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the "coolness of the products" that "you think". it all depends. the coolness of cell phone before it exist that coolnest only existed in very few minds. marketing can make a good entry it's important as capitalism its un avoid hable at many times. if your client are not satisfied step back and chalenge your or my own paradigm maybe somthing it deeply wrong etc. all paths leads to "roma" for deep solution finders. iukuk. where is the cripto add values? there is no aparent utility that centrliced services do not give?
I loved the video. I already am experimenting with one product in the "backburner" I launched with paid promotions and all, but did not get that many conversions, so I am in the process of pivoting to something different and see if that works. I totally agree with most points, and I would probably overemphasize that figuring out what the customer wants is the really the most important and first step. Quickly trying out and testing different ideas is the approach that I am taking right now. My main concern is that the market I am targeting might be too small, (constrained to my country of residence), to produce a sufficient revenue to live off of.
I did this in 2009. I quit and started building my own software. Today I have a company, near 1000 people working for me. I went through a number of iterations, found what the clients needed...
This video is huge. Several of my friends are going through this right now, having been laid off or quit and started their own businesses. Developers are often not prepared for the world of business.
who would have thought that programming and creating a business is 2 completely separate worlds... Programmers often make fun of all the roles except of them, cto, product managers, leads.. thruth is all of them have their place. Being able to program doesn't mean you will build a sucesful business... Thruth is no one gives a shit about your "billion" dollar idea
@@jordixboy Guy trying to start a software company here. It's not that I have no respect for those positions I just don't have the capital to fill them. What's different between a person starting a convenience store and myself? You wouldn't say they are arrogant. We don't all have a million dollar bank account for admin staff. I just do my best against companies with infinite money and try and target customers they ignore.
@@jordixboy You have also got to acquire the skill of designing the product, rather than just being told what to program. The subject of design is vast in itself. There are millions of philosophies related to it. I read a large pile of books on it many years ago.
I did this in 2009. I quit and started building my own software. Today I have a company, near 1000 people working for me. I went through a number of iterations, found what the clients needed...
Running a company is not the same as writing code, you deal on constant base with people and the psycology and with finance and if you have 0 luck and time to postpone difficult business decision, programmers not just aware of that, they think creating a good product is 100% gurantee of success ,but here is flash news there is no gurantee as business go up and down, what make sense a strategy and backup plans and taking and receiving favors from anyone who can help.
@@robertmazurowski5974 more over , if you run a company, you basically responsible for profitability and cant slack as some programmers do, sure some owners they have enough cash and capital , but for new startups its like really big challange , they dont know market, they try and fail , then there are govermental and external influences, so go figure start a company and enter a new way of running a job.
100% correct. Good programmers are usually very bright, like working by themselves and are not overdone with people skills. Some business people have no "real" skills at all by which I mean that they can't code, mend a fuse, fix a leak, build a shed, anything "real". What they do have is the power to connect with people and spin them a good line about how good their product is. Think of Musk and Trump. Take Bill Gates, for instance, he bought his first operating system from someone else, made some small mods, then sold it to IBM and made $millions. He will have made more from that software than all the developers that contributed to the code combined. Judging by history, the plan seems to be that you need to team up with more of a people person. Think: Jobs and Wozniak, Hewlett and Packard, Gates and Allen. Don't be confused by people like Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook was originally a government project called Lifelog and when that was implemented as Facebook they made Zuckerberg the figurehead. The original aim of Lifelog was to find out everything about everybody. How is it doing?
Build an MVP, that will make money and is written as quickly as possible, if it makes money you get investors, and/or other coding cofounders then you can just rebuild proprerly. Don't write high quality code for potentially a throaway MVP.
This is a double-edged sword. I work at a company now that continues to release MVPs like this and it makes maintenance and expanding functionality a nightmare. It's like running through water. No one, except the devs, wants to be the one to say "Hey, I know we have all these features we want to write, but we really should put those aside and rewrite this." So the water remains and continues to get deeper. This is especially true in my company because, in the early days, it was staffed almost entirely by coding bootcamp graduates. There is definitely a balancing act between good architecture and time to market. This is what being agile (not Agile) was meant for in the first place. Getting customer feedback early and often, including putting them in the room while you write the thing, goes a long way to preventing having to throw away the entire project. That gives you way more confidence to actually write the code well. This is something literally every company struggles with. At my company, I've advocated for communication with the customer on every project, but nearly every time there's zero communication until the very end. It's MADDENING! We know who we should be talking to but no one does it.
You were so right about #5. I personally struggle with this a lot. As a developer, I obsess about every single detail on the product side. On the other hand, I pay very less attention to the business side.
Something I see in engineering a lot is that engineers will fall back to what they know when things get hard or when they are out of their comfort zone. An engineer moving over to the manager track falling back into code-neglecting their new position, a new cto focusing on engineering tasks rather than leading or processes, or a motivated engineer starting a business yet ends up not able to get out of the engineering thought process and never releasing the product. It's hard but you gotta step back. Once in awhile and ask, are you doing what you need to at this moment to reach the goal?
This is a fantastic video ..... what's so interesting is that it's by a serious Software Engineer and not by some get-rich-quick pseudo guru! For me it is perfect as my last day as a back-end (Go) software enginner was on 1st Jan 2024 and I'm now building out a "start-up", but I'm cheating:- 1) I have had the idea for ages and absolutely know that there is a need (the big question is, Is the need urgent enough?) 2) I have had a side-hustle a few years ago as a semi-pro photographer so I am tax registered and have an accounting system etc already These experiences completely reflect everything brought up in the video. The area where I have almost certainly gone wrong is in over-engineering .... I have built an incredibly complex system to solve an incredibly broad and complex problem! One thing I haven't done is built an MVP as several people have commented (The 'V' bit is the tricky one) .. I really would suggest reading Eric Ries' book "The Lean Startup".
@@HealthyDev I was hearing so much about MVPs, I thought I would actually find out what the actual rationale was. He was solving a very tricky problem!
That advice in the beginning of the video… I swear is one of the most basic advices I’ve heard over and over growing up as a kid. You cater your product to customers, yes you definitely listen to feedback.
@@mike.1 In my experience, customers never know what they want, but they sure as hell know what they don't want. If you get conflicting feedback there's almost always something deeper going on. Maybe one customer wants a completely different product or feature than the one you're trying to build.
I'm a CS major -> engineer -> solution architect -> head of product at a growing startup. I hope I'm not being too overly confident when I think that I know what it takes to go beyond engineering and talk to customers. Nowadays I barely code "professionally" in favor of all these other startup management tasks. Except, that I have my own ideas and product I'm working on during the evenings/weekends (inter-business project management app - sounds boring right? 😉). I know that if I want to succeed I would need to focus on it full-time. But until I have my MVP and actively make the decision to focus on the business aspect, I am okay knowing what it takes later down the line. For now I'm good building a massive network and getting more startup experience.
This is very good advice. You really have to come to terms with and accept some of these realities, both those discussed and those not discussed. True agility and the ability to pivot on a dime come from managing a business. This is why everybody says, including the words said at the end of the video, that execution is everything. Indeed it is.
