Green-broke Apr 25
Hello equible friends,
April Fool’s lasted longer than a day for equible, the whole month went a little bit like this…
Welcome to the eighth issue of Green-broke, a monthly newsletter for those interested or invested in coming along for the ride with me. This is a monthly update for you and a routine check point for me, keeping you informed (or more likely entertained by the ups and downs) and me accountable.
Let me take you on a joy ride through April.
Chewing my own chaff
As a Product Advisor I help people with product-market fit which is achieved by validating the idea and confirming with strong evidence it is very likely to work in market. The aim of this game, especially for startups, is to get the latter as quickly and cheaply as possible — fail fast.
Sounds easy, but for many reasons it’s tempting to saddle up without evidence. Ultimately, investors see through it because the outcome is the wrong solution that wastes time and money.
Knowing this, the next step for equible’s product-market fit is getting market validation. Per my own advice the quickest, cheapest, and kind of expected way to do it is social media marketing (circa Psssst… to PSA in Green-broke Feb 25).
But through fear of failure, procrastination, and perfectionism (such a fun trifecta) — I convinced myself this meant a ridiculously high-fidelity prototype. I spent most of April working on it, intending to demo at the Nutrien Supreme Sale in Toowoomba this past weekend.
I overcommitted too early, didn’t have a prototype ready for the sale, and the only validation I got was the advice holds true.
The most embarrassing part of this is I didn’t realise I needed to ‘eat my own dog food’ or shall we say chew my own chaff until someone else pointed it out to me – thank you for holding up the mirror, Cait.
So now that I’ve taken a bite, I just have to chew like hell in May.
A Gift Horse
Time for a confession. I used AI to help write last month’s newsletter. I had a pile of loose notes—about 1,000 words’ worth—that refused to gel into something coherent. I couldn’t justify spending more time on it, so I tried something I used to side-eye.
After a brief moral quandary I remembered Daniel Priestley’s sentiment in a recent-ish episode of the Diary Of A CEO podcast. Basically, if I’m not using it I’m not even in the race.
Since then AI and I have become stable mates. It’s not magic, and it doesn’t replace doing the work, but it’s helped me get unstuck. I don’t think I would’ve leaned into it if I were still in a cushy corporate role. There’s something about startup survival mode that makes you open to anything that saves time, energy, or sanity.
It feels like a gift horse—and I’m not about to look it in the mouth.
Still, ChatGPT won’t be a permanent co-author. I’m running my own race here.
Stable musings
In the spirit of April Fool’s here are some more light-hearted titbits I found when I wasn’t chewing chaff or prompting AI in the last month.
@helpinghorsesheal is equine therapy and swear words. Who wouldn’t be healed?
AI is convinced all good horse names include “Midnight” or “Thunder.” It’s not wrong, just dramatic.
Race For The Crown on Netflix is like horse reality TV meets beauty pageant—cringe but you can’t look away.
Google Meet has a cowboy hat and grey moustache filter. Be warned: may cause uncontrollable laughter.
We’ve reached the tail end of the eighth issue, I hope you’ll keep joining me for this — sometimes foolish — ride 🐎
Best,
Emily
P.S. I’m not only interested in chewing my own chaff, if you have some feed—back about this newsletter, reply to this email or send me a DM – seriously, I’m all ears.