Persisting as a solo founder

> These are the startups that fizzle out 2-3 years later

Is that really the most common problem? I would probably be one of those engineers (if I'd start a business) and I'm a lot more afraid to sell something that doesn't exist yet than the other way around. Because now in addition to your usual problems you have legal obligations to deliver a product. I think this is one of the reasons for the crazy crunch culture of many startups.

Instead of selling a fake MVP product it is probably more healthy to be upfront to customers and let them pay for your development time like a consultant... And then repeat the work faster for different customers until you can spin the process out into a actual product.

In the case of the startups you describe I always imagine they have great sales and marketing people but no actual product, and thus survive only until the VC money dries up...

Yeah, it is a twofold task really: 1) devise & ship something that makes sense and actually adds some value somewhere for a good number of people; 2) put it in front of the target niche through the cheapest feasible means of any type, aka do not get into the social media marketing rat trap.

In my very limited recent case, I produced a Kindle booklets series earlier this year (20 academic literature reviews) and started selling some through targeted ads on Amazon.com, at $0.03 per click, on top of a very few thousand visualizations per day.

Ramen profitable, but a platform to start from for small incremental updates in the mid- to long- term, hopefully.

Props on pushing your edge with the post. Building or tapping an existing community of early adopters is an enviable position to be in for a solo founder. Very unsticking. The feedback loop provides much desired certainty. Whether Twitter, Discord/Slack, a forum, whatever.

Solo founder, one-man-shop here--14 years in.

There's lots of great advice here, and I'll add getting in the habit of sending out monthly update emails.

Pick a group of people (friends, family, maybe ex-colleagues) and once a month summarize what you accomplished in the last month, what you want to accomplish in the next month, and some goals you want to accomplish 4-6 months out.

One of the hardest part of going it alone is lacking perspective. Monthly updates are a really helpful tool in keeping you oriented.

>I’ve reduced my information consumption to free up brain cycles.

This is so important and not discussed very often. It's so easy to get caught up with the insane amount of information distractions. It is pivotal to narrow down your focus and attention on the really important things (deep work). Eliminate and minimize the pointless information hysteria.

I've worked with people who claim they 'work 12-16 hour days'. Yet, watching them work, they spend most of the day reading news articles and on Twitter. It is easy to get caught up in all of this, and it gives an illusion that one is "working" as it is very stimulating to your brain.

The only answer I've found to remaining positive about the world and staying productive has been to ignore >90% of the information out there. Very little news. No social media. I even ignore most of the things people say, unless I know that they are knowledgeable on the topic. But I guess this is what HN is for... One of the only places for decent information.