Build & Launch

Justin looks forward to 2016, and talks about the future of the Build & Launch podcast.

A new show in 2016?

I'm planning something brand new for 2016. If it's going to launch, I'm going to need your help. Go here, put your email in the sign-up form, and I'll be in touch.

Show notes

• Go to MegaMaker.co, sign-up for the list, and let me know what you think
• Documentary: Capital C
• My software project with Marty Dill: Network Effects
• I asked this question on Twitter
• Follow me on Twitter: @mijustin
• Rate and review the show
• Join the newsletter
• MegaMaker theme song is "Bad Decisions" by Striker.

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Justin finally launched a project he's been working on since early 2014. It's something he was embarrassed about: he'd put it on the shelf. But this podcast helped him get motivated to finish it. Learn how the launch went, and his initial numbers. You'll also hear the personal audio journals he recorded during the launch process.

The launch of Marketing for Developers

Here's the official landing page

Listen to the show to hear about total sales numbers from the first 24 hours.

You can get the book too! Podcast listeners get 20% off. Use these links:

• Complete package
• Premium package
• Just the book

On sharing revenue numbers

On the other hand, sharing numbers can sometimes feel a little… icky. It can feel like you’re shoving your success in other people’s faces.

And maybe I need to work on my own insecurities, but I know that no matter how successful I am, all it takes is reading another one of these stupid “How I Made $17,000 in 24 Hours” posts to feel like I’m a miserable failure. After all, I didn’t make $17,000 in the last 24 hours. So I must be doing something very wrong!

From Sacha Greif's Discover Meteor case study.

Show notes

• Slides from my MicronConf Europe talk
• Sacha Greif's blog post about sharing revenue numbers
• Follow me on Twitter: @mijustin
• Rate and review the show
• Join the newsletter
• Get Marketing for Developers

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Justin examines how entrepreneurs often try to follow the path of successful people (almost religiously). The hope is that getting the "secret sauce" will help them achieve the same success as their heroes. Is it true?

Referencing the "cult of personality:"

People are buying products thinking that if they can get someone's secret sauce, they can re-create that person's success.

Adam Clark said:

In our culture, the independent entrepreneur is like the Marlboro Man. Everyone wants to be that guy.

Show notes

• What do you think? Email me: words@bizbox.ca
• Congrats to the winner of the Gumroad Small Product Lab: D.J. Coffman created an awesome product called the Comic Drawing Toolkit for Photoshop.
• Follow me on Twitter: @mijustin
• Rate and review the show
• Join the newsletter
• Read my blog post: Don't Follow your Heroes

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Whoa! It's new episode. After finishing Season 2, I missed getting on the mic and sharing my product building adventures. So I'm back with a some ideas I'm working on for my current project.

What is product validation?

If you're building a product, you want validation. You want to know your product has value - that you're on the right track. Even deeper, you want to be validated. You want to feel like you're not wasting your time. You want to feel like your work is valuable.

"YC is like the ultimate validation that you're on to something." - Lauren Kay, Dating Ring

If you're building a business, there's only one way to validate that your product idea is good: are people paying money for it?

The only two people who can give you real feedback about your product are people who just purchased it and people who just canceled. - Jason Fried (as told to Dan Shipper)

Also, Jason Cohen says:

First, find ten people who say they’ll buy.

Current project

I'm working on a book: Marketing for Developers

Show notes

• Startup Podcast, Season 2, Episode 2
• My interview with Rob Walling on Product People
• Follow me on Twitter: @mijustin
• Rate and review the show
• Join the newsletter
• A version of this will be up on my blog soon: justinjackson.ca

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Join Justin for the last episode of Season 2. What did hear learn while launching one product a week, over 8 weeks?

He also gives us a sneak peek into his new book: Marketing for Developers.

The mantra of this show has always been: "Start small and start now."

Two common mistakes product people make

1. We try to build ideas that are too big
2. We don't start building right away

All the stuff that leads up to getting started doesn't count. The only thing that matters is the work.

