Products I took apart before anyone asked.
No internal data and no invoice — everything here was found from the outside, the way any user could. Each investigation says how it was done, what it looked at, and where it stops being able to tell you anything.
54 pagesTeardown · Product-led SaaSHow a product at that valuation fumbles user activation.A full lifecycle autopsy of Notion’s post-signup experience. Every claim traced to something you can watch happen in the product.$10BReported valuation0Internal data used54Pages, every claim tracedThe other four
Found from the outside, one way or another.
One took re-signing up with fresh eyes. One took fourteen months of deliberately going quiet. One took eight months of writing down what time the emails arrived. One took a single division.
02KitSix questions in. One email out.Kit asks six questions before you reach the dashboard. Then it sends everyone the same email.MethodRe-signed up with fresh eyes and walked every step of the post-signup flowCapturedThe six questions, the welcome email, the dashboardWhere it stopsI can see what Kit collects and what it sends. What it does with either internally isn’t visible from outside.03GlovoFourteen months of going quiet.I stopped using Glovo on purpose and stayed gone for over a year, to see who would come looking.MethodDeliberate dormancy — stopped ordering, stayed subscribed, counted what arrivedDurationOver 14 monthsRetainedThe count. The individual messages were not kept.04Risevest67% arrived after 11pm.I stayed subscribed to Risevest for eight months and logged when all thirty emails arrived.MethodStayed subscribed and recorded each email as it arrivedSample30 emails over 8 monthsWhere it stopsI logged when they sent. Timestamps don’t establish what it cost them.05ChowdeckTen million orders. 2.1 million users.The interesting number is the one between them.MethodOne division, and what it implies about order frequencySourceChowdeck’s 2025 figures, published by its founderWhere it stopsTwo public numbers don’t measure retention. Nothing here comes from inside the company.
The commissioned work sits under Work →