OS_LOG: 036

Yo.

I hit a huge milestone and broke some limiting beliefs this week. Over-Stimulated's first product (ballpark.ing) got its first paying customers.

I know that doesn't sound huge. But hear me out.

I'm celebrating because it hit my last goal for 2025: Sell one thing to two people.

My entire career has been one to one. Build a website for a client. They pay me. I launch it. We do some updates. Move on. Doing this over and over started to feel a little empty.

Don't get me wrong, I love going hard on something for a couple months then jumping to the next thing. But that being the only thing I did felt like being on a hamster wheel.
Build. Launch. Build. Launch. Little time to craft and improve because everything needs to be done yesterday.

I needed something that would compound. Effort today that benefits me for years to come. Something I own where I get the entire upside (and downside).

I imagine a lot of you reading this feel similar. Especially with tools we have available today.

So here's what I did to build my first product and get my first few customers. Including the fuckups (so you can avoid them).

Getting the idea

I started winning a lot of work by being quick to give a ballpark estimate. Not a full proposal. Just a rough price within a few hours.

Agencies loved it. They didn't have to wait days to see if I fit the budget. They could follow up with their clients faster. Projects started sooner.

But it was still taking me half a day. Mapping out requirements, making sure the estimate was accurate, sending it over, all while delivering on existing projects.

Reading this now, the solution was obvious. I needed a way for people to get a price on my services instantly. Without me.

So I looked at the thing that was winning me work and asked: can I automate this?

That became Ballpark.

If you want to build a product, start with a problem you already have. You'll know what to build, you'll know who it's for, and you'll have at least one customer: yourself.

Building it (and wasting 3 months)

Originally Ballpark used AI to generate estimates. You'd upload your past projects with cost and timeline and it would find similarities to calculate a price.

Sounded smart. Was actually stupid.lol.

I opened the product to 10 beta users before public launch. Best decision I made. They told me the AI thing was too complicated. They didn't trust it. They didn't want to let AI trip out and send some wild number.

I wasted 3 months iterating on something that took a week to rebuild in a way that actually worked. Don't try to sound smart or do technical shit to impress people. Build what they need.

Getting my first customers (and losing momentum)

I started building Ballpark in Feb. Started a waitlist. Updated them every two weeks.

Then client work got busy and I stopped for a few months.

Big mistake. By the time I launched, the waitlist was cold. Very few people signed up because I'd gone quiet. Don't do that. If you start talking to a waitlist, keep the cadence consistent leading up to launch. You want people excited, not forgetting you exist.

What made the first 5 customers easier was that I was a customer myself. I'd been using Ballpark on my own site for 6 months. I had real results. When you build for yourself, you've got a case study people can resonate with. Immediate social proof.

What I'm doing to grow it

Right now I'm obsessing over customer success. Getting Ballpark live on peoples sites and helping them either win more projects or save time on wasted calls / proposals with people who have no budget is the top priority.

Practically that means:

• White glove onboarding. Setting up the software for them.

• Building requested features fast.

• Following up consistently.

If I can get them results, I think they'll stick around and tell their friends. Already starting to think that this strategy works:

What I've learned so far

Build for a problem you already have. You'll know what to make, who it's for, and you'll be your own first case study.

Don't overcomplicate it. My AI version sounded impressive. The simple version is what people actually wanted.

Talk to users before you launch. Those 10 beta testers saved me months of wasted work.

Once you launch, obsess over customer success. Nothing else matters until the people using your product are getting results.

The hamster wheel is optional

This might not sound like much yet. But it's proof that one to many is possible. Every new signup benefits from work I've already done. That's the difference.

If you're stuck in the build, launch, repeat cycle and it's starting to feel empty, look at what's already working for you. Ask if you can automate it, productise it, or sell it to more than one person.

You probably can.

Keep crushing my friend. Back in a couple weeks to share more progress and lessons I learn while building on this wild thing we call the internet.

Talk soon.

Will