Issue #100 - 700 Days, 300,000 Minds, One Ritual
A blank screen and 100 weeks of showing up. Discover the quiet lessons learned while building in public and how they can help you in your own founder journey.
They say it takes ten years to become an overnight success.
I’ve learned it takes 100 weeks of showing up when no one is watching to build something the world eventually notices.
I didn’t plan to feel emotional writing a newsletter issue.
Yet here I am, pausing before the first sentence of Issue #100, realizing that this small weekly commitment quietly became one of the most meaningful things I’ve ever built.
As I write this from Istanbul, I’m sitting with a feeling that’s hard to name. Gratitude. Awe. A quiet disbelief.
This newsletter started the same way many meaningful things do:
a blank screen, a stubborn belief, and no guarantees.
The belief was simple; AI would change how we build businesses forever, and that small teams deserve the same tools as the giants.
Today, that belief lives in the inboxes of 300,000 people around the world.
But this story was never really about the number.
A few weeks ago, something unexpected happened.
This quiet Thursday ritual, written between meetings, on kitchen tables, in cafés, and sometimes far from home, started appearing next to names I’ve admired for years. Thinkers whose work shaped how I see technology, business, and progress.
I didn’t change the format.
I didn’t chase trends.
I didn’t optimize for algorithms.
I kept showing up.
That’s when it fully landed: this newsletter had entered Substack’s Top 50 “New Bestsellers”.
Not because it tried to be loud, but because it stayed useful.
Seeing a revenue-first voice from Türkiye standing shoulder to shoulder with global thinkers confirmed something I’ve believed from day one:
Value has no borders. Insight doesn’t need permission.
The 100-Week Streak
For 100 consecutive weeks, I haven’t missed a Thursday.
Not during vacations, when I was typing by the sea.
Not on the bitter days when code broke.
Not on the sweet days when deals closed.
That consistency wasn’t about discipline.
It was about responsibility. The responsibility I feel toward you.
Writing has always been how I think.
In 2023, after my previous venture, I wrote my first book, The Product Growth Playbook. There was no launch strategy. No audience plan. I published it simply to unload everything I had learned and then moved on.
It became a bestseller anyway.
That experience taught me something unexpected: when you write from experience instead of ambition, the work travels on its own.
So in 2024, I did something more deliberate.
I wrote Recode Your Future not to explain the past, but to publicly commit to the future. It was my way of sharing the vision behind what would become Next Big App, the company and forcing myself to stand behind it, in public.
That book also became a bestseller.
Around the same time, this newsletter began.
Not as a marketing channel, but as an open logbook. A place to test ideas, pressure-test beliefs, and turn written thinking into working systems.
Books. Newsletter. Company.
They weren’t separate projects.
They were the same idea, evolving in public.
In Your Words: The Only Metric That Matters
Metrics and awards are useful.
Messages are unforgettable.
What truly fuels the next 100 weeks are the words you take time to send back:
“I subscribed after one issue reshaped how I think about AI as a growth lever. It directly influenced a tool we’re building at reSpace to unlock access, ownership, and scale with humanity intact. Your work creates real shifts, not just insights”
— Katrina Romatowski
“I like the way you think, Selim. You are two steps out of the box!”
— Dave Copps
“Need creative app ideas. Most apps fail because they don’t have exposure. I have exposure, but I’m searching for that killer idea that will leverage it and go viral. Big learning curve, this Substack should help”
— Brent Kleinheksel
“Not sure who (or what) authors the content, but I like how it forces me to think about big ideas and new ways of doing things!”
— Brent Lodgix
These aren’t testimonials.
They’re proof that thinking differently still matters.
Beyond the Inbox: Next Big App
From the very beginning, this newsletter wasn’t just about sharing ideas.
It was about thinking in public and then turning those written insights into real-world experiments.
A few months after the newsletter began, Next Big App, the company was born.
What many people saw as “content” was, in reality, the operating system of the company taking shape. Every framework, every breakdown, every hard-earned lesson was tested in practice. First in our own work, then with real teams, real customers, and real constraints.
As the newsletter grew, so did the company.
Reaching 300,000 subscribers, entering Substack’s Top 50 New Bestsellers, and eventually receiving strategic VC investment weren’t separate milestones. They were all outcomes of the same transformation:
written experience → applied experience → measurable business results
During this period, the newsletter became an asset, not because it existed, but because it reflected what was actually working.
More than 30 companies trusted our products and services across retail, hospitality, and SaaS. They didn’t come for inspiration. They came for results. Revenue growth, shorter sales cycles, and better customer conversations.
That traction is what pointed to long-term potential.
That evidence is what led to strategic investment from Webrazzi and İş Portföy.
Not the audience size.
Not the storytelling.
But proof.
Today, Next Big App builds AI-powered products that help companies sell more, operate smarter, and scale human-quality conversations with technology.
The newsletter is still the heartbeat.
The company is its validation.
A Century of Gratitude (The Gift)
A ritual only exists because people keep showing up.
So for this 100th issue, I want to give something back to the community that made it possible.
I’m gifting a 1-year Premium subscription to the first 100 people who respond.
The Premium tier is where we go deeper into the tools, playbooks, and conversations that turn businesses into unstoppable forces.
How to claim:
Send an email to selim@nextbig.app
Subject line: “Commit 100”
Thank you for walking this path with me.
We’re not celebrating an ending.
We’re marking momentum.
To the next 100,
Selim Yörük
Founder, Next Big App