Some really fantastic advice here! Just launched an early version of my product to customers for testing and its taken me 2 years to get here. I can relate to everything you've said.
Thank you for all the good tips. I've just finished the paperwork I need to get my sole proprietary business registered last week, and I'm encouraged to keep going. No product in mind yet but I want to hone in on my business strategy first.
Needed this. In this environment as a self taught AI Engineer it's the only way for me to break through the noise. I really don't want to go the whole LEET code grind set. This is a much more sustainable and fun way to prove my skills and make money at the same time
Wow, this hit me right in the heart! I’m so guilty of over engineering and rewriting a certain project over and over. Great for learning, but it’s horrible for business. Thanks for making this. Instant subscriber here!
Great video. I am currently making 90% of the mistakes you mentioned. I've been working on the software side for about a year now, started working on the business side just recently. Self-doubt is a huge problem, it leads to me just finding problems with the software, tweaking it every day, adding new features, etc. And all that could've been done much later after the deployment. Guess I'll just deploy it within two weeks to test the market and only then add new features or fix issues.
There are only 2 skills you need to be able to survive as a freelance or startup software company 1. Top skill is not coding, but abiility to collect payment 2. See number 1 😅
@@ArneBab Your knowledge of dependency injection or event driven architecture will not matter if you cannot collect from your client. But you don't need to trust a random person in the internet, try it and tell me how you did otherwise.
@@rommellagera8543 I did not contradict that. I said that this is bare survival, not living. It is the condition to survive, but not to enjoy what you do. You obviously won’t enjoy it, if your work does not make ends meet, so if you fail collecting, you won’t be happy for long, but if you only manage to collect, then you risk running into burnout again soon. Did you have "survive" in your post from the start and I misread that? If yes: I’m sorry! I read "to live as startup" so if you had "survive" in this from the start, I commented on my own mind, not on you …
@@ArneBab it is a precursor to enjoy what you do. Unless you have experience having less than $50 for a week or two because you cannot collect, you will never understand. Nothing to enjoy in that situation.
I think every good project in production started out in producton as a Minimal Viable Product. I know any real project, even the ones I create as side projects, I at least pretend it is a real product and start with a BRD and a SRD. It really opens up the domain and reveals things abou the project I didn't think about initially. The last two points are probably spoke to me the most. I am the only Developer I know, and I have been learning and doing this for at least 5 years. Through my BS and now in my MS, it is hard to build a network either due to faults of my own or circumstance. Due to the fact I don't know any other developers, that lack of experience leaves me in a silent wake, where I don't know how good or bad I am doing. Which leaves me wondering.
Had a similar situation myself. I read Uncle Bob's Clean Code and learnt about UX (took a free Google course which helped me as a mobile app dev. I still read interesting UI/UX topics because it interests me. So find your interest (Ui/UX, code architecture, clean coding, deeper knowledge of a framework, etc) and follow it. But it is also important to learn more about the tools you're using (e.g. git, GitHub). There's more to git than most people do (rebase vs merge, rewriting commit history to clean up those "WIP" commits to something that will help you later on, deleting branches and keeping your repo clean, code deletion over commenting it out).
It's a good tip at ~15m regarding spending time on the business. I ran a technical business and had my nose in a load of electronics, but on regular occasions you have to look at the real numbers on your sales, income, investment, what you need to do to work on the next expansion idea and so on. You have to think that building a business is always a case of constant improvement, better ways of doing things so it all runs faster. You are essentially investing time to save you time and improving quality to the customer.
I'm amazed and thankfull for you. You videos helped me as a software developper in the past and it still is with your latest ones... Always sound advices and always on point (at least for me). Your not only delivering "content" here, definetely not. Meaningfull talks. Thank you.
Thanks, dude! I'm 54, working corporate, building my app on the side. Been working on it for a couple of years. It's not a simple product, so...strike 2! (Strike 1, I'm 54). Really appreciate your encouragement.
The best advice I got when I was bitching about a client changing everything after 2 weeks of work: The client is allowed to be in error. Helped me tremendously in my client relationships
Programming as a electrical engineer. With out any real software experience appart from attempting C C++ assembly, basic, assembly programming very little . Just putting a program together and suck it and see. I look back at some of the programmes i had written. And its nice to see somthing evolve from nothing. I have almost given up on many occasions. Putting a product together is daunting...imposter syndrome especially when your up againts all the different tools chains and terminology. I think business is like getting a car for the first time you are so apprehensive and its like looking up at a giant. You are now in control of something that has many complexities and you become the imposter. I keep telling my self if you dont learn you dont earn. It drives me forward.
As a Non-Tech Co-Founder, Fractional Product Consultant, and a VC Fund GP, I truly appreciate this video. I have worked across the desk from Engineering (and was one early in my career) my entire career. Please do more of these videos. If you want some input, happy to chat as well.
I recently just found your channel. I love your content. I think you make some very valid points about starting something on your own. New subscriber here. Looking forward to more content.
Amazing video. My goal is to bootstrap my own company and you touched on many of the things that I'm scared of about myself. I just got a job at a big tech company and stashing up enough savings to be lean FI, and then going for it. What are your favorite resources for learning about starting a small software company (1-10 employees) that creates software products?
I've read and tried so many things over the years, I'm not sure where to begin. The book "The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki is a favorite. There are too many to list, but I definitely got value out of that one.
I started my own tech business (services) 4y ago. I still learn how to evolve as an entrepreneur. I don’t know who you are, is the first time I watch your videos but the content is the real deal. Keep up and good luck to all of you out there! 🎉
I like your content more and more. It's honest, thought through and what's more important to me, it's based. There's a lot to be said about the daily struggles coder parents have and this one fits really nice - Landing in my favourites ;) Keep up the good work 👍 Btw. I do like the guitar breaks you give, they somehow make your content even more pleasant.
Great video. I have seriously started working on my SaaS product for the past month. I started working on this because I am currently on sick leave due to burnout and depression. This project has helped me get back into a routine. I think the easy part so far is to figure out how to build the product, so I try to balance it out with days to work on parts I have more problems with such as learning on how to market my product, finding the correct audience and also building a good landings page. What also has helped me is to set a timeline and write down the main objective and set small goals to get to that main objective.
You're ahead of many folks that haven't realized that yet. It's messy but sounds like you've got your priorities straight. I LOVE building product - it's what I did for a living for 20 years! I find I love the other stuff too, but only when I've fallen over a few times sucking at it, and then start to see how to do it right. Hang in there!
Well, maybe I can share my story here, I was working as client technical service back in the 90's and I can code. Some customers asked me for favours to integrate the software I am selling to some other software, so I happily did for them. However, as I was doing so, the clients wanted more and more functionality. So I thought, why not I set up a company, I asked a good friend to set up a company and I enhanced my software to do all the functions expected and changed the interface and all that and let my company sell to the clients instead. That's how my company began and eventually sold the company off with a big prize money
Thanks for sharing! Companies need to realize this about developers. You mistreat them or stop giving them opportunities, you could just be letting go of your new competition!
I was a marketing manager who had an idea for a product that can help loyalty platforms grow. Have learnt coding and given myself 2 years to launch a product. Loving the journey!
