[timtas]

Thanks for the reply and original post. To be clear, my real objection is not with your post but with our (my) expectation that it's possible to gain decisive wisdom from post-hoc success stories. I knew better than to fall into this expectation and be disappointed, but I did anyway! It doesn't mean that accounts like yours aren't interesting and worthwhile.

I guess I knew that focussing on Quickbooks and lacking a timer would narrow my market from the start. But we're often told, narrow your focus, don't try to be all-things-to-all-people, do fewer things well, etc. Probably I needed to actively market from the start.

My guess is that time-to-market explains your initial lift, then a strong quality version 1.0 created a tail wind with good reviews, then you jumped on it and did all the right things. Kudos!