Writing Tip

We often make our writing too flowery and formal. Here's a way to make your writing sound more "human:" read it out loud. When you read your writing out loud, you'll know right away when something doesn't feel right.

Show notes

• Book: Marketing for Developers
• Build Your Audience video course
• See all the Build & Launch products
• Follow me on Twitter: @mijustin
• Rate and review the show
• Get notified when I launch Season 3
• Cover photo by Jason Cartwright

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How do you know what people want?

After spending 24 hours in the mini-van with 4 kids, Justin is back from the Easter long-weekend and ready to update us on his progress on this week's project: "Marketing for Developers."

Project update

You'd think that I would learn my lesson: in order to do these week-long sprints, plus record and edit this podcast, plus do my day job, I really can't have anything else on my plate. But, like an idiot, I scheduled this Season of the podcast while I was going to be away in Alberta on a 4 day road-trip.

Not sure if I'm going to make the Thursday deadline, but I'm still hoping to make a serious dent in writing this book: Marketing for Developers.

Three ways to validate your product idea

1. Email 15 people in your niche and ask them if they'd pay for your product.

This is the approach that Rob Walling used when he validated his idea for Drip:

I emailed 17 SaaS owners that I know, and I said "I'm thinking about building this product: would you use this? Would you pay me for this?" And out of those 17, I got 11 people who said yes.

2. Use a landing page with an email sign-up form

People giving you their email address is one proxy for gauging interest. This is what Nathan Barry did with his first book:

There's intention there. When you say "Sign-up to hear more about this book." The assumption there is that you're signing up because you want to buy it.

3. Do a webinar

A third way to validate your idea comes from Brennan Dunn. He thinks that doing a live webinar is a great first step. It's way easier to do a webinar (and see if anyone's interested) than write a book, or create software.

Show notes

• Marketing for Developers
• Full interview with Rob Walling
• Full interview with Nathan Barry
• Full interview with Brennan Dunn
• Follow me on Twitter: @mijustin
• Rate and review the show
• Join the newsletter

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The theme for this episode is "facing your fears."

Was Justin able to re-launch Product People Club? He talks to more of his existing customers to discover what jobs they're hiring the Club for.

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

This week's project: Product People Club

You can see it it here: productpeople.club

Next week's project: Marketing for Developers

I started writing this book in January, 2014, but never finished it. The idea had lots of traction (over 2,200 people signed up for the waiting list). I still gets messages every week from people who want the book.

It's one of those projects that continually hangs over my head. This week, I'm going to finish it.

Show notes

• Check out the Marketing for Developers landing page
• Thanks to Product People Club member, James Van Dyne, for being on the show. He's on Twitter here: @jamesvandyne
• Follow me on Twitter: @mijustin
• Rate and review the show
• Join the newsletter
• Read my blog post: Do Things That Scare You

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I'm trying to build and launch a product every 7 days. This is the mid-week check-up: I had to do some hard stuff and actually call my customers, and hear what they thought of my product.

This week's project: Product People Club

Product People Club is a membership site for solopreneurs: people making their own stuff, by themselves.

Here’s the story: 2 years ago, I was fed up. I wanted to launch and validate something really quickly. So I put up a landing page (you can see it by going to jfdi.bz/campfire) for a chat room for entrepreneurs. I capped it at 10 members, and decided I’d charge $10 a month.

When I posted about it in Hacker News, it sold out in 30 minutes. The next thing I knew I had a waiting list of 200-300 people wanting to get in.

By the 5th month, I was making about $1,100 a month with the community.

Even better, early members started launching things and becoming successful:

• Ryan Hoover of Product Hunt was one.
• Samuel Hulick of Useronboard.com was another.

But I always felt like ProductPeople.club wasn’t a “big enough” idea. But, I was talking with Adam Clark about this today. And I realized, that a big reason I haven't promoted it more, is that I'm scared.

So, I decided to call one of my customers, Josh Doody, and ask him why he joined. He gave me a complete timeline of when he joined, and what his initial impression was.

