I Messed Up The Launch (And Ghosted Everyone)

Remember the phrase “move fast and break things”?

Well, I moved fast. And I definitely broke things.

(Including our revenue targets… more on that in a second)

Some context first:

Last week, we launched BigMoves.io – our AI Automation marketplace.

The response was underwhelming.

In my rush to get everything live, I made some rookie mistakes.

Let me break down what went wrong:

Mistake #1: The “Everything But The Kitchen Sink” Launch

In one week, I tried to:

• Switch from a personal brand to a marketplace
• Change our core product offering
• Launch a new product
• Start a membership program

Here’s why this was a disaster: People knew me for Content Automation OS.

It was working.
We had momentum.

Instead of building on that foundation, I tried to change everything at once.

The result? Complete confusion:

• New customers didn’t know where to start
• Existing customers didn’t know what changed
• The marketplace message got lost in the noise
• The membership proposition wasn’t clear

I was so focused on “launching” that I forgot about launching properly.

Classic excited founder mistake.

Mistake #2: Shipping Something That Wasn’t Good Enough

This one hurts.

Content Automation OS still uses the setup processes that take hours. You have to:

• Manually configure each setting
• Set up multiple tool connections
• Work through lengthy documentation

Meanwhile, I’ve been creating all other products with the new techniques that:

• Take minutes to set up
• Require minimal configuration
• Actually deliver on the “plug and play” promise

I intended to come back to Content Automation OS later.

Once the new products were live.

I was focused on revenue. Not quality.

That’s not okay.

So we went back to the lab this week and rebuilt it.

Next week, we’re relaunching Content Automation OS 3.0 with the good stuff – the new automation techniques that are easy to setup.

The ones that make you go “oh, that’s what it should feel like.”

All existing customers get the update for free.

And new customers will be blown away how good and how easy this new version is to use.

Hint: when the new update launches, the price goes up. So if you want to lock in the price now and get the free update next week then click here.

Mistake #3: The “I Should Have Used A Calculator” Moment

Here’s a fun one about marketplace economics:

We built our affiliate system to give:

• 50% to affiliates who promote products. This was supposed to be calculated first and foremost.
• Then the remainder is split 50% to instructors who create products & 50% to the marketplace.
• Or in other words: affiliates 50%, instructors 25%, marketplace 25%.

But that’s not what was happening.

Result? With every sale:

• We paid 50% to affiliates
• We paid 50% to instructors
• We paid the 2-3% payment fees. LOL.

In other words; we would lose money on any affiliate sale.

Fortunately, since the launch was a mess we picked this up before it became a big issue.

But unfortunately, there’s no quick fix. The standard affiliate solutions don’t work for our model. We need to completely rethink our strategy.

The short term fix is we’ll likely give affiliates a smaller commission, but longer cookie windows instead.

More to be announced on this soon.

The Silver Lining

Today, I jumped on a call with 5 people from our community to discuss new updates and understand what they’re really wanting from a marketplace and community.

The conversation was eye-opening. Turns out, what people want is something easy to setup, and more options for tools.

It helped me rebuild yet another part of the workflow this afternoon.

And I posted a job on Upwork for someone to begin helping us scale into other tools immediately.

Building a marketplace is hard.

Really hard.

The technical challenges are just the beginning.

But after today’s call, we have a clear path forward.

Next week, we’re:

• Relaunching our core product (the right way)
• Fixing our affiliate structure
• Focusing on one clear message
• Creating templates for more tools.

Sometimes you need to slow down to speed up.

More updates coming next week,
Mitch

P.S. To everyone who bought during launch week – I’ve got something coming to make this right once we get Content Automation OS 3.0 live.

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