Launching a product is never as simple as it sounds, there are a million moving pieces, and something always feels like a bottleneck.

Is it getting those first 100 users, nailing the messaging, timing your launch, building social proof, or something else entirely?

Just recently, my first iOS app, Super Counter, reached the 100-day milestone.

Building and growing an app is no easy feat; it takes more than just development; strong distribution and significant time spent on marketing and promotion are essential to see real results. Balancing this with a full-time job during the week has made it especially challenging for me. Even after 100 days, my app still hasn t earned its first $100.

We recently got this message after offering a 50% discount to our beta users:

Only 1 year discount? I expected a lifetime deal as an early supporter

This person used our product completely free for an entire year. Their only support was filling out a short, 30-second form that promised a discount, which we honored. They ve never provided feedback, reported a bug, or engaged with the product beyond that form. Now they re pushing back, saying the discount isn t enough and they expected a lifetime deal. The entitlement has me seeing red.

Hey!!

I ve seen a few posts lately where people say startup employees should expect to work 60+ hours a week like it s part of the job.

I get that sometimes we need to go all in. But I m not sure that should apply to employees. Is hustle culture really necessary for them too?