My job this week is to talk to as many customers as I can, and figure out what job they're hiring Product People Club to do.

Show notes

• Check out Josh Doody's book: Take Control of Your Career
• Check out Adam Clark's podcast: The Gently Mad
• Thanks to Josh Michael and My Coffee Pub for sending me the coffee package!
• Follow me on Twitter: @mijustin
• Rate and review the show
• Join the newsletter
• Cover image by Hey Paul Studios

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It's not about you achieving the American Dream. It's about you getting 1% better ever day.

"Every time you put yourself on the line, you are creating your own luck, and increasing your chances of having some success"

What are you going to do this week to improve your situation?

The only way you get better, is by getting started.

Quote from This American Life, Three Miles

But nothing has happened for her for 10 years. I think it's some special brand of American pathological optimism, that so many of us believe the story of Melanie has to turn out to be happy, and that if it doesn't, something unusual has happened, and not just this is what happens all the time, that the supermarket might be full of Melanies.

Quote from James Altucher on the Tim Ferris podcast:

“I try to get this mindset I want to improve one percent a week. It seems like a small amount but if you do that, it results in enormous improvements over the course of the year."

This week's project: Product People Club

This week's project is an improvement on something I already have. The most successful thing I've ever launched is something called Product People Club: www.productpeople.club

I want to make it better. This week I'll be calling existing customers, asking them why they signed up, and also figuring out how I can improve it. By the end of the week, I'll re-launch it so new members can sign-up.

Show notes

• This American Life: Three Miles (episode 550)
• James Altucher on episode 18 of the Tim Ferris Show
• Randy Skopecek
• David Henry's Course: Stage Lighting Basics
• Follow me on Twitter: @mijustin
• Rate and review the show
• Join the newsletter
• This week's project: productpeople.club

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Justin is jet-lagged.

In this episode he talks about balancing our creative projects with getting out and living your life.

Ultimately, I believe that relationships are more important than the things we make.

This week's project

Weekofhustle.com - commit to building your project in a week. Start on a set date, and launch 7 days later.

Show notes

• Follow me on Twitter: @mijustin
• Rate and review the show
• Join the newsletter

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Justin is recording on the road from Edmonton, Alberta.

In this episode: with only 4 days to work, Justin launch the first product of Season 2? See what it's like to eat your own dog food.

This week's project

Back in Season 1, Carl and Justin created a WordPress plugin that allowed you to create your own online course, and sell it using Gumroad.

For this week's project, Justin decided to eat his own dogfood, and use the plugin to host his own online course. He had 4 days to re-build the course in WordPress, and launch it.

Announcement: next week's project

weekofhustle.com

Show notes

• See it live: Build Your Audience course
• Get the ProductPress plugin and build your own course
• Bead update
• Documentary: Metal Evolution
• Cover photo by cartese
• Follow Justin on Twitter: @mijustin
• Join the newsletter
• Help the show: leave a review!

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Here’s the deal.

Normally with this show I announce a new project on Friday, and I ship it on the following Thursday.

Today is March 16th, 2015.

I’m going to Vegas on April 12th for MicroConf and don’t want to launch anything that weekend.

That gives me 4 weeks, to launch 4 new projects.

Let's do this.

This week's project

I’m going to do a short week and try to launch something this Thursday. That gives me only 3 days.

I'll be using ProductPress to re-launch my course, Build Your Audience, using WordPress instead of the expensive platform it's currently on.

You can sign-up for the waiting list here: justinjackson.ca/audiencecourse

Show notes

• Follow me on Twitter: @mijustin
• Rate and review the show
• Join the newsletter
• Read my blog post: You Need Help

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Still anxiously awaiting Season 2, I give an update about the bachelor party (many soda pops, no one got hurt, everyone came home).

Product update

Carl and I received a cease-and-desist email for Productify. We've re-named the product ProductPress.

Future Products

• WeekOfHustle.com
• JustinJackson.ca/Course

Advice for people building their first product:

1. Start small, and start now.
2. Choose an idea that people want: something that will help you make your first dollar on the internet.
3. Set your own goals: don’t compare yourself to others.

