Welcome to The Growth Spurt, a fortnightly newsletter with curated insights that will challenge your thinking as an aspiring creator, marketer or tech-enthusiast.

Read time: 6-7 mins

Today at a Glance:

HAPPY IWD peeps! Let’s smash the deadbeat system, one step at a time! 🚺️ 💕 

• Storytime: Last week, I saw James Clear (author of the famous Atomic Habits) announcing his launch of his brand new habit tracker app called ‘Atomic Habits’.
  ⚠️WARNING⚠️: Stop reading this newsletter if you don’t want to be viral like James Clear ‘s app ‘Atoms…

• LinkedIn: 2 Big Takeaways From James Clear’s ‘Atom’Launch
  (1) Future products will be increasingly niche creator-led in the era of no-code
  (2) Customer ‘s perceived value is important for sustained growth, especially in a saturated business like app marketing.

• IRL Event: If you love Growth Marketing, the OG Growth expert, Sean Ellis (ex-DropBox, EventBrite) is coming to Sydney this month!  Buy tickets

StoryTime ⭐

Last week, I saw James Clear (author of the famous Atomic Habits) announcing his launch of his brand new habit tracker app called ‘Atomic Habits’.

Me: ‘‘Whaat.. I mean, I thought is a writer and a creator. Now he is launching an app?’’

How come ‘Atoms’ is #17 on the AppStore, way past Spotify? What on earth is going on? 🤯

‘‘Sorry I live under the rock… Who is James Clear?’’ 🤯

James Clear is an American author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits, which has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide.

He also writes 3-2-1 newsletter- a brilliant content work on productivity and self-improvement.

2 Takeaways You Can Learn From ‘Atoms’ App Creator-led Revolution 🔫 

(1) Future products will be increasingly niche creator-led in the no-code era 🤖 

The next billion dollar app business may not neccessarily have to be VC backed.

(Insights from Greg Isenberg}- The post AI Creator ‘s playbook:

1. Own a category (ex: habits).

Make sure it aligns with your personal monopoly. A cause/problem that drives you enough that makes you pursue the path for a minimum of 10 years.

2. Build an audience (ie: James' 3-2-1 newsletter).

Increasingly, sustainable businesses are becoming more community-driven and the rise in the job title ‘Community manager’ is a positive signal to this.

3. Earn credibility (ie: NYTimes bestselling author)

Social proof, social proof, social proof. Period.

4. Build beautiful software for product/market fit (ie: Habits app).

As long as it is not a complex Machine learning product, the basic framework can be built by no-code and shipped fast for iteration.

5. Pick another "habit" (ie: Sobriety app, Fasting app etc).

Once you find a successful product, building adjacent products are easier.

6. Build the "constellation software" or berkshire hathaway of your word.
Big things are often the product of small things. With enough cashflow and credibility, you never know the potential of where things go.

7. IPO, sell the business or just cash-flow forever

Okay cool.. makes sense but how does this apply to me? 👀 

Whether you are a founder, startup operator or investor, find your personal monopoly 🎆 

Own a SUPERNICHE - you will never know where it will take you.

(2) Customer ‘s perceived value is important for sustained growth, especially in a saturated business like app marketing 🤑 

While I am stoked about the launch of ‘Atoms’ app, many potential buyers were mortified by $16/month subscription price.

Maybe this was a potential reason why ‘Atoms’ app ranking dropped from #17 to #80 after a week.

According to Sensortower [data intelligence platform], the ‘Atoms’ app is currently recurring 5k/month revenue - which is a fair starting point but not exceptional.

‘‘Hmm.. well isn’t this just a starting point?’’

Yes, maybe the monthly recurring revenue will increase in the future.

But the main challenge is- for products to win in a crowded marketplace, it needs to match the perceived value of the customer.

Question 🤔 

Are you willing to pay $16/month for a habit tracker? Coz these redditors were not happy.

IRL Events in Sydney 💥