It's about as shocking as an MBA trying to build great software and failing. It's almost as if these two skill sets are different from each other or something.
Im in a completely different field: music performance. I can say much of your advice is applicable to any field: 1. You have boss, if in a company or the market is your "boss", 2. you may love your field but it's not a hobby--you need to make money, 3. You may work alone a lot (in my case, practicing my keyboard and learning more music) but you find opportunity through interacting with people and also find new, marketable directions for your own growth, etc.
Well said. Beautifully played. Thank you very much 🙏 I’m finally building something I wanted to do for many years. May I send you a link once I go in beta?
I wish it weren't the case, but I probably won't have time to check it out. Of course feel free to send it. I get requests for this all the time and I do look sometimes. Just being honest it's tough for me to find the time. Either way, wish you the best with your efforts!
Great video! Thanks for sharing ;-) I started to learn coding about 5 months ago with no CS background, as I am planning to build a blockchain project by myself (I do have start-up founder background). Have to say I do feel quite intimated about the tech part since I am not the expert. Recently I was told by my friend that one similar blockchain project (part of the business model are similar to my business idea) failed, though most of the reasons are actually commercial parts, especially marketing, approach customers etc. which exactly same as you suggested in the video. Which really makes me think a lot, because as a "hot" technology, I always thought that blockchain-based project would be easier to get funds and attention, actually, in the end, it still back to the fundament of business: "Business" itself instead of the "hot" technology.
so many gems! For anyone reading this, treating your business and yourself seriously, you will succeed. In the past when I built side-project, I was half expecting it will fail, so I put in half effort. When it got difficult, I just gave up. Because in that way, I didn't have to face failure and no embarrassment. But also, nothing will happen. I am forcing myself to face failure now, force myself to talk to stranger(customers), experiment fast, be somewhere your competitor is not. Be like water, my friends
Excellent video, you won a new subscriber. I am in the process of developing my own product. Its an ATS and i currently work for a small ATS software company. However its ran by not technical clowns who do nothing but destroy their own application. The system has been hacked to bits over and over again to do things it was never designed to do and to meet requirements for customers when the salesperson lied about the capabilities of the application. Its so bad its no longer fit for purpose. The tech stack is also 20 years old. But they won't listen to us devs and build a new application that will solve all the issues. So i have decided to do it myself, i already know there is a market for it. My main concerns are around how do i promote the product and get customers while not getting caught and having to give up the day job before im ready? And i don't want sued, im in the UK.
Not from the UK so I can't give UK-specific advice (I'm from South Africa), but the one piece of general advice I have is: read your current employment contract carefully. Most companies will have a clause on intellectual property (namely, what you work on during company time belongs to them, and generally a lot of the inner workings of their company would be their intellectual property). More uncommon (but still sometimes exists) is non-competes (if you leave you can't work on a competitor's product, even your own, for a period of time). So if you start building a product that is a direct competitor to the product the company you're working for, then you cannot be using any "private" knowledge from said company that isn't publicly available or common knowledge. E.g. if they have a specific aspect to the ATS that is different to all other ATS and is a new idea/proprietary, and you leave and you use the exact same idea in yours, that could expose you to threats of stealing intellectual property. So just read your current contract to make sure you're not going to be breaking it by making your own product. Other than that, hopefully others can give more UK-specific advice.
@HealthyDev not that I am aware of but they would definitely be unhappy with me selling a competing product. I would probably be put on gardening leave immediately.
@@andycx2 ah I missed the part about it being a competing product. Yeah that's not a good idea. Probably be better to get a day job for a company in different market first.
Excellent video. The skills you use for writing code aren't the same as those for running a business. This should be viewed by those who are considering their own business after getting laid off. Doing this as a side gig works as it's lower risk - if it does well enough to make enough money then great.
I'm in the process of creating a SAAS that scrapes marketplaces at user defined intervals and products. I know there's definitely demand for this service in my country and there are some services already doing this. I did see myself in some of the points that you made, specifically the overengineering and spending too much time building the software and not the business (I'm actually intimidated to put it out there, what if no one wants to use it?). And I'm nowhere near building any networks. So #8 is here as well (the lack of self confidence). So it was like you were talking about me half the time. Scrary stuff.
Wow. What a great feature. I feel like the ADA Saved metric could be used programmatically in a "Public Good" smart contract with Catalyst for vested funding
Im starting a web design and digital marketing agency. Im a dad with two kids and have a fulltime web dev job and its challenging but this video was very insightful
I agree with most of your points. I quit my job almost 3 years ago and decided to build my version of Point of Sales system. It is a very difficult journey as I have to do it solo. No one else around me understand the pain. I used up all my savings for my commitments such as paying the bank loans, insurance and credit card. I also need to allocate some budget for the product R&D and equipment. Fortunately, I get a freelance job that can give me a little bit of income. I am not giving up and I hope other people like me also be strong.
seriously bro, you and your guitar are proper good, can you please do an hour or so of it as it really just helped me focus on my work. you should do focus music, and link it on the next vid :)
Advice, pick a Product Manager you like and get along and most importantly you trust each other to partner with so you both have a better chance to get to your sweet spot! They can handle business pretty well alongside you for small products and early stage when you’re taking this path.
Couldn't agree more. Marketing and sales (as I'm sure you know) is a deep topic. I tried to nutshell a few of the considerations for people at the start of this journey in another episode. You may have seen this one already. ruclips.net/video/-wXAWc1RSS4/видео.html
Good point. The advantage I had when I did my tech start up is I already had experience of running nightclubs with dozens of staff. That taught me a lot about business as really a company is a company of people in like the medieval sense so to speak. Just a group of people with a common goal.
There's a lot to be said for not originating "an idea" on your own. Instead, engage with say 50 professionals-be they doctors, physiotherapists, engineers, or others in the field you're interested in-and inquire about their challenges to inform your concept. At the least, you will be starting in a place where you’re solving valid pain points.
You typically get.....this program does this and I wish it would do such and such as well. Unfortunately you find the only way you're going to get to the desired missing functionality is by building the entire program's functionality again.
I appreciate all your advice! Two things I'd be cautious about: 1) Downplaying the ever-increasing demands of legislation about GDPR, cybersecurity etc. 2) Picking something that's too easy to copy/steal
You are right in so many arguments. But we also need customers who are willing to pay you the price that is worth to work with. Paying me based on a hourly rate is kinda killing myself because I do have the experience to finish the Job in the half of the expected time, so I am charging a specific price for my work which is still legit. Sure it may be expensive at the first look but I do it with a matured stack, probably without the need of debugging or having bugs after the Release. The customer also pays you having the experience over the years and that the product that he gets helps him to be more efficient or solves some use-cases.
I handed in notice at my Data Consultancy job a couple weeks ago - finish Thursday next week. Im going into independent contracting in the same sector I’ve been working at for the last couple years as I build a Data Discovery, Data Quality and Data Migration tool - essentially allowing someone with a bit of data knowledge to tackle an old legacy system that might be mostly unknown, build quality rules and migrate the data to a defined structure.
Just to add to this - fairly confident on the general features at this stage. Hoping to take this advice on board - especially the risk of over-engineering.
