# Resend open-source wedge before core product pitch

> Launch the open-source edge of the product before the full commercial pitch, so the market can try the taste of the thing before it has to buy the whole meal.

- Canonical HTML: https://growth.iangoh.com/growth-ideas/resend-open-source-wedge-before-core-product-pitch/
- Source: [resend.com](https://resend.com/blog/what-is-next-after-100-000-users)
- GrowthDex source hub: [Resend Blog: What's next after 100,000 users](/sources/resend-blog-what-s-next-after-100-000-users-resend-com/)
- Last checked: 2026-06-09T13:08:21.000Z
- Rarity: epic
- Budget: medium
- Channels: Open Source, Product-led Growth, Developer Marketing
- Stages: open source wedge, developer trust, npm distribution, prelaunch audience


## Why this can grow

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.

## Ian's take

From scaling consumer platforms across MENA and Southeast Asia, my default is to distrust growth work that only looks good in a slide. My bias is to treat this as a small market test first. Make the audience narrow, make the promise concrete, and let the first real response decide whether it deserves more work. I would run it small enough to learn quickly, then only scale the parts that real users repeat, save, reply to, or buy from. For this tactic, I would watch one clear growth signal before putting more time or budget behind it.

## Action plan

1. Define one narrow startup segment where resend open-source wedge before core product pitch can create a measurable lift.
2. Turn the tactic into one offer, page, campaign, or workflow for the Open Source and Product-led Growth channel.
3. Use the evidence from resend.com to set the first version of the message, format, and audience.
4. Launch a small test for 7 to 14 days with one success metric: one measurable growth signal.
5. Review the result, keep the winning message, remove weak variants, and turn the learning into a repeatable growth playbook.

## Source-backed 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.

## Adjacent tactics in the same lane

- [Hugging Face Space demo as live product page](/growth-ideas/huggingface-space-demo-as-live-product-page/) - 2 shared channels
- [Hugging Face model card discovery metadata](/growth-ideas/huggingface-model-card-discovery-metadata/) - 1 shared channel, 1 shared stage

## Read GrowthDex essays

Browse the plain-English essay index at [GrowthDex Blog](/blog/).

## Related GrowthDex essays

- [The product should keep a visible pulse](/blog/the-product-should-keep-a-visible-pulse/) - developer marketing, launches, brand trust

## Advisory

If you want help turning this into a working growth system, Ian Goh offers advisory at https://iangoh.com/advisory.