Out of Beta

The bell of a self-service cash register rings as the fog over Branch lifts. Could this be it? Meanwhile, after eight months of product and customer development, Matt's ready to place a larger bet on Summit.

• Matt Wensing on Twitter
• Peter Suhm on Twitter
• Starting Greatness - Mike Maples Jr’s podcast

Why aren’t more people adopting Branch the way Peter imagined, and why was it so much easier to find traction for WP Pusher? Matt and Peter sail into the Bermuda Triangle of product/market-fit and find no easy answers.

• Spotify on MVPs
• Matt Wensing on Twitter
• Peter Suhm on Twitter

Peter takes a day to reflect on his challenges with Branch and returns with plans for delighting his early adopters. Matt stares down his shortening runway, sparking a discussion about freedom, optionality, and the trappings of monetizing too soon.

• Purple Cow by Seth Godin
• Acquired podcast
• Product/Market-Fit podcast episode on Acquired
• Matt Wensing on Twitter
• Peter Suhm on Twitter
• Summit
• Branch

Matt digs into Stripe and Plaid after a setback with Bench. Peter discovers the importance of Branch's namesake: Branch is for branches! Matt explains how he offers fair prices to early adopters, sparking a discussion on segmentation.

• Matt Wensing on Twitter
• Peter Suhm on Twitter
• Branch
• Summit

Peter's public release of Branch creates inbound interest from hosting providers, requiring him to upgrade his approach to business development. Matt breaks ground on accounting integrations, while allowing himself to experiment with a new mode for Summit.

• Matt Wensing on Twitter
• Peter Suhm on Twitter
• Summit
• Branch

Matt and Peter review the 7 days since the launches of Branch and Summit to decide where to focus next. Peter upgrades Branch's onboarding flow, while Matt measures the number of users at each stage of activation. Matt describes his desire for a shared vocabulary for strategy at Summit.

On the web:

• Matt Wensing on Twitter
• Peter Suhm on Twitter
• Summit
• Branch

Matt's Summit Strategy Must-Reads:

• Business Model Generation by Alex Osterwalder
• Value Proposition Design by Alex Osterwalder
• Platform Revolution by Parker, Alstyne, and Choudary
• Delivering Profitable Value by Michael J. Lanning
• Aggregation Theory by Ben Thompson
• What is a Flywheel by Eric Jorgenson
• What are Advantage Flywheels by Max Olson

Matt and Peter reflect on their quiet, tandem launches, which required Matt to navigate a rebrand and domain change. Peter looks ahead to a heads-down, travel-free November, while Matt plans his premium offerings.

• Matt Wensing on Twitter
• Peter Suhm on Twitter
• Summit on Twitter
• Summit - Financial Planning Software as a Service
• Branch - Continuous Integration for WordPress

In this almost-live episode of Out of Beta, Matt and Peter recap a conversation about flywheels and business strategy that they had in the hotel bar of Dubrovnik Palace. Why are they doing certain things in their businesses while ignoring others? Where are the leverage points that make their flywheels go faster? On Matt's transatlantic flight, he mapped out all of the business processes within SimSaaS, calling it "The Flywheel Company". Peter wonders if this is the modern-day version of the E-Myth.

• Flywheel Effect: Why Positive Feedback Loops are a Meta-Competitive Advantage
• Advantage Flywheels
• Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System
• The Flywheel: An Operating System For My Life
• Matt on Twitter
• Peter on Twitter

Matt and Peter are in Dubrovnik, Croatia, for the 2nd TinySeed retreat and MicroConf Europe. On a rooftop overlooking the Adriatic Sea, they share their key takeaways from the retreat masterminds and give their weekly update on Branch and SimSaaS.

• Matt on Twitter
• Peter on Twitter

Peter has had a disruptive week of road trips through the Highlands, with evenings of fine Scottish whiskies.  A few thousand miles to the west, Matt is binge-coding day and night.  Where have the mature versions of themselves gone?  Also between them and launch: 8 days of travel to Croatia for the 2nd TinySeed retreat and MicroConf Europe.

• Matt on Twitter
• Peter on Twitter