I am at the point in my life I no longer want to work for another company, but right now I don't even got a valid idea to generate income. I am at the point that programming and IT is not a problem. My problem is a product and problems to solves that people will pay for. I like the idea of just getting it working and generatring money. It doesn't have to be fully actualized in terms of achitecture, but at the same time it should be flexible and scaleable when you do have the need, time or budget for things to grow.
If you want to have success selling your own software product you need to create a product that solves a problem or makes people's lives simpler,easier or more convenient.
I think one thing you didn’t touch on that’s very often missed is marketing or lack there of Build it and they will come isn’t something I think you’d want to approach in a commercial venture You’re going to have to sell the software and get people excited for your product(s) or risk insolvency no matter how good the software
Hey Healthy, so this video is timely and even though I should know better, I recognize some of issues you mention in myself. I am fulltime on my software development using AI, but coaching people is also tempting. I am concerned it is a distraction, what was your experience? It seems you enjoy talking to people and helping them solve problems and I kind of have similar motivation... Thanks for this video.
Thanks! I'm going to talk about this some in future videos. The fastest way to make money on the side is coaching. But it's also the least scalable. I think it's fine, It's taken me 5 years of coaching to start offering products as well to start having some passive income. During that time I was also doing IT consulting part time. Of course (if you know my story) I was suffering from chronic burnout when I started, so it may go smoother for you.
@@HealthyDev Thank you for quick response. Yes, I am not burned out at all, I am eager to do things. I will check other videos. I have ADHD and thought to do fairly specific coaching to others like me, it would help me as well as them. I will think about it.
@@desirecothat would definitely be helpful. Quite a few of the people I've coached have ADHD in one way or another. I'm not able to help them with that, they see therapists though which is great.
I loved working at startups, it’s where I did my best work. But it also makes the ugly parts of building a software company very clear. You have to be able to withstand an incredible amount of stress and uncertainty, sell your soul to raise money and you can’t stop caring about it, ever! I decided to carve out my freedom via investing in Real-estate. it’s slow but very steady and means I wake up everyday fresh as a daisy, relaxed, calm and free.
Good discussion on the realistic expectations of going solo. You are right, execution of any idea is the key. Poor execution of a good idea is a failed project no matter how you slice it. For me the biggest barrier to entry is competing against an army of developers. Maybe its possible with all the AI tools available, but I've found some of these AI tools will hallucinate, and generate code that looks like it will work, but in practice doesn't.
There are 2 paths. The path of creating a company that primarily profits off selling products and services, or the path of private equity where you are chasing growth while receiving funding from PE. You can make money from either path, you have to decide which best suits your idea and personality. The problem comes when discussing your idea or plans with people think both paths are the same.
I’ve tried several ideas of the ground and every time unintentionally run into similar situations, like overengineering, not focused enough on business itself, and now subconsciously I destroyed self confidence from falling multiple times. Now took a year just to distance myself and thinking about restarting the journey. But for some reason, now I’m between choices, trying to restart the old idea, since there is so much done already for it, or work on a new idea and build the foundation that previous ideas already have …
Because they try to build a product instead of offering a service (building products for other naive people). Here’s what to do: - don’t be too quick to quit your day job - use your connections (while not infringing on NDAs of your employer) to find your first customers - consult for them and build products for them on the side until you have enough in the pipeline to be able to quit your job - figure out your taxes and finances EARLY - don’t wait till you’re out of projects to do sales for new projects - rinse and repeat P.S. yes, you’ve replaced one boss with a dozen bosses at a time. Welcome to the real world of b2b. Man up and build a company. IMPORTANT: scale the business by finding more projects and hiring other developers, NOT by building a product
Too many companies I’ve joined as a product designer/dev refuse to give me access to users, belittle the value in competitor research and market strategy, then want to meet with me once a week and spew 20 minutes of opinions that are not at all founded in data. I immediately start looking for an off ramp to another project.
Coding and running a business, of which coding is one smaller part, than if you're coding for someone else's business. Running a business requires knowing people skills, sales, marketing, basic knowledge of contract law, book keeping, payroll, tax law, corporate law, and touches on other things as well. That's why most people choose to work for others.
As a hustler: starting your business as a side-hustle has it's benefits: You have the comfort of safety learning, your paycheck is going to arrive anyway. You are in no despair to get any money so you can negotiate your contracts. The main downside is extreme time scarcity, you cannot spend 60hrs per week on it if you already spend 40 in the main job. There are weeks when spending any time is a problem. If your product fails you don't know if it is lack of market fit, bad marketing, most likely you blame yourself for not being engaged enough.
Are you thinking of starting a solo software product venture to escape from the corporate grind? What resistance are you facing? How do you feel about the points in the video? What else are you worried about? Let's talk about it.
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the "coolness of the products" that "you think". it all depends. the coolness of cell phone before it exist that coolnest only existed in very few minds. marketing can make a good entry it's important as capitalism its un avoid hable at many times. if your client are not satisfied step back and chalenge your or my own paradigm maybe somthing it deeply wrong etc. all paths leads to "roma" for deep solution finders. iukuk. where is the cripto add values? there is no aparent utility that centrliced services do not give?
I loved the video. I already am experimenting with one product in the "backburner" I launched with paid promotions and all, but did not get that many conversions, so I am in the process of pivoting to something different and see if that works. I totally agree with most points, and I would probably overemphasize that figuring out what the customer wants is the really the most important and first step. Quickly trying out and testing different ideas is the approach that I am taking right now. My main concern is that the market I am targeting might be too small, (constrained to my country of residence), to produce a sufficient revenue to live off of.
@@GalileoSanchezsounds like you're on the right track. What kind of conversion rate were you looking for?
Be prepared to fail, and be prepared to give up. Absolutely, be self-confident, but not dellusional.
I did this in 2009. I quit and started building my own software. Today I have a company, near 1000 people working for me. I went through a number of iterations, found what the clients needed...
This video is huge. Several of my friends are going through this right now, having been laid off or quit and started their own businesses. Developers are often not prepared for the world of business.
who would have thought that programming and creating a business is 2 completely separate worlds... Programmers often make fun of all the roles except of them, cto, product managers, leads.. thruth is all of them have their place. Being able to program doesn't mean you will build a sucesful business... Thruth is no one gives a shit about your "billion" dollar idea
@@jordixboy Guy trying to start a software company here. It's not that I have no respect for those positions I just don't have the capital to fill them. What's different between a person starting a convenience store and myself? You wouldn't say they are arrogant.
We don't all have a million dollar bank account for admin staff. I just do my best against companies with infinite money and try and target customers they ignore.
@@jordixboy You have also got to acquire the skill of designing the product, rather than just being told what to program. The subject of design is vast in itself. There are millions of philosophies related to it. I read a large pile of books on it many years ago.
@@Andrew-rc3vh thats still not close to what is needed. You need to know about business, entrepreneurship, product, finance, its a lot
I did this in 2009. I quit and started building my own software. Today I have a company, near 1000 people working for me. I went through a number of iterations, found what the clients needed...
