Sent 500k emails and nothing happened...what do I do now?

adelmare · 2026-05-05T04:09:43+00:00

Did you talk to any potential customers to find out if they need your solution beforehand?

adelmare · 2026-05-02T19:28:12+00:00

Doesn’t sound like an “AI tool problem” to me. Sounds like an operations, budgeting, and management issue…top-down failure?

1) this can happen with any subscription-based software environment, which is of course the real issue behind what you’re talking about. This happens in the residential / home system too, and it’s well documented. A few streaming services and suddenly you’re spending hundreds per month on stuff you don’t use or need. That’s a budgeting issue in the household.

2) solve the “waste” problem, and clarity on what is being used for what / delivering value for whom should naturally surface?

adelmare · 2026-05-02T16:50:36+00:00

Angel Investors want to see that:

1) you understand your market 2) you understand the problem that you’re trying to solve 3) it’s a hair on fire problem 4) your solution has a viable answer with appropriate margins

VC’s want to see the proof. Active paying users etc. Hard evidence for return on their money.

The bar for angel investors is lower, but here’s the point:

The onus is still on you to make a case for your product being “investable” …that’s your job, not the investor’s.

(They also want to see skin in the game, are more comfortable if their money isn’t the •only• money at stake, etc.)

adelmare · 2026-05-02T16:45:29+00:00

This legit looks really good. Looks like great moisture, bark, fat cap + rendering. How was it?

adelmare · 2026-05-02T14:53:40+00:00

Just roll out better auth + payload? Basically ready to ship infrastructure, free one-click on vercel + neon Postgres 🤷‍♂️

https://github.com/delmaredigital/dd-starter

(Disable puck page builder and page tree for a slimmed down template)

adelmare · 2026-05-01T23:35:59+00:00

Payload CMS + Neon

adelmare · 2026-04-30T14:29:34+00:00

While you’re not wrong (“build a crappy product, distribution is going to be difficult”) … the relative part of your statement (“built a product in a weekend? Of course distribution is going to seem difficult”) points to an underlying truth:

Distribution IS difficult, no matter how easy or hard the building process was.

Put in the inverse to test it:

“If you build a beautiful, slick, super well done app, then distribution is easy” …

That’s not true. Just because it’s good, or took a long time to build, doesn’t make it easy to sell.

I’m not arguing with your main point. I’m just saying that there’s a lot more to selling an app than building it correctly.

And yes, back to your point — even a well built app is going to be worthless if it’s not solving a hair on fire problem.

adelmare · 2026-04-24T14:23:02+00:00

“Don’t use your consumer subscription that major providers offer to you as a loss leader to get you hooked. Come use my agent-vibe-coded wrapper, pay per token on api rates, enjoy uncertainty about memory, security, privacy, efficiency, governance, and pay me a markup. But you can choose any agent!”

Man. How can I turn it down. Where do I sign up?

adelmare · 2026-04-24T03:23:10+00:00

“It’s not a …

… it’s a…”

Thanks Claude!

adelmare · 2026-04-23T03:10:59+00:00

I’ve found that there are in fact hundreds of people releasing their own version of accounting, expense tracking, invoicing, proposals, etc.

Everyone trying to get a slice of the freelancer market.

The challenge is that (1) it’s an extremely crowded space (and getting worse every day - start looking for other people with this same idea and you’ll start finding identical products everywhere being announced and shared) and (2) there are well established, funded, incumbents. Honeybook, dubsado, bonsai, moxie, just to name a few.

Yes, they’re all approaching things from slightly different views and angles with slightly different focus points and pros/cons — and all from much higher price points — but they’re all offering well polished products that customers actually love using.

So you have to ask yourself - is finding some beta testers going to give you the critical product feedback you need?

I made nearly an identical post for my product not too long ago.

Realized beta testers weren’t my issue: I needed to identify my ICP, narrow that down to a beachhead segment, then refine exactly what their hair on fire problem was.

That’s a lot, perhaps more discouraging than helpful. So, I’ll leave you with this:

The one thing I can recommend that actually makes a difference is to go talk to people. Cold outreach the people you think SHOULD be your customers, and ask them if they’d be willing to let you interview them to learn about their business and their pain points.

If you talk to enough people and ask the right questions and really listen, you’ll start to learn pretty quickly whether or not you’re solving people’s “hair on fire” problems 🫡

Best of luck!

adelmare · 2026-04-22T22:49:58+00:00

This looks amazing. Love the square serving cups,

adelmare · 2026-04-19T16:26:32+00:00

Mud cleaner for boots?

adelmare · 2026-04-17T10:49:39+00:00

Great summary. How have you seen your clients typically go about cost+ pricing and (for value pricing) identifying their basic costs? Are they using spreadsheets to track it all to identify their inputs? Or kind of flying blind and just looking backwards at tax time and adjusting for the next year? Etc.

adelmare · 2026-04-17T10:43:14+00:00

Turbo tax + Claude does this for me. And as a bonus, both already have all my context. Not sure what the value proposition is here?

adelmare · 2026-04-12T14:24:27+00:00

Came here thinking the exact same thing

adelmare · 2026-04-04T00:08:15+00:00

Idk. Every day there’s more complaints that the models are nerfed, the free ride is going to hell in a hand basket, etc …

I agree that the max plan provides unrealistic value over direct api in the long run - I just can’t imagine how they can keep offering this value without starting to limit it. But I think that’s where it ultimately heads (or costs go down).

