Building HanleyLabs: The Complete Founder Journey
Latest Entry: 3rd Aug, 2025
This is a living, breathing page that constantly evolves - I aim to update this page at least once a day depending on how interesting the day was. The aim of this page is to help not just aspiring newsletter founders, but I believe if we see success, we breath it, and if we breath it - we live it.
The Mission: Building What Actually Works
Most SaaS marketing advice is generic guru advice that doesn't work for real founders with real constraints. I'm building HanleyLabs to be different - a newsletter backed by real data from actual founders and a successful marketing career, not recycled guru wisdom.
Current Status (TLDR): 1 subscriber, first newsletter published, hunting for feedback and growing X/Twitter.
July 28, 2025: Foundation Day
TLDR:
- Created Ghost instance on Railway
- Started theme customization with Claude Code
- Built conversion-focused modal (no more ugly Ghost defaults)
What is Ghost and Why?
In a nutshell, Ghost is an open-source (and can also be hosted if you aren't into that), but it's dev-friendly, beautiful, easy to use - extremely cheap (costing me about £4 a month), and works super well.
Would I suggest it... maybe. You should if you value owning your infrastructure (which so early on... probably not), but I'm using it from day one. As time goes on, with coding becoming more accessible (think claude-code, codex and gemini-cli), open-source is becoming cheaper AND easier to edit for your own preference (for example, I connect n8n heavily into this.)
What is Railway?
I love railway, a little more than I should as a marketer - it's basically a pay-as-you-go microservice powerhouse, it has tons of templates, can basically absorb any open-source project (meaning, you could host open-source, practically free a calendar + meeting scheduler app. I guarantee it'll be PENNIES compared to alternatives, and quality is not compromised.
Back to hosting my entire website (ghost) on railway, here it is:
It really is that simple. I'd really suggest a quick 10 minute tutorial, like n8n perhaps (if you want to follow my strategies, get n8n.)
Claude Code & Sign Up Modal:
Very helpful tool, for example, I completely replaced the original sign up process with this so I could understand my audience more. The focus of my newsletter isn't the amount of subscribers - it's the quality of each person.
July 29, 2025: Backend Architecture
TLDR:
- Built webhook system with n8n
- Created multi-step onboarding wizard
- Technical challenge: Ghost JWT + crypto libraries solution
N8N:
I haven't introduced N8N to you yet - I love n8n so much, I was 50/50 between doing a SaaS marketing newsletter, and a N8N one. I think I've ended up doing both at the same time.
When you 'subscribe' to my newsletter, it runs through n8n, for example:
(this isn't the finished backend... for security reasons - BUT, it shows the general functionality.) When a user 'subscribes' it calls the 'signup events', we generate a ghost JWT (little complicated but just message me if you need help with that), and we basically manage our entire ghost backend from it. This is how we are able to collect data on consenting users.
July 30, 2025: The Late Night Grind
TLDR:
- Added Microsoft Clarity for heatmaps/session recordings
- Built custom scroll CTA (70% article completion)
- Facebook Pixel nightmare (banned, phone verification hell)
- Mailgun domain connection still broken
- Girlfriend intervention at midnight...
- Added GA4 (google analytics 4)
Marketing Gold-Mine:
Okay, I'll break these down and why they are so useful (especially when you have ZERO subscribers):
1. Microsoft Clarity: Early on, if I spot the website doing weird things via session recordings (if user consents), then I can fix it instantly - great for early error catching. Heatmaps allow me to see most effective CTAs (call to actions).
2.Facebook Pixel: I plan to run paid ads (strength of mine), so providing Facebook with the data before i need it, allows my targeting to be more like you!
3. Mailgun: Mailgun is the tool that ghost uses to actually manage the newsletter. That's basically all I got at this point. I'm having tons of issues implementing my domain DNS, etc, but support is helping me with it.
4. GA4: Google Analytics 4 is basically essential, just gives vital information like users, bounce rate (how many people instantly leave your page), devices, locations etc.
5. Scroll CTA: You may have noticed this as you are reading any of my content on the website. This basically isn't going to get anybody - but it actually isn't for that. This is the gentle reminder 'hey, I actually do this as a newsletter.. not a blog'.
It reminds the reader of the options available to them, to continue receiving content like mine, priming them at the end of the content to subscribe.
August 1, 2025: First Ever Organic Subscriber & The Emotional Rollercoaster
TLDR:
- Published first newsletter: "Is your SaaS worth building? Here's how to know."
- Reddit reality check: 24 hours of silence on r/newsletters
- Breakthrough moment: First genuine comment "this issue kicked major major ass"
- THE WIN: First real subscriber ("looking forward to next week")
- Twitter launch: Follow + comment within 2 hours (zero followers)
The Newsletter Launch:
Finally hit publish on "The Shark Method" for SaaS idea validation. Posted to r/newsletters and then... crickets. For 24 hours. Watching AI-generated posts get engagement while real work gets ignored was a proper gut punch.
The Breakthrough:
The same reddit 24 hours later and got my first real comment: "this issue kicked major major ass". Complete stranger, genuine reaction. Was checking Clarity and GA4 obsessively - seeing real session recordings of people scrolling, clicking the AI tool links, engaging with the content.
THE MOMENT:
Got the notification. First real subscriber. They said they're "looking forward to next week." This is everything - the hardest barrier most founders never cross. All the backend work from the last few days suddenly made sense.
Twitter Strategy Begins:
Started the "Megaphone and Peers" approach. First thread with ZERO followers got a follow AND comment within 2 hours. No X premium, no reply farming yet - just solid content proving the methodology works.