Running a company is not the same as writing code, you deal on constant base with people and the psycology and with finance and if you have 0 luck and time to postpone difficult business decision, programmers not just aware of that, they think creating a good product is 100% gurantee of success ,but here is flash news there is no gurantee as business go up and down, what make sense a strategy and backup plans and taking and receiving favors from anyone who can help.
"Running a company is not the same as writing code. "
This is so obvious yet so hidden
@@robertmazurowski5974 more over , if you run a company, you basically responsible for profitability and cant slack as some programmers do, sure some owners they have enough cash and capital , but for new startups its like really big challange , they dont know market, they try and fail , then there are govermental and external influences, so go figure start a company and enter a new way of running a job.
100% correct. Good programmers are usually very bright, like working by themselves and are not overdone with people skills. Some business people have no "real" skills at all by which I mean that they can't code, mend a fuse, fix a leak, build a shed, anything "real". What they do have is the power to connect with people and spin them a good line about how good their product is. Think of Musk and Trump.
Take Bill Gates, for instance, he bought his first operating system from someone else, made some small mods, then sold it to IBM and made $millions. He will have made more from that software than all the developers that contributed to the code combined.
Judging by history, the plan seems to be that you need to team up with more of a people person. Think: Jobs and Wozniak, Hewlett and Packard, Gates and Allen. Don't be confused by people like Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook was originally a government project called Lifelog and when that was implemented as Facebook they made Zuckerberg the figurehead. The original aim of Lifelog was to find out everything about everybody. How is it doing?
Build an MVP, that will make money and is written as quickly as possible, if it makes money you get investors, and/or other coding cofounders then you can just rebuild proprerly.
Don't write high quality code for potentially a throaway MVP.
This is a double-edged sword. I work at a company now that continues to release MVPs like this and it makes maintenance and expanding functionality a nightmare. It's like running through water. No one, except the devs, wants to be the one to say "Hey, I know we have all these features we want to write, but we really should put those aside and rewrite this." So the water remains and continues to get deeper.
This is especially true in my company because, in the early days, it was staffed almost entirely by coding bootcamp graduates.
There is definitely a balancing act between good architecture and time to market. This is what being agile (not Agile) was meant for in the first place. Getting customer feedback early and often, including putting them in the room while you write the thing, goes a long way to preventing having to throw away the entire project. That gives you way more confidence to actually write the code well. This is something literally every company struggles with. At my company, I've advocated for communication with the customer on every project, but nearly every time there's zero communication until the very end. It's MADDENING! We know who we should be talking to but no one does it.
You were so right about #5. I personally struggle with this a lot.
As a developer, I obsess about every single detail on the product side. On the other hand, I pay very less attention to the business side.
You are not alone brother.
This is some serious wisdom...as someone that's spent 8 months working on my own project now.
you playing guitar as the outro is such a cool touch, it's like a soundtrack to reading the comments :)
Something I see in engineering a lot is that engineers will fall back to what they know when things get hard or when they are out of their comfort zone. An engineer moving over to the manager track falling back into code-neglecting their new position, a new cto focusing on engineering tasks rather than leading or processes, or a motivated engineer starting a business yet ends up not able to get out of the engineering thought process and never releasing the product. It's hard but you gotta step back. Once in awhile and ask, are you doing what you need to at this moment to reach the goal?
Good advise.
MVP : minimum viable product!
Most value player
This is a fantastic video ..... what's so interesting is that it's by a serious Software Engineer and not by some get-rich-quick pseudo guru!
For me it is perfect as my last day as a back-end (Go) software enginner was on 1st Jan 2024 and I'm now building out a "start-up", but I'm cheating:-
1) I have had the idea for ages and absolutely know that there is a need (the big question is, Is the need urgent enough?)
2) I have had a side-hustle a few years ago as a semi-pro photographer so I am tax registered and have an accounting system etc already
These experiences completely reflect everything brought up in the video.
The area where I have almost certainly gone wrong is in over-engineering .... I have built an incredibly complex system to solve an incredibly broad and complex problem!
One thing I haven't done is built an MVP as several people have commented (The 'V' bit is the tricky one) .. I really would suggest reading Eric Ries' book "The Lean Startup".
That’s one of my favorite books!
@@HealthyDev I was hearing so much about MVPs, I thought I would actually find out what the actual rationale was. He was solving a very tricky problem!
That advice in the beginning of the video… I swear is one of the most basic advices I’ve heard over and over growing up as a kid.
You cater your product to customers, yes you definitely listen to feedback.
Good luck when customers tell you opposite things
@@mike.1 Like the budlight fiasco?
@@mike.1 In my experience, customers never know what they want, but they sure as hell know what they don't want. If you get conflicting feedback there's almost always something deeper going on. Maybe one customer wants a completely different product or feature than the one you're trying to build.
I'm a CS major -> engineer -> solution architect -> head of product at a growing startup. I hope I'm not being too overly confident when I think that I know what it takes to go beyond engineering and talk to customers. Nowadays I barely code "professionally" in favor of all these other startup management tasks. Except, that I have my own ideas and product I'm working on during the evenings/weekends (inter-business project management app - sounds boring right? 😉). I know that if I want to succeed I would need to focus on it full-time. But until I have my MVP and actively make the decision to focus on the business aspect, I am okay knowing what it takes later down the line. For now I'm good building a massive network and getting more startup experience.
Sounds like you’re approaching it pretty reasonably!
This is very good advice. You really have to come to terms with and accept some of these realities, both those discussed and those not discussed. True agility and the ability to pivot on a dime come from managing a business. This is why everybody says, including the words said at the end of the video, that execution is everything. Indeed it is.
#9. Poor written (sales) communication skills. Words sell. They’re grossly undervalued.
Some really fantastic advice here! Just launched an early version of my product to customers for testing and its taken me 2 years to get here. I can relate to everything you've said.
this week's groove was especially groovy
It’s actually the intro to a song from my band in high school. Wrote that one in 1993!
Thank you for all the good tips. I've just finished the paperwork I need to get my sole proprietary business registered last week, and I'm encouraged to keep going. No product in mind yet but I want to hone in on my business strategy first.
Business strategy depends on what your are planning to sell.
The difference between viral and turning up a profit from the start is kind of what Aral Balkan described as "build a stay up instead of a start up".
Needed this. In this environment as a self taught AI Engineer it's the only way for me to break through the noise. I really don't want to go the whole LEET code grind set. This is a much more sustainable and fun way to prove my skills and make money at the same time
Wow, this hit me right in the heart! I’m so guilty of over engineering and rewriting a certain project over and over. Great for learning, but it’s horrible for business. Thanks for making this. Instant subscriber here!
Great video. I am currently making 90% of the mistakes you mentioned. I've been working on the software side for about a year now, started working on the business side just recently. Self-doubt is a huge problem, it leads to me just finding problems with the software, tweaking it every day, adding new features, etc. And all that could've been done much later after the deployment. Guess I'll just deploy it within two weeks to test the market and only then add new features or fix issues.
There are only 2 skills you need to be able to survive as a freelance or startup software company
1. Top skill is not coding, but abiility to collect payment
2. See number 1 😅
that’s to "survive", right? Not live, but bare survival.
