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Solo Builders Club

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Hey — It’s Jerrell

Found out today that my wife has been keeping track of how many times I've said "what if we built..." this month. The current count is seventeen.

In my defense, some of those ideas came during perfectly reasonable moments. Like waiting for coffee. Or brushing teeth. Or that one time I woke her up at 3 AM.

Estimated read time: ~2 minutes and 47 seconds.

Three No-Code Analytics Tools For the Data Curious

Listen, we all start with Google Analytics because it's free and... well, Google. But once you want to actually understand your users (without needing a PhD in SQL), here are some tools that won't make your brain hurt.

1/ Mixpanel

Remember when I said I'm not technical? Mixpanel was built for people like us. It's like having a data scientist in your pocket, but one that actually speaks human. The drag-and-drop report builder means you can answer questions like "why do people keep abandoning their shopping carts?" without writing a single line of code. At $25/month it's not cheap, but the free tier covers 100,000 monthly users - which is probably more than enough while you're figuring out if anyone actually wants your product.

2/ Heap

Here's the thing about Heap - it's like having a time machine for your analytics. It automatically tracks everything (yes, everything) your users do. So when you wake up at 5 AM wondering "how many people clicked that button I added last month?", you can actually find out. Even for data from before you thought to track it. The free plan covers 10,000 sessions per month, which is perfect for early days. Fair warning though: it captures so much data you might feel like an overeager parent with a new camera.

3/ Amplitude

If Mixpanel and Heap had a baby with a PhD in user behavior, you'd get Amplitude. Yes, there's a learning curve steeper than San Francisco's hills. But once you get it, you'll understand your users better than they understand themselves. The free tier includes all the core features you actually need. I use it to track user flows and honestly, it's helped me fix more UX issues than my caffeine-fueled late-night coding sessions ever did.

Two Ways to Find Your First 10 Beta Users

1/

The "Help Me Help You" approach. Last month, a person on Reddit said that he posted about his project in three Discord communities where he’s active. But instead of the usual "please test my thing" pitch, he wrote: "Building a tool to help developers automate their Git workflows. If you've ever spent more than 10 minutes resolving merge conflicts, I'd love to show you what I'm working on and get your thoughts." Got 100+ responses in 24 hours. Why? Because he identified a specific pain point they actually cared about.

2/

The "Early Access Reporter" strategy. This one's sneaky but ethical. A year ago I reached out to 15 people who had written blog posts about problems the startup I founded solved. My message was simple: "Loved your article about [specific problem]. I'm building a solution and would love your expert take on it. You'll get lifetime access, plus I'll credit you in the launch post as an early advisor." 8 people said yes. Turns out, people who write about problems usually want to be part of the solution.

One Thought on Building in Public

I've been thinking about a Tweet I saw recently:

He's right. Building in public is about sharing your journey, especially the messy parts. That’s where the magic happens.

Last week, I shared a screenshot of my very embarrassing first attempt at a newsletter for Solo Builders in a Discord I’m part of. Instead of mockery, I got three detailed feedback comments and someone even sent me a quick Figma mockup of how to layout the newsletter. The trick isn't to show off your highlight reel - it's about being vulnerable enough to show your blooper reel.

Building in public isn't just about reach (though trust me, nothing motivates you to fix a bug like tweeting about it). It's about finding your people. The ones who'll cheer when you hit 10 users, who'll debug with you at midnight, and who'll tell you when your pricing page makes no sense. Because let's be honest - we all need a reality check sometimes.

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And that’s it for issue #5. Thanks for reading.

If you enjoyed it please do forward it to a pal. It takes ten seconds and makes a big difference. If you don't enjoy it, you can unsubscribe here.

See you next Monday — Jerrell & Chase

P.S. — I have hundreds of tools to share with you. I’m going to put together a database (see image below) of all of them in the next few weeks. I’ll share the first and, limited time only, free link to it in this newsletter so stayed tuned…

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