Yes... I tried asking a question but got ignored - no worries, all part of the process!
Total emotional whiplash. Went from feeling like a complete failure to getting the best validation possible.
August 2, 2025: The Manual Grind & First Case Study Gold
TLDR:
- Continued 10-20 daily outreach activities across Reddit/Twitter
- Game developer gave detailed breakdown of 5000-player launch strategy
- Multiple founders engaging with systematic marketing insights
- Reality check: 1 quality lead from hundreds of activities (but that's normal!)
The Outreach Reality: Spent the day doing what I said I'd do - 10-20 activities across Reddit and Twitter. Replied to founders struggling with design vs. messaging, engaged with growth stories, hunted for case studies. The conversion rate is brutal but expected. Maybe 1 quality founder connection from hundreds of interactions, and zero subscribers today.
Probably worth mentioning though, this sort of high quality content is evergreen (or at least, much more than paid ads), today I got 1 more website viewer than yesterday, and that is sometimes what growth looks like, it lags, it doesn't follow effort, and it's unpredictable.
The Case Study Breakthrough: The game developer came through with absolute gold. 60-person Discord pre-launch, Reddit post on r/AndroidGaming driving initial traction, and the anti-monetization approach actually working better than typical mobile games. Industry people telling him it's "far beyond what a typical launch looks like."
His quote: "I almost don't feel worthy of it, but they must be enjoying it to do that" - exactly the founder humility that makes great case studies.
What I'm Learning: The manual grind sucks, but it's building something. Founders respond when you demonstrate systematic thinking rather than just cheerleading. The game dev story proves ethical approaches can outperform predatory ones - perfect newsletter material and a great message for me to have the privilege to push to all two subscribers! (as i wrote this, my girlfriend subscribed)
The Reality Check: One engaged founder from hundreds of activities feels impossible, but apparently this is month 1 normal. Most people quit here. The compounding won't kick in for months.
(also, found a bug where on phone version, in my menu 'subscribe' doesn't do anything.. I also have 'login' without actually having anything to log into)
Tomorrow: Draft the game developer case study and continue the grind.
Perfect! Let's document this breakthrough day. Here's the August 3rd entry:
August 3, 2025: The System Proves Itself & 200% Growth
TLDR:
- Hit 3 subscribers (200% overnight growth!) - i guess my girlfriend doesn't count though 😦.
- Deployed AI outreach agent for systematic Reddit targeting (sort of working)
- Executed major r/SaaS marketing review thread with 4 very comprehensive reviews
- Got organic "what's your newsletter link?" comment from stranger - and couldn't even give him the link.
- Discovered ChatGPT traffic from Helios prompt watermark
The Numbers Breakthrough: Woke up to subscriber #3 - 200% growth overnight! Sounds ridiculous for 3 people, but crossing from 1 to 3 proves the concept is repeatable. These aren't pity subscribers; they're people finding value and asking for more. (again, apart from my girlfriend).
The AI Agent Deploy: Built an intelligence system that scans 30+ subreddits, identifies high-momentum conversations, and categorizes opportunities by "Angles of Engagement" (Piggyback, Direct Assist, Case Study Mining, Framework). Phase 1 reconnaissance complete - found viral AWS deletion post (364+ upvotes), hosting debates in r/SideProject, and $7M ARR AMA goldmines.
This isn't random outreach anymore. It's systematic market intelligence driving targeted engagement. - hopefully with more development, and ensuring it actually focuses on helping me instead of just contributing to AI slop.
The Reddit Marketing Reviews Masterclass: Posted "Comment your SaaS and I'll give a full marketing review" thread. Got 4 responses in 3 hours:
- GetVelis (AI search analysis) - caught broken demo tool, gave positioning overhaul
- Hoardo (storage tracking) - consumer vs B2B psychology breakdown
- AppLauncher (marketing suite) - spotted Lovable usage, gave Product Hunt strategy
- Feedback Widget (concept stage) - market segmentation + validation roadmap
Each review showcased systematic thinking: technical testing, positioning analysis, go-to-market strategy, specific next steps. This is exactly the expertise that makes people want the newsletter.
The Organic Validation: Got the comment every newsletter founder dreams of: "What's your newsletter link? This is exactly the kind of newsletter I'm looking for!" - I wasn't able to give it due to rules though, 1 subscriber wouldn't be worth being banned from a massive subreddit, i wasn't able to DM this user unfortunately, can't even mention look at my profile.
Someone watching me extract case studies and give marketing reviews said they wanted more. Posted screenshot on Twitter showing how Reddit validation fuels the grind.
The Viral Discovery: GA4 revealed something incredible: 4 sessions from ChatGPT! People are using the Helios prompt from my first newsletter, and the watermark is driving traffic back. Accidental viral loop proving the content solves real problems.
Also mysterious Facebook traffic (5 sessions) despite not posting there. Content spreading organically maybe?
What's Working:
- Systematic outreach beats spray-and-pray
- Demonstrating actual expertise > talking about expertise
- AI agent scales the manual grind intelligently, maybe future product if it starts working well.
- Quality subscribers find you when you solve real problems, not mentioned but reddit and X is (mainly) evergreen.
The Reality Check: Still tiny numbers, but the trajectory changed. From hoping people care to having people ask for the newsletter link. From manual Reddit hunting to AI-powered opportunity identification. X is still a struggle at this point.
Thursday newsletter now has 3 real people waiting + a game developer case study that could provide great value.
Tomorrow: Finish game developer case study, continue AI agent deployment, monitor for more organic discovery signals.
The compound effect is starting. 🚀