I would say things like "give me 6 months, I'll find product-market fit". I knew that this was a far-fetched claim - my head wasn't that high in the clouds. I made these claims public because I tend to thrive under pressure - and for me, there's no better pressure than social pressure.
So 8 months later, have I found product-market fit? Definitely not. Instead, what I've gained in that short space of time is experience and skills gained from being in the trenches.
What did I pull off in the last 8 months?
- I've become a no-code whizz, using Glide Apps to build countless prototypes as I iterated towards a tighter solution.
- I've completed Odin Project courses and built on my HTML, CSS and JavaScript knowledge.
- I've played around with Firebase.
- I've applied to and got rejected by Y-Combinator - many startups have applied multiple times before being let in, so I've not taken this on the chin, especially as the application process itself helps you deeply think through your product proposition.
- I've sourced and ran dozens of user interviews, discovering how difficult it can be to source interviews in the first place and what it takes to make them happen.
- I've discovered the importance of clarity when communicating with potential co-founders.
- I've read many more books on building products and finding users.
- I've discovered a great community of fellow startup founders as part of a Founder Book Club.
- I've found a new working style that has improved my time in the flow state and has helped me get more quality work done.
- I've developed a deeper love for building products.
I've now reached a point where I simply miss working with people. I miss working on products that people actually want. I miss going to the office and getting a coffee with a colleague. I miss having an impact.
I intend on plugging away at my project on the sidelines, sharing what I learn in this blog, but for my own wellbeing I've chosen to move forwards as an employee (for an awesome company) for now. This provides the additional benefit that I can write about both early-stage startup building and about product development and user acquisition in an established fast-growing business.
The biggest lessons I've learned
If I could tell the me of 8 months ago what to watch out for, this is what I would say:
- Social support is critical - as Ooshma Garg says (solo founder of Gobble), if you don't have a co-founder, then you damn well better have a solid social support system. I didn't have the former and I barely had the latter, and it got TOUGH. Thankfully I had a therapist, a great best friend and, in the latter months, a wonderfully supportive girlfriend. Ideally though, you want to have both a co-founder and solid social support system.
- Pare down, double down. Narrow your aperture of focus so you can do more, faster.
- Cycle between 'product building' and 'user acquisition' on a week-by-week basis (i.e. product building one week, then user acquisition the next week, and so on). This is a great way to get deep work done whilst giving user acquisition the attention it needs.
- Be in love with your target demographic before you start building in that space.
- The boring spaces can be the best ones - see YC's video on tarpit ideas.
- Build WATER for people's FIRE. If it's not a direct solution for a pain-point that people feel keenly, don't bother.
- B2C is hard. Consider B2B first.
- Don't take marketing tactics shared online at face value - focus on first principles, analyse why they've worked for others, then get creative. Use experiments to find tactics that work for YOU, based on these principles.
- Always challenge yourself and ask whether you’re living the ‘breakdancing paradox’ - i.e. not doing an activity because you think you / something is not good enough, when in reality you need to do this activity for you / something to become good enough. To put it simply: do the thing to get the thing. Don't expect to get the thing to do the thing.
- Have a routine. But cycle the routine to keep yourself from losing motivation due to a mind-numbingly monotonous series of activities you carry out everyday.
I love that these 8 months have helped me forge skills and experience to become an even more dangerous Product dude. On a side-note, I also love that I now use no-code tools to build myself personal apps like the budget tracker I've built (as I'd never found a budgeting app that actually met my needs).
I'm excited to see where this next step in the product-building journey leads, especially as I kick off this blog to capture and share what I learn along the way.