Happy 2024!
It's hard to believe another year has passed. Not so long ago — May 2023, to be exact — I was announcing to my YouTube channel that I was in the midst of a brand-new project. That project is LearnGit.io. As of today, it's live for the world to see. You'll find more information about that at the end of this newsletter. But before I could get to the launch, I hit some last-minute hiccups.
If you've been following this newsletter, you know that my white whale has been implementing billing. It was a long journey attaining my Certificate of Assumed Name to operate my business under "LearnGit.io" — a necessary step in the billing process. Along the way, I visited the bank multiple times and had to figure out how to work a fax machine (cool thing: you can fax entirely online these days).
This month, the paperwork came through and I was finally able to set up billing. For those who are curious, I'm using a tool called Outseta for auth/membership, and Stripe for payments processing. This means my payment pipeline is finally buttoned up and ready for business.
Circling Back on Pricing
Speaking of payments, in my last newsletter, I also talked about pricing and early access. Many people responded with helpful feedback, and I really appreciate those who took the time to write out their thoughts. About half told me my suggested price was about right, and about half said I was charging way too little.
In terms of early-access pricing, this was my key consideration:
In addition to improving the quality of LearnGit's content offering, it's equally important for early access to demonstrate whether LearnGit.io actually provides value consistent with its cost. The first step in understanding this is to charge for access.
In the end, your feedback made me realize I was on the right track with this philosophy, but I wasn't staying true to it. To that end, I've adjusted the early-access starting price to $75. When compared to my original pricing estimate, $75 is now in the ballpark of where the final price will end up over time, while still being discounted for early adopters. If you want to read in-depth machinations about this topic, check out the previous newsletter.
Early Access
This month, I have the ultimate sneak peek for you: early access. Much to my excitement (and intense anxiety), LearnGit is now live and available for sign-ups.
The site will have bugs. It will not work smoothly in all situations. The content and user interface may change rapidly based on your feedback. That said, the idea of early adoption is for me to be able to quickly iterate and plug these holes. If this sounds interesting to you, use this link to sign up.
That link also contains more information about what is included with early access — including a content preview, information about providing feedback, and feature request tracking tickets.
If you have any questions, simply reply to this email. If you do choose to participate in early access, I want to thank you in advance. My goal for 2024 is to be able to remain working full-time on LearnGit. Your support will help kick-start this new chapter.
If you'd rather wait for the kinks to get worked out, no worries — sit tight. I'll continue sending this newsletter monthly. As new features and content are added, you'll hear about them here, along with all the other behind-the-scenes tribulations about how the business is progressing.
I attended the University of Maryland where I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. Since then, I’ve gathered experience in the tech industry, both as a software engineer and people manager. My longest stint was 7 years at Amazon where I… read more.