Your first step should be to create a landing page:

1. Headline: You are this kind of person, with this kind of problem.
2. Subheadline: This product will solve this problem this way.
3. Email waiting list sign-up form.

Show notes

• A few photos from the bachelor party: Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo3
• Interview with Dan Martell
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Follow Justin on Twitter: @mijustin
• Join the newsletter

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While we wait for Season 2 to start, Justin answers listener questions:

How do you launch if you don't have an audience?

Derek Moreno and Hassan both asked this question.

Your product needs a target market, and you need a way of reaching that target market.

Questions about the Build & Launch experience

Mike Dario asked:

1. What was the biggest challenge?

Find the time and energy each day, for sure. Staying focused and on-task.

2. How did you track the changes each day?

I used Sprintly (project management software). I'd log in each day, look at what I had to do in my backlog, and do that.

3. What was one thing you'll change for next season?

I'd like to do the "next iteration" sprint for each of the projects. Example: for Network Effects, I'd go out and try to get the first 10 customers in a week (record my sales calls, etc).

4. Did any of the projects seem too small, too big?

Network Effects and the WordPress plugin were definitely big projects; but the hardest was probably writing the book by myself.

5. What was the hardest part about teaming up?

Giving up control. In the past, I've been a lone wolf. Sharing everything with a partner was hard at first, but definitely a good decision in terms of our ability to get things done.

6. Why did you start Build and Launch?

I really wanted to kick my own butt into gear. I knew that committing to building and launching something every week would force me to just do it.

7. What type of project would be too big?

Most software projects I think are too big. A really long book (100+ pages) would be difficult as well.

8. In what ways was a weekly sprint helpful for these particular products? Harmful?

It was really helpful in terms of focusing on creating the smallest, tiniest version of each project. Not much harmful actually.

9. How did your wife handle this experience?

Lol. I'll have to get her on the show and have her talk about her side. ;)

10. How much after work time did you devote to this?

An average of 2 hours a day (14 hours a week). Most of this was after work, with big chunks on weekends.

Season 1 launches

1. The Build & Launch podcast
2. The Product Hunt Handbook
3. Network Effects: a web app for notifying groups via SMS
4. Irresistible Podcasting
5. Productify: Gumroad plugin for WP Membership Sites

Show notes

• Heading to Banff this weekend
• Interview with Paul Jarvis
• Mike Taber's Single Founder Handbook
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Follow Justin on Twitter: @mijustin
• Join the newsletter

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Justin responds to listener questions:

Question 1: How do you decide if an idea is worth launching?

The product founder doesn't push an idea on the people. Instead, the people provide the inspiration for the product.

Your product idea really has to be something that people want. You can't force your idea on people, hoping that they'll buy.

Question 2: How do you build products if you have kids and a full-time job?

The only thing that matters, is the work – when you’re building a product, there are a lot of things you can spend your time on: tweeting, answering email, fiddling with analytics. No procrastinating. Building a product is like pushing a rock uphill: your whole focus should be getting that rock to move a little farther. Everything else is a distraction.

Question 3: What outside material are you allowed to use in a podcast?

In copyright law, there is something called Fair Use. However, it's application is complicated. For example, if I wanted to use a heavy metal track, there's a few things that might affect me using it under Fair Use: am I earning revenue from the podcast? Am I stealing business from the copyright owner? How much of the podcast does the copyrighted material take up (ie. 8 minutes of a 10 minute show?).

Season 1 launches

1. The Build & Launch podcast
2. The Product Hunt Handbook
3. Network Effects: a web app for notifying groups via SMS
4. Irresistible Podcasting
5. Productify: Gumroad plugin for WP Membership Sites

Show notes

• We Are Not Normal People: Barber story
• End of an Era: "All that matters is the work"
• Heavy metal song: All for One, by Striker (from their City of Gold album)
• Fair Use for podcasts
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Follow Justin on Twitter: @mijustin
• Join the newsletter

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Best kick in the pants podcast yet!

