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Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?

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21–30 of 49 posts

Re: Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?

#21
post #20

If you build it, they won't necessarily come; as you're seeing now. I think you need to stop development. Don't put another minute into dev work until you've found someone to pay for this. Sometimes it's helpful and motivating to approach the first few sales in a completely non sustainable way. Don't try to establish a customer acquisition funnel - try to find one single person willing to pay. It sounds like your Dec…

Whatever you do though don't be discouraged.

It cost me a $200,000 investment to learn this lesson - the longer you spend building something without convincing someone to open their wallet the more risk that you could be building something nobody wants.

Once I emotionally recovered from that failure, my next project started with a very tiny goal: earn $150 within two weeks on a new idea to afford motorcycle Insurance.

My approach meant that I spent literally all my time on marketing, and developed the product I was selling specifically for my first customer. That also means the scope was super small.

The experiment was a big success, and over the next two years I had trained 5 contractors to keep the machine running while I focused on finding people who wanted to pay someone to solve their problem.

I couldn't have been comfortable trying to sell the absolute bare minimum product as fast as possible without being very familiar with the pain of spending years on a product that nobody wanted.

Either you start getting excited about learning how to sell it, or you start looking for one of those people.

Re: Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?

#22
post #15

If you weren't sounding so tired and burned out I would recommend that you double down on marketing and promoting. I wouldn't give up until I had given it a good flogging! But, if you're burned out you're going to find that difficult and probably it won't work with that kind of mindset. Either farm out the marketing to a new partner or wait and do it yourself but either way take a few months off!

Thanks. I do need to market hard. I think I need a break and then do as you suggest. Thanks.

You can start by providing link here. It might help.

Re: Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?

#23
post #21
post #20

If you build it, they won't necessarily come; as you're seeing now. I think you need to stop development. Don't put another minute into dev work until you've found someone to pay for this. Sometimes it's helpful and motivating to approach the first few sales in a completely non sustainable way. Don't try to establish a customer acquisition funnel - try to find one single person willing to pay. It sounds like your Dec…

Whatever you do though don't be discouraged. It cost me a $200,000 investment to learn this lesson - the longer you spend building something without convincing someone to open their wallet the more risk that you could be building something nobody wants. Once I emotionally recovered from that failure, my next project started with a very tiny goal: earn $150 within two weeks on a new idea to afford motorcycle Insurance…

Thanks very much. I agree.

Re: Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?

#24
post #19

Hint: people in academia are struggling. And they re not really used to paying for online services (i mean, hell they are giving their work away for free). That's why all the saas startups are targetting the cash-rich startups. You might want to think of an alternative funding model. Or maybe that the project is unmonetizable, but the experience will make your next project so much easier to build

Thanks. You're probably right. Academics are probably not a good target market.

Re: Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I do need to market hard. I think I need a break and then do as you suggest. Thanks.

You can start by providing link here. It might help.

Thanks for the suggestion but I don't think it's appropriate right now.

Re: Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?

#26
Is it me or is there a worryingly large amount of these kinds of posts. Where people feel tired, lost or straight out depressed.

I don't see this that often on designer or some other professional forums.

I am not complaining, I am just worried is there some underlying problem with this profession? We are worried about technical debt accumulates in our codebase, we might forget about social debt that accumulates in our life.

Re: Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?

#27

Is it me or is there a worryingly large amount of these kinds of posts. Where people feel tired, lost or straight out depressed. I don't see this that often on designer or some other professional forums. I am not complaining, I am just worried is there some underlying problem with this profession? We are worried about technical debt accumulates in our codebase, we might forget about social debt that accumulates in ou…

i think everyone over ~35ish is quietly desperate in a corporate job (not just tech people). The fact that there are now more opportunities for remote/self-employment may make more people turn to it

Re: Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?

#28

You know its time to quit when you: 1) Need the money that comes from a day job. 2) No longer like the work you are doing, and can afford to stop doing it. 3) Can think of something better to do. For me I was working very hard on something I enjoyed but nobody else cared about. I needed money, so I went and got a day job. If I didn't need money, I would have kept doing my project.

Thanks. I'm now buried so deep in this domain it feels like it's supposed to be a long term career. I enjoy my work and it's the best and most valuable (IMO) work I've ever produced. We don't _need_ the money as we live a very simple life, but not being able to earn a living is having an effect on my self-esteem.

Good luck to you!! If you are willing to risk the peoject, you could go after revenue more aggressively.

If it works, great! If it doesn't work, the consequence will be based on how deeply you care about this project and if you can just transfer your skills to something new or not.

Wishing you the best :)

Re: Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?

#29
post #27

Is it me or is there a worryingly large amount of these kinds of posts. Where people feel tired, lost or straight out depressed. I don't see this that often on designer or some other professional forums. I am not complaining, I am just worried is there some underlying problem with this profession? We are worried about technical debt accumulates in our codebase, we might forget about social debt that accumulates in ou…

i think everyone over ~35ish is quietly desperate in a corporate job (not just tech people). The fact that there are now more opportunities for remote/self-employment may make more people turn to it

That's true. I suppose some professions do not have propers venues and forums to vent their frustrations.

There's definitely a trend though, it could be that this is the first wave of internet age IT professional hitting mid-life crisis.

Re: Ask HN: Is it finally time to quit?

#30
> niche academic domain

> Officially launched in July and everything has gone silent

Of course I can’t tell whether it is a significant factor, but July and August and even early September aren’t the busiest months in academia.

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