@@ArneBab Your knowledge of dependency injection or event driven architecture will not matter if you cannot collect from your client. But you don't need to trust a random person in the internet, try it and tell me how you did otherwise.
@@rommellagera8543 I did not contradict that. I said that this is bare survival, not living. It is the condition to survive, but not to enjoy what you do.
You obviously won’t enjoy it, if your work does not make ends meet, so if you fail collecting, you won’t be happy for long, but if you only manage to collect, then you risk running into burnout again soon.
Did you have "survive" in your post from the start and I misread that? If yes: I’m sorry! I read "to live as startup" so if you had "survive" in this from the start, I commented on my own mind, not on you …
@@ArneBab it is a precursor to enjoy what you do. Unless you have experience having less than $50 for a week or two because you cannot collect, you will never understand. Nothing to enjoy in that situation.
@@rommellagera8543 I remember losing 50€ every month when I didn’t make enough during the PhD for the family - that was already bad …
Thank you for this, I'm just starting to plan something
What are you planing?
I think every good project in production started out in producton as a Minimal Viable Product. I know any real project, even the ones I create as side projects, I at least pretend it is a real product and start with a BRD and a SRD. It really opens up the domain and reveals things abou the project I didn't think about initially. The last two points are probably spoke to me the most. I am the only Developer I know, and I have been learning and doing this for at least 5 years. Through my BS and now in my MS, it is hard to build a network either due to faults of my own or circumstance. Due to the fact I don't know any other developers, that lack of experience leaves me in a silent wake, where I don't know how good or bad I am doing. Which leaves me wondering.
Had a similar situation myself. I read Uncle Bob's Clean Code and learnt about UX (took a free Google course which helped me as a mobile app dev. I still read interesting UI/UX topics because it interests me.
So find your interest (Ui/UX, code architecture, clean coding, deeper knowledge of a framework, etc) and follow it. But it is also important to learn more about the tools you're using (e.g. git, GitHub). There's more to git than most people do (rebase vs merge, rewriting commit history to clean up those "WIP" commits to something that will help you later on, deleting branches and keeping your repo clean, code deletion over commenting it out).
It's a good tip at ~15m regarding spending time on the business. I ran a technical business and had my nose in a load of electronics, but on regular occasions you have to look at the real numbers on your sales, income, investment, what you need to do to work on the next expansion idea and so on. You have to think that building a business is always a case of constant improvement, better ways of doing things so it all runs faster. You are essentially investing time to save you time and improving quality to the customer.
Thanks for sharing a real testimonial!
Thank you for making this video! Very few people are discussing solo software development entrepreneurship. Please keep this discussion going! ❤
More to come!
I'm amazed and thankfull for you. You videos helped me as a software developper in the past and it still is with your latest ones... Always sound advices and always on point (at least for me). Your not only delivering "content" here, definetely not. Meaningfull talks. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your support. It means more than you know.
Thanks, dude! I'm 54, working corporate, building my app on the side. Been working on it for a couple of years. It's not a simple product, so...strike 2! (Strike 1, I'm 54). Really appreciate your encouragement.
Glad I could help!
The best advice I got when I was bitching about a client changing everything after 2 weeks of work: The client is allowed to be in error. Helped me tremendously in my client relationships
Superb video. Thank you 🙏 for posting. Sage advice ….
Btw. Loved the jam in middle of video too….
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you.
Smart advice. Sometimes we go for fun & static ideas. Great businesses are made from solving real-world problems, which can evolve over time.
Programming as a electrical engineer. With out any real software experience appart from attempting C C++ assembly, basic, assembly programming very little . Just putting a program together and suck it and see. I look back at some of the programmes i had written. And its nice to see somthing evolve from nothing. I have almost given up on many occasions. Putting a product together is daunting...imposter syndrome especially when your up againts all the different tools chains and terminology. I think business is like getting a car for the first time you are so apprehensive and its like looking up at a giant. You are now in control of something that has many complexities and you become the imposter. I keep telling my self if you dont learn you dont earn. It drives me forward.
This was a really valuable video. Wow. I can feel the sincerity in the message too.
As a Non-Tech Co-Founder, Fractional Product Consultant, and a VC Fund GP, I truly appreciate this video. I have worked across the desk from Engineering (and was one early in my career) my entire career. Please do more of these videos. If you want some input, happy to chat as well.
I recently just found your channel. I love your content. I think you make some very valid points about starting something on your own. New subscriber here. Looking forward to more content.
Welcome to the channel!
As an engineer and a saas founder, I can totally relate to all points. Great overview of potential pitfals for all devs starting a business.
Amazing video. My goal is to bootstrap my own company and you touched on many of the things that I'm scared of about myself. I just got a job at a big tech company and stashing up enough savings to be lean FI, and then going for it. What are your favorite resources for learning about starting a small software company (1-10 employees) that creates software products?
I've read and tried so many things over the years, I'm not sure where to begin. The book "The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki is a favorite. There are too many to list, but I definitely got value out of that one.
I started my own tech business (services) 4y ago. I still learn how to evolve as an entrepreneur. I don’t know who you are, is the first time I watch your videos but the content is the real deal. Keep up and good luck to all of you out there! 🎉
I like your content more and more.
It's honest, thought through and what's more important to me, it's based.
There's a lot to be said about the daily struggles coder parents have and this one fits really nice - Landing in my favourites ;)
Keep up the good work 👍
Btw. I do like the guitar breaks you give, they somehow make your content even more pleasant.
Thanks for all the kind words and the feedback!
Great points, well balanced between positivity and realism
Great video. I have seriously started working on my SaaS product for the past month. I started working on this because I am currently on sick leave due to burnout and depression. This project has helped me get back into a routine. I think the easy part so far is to figure out how to build the product, so I try to balance it out with days to work on parts I have more problems with such as learning on how to market my product, finding the correct audience and also building a good landings page. What also has helped me is to set a timeline and write down the main objective and set small goals to get to that main objective.
You're ahead of many folks that haven't realized that yet. It's messy but sounds like you've got your priorities straight. I LOVE building product - it's what I did for a living for 20 years! I find I love the other stuff too, but only when I've fallen over a few times sucking at it, and then start to see how to do it right. Hang in there!
Such valuable insights. Have to save this to watch it a few times over
Super useful! Thank you, Jayme. You nailed it!👍
Really digging the guitar on the side. No one does that!
It's kind of my thing, just started it a little over a year ago. People either love it, or hate it ;)
Well, maybe I can share my story here, I was working as client technical service back in the 90's and I can code. Some customers asked me for favours to integrate the software I am selling to some other software, so I happily did for them. However, as I was doing so, the clients wanted more and more functionality. So I thought, why not I set up a company, I asked a good friend to set up a company and I enhanced my software to do all the functions expected and changed the interface and all that and let my company sell to the clients instead. That's how my company began and eventually sold the company off with a big prize money
Thanks for sharing! Companies need to realize this about developers. You mistreat them or stop giving them opportunities, you could just be letting go of your new competition!
I love it. This is a very balanced take. No bullshit, just facts.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks.
