141–150 of 325 posts
Apply Why? to everything.
- Why this tech?
- Why this market?
- Why this team?
- Why do I want this life, experience, challenge, team?
- Why do paying want this product?
- Why will I push through when everything is bleak?
Watch for vanity answers as mentioned by others.
[edit: formatting]
Since this is an audience of passionate technologists, here's the top piece of advice I have: Do not be seduced by the technology! I killed one of my startups this way. I've seen many many die this way. It can hurt your pride as a passionate technologist to choose non-cool but mature and easy-to-hire-for tools. But it's those tools that are the most economical. Remember, your customers care 0% about the backend techn…
When I read this, a voice in my head yelled PHP.
The best advice I've had (and seen applied in practice) is this: You need to get your company to 10k USD monthly product revenue within three months. If you can't, either the product, target market or team needs to be revised drastically. It's hard advice to follow, but it will save you a lot of time because you can't wait months and years doing unessential tweaks to the product and marketing, hoping that sales mirac…
Do: Create something you would buy yourself!
Since this is an audience of passionate technologists, here's the top piece of advice I have: Do not be seduced by the technology! I killed one of my startups this way. I've seen many many die this way. It can hurt your pride as a passionate technologist to choose non-cool but mature and easy-to-hire-for tools. But it's those tools that are the most economical. Remember, your customers care 0% about the backend techn…
>Remember that the most economical tool for the job is often not the coolest or trendiest - but is some old boring workhorse that other engineers will scoff at. When I read this, a voice in my head yelled PHP.
Since this is an audience of passionate technologists, here's the top piece of advice I have: Do not be seduced by the technology! I killed one of my startups this way. I've seen many many die this way. It can hurt your pride as a passionate technologist to choose non-cool but mature and easy-to-hire-for tools. But it's those tools that are the most economical. Remember, your customers care 0% about the backend techn…
It's usually best to focus on propping up your differentiation and competitive advantages, going stock with everything else. If you rely on standard components for things that aren't your special sauce, then you get to ride market forces of commoditization which will drive the cost of those standard components towards zero.
Can you build your own backend database in Haskell instead of using Cassandra or PostgreSQL? Yeah, that would probably be really cool and do well on these boards. Then look back at how many hours you spent getting that to just understand simple SQL, and how many customer-facing features that could've been. Is it cooler to build that database than to set up an email auto-mailer? Yes! Special functional algorithms that operate on B-trees are far more exciting than simple state machines that send emails. But the latter is what the customer cares about, so therefore that's what you care about.
One interesting exception to using cutting-edge stuff may be making it easier to hire cutting-edge people.
It doesn't matter how smart you are. The opinion of the market is the only one that matters, and it expresses it in the form of repeat sales.
It's a skill that can be learned like every other skill. You can take the "in 21 days" route or the MOOC / University course route, or constantly read business articles, Steve Jobs videos, etc. But some top tips stand out for me over time: * Talking to people, networking > Not talking to people * Bug free > Elegant code * UX > UI * Simple products that do one thing well > Complex products * Understanding entire marke…
Nice, but I'm not entirely sure about this one: > * Sleep, exercise & healthy food > late night coding Looks like it's against other points. I have a full-time job and I'd like to create a brand, too. Thus. I have to do late night coding.
Do you work more than 40hrs a week? Why? Sounds like you're creating someone else's brand if so.
2) Pick an idea that you would pay to use (product champion). If you are not the target market, you need to find a product champion who will join your team prior to the MVP creation.
3) Do things that don't scale. don't future proof your MVP, just make it so you can validate that your product has a market beyond your product champion.
4) Create a website for your MVP and make sure you can run it at low/now cost for at least 6 months before you decide to abandon. Marketing is hard and product discovery might be the biggest challenge you face. As long as you have more customers every month you are doing ok.
5) Even if you give your product away for free during MVP/beta, figure out some way that customers who want to pay you can. This is very valuable for determining product fit. if nobody wants to pay, figure out what would make them decide to, and use that for determining how to pivot.
source: myself, I made/make phantomjscloud.com
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That may be true, but it isn't a reason not to try. Heck in the process you may learn the industry, just too late for current venture. It is however a reason to be willing to recognise a flop and abandon it for something else.
Yes, but what I'm actually trying to do is cast suspicion on the dichotomy between industry and customers. Industry is not a thing that exists. There are only people, their objectives, their resources, and their problems. Those are the things that need understanding.