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Hey rebel ideapreneurs 🦸♂️🦸♀️
Cora wants to launch a free weekly newsletter about easy soups and stews.
She wants to help tired people get one warm pot on the table.
To her, a good soup is the most forgiving meal a beginner can make.
Her future readers know the feeling — wanting comfort food without a long, complicated recipe.
⛳️ Problem:
Cora has been "researching" her newsletter for eight months without sending one email.
She read 12 newsletters in her niche. She took a 4-hour course.
She bought a domain. She designed a logo twice.
Eight months later her audience is still zero. She tells herself it's "not ready."
Her frustration: how to ship the first version before she feels ready.
🔥 The recipe
➡️ The embarrassing first version
Reid Hoffman is the co-founder of LinkedIn.
His rule: if your first version doesn't embarrass you, you launched too late.
The point isn't to ship junk.
It's that real feedback beats your imagination every time.
The version you're proud of is the one you waited too long to send.
Hoffman's argument: ship the embarrassing v1, then let real readers — not your fears — shape v2.
When LinkedIn launched in 2003, it was bare.
It ended its first year with 245 members, mostly the founders' own contacts.
Hoffman shipped it anyway, then let real users show him what to build next.
🚗 The steps
✂️ Step 1 — Define the embarrassing-but-shippable v1.
Strip it to the smallest thing a real person still gets value from.
No logo. No landing page.
Cora's v1: one paragraph and one photo of tonight's pot.
She'll send it to 20 friends.
📤 Step 2 — Ship it to real people this week.
Pick a date. Pick a tiny list. Send before you feel ready.
Cora sets Friday at 9pm.
She texts her sister Thursday so someone will ask if Friday's email went out.
The embarrassing version is the version that ships.
🔁 Step 3 — Let their reaction write v2.
Don't guess what to fix. Watch what real readers actually say.
Their replies, not your fears, decide what's next.
Cora sends it. Six friends reply.
Three want the shopping list up top.
One asks for a vegetarian pot.
That's v2 — written by readers, not by her 2am worry.
The prompt below will design your embarrassing v1 and the plan to learn from it.
You just tell it the thing you've been "getting ready" to launch.
🧸 Embarrassing v1 + real feedback = the only path past the not-ready loop.
🏄♀️ The prompt
Save this prompt as a Skill or add to Project in your favorite AI tool — build once, use often.
Update your input values in the prompt or just run as is, your AI sidekick will use the example values and will give output.
CONTEXT:
- (use what's available, fall back to the inline values)
- If my Voice Profile exists, write in that voice. Otherwise, write in a clear, warm, no-jargon voice — first-person, plain words, no startup-speak.
- If my ICP / Audience doc exists, target that reader. Otherwise, use the audience below.
Inputs:
The project I've been "getting ready" to launch (what it is, who it's for, and how many months I've been preparing without shipping):
{e.g. a free weekly newsletter about easy soups and stews — I've been "researching" it for 8 months, bought the domain, designed a logo twice, written exactly zero emails}
What "ready" looks like in my head (the bar I've been waiting to cross — be honest, even if it sounds silly):
{e.g. when I have 10 perfect recipes shot, a custom logo, a designed landing page, and 100 sign-ups before I send anything}
The awkward ceiling (how embarrassing am I willing to let v1 be — pick one: a little awkward / very awkward / mortifying):
{e.g. very awkward}
For Audience: {e.g. tired home cooks who want one warm pot on the table without a recipe marathon}
For Outcome: {e.g. a v1 I can ship in 7 days, a small list to send it to, and a plan for turning their reactions into v2}
Outputs:
1. The embarrassing v1 spec — 4-5 lines naming exactly what v1 is, who gets it, and how it's delivered. Smallest format that still has value (a paragraph, a photo, a 3-line recipe). No logo, no landing page.
2. The ship plan — a specific day and time in the next 7 days, the tiny list to send it to, and the ONE person I'll tell so I can't quietly skip it.
3. The feedback questions — 2-3 plain questions to ask my first readers so their answers (not my imagination) shape v2.
4. The "ready" bar I'm secretly waiting on — the one I named — and a one-line reframe of why it's a delay tactic, not a quality bar.
Then name the ONE thing on my "ready" list I should cut from v1, and why cutting it makes v1 land sooner without losing value.
One project pulled out of the drawer.
One tiny version sent to real people.
One v2 written by readers instead of fear.
That's it, my fellow renegades!
Yours 'making your AI sidekick work intelligently and exactly the way you want while you sleep' Vijay Peduru 🦸♂️