I was a marketing manager who had an idea for a product that can help loyalty platforms grow. Have learnt coding and given myself 2 years to launch a product. Loving the journey!
It's about as shocking as an MBA trying to build great software and failing. It's almost as if these two skill sets are different from each other or something.
Ha! You may be onto something there ;). Definitely two skillsets that can be learned by one person. It's a matter of just putting the time in.
Love this Video. Super Thanls, i'm trying to build Sign Request application with government certification.
Sounds like it could be really useful!
Keep up the great work! I love your videos
Thank you 🙏
Dude, just found your channel and I'm truly lovin' it. Greetz from Germany!
Welcome to the channel! 😊
Im in a completely different field: music performance. I can say much of your advice is applicable to any field: 1. You have boss, if in a company or the market is your "boss", 2. you may love your field but it's not a hobby--you need to make money, 3. You may work alone a lot (in my case, practicing my keyboard and learning more music) but you find opportunity through interacting with people and also find new, marketable directions for your own growth, etc.
Well said. Beautifully played. Thank you very much 🙏 I’m finally building something I wanted to do for many years. May I send you a link once I go in beta?
I wish it weren't the case, but I probably won't have time to check it out. Of course feel free to send it. I get requests for this all the time and I do look sometimes. Just being honest it's tough for me to find the time. Either way, wish you the best with your efforts!
15 years being a solo developer and i still make the 9 mistakes you mention 😂😂😢
Thanks a lot, this video is gold. Subscribing ❤
Welcome to the channel!
You're cool. Good video, thanks :) By the way, I love the color of your Gretsch.
just subed, very inspiring, will apply this for my saas and future ones!
Welcome to the channel! Happy to have you here. 🙏
I love your approach to this topic, very realistic, down to earth and practical.
Glad you enjoy it!
Great video! Thanks for sharing ;-) I started to learn coding about 5 months ago with no CS background, as I am planning to build a blockchain project by myself (I do have start-up founder background). Have to say I do feel quite intimated about the tech part since I am not the expert. Recently I was told by my friend that one similar blockchain project (part of the business model are similar to my business idea) failed, though most of the reasons are actually commercial parts, especially marketing, approach customers etc. which exactly same as you suggested in the video. Which really makes me think a lot, because as a "hot" technology, I always thought that blockchain-based project would be easier to get funds and attention, actually, in the end, it still back to the fundament of business: "Business" itself instead of the "hot" technology.
Starting small business without any revenue in sight is the worst possible mistake in general. This video is Gold.
so many gems! For anyone reading this, treating your business and yourself seriously, you will succeed. In the past when I built side-project, I was half expecting it will fail, so I put in half effort. When it got difficult, I just gave up. Because in that way, I didn't have to face failure and no embarrassment. But also, nothing will happen. I am forcing myself to face failure now, force myself to talk to stranger(customers), experiment fast, be somewhere your competitor is not. Be like water, my friends
Very valuable information for a programmer that wants to start a business. Thank you!
Thank you ❤ need every bit of info before i walk into this world
Excellent video, you won a new subscriber. I am in the process of developing my own product. Its an ATS and i currently work for a small ATS software company. However its ran by not technical clowns who do nothing but destroy their own application. The system has been hacked to bits over and over again to do things it was never designed to do and to meet requirements for customers when the salesperson lied about the capabilities of the application. Its so bad its no longer fit for purpose. The tech stack is also 20 years old. But they won't listen to us devs and build a new application that will solve all the issues. So i have decided to do it myself, i already know there is a market for it. My main concerns are around how do i promote the product and get customers while not getting caught and having to give up the day job before im ready? And i don't want sued, im in the UK.
Welcome to the channel! Are there laws in the UK that it's illegal to make money outside your day job?
Not from the UK so I can't give UK-specific advice (I'm from South Africa), but the one piece of general advice I have is: read your current employment contract carefully.
Most companies will have a clause on intellectual property (namely, what you work on during company time belongs to them, and generally a lot of the inner workings of their company would be their intellectual property). More uncommon (but still sometimes exists) is non-competes (if you leave you can't work on a competitor's product, even your own, for a period of time).
So if you start building a product that is a direct competitor to the product the company you're working for, then you cannot be using any "private" knowledge from said company that isn't publicly available or common knowledge. E.g. if they have a specific aspect to the ATS that is different to all other ATS and is a new idea/proprietary, and you leave and you use the exact same idea in yours, that could expose you to threats of stealing intellectual property.
So just read your current contract to make sure you're not going to be breaking it by making your own product. Other than that, hopefully others can give more UK-specific advice.
@HealthyDev not that I am aware of but they would definitely be unhappy with me selling a competing product. I would probably be put on gardening leave immediately.
@@andycx2 ah I missed the part about it being a competing product. Yeah that's not a good idea. Probably be better to get a day job for a company in different market first.
Just get a ghost co founder.
Excellent video. The skills you use for writing code aren't the same as those for running a business. This should be viewed by those who are considering their own business after getting laid off. Doing this as a side gig works as it's lower risk - if it does well enough to make enough money then great.
I'm really enjoying this recent content. Regards.
Thanks for your support 🙏
I'm in the process of creating a SAAS that scrapes marketplaces at user defined intervals and products. I know there's definitely demand for this service in my country and there are some services already doing this.
I did see myself in some of the points that you made, specifically the overengineering and spending too much time building the software and not the business (I'm actually intimidated to put it out there, what if no one wants to use it?). And I'm nowhere near building any networks. So #8 is here as well (the lack of self confidence).
So it was like you were talking about me half the time. Scrary stuff.
Wow. What a great feature. I feel like the ADA Saved metric could be used programmatically in a "Public Good" smart contract with Catalyst for vested funding
Im starting a web design and digital marketing agency. Im a dad with two kids and have a fulltime web dev job and its challenging but this video was very insightful
I agree with most of your points. I quit my job almost 3 years ago and decided to build my version of Point of Sales system. It is a very difficult journey as I have to do it solo. No one else around me understand the pain. I used up all my savings for my commitments such as paying the bank loans, insurance and credit card. I also need to allocate some budget for the product R&D and equipment. Fortunately, I get a freelance job that can give me a little bit of income. I am not giving up and I hope other people like me also be strong.
Video is actually very useful for understanding the company's perspective on things.
seriously bro, you and your guitar are proper good, can you please do an hour or so of it as it really just helped me focus on my work. you should do focus music, and link it on the next vid :)
I'm building right now a product, I'm on the part that I know, the dev part. Thanks for your video, I'll probably rewatch when I launch it
Advice, pick a Product Manager you like and get along and most importantly you trust each other to partner with so you both have a better chance to get to your sweet spot!
They can handle business pretty well alongside you for small products and early stage when you’re taking this path.
It's important that you build a great product but you must know how to get that product into the hands of your target customer (marketing and sales).
Couldn't agree more. Marketing and sales (as I'm sure you know) is a deep topic. I tried to nutshell a few of the considerations for people at the start of this journey in another episode. You may have seen this one already.
ruclips.net/video/-wXAWc1RSS4/видео.html
Thank you so much, I'm working a Form creation App, and I really needed to hear that.
