Resend open-source wedge before core product pitch

Why this can grow a startup

Developer products often try to sell the platform before they have earned the trust to do it. Resend took the opposite route. Before the main product was broadly known, React Email gave developers a concrete tool for a painful job: building templates that render properly across clients. That did two jobs at once. It solved a real problem on its own, and it built the audience that would later care about the paid product. The important part is not just 'do open source.' The important part is to pick the slice that makes the later product pitch easier to believe. When the wedge is useful by itself, it becomes proof, distribution, and education in one move.

Company example

Resend says it launched React Email in December 2022 before the public Resend launch, then later reached more than 12,181 GitHub stars and 209,339 weekly npm downloads while growing toward 100,000 verified users.

Source and metric

Source: Resend Blog: What's next after 100,000 users

Resend reported that React Email reached 12,181 GitHub stars and 209,339 weekly npm downloads by the time the company crossed 100,000 verified users.