Matthew @ Sapling

Whenever I browse product launches, I somehow subconsciously judge not only the product itself and its quality, but also the quality that is reflected in the effort the makers put into preparing it.

It may sound insignificant, but in my case, these things also make a significant difference:

• Icon GIF at the launch it enlivens the overall impression and is dynamic

• Quality graphics and video

• First, a properly filled-out comment

• Photos in the makers' profiles (it's less trustworthy for me when there's only the letter "J" or something similar)

• Whether any of my contacts or acquaintances on the platform reacted to the launch

We often see launch posts, milestones, and success stories.
What we don t see as much are honest breakdowns of products that quietly stalled or failed.

I feel there s a lot of learning hidden there about timing, assumptions, and trade-offs.

Hello,

I ve been working on a passion project I called Sapling (use.sapling.mobi) on and off since 2016.

I have spent the last 12 months improving it because I kept seeing small charities lose huge chunks of their donations to complex platforms that take high fees or guilt-trip donors into "tipping" the software. It felt wrong, so I decided to build a cleaner, simpler alternative.