@macbudkowski
Some reflections after the pre-launch:
1) In less than 24h I have 200+ people who 'downloaded' the Farcaster app and turned on notifications.
Conversion was around 40%: the post had 500+ views and it translated into 200+ mini-app 'downloads'.
2) Doing the pre-launch was the right decision.
When Cryptosaurus launches, I'm going to have 200 users who I can notify with one click. This should make it way easier to get viral vs. starting from 0 users.
Also, dividing the scope into stages was good from the product POV.
I had to work out the mini-app setup, test Farcaster and email notifications, figure out small details on the front-end and so on. It took way more time than I expected, but since in pre-launch I could focus exclusively on them, I didn't have a familiar feeling of "there's so much to do, I won't be ready for the deadline!".
I would have to do figure all that anyway when I launch, but now it's already done, so I can just focus on adding new features to the frame I already built and tested.
3) Farcaster ecosystem is still small but mini-apps are cool.
All things considered, having 500+ views for a launch post is nothing compared to Twitter. But... see point 1): 40% conversion is a great number.
When we were building Kiwi, we had some very popular posts on Twitter, but I can't remember a single post that would deliver 200 users.
That's the magic of mini-apps - as they are integrated into Farcaster, 'downloading' them is just one click away, which can yield great user growth numbers (even though the userbase is pretty small compared to Twitter).
PS: Since some friends asked, I did a mix of Neynar Score and manual analysis of people who signed up. At least 50%+ of these accounts are legit users.
PS2: Thanks to everyone who signed up and shared the app :)