121–130 of 253 posts
“The MVP was ready in a few days. I'm not that good of a coder, it's just a simple app.” This sentence is incredibly important. If a MVP is ready in 3 days, then how valuable can that product be? When literally everyone has access to tools that they believe can result in something marketable in only a few days, then we have achieved the time when nobody makes money from software. Thoughts?
"Maybe this is actually obvious, but it's still a common mistake in startups so I'll say it - you don't have to believe your product is good to start selling; you just have to be better than not having the product. You don't even have to believe it's the best, or believe it's complete, or even like it. People will happily give you money for anything that makes their pain point slightly less painful." Me, 3 hours ago.…
"Maybe this is actually obvious, but it's still a common mistake in startups so I'll say it - you don't have to believe your product is good to start selling; you just have to be better than not having the product. You don't even have to believe it's the best, or believe it's complete, or even like it. People will happily give you money for anything that makes their pain point slightly less painful." Me, 3 hours ago.…
This thing you are building will prove everyone how smart or [SOMETHING ELSE] you are and the only way to have this happen is to strike at once, shock and awe everyone with your brilliance. You can't simply launch an imperfect product, what that will say about you?
* Software "development" skill will become so common and cheap that simple tools won't get any market.
* The market will be dictated by tools instead of code content.
* Language-as-a-service will be a thing, as it allows customers to fill in business requirements AND allows the backing company to perform engineering behind the scene.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you for the heads up, but I don't see how. They were not part of the development and have no financial involvement. Hmm, now that I think about it, I am going to the conference as affiliate of the university... :/
All it would take is that they specified what to build and claimed that you never sent them an invoice but that it was work for hire regardless. Remember that they are much bigger than you and if there is money involved they may well act irrational, and as a smaller party this can be very unnerving and costly. Best to make sure that you have it spelled out that the code is yours, stick a big fat copyright sign on top…
Luckily the situation is in this specific case is that I don't have to worry about it - I'm 100% sure of it. My nightmares come more from the fear that I will finish one day and find out that I took too long and I missed my window of opportunity.
A big fallacy that I always see - and that is implied by this post - is that the work ends after shipping, a.k.a. "build it and they will come". That doesn't happen any more. So after you "ship" it, you need to promote it, advertise it, create buzz around it and make people use it. And that is a totally different kind of beast than coding something. But on the flip side, if you develop a side project just for yoursel…
Serious question, how do you know whether it's your product or your marketing that sucks? For example, I tried twitter ads for my product [1] and I got zero sales after spending $50. What are good marketing strategies for niche hardware products? [1] https://www.invisible-computers.com/
That said, I would love to have my calendar always just sitting there on my desk. This is the perfect item for anyone with adhd or similar. I would target that niche.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
All it would take is that they specified what to build and claimed that you never sent them an invoice but that it was work for hire regardless. Remember that they are much bigger than you and if there is money involved they may well act irrational, and as a smaller party this can be very unnerving and costly. Best to make sure that you have it spelled out that the code is yours, stick a big fat copyright sign on top…
Again, thanks for taking the time to write! It is certainly good advice! Luckily the situation is in this specific case is that I don't have to worry about it - I'm 100% sure of it. My nightmares come more from the fear that I will finish one day and find out that I took too long and I missed my window of opportunity.
“The MVP was ready in a few days. I'm not that good of a coder, it's just a simple app.” This sentence is incredibly important. If a MVP is ready in 3 days, then how valuable can that product be? When literally everyone has access to tools that they believe can result in something marketable in only a few days, then we have achieved the time when nobody makes money from software. Thoughts?
The MVP gives you your first data set to work with.
I know very few people willing to commit to the long journey of making something. Even fewer that will bother marketing it.
There is lots of money in this banana stand!
“The MVP was ready in a few days. I'm not that good of a coder, it's just a simple app.” This sentence is incredibly important. If a MVP is ready in 3 days, then how valuable can that product be? When literally everyone has access to tools that they believe can result in something marketable in only a few days, then we have achieved the time when nobody makes money from software. Thoughts?
How long do you think it took to come up with a prototype for Tinder?
A bunch of photos, a blurb of text, geolocation/distance calculation, you like or dislike a profile, and a messaging function.
The slight, simple spin on grindr - showing a stack you HAD to make your way through - instead of grindr's grid - launched them into the stratosphere.
A big fallacy that I always see - and that is implied by this post - is that the work ends after shipping, a.k.a. "build it and they will come". That doesn't happen any more. So after you "ship" it, you need to promote it, advertise it, create buzz around it and make people use it. And that is a totally different kind of beast than coding something. But on the flip side, if you develop a side project just for yoursel…
Serious question, how do you know whether it's your product or your marketing that sucks? For example, I tried twitter ads for my product [1] and I got zero sales after spending $50. What are good marketing strategies for niche hardware products? [1] https://www.invisible-computers.com/
Google Search Ads and Facebook/Instagram ads are seen as more effective in comparison (results are likely higher as Facebook/Meta are relatively better at analytics, so advertisements appear to more relevant people).
In addition, $50 is not a lot to spend on an ad campaign. It generally takes a higher number of advertisement views by the same person (preferably across different websites and channels) to produce an intended result.