Hey friend,
Strap in, this one’s a big update.
Between fixing huge reliability problems, hitting Twitter milestones, and prepping for Product Hunt (T-minus 2 days), I also made the boldest move since I started Letterly.
Read until the end to find out what it was.
The 7-minute problem
Some conversions were running over 7 minutes. Way past what HTTP requests will tolerate. When that happens, the request just times out and throws an error.
The fix? Async requests.
Webhook replies instantly with a “pending” signal
Supabase stores a new record to keep things moving
Make keeps working quietly in the background
A polling webhook checks every 30 seconds until the result is ready
Once it’s done, the converted posts are stored in a bucket and sent back to my app. The whole payload is lighter now, and conversions are back in the sweet spot: 3–5 minutes instead of 7+.
Fixing the library black hole
One of my users emailed me noticing that their conversions were not syncing between devices. That made me realize they were being saved in cookies and local storage, which meant:
switch devices = gone
clear browser data = gone
Now everything lives in Supabase, referenced by UUID, private to each user, and accessible anywhere.
Way more reliable, professional, and just overall cleaner. 🙃
Outreach: birds vs suits
Twitter is alive. I’ll hit 200 followers today. About 120 in under a week. Posting daily, chatting, dropping value… it works. And the people there are awesome.
LinkedIn? Honestly feels like yelling into a glass office tower. Too stiff, too transactional. My posts sit there like lonely coffee cups. I’ll keep poking, but for now, X is where the party’s at.
Almost launch day 🚀
Product Hunt goes live this Thursday. This is the culmination of 8 months of grind, blood, sweat, and too much coffee.
If you’re reading this, I am officially begging you. Please, please, please, smash that notify me button. Come support on launch day. I’ll owe you big time.
Follow the launch here → Letterly
Almost 100 users, and zero AI giveaways
The user count is climbing, closing in on 100. But it’s not just about the numbers anymore. Engagement is stronger, and people are actually using Letterly.
The next update should take this to a whole new level.
One small but mighty tweak: I removed the em dash (—) from all posts Letterly generates. Why? Because it was basically a neon sign for “yep, an AI wrote this.” Now, AI detectors don’t flag your posts with that telltale residue. I’ve been running my own through tests, and the difference is night and day.
The BIG move: no more free plan
I’ve been chewing on this for weeks, and Marc Lou’s recent newsletter hit me like a checklist I couldn’t ignore. His story? Free users drained his time, money, and energy, while paid users actually built the business.
That’s exactly what’s been happening with Letterly:
Free users were stacking up but not committing
Each “free” conversion still costs me API calls and image credits
It’s a slow bleed. Paying to support people who never planned to upgrade
So I pulled the plug. No more free plan. Instead:
Strictly paid, but with a 7-day free trial
Once someone enters their card, they’re 95% committed
If they leave, it’s not because they were never serious, but because I failed to deliver value
This single move makes Letterly sustainable. And honestly, it feels like growing up.
In-flight lesson
Sometimes the riskiest thing isn’t charging too early, it’s waiting too long.
The “grow first, monetize later” model works for unicorns with VC fuel. They can afford to burn millions chasing users who may never pay. But as solopreneurs, every free user costs us time, money, and focus.
Here’s what I’m learning:
Free users are not just free. They generate support requests, eat up server space, and drain credits.
Paid users give better feedback, because they are invested in the product working.
Even a small amount of revenue changes how you work. Money is momentum.
The earlier you align your product with real paying demand, the sooner you know if you’re building something sustainable. If people won’t pay, you don’t have a business. You have a hole in your pockets.
So instead of stretching runway chasing vanity metrics, I’d rather fly lean, fly focused, and make sure this plane stays in the air.
That's the latest from the hangar. Thanks for riding shotgun with me on this.
If you’re curious, want to test Letterly Beta, or just wanna say hi, reply to this. I read every one.
One last favor: if you see the ad underneath, give it a click. It costs you nothing and supports me more than you can imagin.
Talk soon,
Vicente
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