SayMail's landing page is officially live!

👟 Topic: SayMail's landing page is officially live!

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We hit a milestone this week.

After weeks of planning, designing, and going back to the drawing board more times than I'd like to admit, SayMail finally has a proper landing page.

You can check it out here: saymail.app

I'm genuinely proud of how it turned out. Compared to the design we had 2 weeks ago, this one has a much better feel.

But getting here wasn't as straightforward as I thought it'd be, because I almost built the wrong thing.

Here's a confession: I got lost in the weeds.

When I first started building SayMail, I had this vision of what the "perfect" version would look like. And somewhere along the way, that vision started creeping into what was supposed to be a simple MVP.

Specifically, I became obsessed with LinkedIn integration.

I wanted users to connect their LinkedIn accounts so SayMail could understand who they are and craft better emails. I also wanted a feature where users could paste a LinkedIn URL and pull up someone's profile data to personalize their outreach.

Both ideas sound great on paper. In practice? Not so much.

If you've ever tried to build anything that touches LinkedIn's data, you know what I'm talking about.

Their API access is locked down tighter than a bank vault. To even be considered for access, you need to apply for a partnership program and pay upwards of $10,000 in fees. And that's just to get your foot in the door.

The second idea, pulling profile data via URLs, ran into similar problems. LinkedIn's Terms of Service explicitly prohibits third-party apps from scraping or fetching user data. Companies that have tried this in the past have either been banned from the platform or ended up in court.

So yeah, both paths were dead ends.

In the middle of all this, I did something I should've done way sooner.

I went back and re-read my PRD.

If you've been following along, you know I spent a lot of time upfront writing a detailed Product Requirements Document before touching any code. And right there, in my own words, I had written:

"SayMail at its heart is not another LinkedIn automation tool."

Reading that hit different.

I had gotten so caught up chasing LinkedIn integration that I forgot the core purpose of what I was building. SayMail is supposed to make the email creation process easier, faster, and more convenient. That's it.

And here's the thing: that doesn't require LinkedIn at all.

Users can already have LinkedIn open in another tab. They can reference someone's profile while using SayMail side-by-side. The app doesn't need to do everything.

This whole experience taught me something important about building products.

It's really easy to convince yourself that "just one more feature" will make things better. But more features don't always mean a better product. Sometimes they just mean a more complicated one that takes twice as long to ship.

So I backtracked. Went back to the start, or at least a "new start," and worked my way back up with a clearer focus.

The earliest testable version of SayMail will be simple:

↳ A voice recording system that captures your rough thoughts

↳ AI that formats those thoughts into a polished, tailored cold email

↳ Based on how you describe yourself and who you're reaching out to

That's the core. Everything else can come later.

This brings us back to this week's milestone.

The features are still in progress, but I'm anticipating actual user testing to start within the next month, ideally sooner.

If you're curious about what SayMail will offer, head over to saymail.app and take a look around. The page walks you through everything the app will do.

And if you want early access, the buttons on the page will take you to a short survey. Fill it out, and you could be one of the first people to test it.

For anyone else building something right now, here's what I learned this week:

↳ Re-read your original planning docs when you feel lost, past-you might have the answer

↳ Not every "good idea" belongs in your MVP

↳ Scope creep disguises itself as ambition, don't fall for it

↳ Sometimes the simplest version is the right version

That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this post, share it with a friend!

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See you next Tuesday 🤝

-Michael Ly

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