7 days ago, Carl and Justin set off on an adventure to build a unique WordPress plugin in one week.

Also - kids or no kids?

This week's project

The inspiration for this project came in August, after I launched my course. The course platform I was using was expensive. I was being charged $130 / month + 4% of course sales + transaction fees! Since August I've had to pay $1,288.00 to that service. If I'd used Productify, I would have paid only $39. ;)

What I really wanted was to host my course myself on WordPress, but sell it using Gumroad.

When I shared the idea with Carl Alexander he had an idea of how he could build it (without using a SaaS backend). So we did!

"This is the product I'm most excited about. I want this. I have told so many people that I want this kind of product." - Paul Jarvis

We shipped it!

Download the plugin now

As a podcast listener you get 20% off:
buildandlaunch.net/plugin

Check us out on Product Hunt!

Sad news and good news

This is supposed to be the last episode of Season 1. But you folks have been so awesome of joining this journey, and sharing your journey, so we're going to keep this going.

While I get ready for Season 2, we're going to do two Q&A episodes:

• Tuesday, March 3, 2015
• Friday, March 6, 2015

Ask your questions by sending me an email, or getting me on Twitter.

Season 1 launches

1. The Build & Launch podcast
2. The Product Hunt Handbook
3. Network Effects: a web app for notifying groups via SMS
4. Irresistible Podcasting
5. Productify: sell your WordPress content using Gumroad

Show notes

• "Welcome to Canada" song - Five Iron Frenzy
• Review the show - I might read it on air!
• Get all the stats - join the newsletter
• Follow Justin on Twitter: @mijustin
• Follow Carl on Twitter: @twigpress

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Every 7 days Justin Jackson tries to build and launch a new product. This week he's working on a WordPress plugin with Carl Alexander. They're hoping to ship it on Thursday; will they make it?

Everybody is in a unique place in life. Some of us have our health, some of us have more free time than others, some of us have more resources than others... that's just the way it is. The challenge is for each of to not compare ourselves to other people who are in a different situation. Instead, let's figure out: how can we make something tiny, and put it out into the world?

Adam Clark, from last week, talked about what he would do differently:

Pick something small you could launch in a week. That momentum of launching is really, really powerful.

Great quote from James Altucher:

"I try to improve myself 1% a day. It seems small, but over a year it makes a big difference."

Project update

• We're combining two different platforms: Gumroad which allows makers to sell digital goods. On the other side we have WordPress, which is a publishing platform.
• The plugin we're building allows you to sell the content you create on WordPress using Gumroad.
• Check it out at www.getproductify.com.
• We've been hustling hard and have the main functionality in place.
• We still have a lot of work to do on creating a great user experience, plus more work to do on our launch strategy.

Previous week's launches

1. The Build & Launch podcast
2. The Product Hunt Handbook
3. Network Effects: a web app for notifying groups via SMS
4. Irresistible Podcasting
5. Productify: sell your WordPress content using Gumroad

Show notes

• Carl Alexander
• Jim Gaffigan, Mr. Universe
• There are 110 reviews in iTunes! Leave your own review here.
• Sign up for the launch list for the WordPress plugin.
• Follow Justin on Twitter: @mijustin
• Follow Carl on Twitter: @twigpress
• Join the newsletter

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Join the finale of this week's adventure: was Adam able to launch his course on time? How do you know when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em and when to walk away?

Also: Justin announces the new Build & Launch product for this coming week. It's something we've never done on the show before...

Launch notes: Irresistible Podcasting Course by Adam Clark

Today's episode is a crossover episode with Adam Clark's The Gently Mad ep 33.

• Did nearly 5 figures in pre-sales in December
• When we last left our hero, Adam Clark, we had an honest discussion about the real challenges of building a product.
• Adam had been really honest in these episodes so far; this week he gets even deeper. Here's what you don't know...

