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The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

kitze.io

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Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#151

Post by happimess »

konschubert wrote: post #19
pflenker wrote: post #3

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/

Rad product! Can I feed it arbitrary images/html/something?

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#153

Post by [deleted] »

esjeon wrote: post #124

This is just a personal viewpoint, but I think the era of "just ship it" will be gone after a decade or so. * 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 engin…

[deleted]

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#154

Post by sillycube »

LVanguard wrote: post #80

I had this experience a couple of months ago when I noticed a gap in the shopify app ecosystem. I saw some comments discussing this need, found nothing in the store, and had a friend starting a shop that could potentially use it as well. Worked on the app for 2-3 months, polishing, coding, learning tailwind and a bit of formal UI design in the process. Kept thinking "It's not ready yet. Just needs this hook into the…

Always focus on your advantages. When they launch earlier, of course they can enjoy early users.

As a late comer in the market, you can observe what they miss and compensate their weaknesses. You save yourself time because you can study from them

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#155

Post by psygn89 »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #133
lbriner wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think like others have said, it does depend on whether you are targetting the mass market or a smaller (and hopefully more lucrative) niche. Plenty of companies don't do what you say and still become successful. However, for a pure software solution with little market expertise, I suspect what you are saying is correct because the barrier is so low. If you can "build an app" in a weekend, so can 1000s of other peop…

They "can" but will they?

If it prints money and can be made in a weekend then of course. However, the more niche it is to an audience or knowledge needed beforehand (i.e. simple music generator) it would no longer be a weekend project.

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#156

Post by jmstfv »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #113
rozenmd wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sitting here running the 200th uptime monitoring service, laughing at the notion you have to be first to ship a solution to a problem. Build something good, that people want, and iterate rapidly as feedback comes in.

I think an uptime monitoring service will be my back up idea. It is like a pizza business, you can always find people who want pizza and who will rave about your pizza. Dominos and Pizza Hut are not a problem.

As someone who built and sold an uptime monitoring service - don't*.

You will have a hard time attracting customers as most common marketing channels are very saturated.

*unless you're going to approach it from a unique angle AND have access to a customer base; even then, it won't be a walk in the park

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#157

Post by asadlionpk »

rozenmd wrote: post #61
karterk wrote: post #22

> My app is officially dead. Most markets are large enough to accommodate several businesses. There's really no reason to stop working on something just because you find that there is already someone solving that same problem. Who knows, they will shut it down at some point, or might head upmarket or pivot to a tangential area.

I'm sitting here running the 200th uptime monitoring service, laughing at the notion you have to be first to ship a solution to a problem. Build something good, that people want, and iterate rapidly as feedback comes in.

If I may ask: how did you get your early users? and what kind of money is this making? (thanks for writing the blog posts, I will also read them later).

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#158

Post by donatj »

I have been working on a side project for going on 12 years now. In that time a bunch of competitors popped up. I gave up on the idea several times. All the competitors shut down their public APIs though, which is why I started up on it again about 5 years ago. I've got it in a place I really like. I use it daily.

The biggest blocker for me right now to making it open is wanting improved security. I ideally want all the data encrypted in a way I can't read it. I haven't worked out the scheme.

I've got it in a sort of private beta, but I can't get anyone to use it other than me. And you know what, I think I'm at peace with that.

The project has been if nothing else a place for me to test ideas and try techniques. Beyond that, it's the tool I wanted.

The Digital Ocean droplet I run it on costs me all of $5 a month, the domain $15 a year. I could be doing worse.

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#159

Post by caymanjim »

rob74 wrote: post #31

Er, nice story, really entertaining to read, but I think it would benefit from actually mentioning the "competitor" app that he ended up paying money for. I mean, he won't ship his own app anymore, so no harm done in mentioning it, right?

Yeah, it's hard to know how to feel about this without that detail. Would the author's app have beaten it to market? Was the competing app actually there all along, and the author hadn't done market research? Are they really even solving the same problem? I've had plenty of instances of "I thought of that 10 years ago!" or even "I solved that 10 years ago!" but it's not that simple. My solutions wouldn't have succeeded because they weren't usable enough and I wasn't motivated enough.

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#160

Post by superasn »

karterk wrote: post #22

> My app is officially dead. Most markets are large enough to accommodate several businesses. There's really no reason to stop working on something just because you find that there is already someone solving that same problem. Who knows, they will shut it down at some point, or might head upmarket or pivot to a tangential area.

You're damn right about that. Just take a look at ipinfo.io, site is generating millions for something maxmind had complete dominance for decades.

People give waay too many points to having an original idea and very little to marketing - yet it's the latter that is responsible for the lion's share of any project's success.

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