I just realized that my new side-gig was inspired by Mustachianism!

[TheBrutalProof]

The super fast FI/RE -> Entrepreneur story is as follows:

2010: Finish grad school. Start first job. $45k/yr.  The idea of 40yrs of this kicks off a deep depression.
2011: Discover Jacob at ERE and start saving for FI/RE.
2016: Kept a savings rate of 60% for years. Made it to $130k salary.  Being 50% FI gives me more confidence to take risks.
2017: Start a serious side gig with a cofounder.
2018: Go full time.  Side gig becomes main gig.
Now:  Am the CEO of a very early stage tech startup (pre-revenue, 3 person team, B2G)

So, while trying to solve problems for my main gig I came up with a pretty comprehensive spreadsheet to help me convert leads, track deals and stay on target for revenue and customers.  Everyone I show it to wants a copy for themselves, and I realize that this could be a second company.  It's not a CRM or marketing automation tool.  It's just a system of accountability that helps you "see yourself" and determine if you are on track or not, or if the track is unreasonable or impossible. 

I'm committed to my main job, but if I can find someone who wants to "solopreneur" this with me as an advisor I think it could have some legs.  So I found a candidate and we're working on making a deal to run it starting in Feb.  (I'm trying to suggest we use 'Slicing Pie', but my starting offer was 70/30 with me as the minority owner)

In the meantime I created a leadpage and set up some of the basic validation steps (email collection, an engagement quiz, and ecommerce).  Wow, this goes so much faster after having done it once before.  After having written the copy for the leadpage it dawned on me: "This sounds just like MMM!".  Shortly followed by, "Mustachians are the best possible customers/UX testers/advisors!".

So please check it out and give me the honest and candid feedback.  I'm working on a demo video (to actually show the product that's for sale now), since who would actually pay for a spreadsheet template without seeing it.  The goal is to find out if it's possible to bootstrap this into a real webapp.  In the meantime I've priced it high to try an insulate myself from being tempted to spend time on this rather than my main gig.

I'm especially interested in your feedback if you are a solo sales person, or someone who basically "eats what you kill" like founders, real estate agents, or commission only sales people.

It's called The Brutal Proof (www.brutalproof.app), so don't be shy about giving me the brutal truth!

Thanks in advance!

[Smokystache]

Didn't read every word of the copy... Because the stock photos are distracting. I would encourage you to only use pictures that for very closely with your copy... That it is so easily connected that my 10 year old would see the connection. Good luck!!

[TheBrutalProof]

Thanks for the feedback!  I appreciate you taking the time.  I'm not a graphic designer and I'm trying to keep the expenses rock bottom for now.  Do you think some simple, black and white Icons would be less distracting?   May I ask how far you made it before being too annoyed to continue?  Was there a particularly distracting or illogical image?

Cheers!

[lexde]

I kind of did the same thing. Skimmed because of big distracting photos. I’m on mobile, FWIW.

It also doesn’t really tell you what it does, so maybe adding an illustrative example may help (pick a job that could benefit and apply it).

[ditheca]

Agree 100% on the photos.  Too many, too big.

I was also put off by the .app extension of the website.  Yes, every domain extension is basically equivalent, but .com still feels the most legit.

I was extremely put off by getting immediately forwarded to mailchi.mp rather than the site I was expecting.

[TheBrutalProof]

Thank you lexde and ditheca!

That makes perfect sense, I was trying to delay my reply until I had actually had some time to change the landing page but alas. . .it's a side-gig for now.  I will ping this thread again when I've incorporated some of the feedback you've given.

Thank you especially for being so clear about little details that were off-putting!  That's really helpful and valuable insight.