Product Building and fundamentals
Thoughts on building products and selling them.
December 10,2024
last update: 2024-12-15
Just like any other tech-pilled software engineer. I’ve spent my free hours and days working on side projects in the hope that someday to live Independent to the corporate day job and working on something I own full time.
“(very best startup ideas) they’re something the founders themselves want, that they themselves can build, and that few others realize are worth doing”
And Believe me when I say, I’ve followed this exact thing a tens of times.
I’ve built, a bunch of productivity apps (all defunct) , a task tracker (defunct), art selling platform (defunct), blogging platform (defunct).
Building a product (At least at an indie level) has lot of stressors pushing to make it happen. Market forces, Individual suffering, Ability, Previously present products, Opportunity.
Almost with all my products, I’ve chased a non-serious problem, with intense personal stress for a short period on a sea of new tool with very little capital.
I would like to break down the above statement a little bit.
non-serious problem because it always came from me, because I was not the top of the any consumer segment. So my opinions tend to be “I’m building it because I don’t want to buy it.” which goes to say that They’re consistently non-serious problem. because If I was serious about the problem I would’ve bought the product.
with intense personal stress because I would spend continuous days and nights obsessing over that specific problem without at great cost to my health, relationships and day job.
for a short period of time because as soon as I get distracted it doesn’t matter.
on a new tool because it always is a new ecosystem that will satisfy my problem. It has to be chrome extension, a walled garden product (eg. intellij, )
with very little capital For the amount of time I spent on these projects, it never occurred to me that I should invest some money and buy something that would allow me to achieve my goal. I just kept pouring more and more time into the issue
Thinking about this in hindsight 3 things are clear
Problem
Clearly define the problem. Sit down, and write down what the problem is, how you’re going to find the first user, the 10th user, the 1000th user.
This is really underrated. especially in software because. Without a clear idea of the problem and what you want to solve it is easy to dilly dally and end up not solving anything or solving something unrelated.
Writing down also helps think if the problem is worth solving.
The world is full of problems and only a few are worthwhile.
Time
Be clear about the time commitment. Time is a resource.
You’re trying to live your life to the most intensity. If you’re taking time off to work on something it better be reasonable important and leave a mark
Cost
Be deliberate about the financial commitment for an endeavour, without this commitment it is pointless to pursue anything.
Know the cost and result benefit before a purchase. But do not go in blank and do not expect to do everything to be free. OSS is an anomaly. be thankful for the anomaly. But don’t bet on it.
Anything of value costs something and be ready to pay it.