jobuilds

I build cool stuff to help people :) Currently building to help you stop overthinking emails.

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

Unvent launches on Product Hunt today! It rewrites your messages in the tone you pick: Polished, Direct, or Warm. Or just say it with Flow Mode, your ums and uhs get cleared and you get a ready-to-send copy in <2 minutes.

Here are some mindblowing features that save your time:

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

@eric_winer Congrats on shipping. The scary ones aren't obvious scams, they're polite offers to pay you monthly for adding a "small analytics SDK". That's how a lot of extensions go bad: the update auto-installs for everyone who already trusted you. Nice catch on day one :)

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

Real numbers, two months after launching my Chrome extension:

9 people signed in and tried it.
2 came back in their second week.
1 has done five rewrites in a single day, on three different days.

Figuring out what's different about that one is the whole job now.

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

The drafts you run through a rewrite tool are the ones you'd least want anyone reading. In Unvent a draft passes through once to get your three rewrites, then it's gone. Not stored, not logged, not trained on.

https://t.co/3RZsqg9oGQ

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

@segnilencho Honestly, nothing that's worked yet. It's still 1 of 9 coming back. My current bet: a writing tool only gets reopened when the awkward message shows up again, so the fix probably lives at that moment, not in more features. I'll share if it moves :)

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

@amitkushh Congrats! Our first update got approved the same day we uploaded it. One thing I learned the hard way: you can't swap the package while a review is pending, so if you spot a bug mid-review you either wait it out or cancel and resubmit.

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

Small edit that changes how a message lands: put the ask in the first line.

"Can you review the Q3 deck by Thursday?" then the context. Not three sentences of background with the question buried at the end, where people skim past it.

People answer what they see first.

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

Unvent's dictation had a dumb bug: it pasted what you said at the very end of the email, below your signature.

Fixed. It now captures where your cursor was when you started talking, inserts there, and stays above the sign-off.

Free on Chrome: https://t.co/3RZsqg9oGQ

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

Set myself a target of 500 users. The deadline passed this week. I have 9.

The number that told me something: two of those nine used it five times in one day. Nine people is nothing. But two hit a day where they needed it over and over, and that's the only real signal so far.

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

Asking for a deadline extension is the message where every word feels like an excuse. Explain too much and you sound like you're building a case. Explain too little and it reads careless.

Unvent writes it three ways, you pick. Free: https://t.co/3RZsqg9oGQ

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

Try this on your next email: delete the first sentence.

It's almost always throat clearing. "I hope this finds you well". "I wanted to reach out about". "Just following up on". The message actually starts at sentence two, and it reads more sure of itself without the runway.

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

The awkward messages aren't in one app. They're in Gmail, then Slack, then a LinkedIn DM, then a form you'll never see again.

Unvent works in any text field on the web, so the rewrite is in the same keystroke wherever you are. Free: https://t.co/3RZsqg9oGQ

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

Following up when someone hasn't replied is a tone minefield. Too early and you're pushy. Too late and it looks like it never mattered.

Unvent writes the follow-up three ways and you pick the one that fits. Free: https://t.co/3RZsqg9oGQ

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

Turned on a metric this week that had never actually run. It told me my week-2 return is 14 percent, and that it fell the day I started watching it.

Still better than the version where the dashboard says "not enough data yet" and I believe it.

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

Saying no is the shortest message that takes the longest to write. Too blunt and you're difficult. Too soft and you've accidentally said yes.

Unvent shows the same no in three tones, in the field you're already typing in. Free: https://t.co/3RZsqg9oGQ

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

Someone left the first review on the extension today. One person, one review, and I have refreshed that page more times than I would like to admit.

Six weeks from shipping to a stranger saying it helped. That is the whole job for now.

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

The first question to ask about any tool that reads your drafts: where does the text go?

Ours are never stored, logged, or used for training, and tests enforce that rather than a policy page. Dictation runs on your device.

Free: https://t.co/3RZsqg9oGQ

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

Some messages are easier said than typed. Flow Mode lets you talk it out, clears the ums and the false starts, and hands you something you can actually send.

Transcription happens on your device. Free: https://t.co/3RZsqg9oGQ

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

@TheOnlyWidow "Kindly" is doing all the work there. It reads as politeness on the page and as pressure in the ear, which is exactly why it lands wrong. Same family as "per my last email" and "as discussed". The word is polite. The reminder underneath it is the actual message.

[jobuilds @buildingwithjo]

@clear_graphics Built the landing page first and it didn't move installs for me. What did: the store listing itself, and being useful in the places people were already asking about the problem. The landing page earns trust from people who already heard of you, which is a different job.