Modest Mitkus

Building startups and documenting my journey.

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

I vibe coded web app 1 year ago.

It went from $0 to +$60k/month.

1 year of journey, inside a single video:

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@loaibassam Please do! People need more thoughts outside of this bubble

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

X is a bubble.

And it’s super funny to watch people here take every word from the crowd as the ultimate truth. A lot of guys here are pretty detached from selling outside X (and those who are stay quite af.)

Right now everyone is panicking about random people cloning products and selling them cheaper. I’ve already lived through this.

Few years back I sold Notion templates. Reached $40-50k/mo selling pre-made templates that anyone could duplicate in seconds.

I had no special skills. Just placed blocks inside Notion, packed it up and sold it for $49-299

There were a few main sellers and like 5000+ copycats. Ripping templates, websites, content word by word. Not just from me, from everyone.

Nobody was shouting “Notion templates are dead.” Everyone just kept doing their thing, or reported the copyright violations (which you still can do btw as copyright is still a thing u know).

These copycat guys just wanted a slice of the cake, and I don’t blame them. A lot of them were from countries where $200 is real money, so cloning a template and selling it a few bucks cheaper made total sense for them. Someone in the US wouldn’t even bother for that.

But what they miss is that copying only gets you a quick win. Never saw any of them take it seriously. No content, no taste, 0 marketing. Just 1:1 replicas at a lower price and quick methods to push it for few bucks.

Building is one part. Marketing is another. Keeping your business alive is a whole other thing. Their only distribution was the one tweet you saw on your timeline (and prob few more which will not get reach). That’s it.

Most of the don't want the fishing rod. they want the fish!

now... the guys I’d actually be afraid of are the relentless ones. The ones who try, break things, try again, ship new stuff, push their own ideas. The ones who want to make it no matter what.

Not the ones competing for a few bucks.

In the end I never saw any decline in sales. The copycats probably made $100-300, were happy af with the quick win, and everyone kept living as they lived.

The real issue is you’re all swimming in the same pond on X, trying to sell to the same fish.

While the ocean is huge.

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

I don't talk much about Notionway anymore.

Mostly because of "competition" and copycats.

Just letting you know that things are great.

I even turned off all Gumroad paid purchase notifications. (email and phone)

I'm still thinking about scaling it to $85k/month.

But to make it happen, a lot of things need to happen.

I have a plan for that.

Maybe it will work out.

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

It was never about the best product (feature wise). It’s about the loudest one. If people don’t hear about it, it doesn’t exist. The one you hear daily is the "best product".

That’s why so many founders fail: they keep shipping features to build “the best product,” while someone else markets a mediocre one and wins. (And ironically, the winner then has the money to build something great, but usually doesn’t even bother...)

https://t.co/42YKf8QKlZ

[Gautam @gsharm_]

@ModestMitkus So is the product no longer the moat? Is marketing the only differentiator in today’s AI world?

Personally, I used to love building products but have been demotivated lately since AI does the thing that I got joy from 😢

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@m_zokov Exactly!

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

its going better than I was expecting actually!
also seems like people missed my emails 65% open rate 😵

https://t.co/he3f2ca9pN

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

sent my first emails today with my own email marketing tool. so far seems to work! everything gets delivered, opened rates are good (still small batches as im doing warmups).

its fcking nice that I will be able to send now everything myself, own my audience do all the changes with code etc. and all without paying $400/mo for sending few emails!!!
https://t.co/wb9xvYMJd0

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@sobedominik Im still with 14 M1 xD thinking about upgrading as well as my loptop is literally turning into a heater more and more now

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@jessethanley @henno_4e will do! also i think like quick checklist would be nice. with best practices etc. I think this would help everyone a lot! like md skill with your brain dump on how to setup all correctly.

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

sent my first emails today with my own email marketing tool. so far seems to work! everything gets delivered, opened rates are good (still small batches as im doing warmups).

its fcking nice that I will be able to send now everything myself, own my audience do all the changes with code etc. and all without paying $400/mo for sending few emails!!!
https://t.co/wb9xvYMJd0

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

I'm saying goodbye to MailerLite as well.

I just moved all my emails to a custom tool that I built in less than a day.

For now, all imports go there. Now the only thing is to figure out what's the best way to send emails. I have AWS SES connected, but there is a 200 email/day cap 🥲 unless you apply for production.

I'm planning to send my own business emails (mainly marketing). From what I've researched, SES seems like the best option. But they reject on production super often (got rejected yesterday, and they don't tell why, just that sorry you are not approved).

Then there is PostShiba by @jessethanley. Seems like the most obvious option if AWS SES keeps declining.

Overall, I feel like email marketing services are the most overpriced things in SaaS. I literally paid thousands just to send a few emails. I also paid even when I didn't send anything just to keep the list, as they also reject new subscribers if you cancel your plan and go over the free subscriber limit lol.

Yeah, I know you manage the reputation etc., but if you have a good rep and keep your business list clean, what's the point of paying the same price tag as someone who just imports cold email lists and tries to mass send spam? Correct me if I'm wrong on this. (And they still check and approve every business manually.)

So yeah, at least now I'm collecting emails and not paying for it $$$.

Now I just need to figure out the best way to send them.

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@jessethanley hahahahaa im looking like a ghoul 🤣

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@henno_4e all kudos to @jessethanley i just glued all together ;D

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@idanielroman 14k engaged audience first sending for 6 days ;D

for example today only 500 emails will be sent from all 14k susbcribers.

my entire list is 19k+ so not sure if u will get email from me in upcoming weeks. as i want to do warmup correctly. but hopefully u will do eventually!

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@gradientAszcent hehe no worries glad u asked anyways!

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

I just launched my new startup!

and got my first customers in less than 2 minutes!

lets see where this takes me.

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@gradientAszcent https://t.co/73j4SQ4J3i its the product i launched hehe

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@shannywanna right now collects the data. and u can connect it to any chat via API. but will add chat inside the app soon as well. and more things on top.

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@Atharvabuilts kinda yes, kinda no

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@shannywanna its https://t.co/73j4SQ4bdK

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@wilfredaso super addicting to watch it realtime 😻

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

traffic haven't stopped since launch 😮
https://t.co/Jh5fC3olDB

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

I just launched my new startup!

and got my first customers in less than 2 minutes!

lets see where this takes me.

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@Kedeodev thanks!

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@ajaxships 🤝

[Modest Mitkus @ModestMitkus]

@Mike_Andreuzza lol what widget? xD