The next Build & Launch project

This week Justin is partnering up: this time with fellow-Canadian Carl Alexander. Carl lives in Montreal, and is really talented developer.

This week's product: a WordPress plugin that interfaces with Gumroad. We've talked about Gumroad before: they allow makers to sell digital products directly. This plugin will allow makers to sell membership sites, courses, etc... built on WordPress using Gumroad as the payment processor.

Previous week's launches

1. The Build & Launch podcast
2. The Product Hunt Handbook
3. Network Effects: a web app for notifying groups via SMS
4. Irresistible Podcasting

Show notes

• Like the show? Leave a review!
• Shake it like a polaroid picture
• Follow me on Twitter: @mijustin
• Join the newsletter
• Blog post: This is real life
• Blog post: The principle that changed my life

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Do you have a bunch of projects that you've started, but not launched? This is the show where we build and launch something every 7 days.

In this episode Justin does a mid-week checkup with Adam to see how he's doing with his podcasting course.

Once you've promised the world that you're going to make something, that's when things get scary. Because now you have to make it. Most of us would rather create things in our cave and not launch, because that's safe. It's time for you to go public.

Community updates

• Marc Eglon built Letterlist.com
• Robert is launching Emails that Win on Feb 18.
• Seth Werkheiser has an awesome email newsletter called Skull Toaster. Every week he sends out heavy metal trivia + music picks.

This week's project

Listeners have asked me to do a "Build & Launch sprint" where I help someone else launch a product.

So this week, I'm working with Adam Clark, to help him launch is course called Irresistible Podcasting.

Action steps: what to do when you feel overwhelmed

1. Get things out of your brain, and on to paper, or into project management software (we used Sprintly).
2. Start now, and start small. Get the first thing on your list done. Just sit down, turn off Twitter, turn off your phone, and get the work done.

Don’t try to cajole yourself into action by saying that you’re going to do one tooth then do them all. Just floss one. Do it every day. And watch what happens. I can tell you what happened to me – one day, about three weeks in, I had an itch for completion. I wanted, needed to floss them all. I wasn’t even particularly aware of the change, which seemed natural and unconscious. And now I can’t not floss. Mission accomplished. - Margaret Lukens, Floss one tooth

Previous week's launches

1. The Build & Launch podcast
2. The Product Hunt Handbook
3. Network Effects: a web app for notifying groups via SMS

Show notes

1. Follow Justin on Twitter: @mijustin
2. Check out Gumroad's 30 Day Challenge
3. Email Justin at words@bizbox.ca
4. Get on the mailing list to get all the launch stats
5. Cover image by Teza Harinaivo Ramiandrisoa

Two heads are better than one! This week Justin teams up with his friend Marty to build and launch a web application called Network Effects.

Were they able to launch in time?

Community update:

• Corey Stone built & launched: herokeyboard.com
• Kyle Adams creates incredible icons + illustrations: kyleadams.me
• Justin Weiss released his book “Practicing Rails”: www.justinweiss.com/practicing-rails/

On burnout

It doesn't do you any good to burn yourself out and end up in bed... or worse, a hospital bed.

Did they launch?

YES! Network Effects launched to 10 beta testers on Thursday. You can sign-up for the beta here: networkeffects.me

Costs

• 2-3 hours a night (each): 14-21 hours total for the week (each).
• Costs: $100 / month for Heroku, SSL, hosting for the marketing site, private GitHub

The next Build & Launch product

A lot of listeners have said they'd be interested in me partnering with someone else, and helping them launch a product in 7 days.

My buddy Adam Clark needs help - he needs to launch his course, Irresistible Podcasting, in about a week. I asked him if he wanted to do a one week "Build & Launch" sprint with me, live on air. He said yes.

You can take a look at the landing page here: irresistiblepodcasting.com.

Show notes

• Gumroad will collect VAT as required and remit it to the EU.
• Justin on Twitter: @mijustin
• Review the show on iTunes!
• Gumroad's 30 day challenge
• Join the Build & Launch newsletter
• Cover art by Brian Talbot

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