PS: love the music
Good point. The advantage I had when I did my tech start up is I already had experience of running nightclubs with dozens of staff. That taught me a lot about business as really a company is a company of people in like the medieval sense so to speak. Just a group of people with a common goal.
There's a lot to be said for not originating "an idea" on your own. Instead, engage with say 50 professionals-be they doctors, physiotherapists, engineers, or others in the field you're interested in-and inquire about their challenges to inform your concept. At the least, you will be starting in a place where you’re solving valid pain points.
You typically get.....this program does this and I wish it would do such and such as well. Unfortunately you find the only way you're going to get to the desired missing functionality is by building the entire program's functionality again.
I appreciate all your advice! Two things I'd be cautious about: 1) Downplaying the ever-increasing demands of legislation about GDPR, cybersecurity etc. 2) Picking something that's too easy to copy/steal
You are right in so many arguments. But we also need customers who are willing to pay you the price that is worth to work with. Paying me based on a hourly rate is kinda killing myself because I do have the experience to finish the Job in the half of the expected time, so I am charging a specific price for my work which is still legit. Sure it may be expensive at the first look but I do it with a matured stack, probably without the need of debugging or having bugs after the Release. The customer also pays you having the experience over the years and that the product that he gets helps him to be more efficient or solves some use-cases.
I handed in notice at my Data Consultancy job a couple weeks ago - finish Thursday next week.
Im going into independent contracting in the same sector I’ve been working at for the last couple years as I build a Data Discovery, Data Quality and Data Migration tool - essentially allowing someone with a bit of data knowledge to tackle an old legacy system that might be mostly unknown, build quality rules and migrate the data to a defined structure.
Just to add to this - fairly confident on the general features at this stage. Hoping to take this advice on board - especially the risk of over-engineering.
I am at the point in my life I no longer want to work for another company, but right now I don't even got a valid idea to generate income. I am at the point that programming and IT is not a problem. My problem is a product and problems to solves that people will pay for. I like the idea of just getting it working and generatring money. It doesn't have to be fully actualized in terms of achitecture, but at the same time it should be flexible and scaleable when you do have the need, time or budget for things to grow.
One little addition: if a client wants you to change your product, check with other clients first if that's really something you need
Agree 100%. This is just good product management!
If you want to have success selling your own software product you need to create a product that solves a problem or makes people's lives simpler,easier or more convenient.
Great point! I made another episode going into a bit more detail around that here if you're interested:
ruclips.net/video/pIZ_MXutC0o/видео.html
I think one thing you didn’t touch on that’s very often missed is marketing or lack there of
Build it and they will come isn’t something I think you’d want to approach in a commercial venture
You’re going to have to sell the software and get people excited for your product(s) or risk insolvency no matter how good the software
great video . very practical tips
Nice color theory, playa.
Hey Healthy, so this video is timely and even though I should know better, I recognize some of issues you mention in myself. I am fulltime on my software development using AI, but coaching people is also tempting. I am concerned it is a distraction, what was your experience? It seems you enjoy talking to people and helping them solve problems and I kind of have similar motivation... Thanks for this video.
Thanks! I'm going to talk about this some in future videos. The fastest way to make money on the side is coaching. But it's also the least scalable. I think it's fine, It's taken me 5 years of coaching to start offering products as well to start having some passive income. During that time I was also doing IT consulting part time. Of course (if you know my story) I was suffering from chronic burnout when I started, so it may go smoother for you.
@@HealthyDev Thank you for quick response. Yes, I am not burned out at all, I am eager to do things. I will check other videos. I have ADHD and thought to do fairly specific coaching to others like me, it would help me as well as them. I will think about it.
@@desirecothat would definitely be helpful. Quite a few of the people I've coached have ADHD in one way or another. I'm not able to help them with that, they see therapists though which is great.
I loved working at startups, it’s where I did my best work.
But it also makes the ugly parts of building a software company very clear.
You have to be able to withstand an incredible amount of stress and uncertainty, sell your soul to raise money and you can’t stop caring about it, ever!
I decided to carve out my freedom via investing in Real-estate. it’s slow but very steady and means I wake up everyday fresh as a daisy, relaxed, calm and free.
Big Bro, fascinating video as usual. It's been over 10 years and I still don't have a start up idea I'm interested in.
Good discussion on the realistic expectations of going solo. You are right, execution of any idea is the key. Poor execution of a good idea is a failed project no matter how you slice it. For me the biggest barrier to entry is competing against an army of developers. Maybe its possible with all the AI tools available, but I've found some of these AI tools will hallucinate, and generate code that looks like it will work, but in practice doesn't.
There are 2 paths. The path of creating a company that primarily profits off selling products and services, or the path of private equity where you are chasing growth while receiving funding from PE. You can make money from either path, you have to decide which best suits your idea and personality. The problem comes when discussing your idea or plans with people think both paths are the same.
Wow, I wish i found this channel 2 years ago, but better late than never!
Welcome to the channel!
I’ve tried several ideas of the ground and every time unintentionally run into similar situations, like overengineering, not focused enough on business itself, and now subconsciously I destroyed self confidence from falling multiple times. Now took a year just to distance myself and thinking about restarting the journey. But for some reason, now I’m between choices, trying to restart the old idea, since there is so much done already for it, or work on a new idea and build the foundation that previous ideas already have …
Stick to the basic principles of DRY and KISS. With feedback from others in your target niche, changing and adapting becomes a lot much easier.
Because they try to build a product instead of offering a service (building products for other naive people). Here’s what to do:
- don’t be too quick to quit your day job
- use your connections (while not infringing on NDAs of your employer) to find your first customers
- consult for them and build products for them on the side until you have enough in the pipeline to be able to quit your job
- figure out your taxes and finances EARLY
- don’t wait till you’re out of projects to do sales for new projects
- rinse and repeat
P.S. yes, you’ve replaced one boss with a dozen bosses at a time. Welcome to the real world of b2b. Man up and build a company.
IMPORTANT: scale the business by finding more projects and hiring other developers, NOT by building a product
I love this video. You talk about the issues we are failing to make things happen😊
Yepp. I wish I knew this things before. This are the exact mistakes I had to go through. Thanks to author by the way!
Thanks for stressing how to stay sane in the sea of advice out there in the ether!
Too many companies I’ve joined as a product designer/dev refuse to give me access to users, belittle the value in competitor research and market strategy, then want to meet with me once a week and spew 20 minutes of opinions that are not at all founded in data.
I immediately start looking for an off ramp to another project.
Coding and running a business, of which coding is one smaller part, than if you're coding for someone else's business. Running a business requires knowing people skills, sales, marketing, basic knowledge of contract law, book keeping, payroll, tax law, corporate law, and touches on other things as well. That's why most people choose to work for others.
As a hustler: starting your business as a side-hustle has it's benefits:
You have the comfort of safety learning, your paycheck is going to arrive anyway. You are in no despair to get any money so you can negotiate your contracts.
The main downside is extreme time scarcity, you cannot spend 60hrs per week on it if you already spend 40 in the main job. There are weeks when spending any time is a problem.
If your product fails you don't know if it is lack of market fit, bad marketing, most likely you blame yourself for not being engaged enough.