community.

Good morning Predictable Revenue community,

At last week’s founder revenue meetup (next one is March 14th!), a few people asked about staying in touch between meetings. Slack came up, and I get why—it’s familiar, easy, and used by plenty of communities. But I’ve been in enough Slack groups to know that’s not the direction I want to take this. If you love Slack, skip ahead a few paragraphs because I’m going to rant for a bit…

Why Not Slack?

First, I just don’t like using it. Not because Slack is a bad product (they’ve built something great), but because it’s designed to keep you constantly engaged—and, in my case, that means constantly distracted. Slack was built in an era where success was measured by how often users log in. The toothbrush test—where an app isn’t considered good unless people use it as frequently as they brush their teeth—led to something that feels engineered to demand my attention. I find myself constantly triaging messages instead of focusing on deep work.

Second, the expectation of chat apps is instant replies, which doesn’t fit how I work. As a founder/ceo, I like to take time to think before responding. Slack doesn’t encourage that. The low barrier to messaging means people ask things that could have been searched, and conversations pile up fast. I end up with a backlog of unread messages, which makes the whole thing feel like another inbox I’m failing to keep up with.

Third, I actually quit Slack entirely in August. I gave my team my phone number for anything urgent and told them to email me for everything else. The result? I spend way less time in reactive communication and way more time thinking deeply about the things that actually matter. I’m still not perfect at email, but I like not having another notification machine sucking up my attention every day.

Lastly, I think the best tools are the ones you use just the right amount—no more, no less. I ranted in my Zoom/Salesforce post about how "no UI" is the new UI, and I’m a firm believer that the less I need to use a tool to get the desired outcome, the better. Slack doesn’t pass that test for me.

What We’re Building Instead

A big part of this decision comes down to the kind of community we want to be a part of. Slack—and other real-time chat platforms—encourage temporary, surface-level conversations. The kind that disappear as soon as the scroll moves on. That’s not what we want for this group.

I’m saying we intentionally because, if this is going to happen, it’s going to be a team effort. There’s a tremendous amount of work that goes into making something like this meaningful, and I don’t have the legs to climb this hill all by myself. If this is going to be a high-quality community, it’ll be because the people in it make it that way—by contributing real insights, helping each other, and keeping the bar high.

Too many revenue groups today end up as noise instead of value. They get flooded with self-promotion, turn into a place for people to score internet points, or drift too far from the business of selling software.

That’s not what we’re doing here.

This community is about helping each other—not just getting something out of it, but putting something into it. That means showing up, sharing real insights, and pushing each other to be better. I expect to put in the time, and I expect others to do the same. If this group helps you hit $1M, I expect you to give back in some way—mentoring, sharing lessons, helping someone else level up. That’s how we make this sustainable—not just as a resource, but as a place where people are genuinely invested in each other’s success.

Reading Monster Loyalty reinforced what I’ve been wanting to build for a long time. I want to recreate the feeling I had at Launch Academy. Back then, we had real support. It wasn’t just a Slack group or a forum—it was a place where people showed up for each other. When my co-founder bailed, Matt checked in on me. When I ignored customer feedback, Roger called me out. There was no sugarcoating, no fluff—just people who wanted to see each other succeed and weren’t afraid to push each other to be better.

That’s what a real community does. We support each other, we chip in, and we hold each other accountable.

What made Launch special was their founding team. They did an exceptional job curating the people they let in. It wasn’t just “Do you have the $200/month for a desk?” It was “Will you be a net positive for the community?” That’s something I didn’t fully appreciate until I didn’t have it anymore.

I loved moving into our own office, but moving out meant leaving that community. It was the right thing for the company, but I wish I had done a better job of staying engaged. The value of a great community isn’t just what you get from it in the moment—it’s what you carry with you long after. That’s what I want to build here. A community for those of us that either moved out, outgrew, or never had one in the first place. 

How This Will Work

The community itself will always be free. This is the foundation. I don’t want money to be a barrier to joining and contributing. But for those who want to go deeper, I’ll be creating advanced content—courses, books, and structured playbooks. I am trying to run a business after all and I’m not going to hide that fact.

I’m also considering a weekly paid meetup for structured, focused discussions in a small group setting. And the monthly revenue meetup will continue to be free as a way for the broader community to connect and help each other. If folks want to organize their own regular hangs, that’s cool with me too. The goal is for this to be a real community, not something that only moves when I push it.

I’ll be sending invites next week to a few folks from the last meetup who were interested, and I’ll open up registration to a wider audience over time. My goal isn’t to grow as fast as possible—it’s to keep the quality high.

Personally, I would love to have a place like Hacker News, but for founders who care about revenue. A place where the comments are worth reading. A place where founders can actually learn from each other, not just skim generic advice.

If you’re in, I’d love to hear from you. What kind of discussions would be most valuable? Would you be interested in a structured weekly meetup, or do you prefer something more informal? What’s missing from other communities that you wish existed here?

Hit reply and let me know.

Let’s build something real.

Collin

PS - I’ve been doing a little “AI coding” lately, I use quotes because I don’t know how to code but I have figured out how to get the tooling to build stuff for me. I was using Cursor but recently tried out Windsurf, and wow is it fantastic. Cursor feels very much like a super user tool whereas Windsurf feels like it was built for someone like me. It doesn’t assume you want to review every change and it makes it super easy to run commands in the terminal.

PPS - our next founder revenue meetup is March 14th, hit me back if you want to join us. Last week we tackled outbound, how to unstick deals, and how to transition from founder-led sales to a team-based approach.