Hi everyone, it’s day 26, and today I want to talk about something a lot of people don’t catch early enough — when a distribution channel is quietly dying.
The funny thing is, it rarely starts with the dramatic signs. It’s not always the big growth drop or the sudden “oh, we’re not moving anymore.” It usually starts with something more subtle: your growth rate stalls. Not your growth itself — your rate.
You might still be getting users. You might still be adding numbers. But if every month you keep hitting the same ceiling — 2,000 users… then 2,000 again… then 2,000 again — something is off. That flat line means the channel has stopped compounding. It’s no longer feeding your momentum. And if you’re in a startup where growth is the heartbeat of the company, that matters a lot.
Then there are the other signs — the ecosystem signs, the platform signs.
Sometimes it’s small UI changes that suddenly push your integration or your listing further down the page. Sometimes it’s slower support. Sometimes it’s a quiet tightening of policies. And sometimes it’s the loudest one of all: the platform starts building features that look suspiciously like yours.
At that point, the writing is usually on the wall.
Pricing changes are another clue. When a platform starts nudging you into a new pricing plan or restricting how much access you have, it’s usually because your presence is no longer aligned with their incentives. They’re shifting. And when they shift, your distribution shifts with them.
The real skill is learning to detect patterns, not moments.
Because any one of these things can happen in isolation and be harmless.
But when they start stacking — growth rate flattening, UI deprioritization, slower support, policy tightening, native competitors — that’s no longer coincidence. That’s direction.
And this matters because you don’t want to overstay in a channel that’s already fading. You don’t want to keep building on a foundation that’s quietly sinking. You have to know when to start exploring new channels, when to diversify, and when to move before the cliff edge shows up.
So yes — distribution is powerful. But part of that power comes from your ability to read the room early.
That’s it for today. Day 26. Thank you.