Hi defties,
so this is the first edition of the defty newsletter!! š„³ š āØ
In my head, I planned this super cool, entertaining, extra-special and polished version of the first edition to really impress my audience (that would be you). And then I remembered this quote by Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn:
If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, youāve launched too late.
Let me translate this to newsletter speak: If you are not embarrassed by the first edition of your newsletter, youāve waited too long.
Itās so true!!
I could have easily found 100 more excuses before I actually started writing a single line here, or could have researched 5 more articles that I wanted to discuss. Or first, work out a consistent structure for the newsletter that I would stick to in every edition (not very flexible though) or define all the topics I would be covering (that could really take forever) ā¦
After all, diverse european founders in tech is a pretty deft acronym (get it?), but also a very broad description that leaves a lot of room to fill. More on that later ;)
Back to launching sooner than we feel ready for itā¦ Fact is, every great product is going to evolve anyway. If it doesnāt change with market trends and user behavior it will miss opportunities and eventually dieā¦
The important part is to start and then keep going.
Launching a newsletter is definitely out of my comfort zone, Iāve never done that before. As a product manager Iāve certainly built tech products before (duh!) and oh dear, itās hella messy. My point is, entrepreneurship is scary and messy, with incredibly low lows and incredibly high highs - and in between, weāre all going to screw up (donāt say I didnāt warn you).
Like LinkedIn. Which experienced a global outage today!
Yes, you read that right. Check #LinkedInisdown and #LinkedOut on Twitter if you donāt believe me. And while youāre at it š
It was also for longer than you might expect from such a mature platform (I googled when it was founded: 2002!!). Some people took it with humor though - always a good idea, if you ask me:
But see, even LinkedIn messes up! Twice!
For all the non-native English readers, occurred is missing a second rā¦
So, whatever you are thinking of starting/launching/kicking off (you get the gist!), go ahead. Do it! Put it out there! Step outside of your comfort zone!
I promise youāll learn so much more from the feedback you get from your audience or the first early testers than if you would have secretly tinkered on in your study (or wherever you work from these days). Like I learned today, that writing the first edition isnāt all that hard. While writing these lines, I imagine Iām talking to you and the thoughts are just flowing into my keyboard. Thatās actually a great feeling!
So, Iām gonna leave you with a donkey picture, because 1) I simply love donkeys (I mean, look at them!) and 2) theyāre the symbol of defty-ness, believe me :)
PS: You know other diverse european founders in tech? Tell them about us š
Written by Karla Schoenicke, Tech Entrepreneur & Community Builder. Born in Germany. Lived in Latvia, Finland, Spain, and Italy. You can also find me onĀ TwitterĀ andĀ Instagram.