<!-- Source: Magnotia Master Brief — §7 Distribution Strategy -->

## 7. Distribution Strategy

### Marketing positioning

**What Magnotia is NOT:** A to-do list. A habit tracker. Another productivity app. The market is flooded with generic productivity tools, and ADHD users have severe app fatigue from trying and abandoning dozens of them. Positioning Magnotia in that category is death.

**What Magnotia IS:** An "external brain." A prosthetic prefrontal cortex designed for cognitive offloading. The app does the heavy cognitive lifting — it takes raw, messy thoughts via voice and automatically decomposes them into verb-led micro-steps (e.g. "Clean the house" → "Pick up one item of clothing from the bedroom floor").

**Key messaging pillars:**
1. **"Your brain moves fast. Magnotia catches it."** — Voice-first capture, zero friction, thoughts don't get lost.
2. **"Local. Private. Yours forever."** — Nothing leaves your device. No cloud. No subscriptions for core features. Your vulnerabilities are never exposed.
3. **"Built by a neurodivergent brain, for neurodivergent brains."** — Authenticity. Jake has executive dysfunction. This isn't corporate empathy theatre.
4. **"They took away lifetime. We never will."** — Direct competitive positioning against Tiimo's subscription-only model.

**Combatting app fatigue:** The audience has been burned repeatedly. Marketing must acknowledge this directly: "We know you've tried 47 apps. Here's why this one is different." Lead with the local-first privacy angle and voice-first input — those are the two things nobody else offers together.

### Distribution channels

**Desktop distribution:**
- **Primary:** Direct download from magnotia.app via Lemon Squeezy or Paddle (5% + 50p per transaction). Signed and notarised builds for macOS (£79/year Apple Developer Programme) and code-signed for Windows (EV certificate, £240–£480/year).
- **Microsoft Store (supplementary):** Free to list, 250M monthly active users, 0% commission if using own payment system. Good for discovery.
- **Mac App Store (evaluate):** 15% commission under Small Business Programme, sandboxing may limit Tauri features. Most successful indie Mac apps distribute directly.
- **Linux:** Flathub (1M+ active users, pre-installed on major distros) + AppImage for direct download.
- **Auto-updates:** Tauri's built-in updater with Ed25519 signature verification via GitHub Releases.

**Community channels:**
- r/ADHD, r/adhdwomen, r/ADHD_Programmers, r/autism, r/neurodiversity, r/executivedysfunction
- Neurodivergent TikTok and YouTube Shorts (massive, highly engaged community)
- PKM and Obsidian communities (as amplifiers, not primary sales channel)
- Product Hunt (timed for post-beta with testimonials)
- ADHD UK's discovery platform, ADDitude Magazine tool roundups, AlternativeTo

**Influencer/creator partnerships:**
- **Tier 1 (micro, £400–£4,000):** 5–10 ADHD micro-influencers for launch. Best value, highest engagement rate.
- **Tier 2 (mid, £4,000–£20,000):** Dani Donovan (625K TikTok, ADHD comics) or ADHD Love (789K TikTok) for a dedicated review.
- **Tier 3 (mega, £8,000–£40,000+):** Jessica McCabe / How to ADHD (1.9M YouTube) — aspirational, time for later.
- **Podcasts:** CHADD's All Things ADHD (888K downloads), ADHD for Smart Ass Women (7M downloads), I Have ADHD Podcast. Host-read ads at £12–£24 CPM.
- **Performance model:** Start with affiliate partnerships (like Inflow's 40% commission model) to reduce upfront risk.

**SEO opportunity:** Long-tail terms like "ADHD app for Windows" and "focus timer desktop app" face lower competition than mobile-focused searches. Obsidian gets 52.9% of traffic from organic search — proof that desktop-first apps can win on SEO.

### Phase 0 — Pre-beta (this week)
- [ ] Register domain (magnotia.app or getmagnotia.app)
- [ ] Build one-page landing page on Carrd (£16/year) or Framer (free tier). Hero must answer three questions in under 5 seconds: what is this, who is it for, what do I do next. Landing page copy written at 5th–7th grade reading level (converts at 11.1% vs. 5.3% for university-level copy). Include 15–30 second silent auto-play GIF showing voice-to-task flow. Single CTA button.
- [ ] Set up waitlist with LaunchList (£65 one-time). Includes gamified referral mechanics, anti-spam filtering. Alternative: ConvertKit (free to 1,000 subscribers) + Tally form.
- [ ] Set up analytics with Plausible.io (privacy-friendly, no cookie banner needed).
- [ ] Begin daily #buildinpublic tweets on Twitter/X.
- [ ] Total Phase 0 budget: **£81** (LaunchList £65 + Carrd £16).

