Rebuild, renew, reset
Verse beta insights & book #2 of the month
Thank you so much to everyone who joined our closed beta— we’re incredibly grateful for your enthusiasm, time, feedback and support. Your insights have been invaluable in shaping and refining the experience to ensure we deliver what meets the needs of fellow book lovers.
Through the beta we’ve learned so much, iterated frequently, and even launched new features like custom lists. Now we’re gearing up for the next big step: moving out of our test environment and into the next phase of development.
What we’ve achieved so far:
Validating our vision: Your feedback confirmed our early assumptions behind Verse and validated strong alignment to our core vision
Early revenue success: Affiliate links through Verse drove our first in-app purchases - a major milestone as we build towards a sustainable model
Founding members on board: Pre-paid founding members pledged their support for upcoming premium offerings, showing trust in our vision and Verse’s potential
What’s next?
We’re doubling down on what you loved and refining areas to make Verse better:
Faster, smoother experience: An upgraded data structure to increase results and speed
Smarter search: A proprietary search system for more relevant results, dynamic recommendations and tailored filters
Guided onboarding: A step-by-step flow to answer FAQs and make it easier for everyone to get started
New features in the works: Notes, tracking and curated discovery to enhance your experience
Bug fixes: Polishing every interaction to make it feel seamless and intuitive
A big thank you from us for all your support, and more to come soon!
January books of the month
#2: A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
I adore this book and think it’s a perfect reset read if you’re feeling that vibe for January. This is one of the few (maybe only) books I re-read, and I pick it up every year. To fully enjoy and absorb Tolle, you need a bit of time and headspace, so any time you feel like things are a bit slower, this is your book. For that reason, I have read this on many a beach.
A New Earth could be described as spiritual, or self-help—I find it’s a matter of fact reasoning on how, and why, to be more present in life. I grew up in the 90s so self-help feels wrapped up in the type of books Bridget Jones had on her bookshelf (this is a very funny podcast about the infamous ‘Men Are From Mars’ if you feel like revisiting that period, it’s one of my all time favourite listens). I’m so glad we’ve moved on from this, but we’ve not yet fully recovered from the damage it’s done to the self-help genre. I could also write a whole essay for you about how irritating I find it that books marketed to men are ‘business’ and to women are ‘self-help’.
Anyway, back to the book. This is a masterclass in how to actually live in the present moment, and what it means to try to shift your consciousness. I’m not usually a big annotator but every year I change pen colour and make notes as I go on what stands out to me. It is so interesting to see what changes and resonates year to year. I love this book so much I included it in my top 10 books of the 21st century.
Buy it in paperback, grab your favourite pen and settle in.
Here’s book 1 of the month, and if you like this then you might also like:
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