-dozen agencies and multiple startups, i know how rare and beautiful that is!

Growth is great. We’re already doing it.

Scaling is coming, but i’m not ready for it yet as a leader, and our systems aren’t ready for it yet.

Hockey sticks make pretty graphs, but they can burn out the team and fragment the culture I’ve worked so hard to build.

First mover advantage sounds great…until you realize that after the first round of 1M ARR and Techcrunch articles everyone is gunning for you. Then it’s a race to beat the competition machine, and a marathon one at that.

I like running. but not for forever.

I’d rather we launch and be in the top middle of the pack.

Late enough that everyone’s copy doesn’t say “we’re better than Tangram” but soon enough so we’re not viewed as a copycat.

And slowly emerge as the best. Not because we moved fast and broke things, but because we took the time to build a product that knows the customer, perfect the brand, and iterate on the messaging.

So…I’ll wait to build and launch Tangram.

Being later doesn’t mean too late to try.

Right now work is a heck of a good time.

And I want to keep it that way.

So Tangram can wait.

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What are your thoughts on first mover advantage? 👇🏽