### Phase 1 — Closed beta (next 1–2 weeks)
- [ ] Polish MVP to "testable" state
- [ ] 10–15 beta testers from immediate network (Roo's nonprofit connections as priority)
- [ ] Collect feedback on: does the brain dump → task organisation flow actually work?
- [ ] Iterate on bugs, UX friction, common complaints
- [ ] Run Van Westendorp pricing survey via Tally (free) to validate £49 price point before committing

### Phase 2 — Community seeding (weeks 2–4)
- [ ] **Reddit (priority 1):** r/ADHD (2.1M members), r/adhdwomen, r/ADHD_Programmers, r/autism, r/neurodiversity, r/executivedysfunction. Spend 4+ weeks genuinely contributing before any mention of Magnotia (Reddit 10:1 rule). When ready: authentic posts, no sales pitches. Use F5Bot (free) to monitor keywords: "ADHD app", "voice to-do", "ADHD task manager."
- [ ] **Obsidian/PKM communities (priority 2):** Show Magnotia → Obsidian workflow (voice dump → transcription → tasks → Obsidian vault). Use as amplifiers, not primary sales channel.
- [ ] **TikTok product seeding (priority 3):** DM 20–50 ADHD micro-influencers (1K–50K followers) with free lifetime licences. Zero obligation to post. Cost per seed: £0 (digital product). Outreach must reference a specific video the creator made. Follow up with affiliate link at 25–30% commission via Lemon Squeezy.
- [ ] Submit to ADHD UK discovery platform and ADDitude Magazine tool roundups.

### Phase 3 — 90-day content calendar

**Days 1–30 (Foundation):**
- Set up Twitter/X, TikTok, and LinkedIn profiles
- Begin daily #buildinpublic tweets
- Post 3 TikToks per week — ADHD relatable content and screen recordings
- Comment helpfully 5–10 times per day on Reddit (zero promotion)
- Launch first SEO blog post (long-tail: "ADHD desktop app", "offline productivity app ADHD")
- **Target: 100 waitlist signups**

**Days 31–60 (Momentum):**
- DM 20 ADHD TikTok creators with free licences
- Post "I'm building…" on r/SideProject (~503K members, explicitly allows "I built" posts) and r/ADHD_Programmers
- Share waitlist milestones publicly
- Run Van Westendorp pricing survey
- Start connecting with Product Hunt hunters
- Publish 2 more SEO articles
- **Target: 500 waitlist signups**

**Days 61–90 (Launch):**
- Set up Lemon Squeezy (5% + 50p per transaction). Handles global VAT/GST as Merchant of Record. Built-in licence key generation, affiliate system, and quantity-limited discount codes. ~48 hours for approval.
- Prepare Product Hunt assets: maker's face photo thumbnail, 3–5 polished screenshots, 30-second demo GIF, 60-character tagline starting with a verb. Launch at 12:01 AM PST on a Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday. Reply to every comment within 9 minutes.
- Execute Wave 1: top 100 waitlist referrers at £29 Founding Member price with exclusive in-app badge
- Execute Wave 2: 200 spots at early-bird £39, 48-hour window with countdown
- Execute Wave 3: standard £49 pricing
- Post "my first sale" TikTok reaction
- Share launch numbers transparently
- **Target: 50–100 paying customers, £2,000–£5,000 first revenue**

### Phase 4 — B2B (month 6+, only if consumer traction validates)
- [ ] Begin Access to Work approval process (UK government funds software tools as workplace adjustments)
- [ ] Channel partners: Lexxic (750+ client organisations), Access to Work assessors, ADHD coaching providers
- [ ] Enterprise requirements: admin dashboard, SSO, bulk provisioning, anonymised usage analytics, zero-IT-lift deployment
- [ ] Privacy paramount: users must never be identifiable as neurodivergent to their employer
- [ ] Position under "universal design" framing — beneficial for all employees, not just neurodivergent ones