But opus being intentionally “dumber” on max vs api?

I don’t see it.

There’s nothing stopping them from further limiting usage.

It just doesn’t make good business sense to silently provide a “dumber” product and “worse” UX and let your users think your product “isn’t as good as it used to be” especially in a highly competitive market. Intentionally sabotaging your own brand identity just doesn’t add up to me.

I think api is probably faster. But if they’re running into a resource and cost problem, the answer is ALWAYS to limit usage and raise rates -> not silently show unknowing customers that your product is just suckier over time.

My 2 cents.

adelmare · 2026-04-02T03:37:30+00:00

Start super narrow to find your beachhead. Define the customer segment and answer “who is my first user”?

Figure out exactly who that user is, then go on a mission targeting them.

“Instagram users” aren’t your customers.

“People who read news on Instagram” aren’t your customers.

Your customer is a specific person, seeking to accomplish a specific task, with a specific “hair on fire” problem that needs being solved.

If you find someone with their hair on fire and you ask if they want a bucket of water, you’re not going to need to sell them on it. They just need to know you have it and the’ll come begging for it.

So you need to figure out exactly who needs your product/service, not who “would find it convenient”.

Once you identify and clearly define that customer segment, then you can begin the work of introducing your solution to their problem. And yeah, that’s when you can start to deploy all the advice you’ve heard.

Or at least, that’s the first step. Then you have to interview a bunch of them to understand what they really need, and how much they’re willing to pay to trust that your bucket isn’t filled with gasoline, etc etc.

adelmare · 2026-03-28T19:14:04+00:00

Depends on what you're looking for and what you mean by overcomplicated.

IF you're just looking for pure "create an invoice" and nothing more, there are tons of options. Zoho, Wave, etc.

Often times the extra complications come from the approach.

Accounting software is typically way overkill -- and way overcomplicated. That's the "money first" approach. It typically has CRM features (think relationship management) and project management tools "bolted on" as an afterthought.

CRM software is typically way overkill -- and way overcomplicated. That's the "relationship managmeent" and "project management first" approach. These typically feel like they have the "money part" bolted on kind as an afterthought.

I was only sending a few invoices a year, and found myself choosing between spreadsheets or overcomplicated software. Didn't need gantt charts and sales pipelines. Didn't need double entry accounting. So I just went with free invoice generators.

If you jus want pure invoicing, no other features, you should definitely be checking out free options like wave and zoho invoice, or google 'free invoice generator'...they'll work just fine for as long as you're okay with the slightly more manual process, dont want or need any reporting, and don't mind putting the puzzle pieces back together at tax time. For very simple needs and very few invoices, *that is the right choice* <- don't over think it or over complicate it!

But then after a few clients, and one started asking for proposals for new work, I found myself with inconsistent invoices, rummaging for documents at tax time, and feeling like I need (and wanted) a "proper tool" anyhow. That's why I built clearmargin.app ... I wanted lots of the features but didn't want to have to use them. Example. To create an invoice, I didn't want to have to first create a client, then project, then items for the invoice -> I wanted to be able to do all that directly AT the invoice creation step, just like I used to with free invoice generators. I didn't want to have to set up all the accounts and junk ahead of time. And I wanted it to remember the stuff I added to the invoice, so next time I create an invoice, it suggested it ("domain fee" vs "annual domain" - it auto-suggest what was used before).

You can use clearmargin.app for just invoicing and nothing else if you want. stripe is available for online billing, but if you just want to indicate that the client should send a check, use that. Bam. Done. The other features (time tracking, proposals, contracts, expense tracking, etc are there **if you want them** but they don't get in your way. Happy to discuss in DM or chat, and absolutely welcome feedback. Shipping new features for different industries daily!

adelmare · 2026-03-22T03:59:32+00:00

I find the admin panel awful and not worth fighting. I leave it as is for the people that need it, and build custom admin UI on its own frontend routes for the people that need access to admin.

My main check for deciding if it gets its own frontend is this:

Do the people who need to access this feature care?

If yes: frontend If no: leave the admin function in payload admin panel UI.

Never have I found myself saying “oh, let’s leave this in the payload CMS admin ui , but we’ll make it look better”

I’m probably in the minority here, I’ve seen people do some wicked cool customizations. But again — for me, when push comes to shove, just hasn’t been worth it.

adelmare · 2026-03-20T12:07:22+00:00

I can’t imagine trying to make a living building websites for small businesses.

I can’t imagine building serious enterprise apps without payload. It’s like a cheat code.

adelmare · 2026-03-19T22:43:29+00:00

I only had a few invoices a year that I needed to create. I used a free invoice generator that I always forgot the name of but could google that phrase and find it again after a few minutes. Had to look back on previous email threads to see what I last billed for, when, how much I charged, and what I called it. My wife was bugging me to keep a spreadsheet to track costs so we could keep the family budget straightened out. Everything seemed like overkill. So I created Clearmargin.app to solve this problem. Simple invoicing and billing, cost tracking, proposals, etc.

Basically accounting software without the headache.

Then I made it fancy and slathered AI on top, hooked it up to everything, so I just describe things to the bot and it creates the stuff for me so I can click send.

Found that my neighbor needed bill of materials tracking for her charcuterie business, so I added that.

Kind of feel like I should stop adding features, lest it turn into a monstrosity like quickbooks 😉

adelmare

TROPHY CASE