Quick background: 22+ years in IT governance, digital transformation, IT strategy, PMO leadership, vendor management, cloud, security. Left corporate life to build solo, zero budget, validation-first, go/no-go checkpoints based on actual behavior, not polite feedback.
Here's what's come out of that so far:
GRCarc, started as a free scorecard for non-technical founders, now shifting into something closer to a mini Vanta. Free assessment first, then a recurring SaaS layer on top. This one comes straight from years of watching companies that couldn't afford a real governance consultant.
Oblig, either a spinoff of GRCarc or its own thing, focused on Southeast Asia fintech regulatory requirements and AI governance. I've spent close to two decades working directly with banks and insurers, so this is a space I know from the inside, and I think it's genuinely one of the strongest opportunities in the lineup.
Memoree, a voice memory app that's turning into an ideation tool too, capturing raw talk and turning it into structured ideas. Working on multi-language support including code switching, since that's how a lot of us actually talk here.
Galora, AI-powered mall navigation for Singapore malls, early stage, data mapped for a couple of malls already, MVP working with an AI chat companion baked in.
ClearDesk, an end-to-end PMO tool, basically trying to fix the project management mess I lived through for two decades.
And a pile of smaller stuff on the side. A tarot app (for my better half), something to help me understand my cats better (or rather if they could understand me better - LOL), even a daily durian mood checker. Some of these are just for fun, some might not be.
None of these are making money. Build quality and speed aren't the issue, I can validate and ship fast. What I clearly don't have is a repeatable way to get any of these in front of the right people and turn that into revenue.
So, honest question to this community: is this a GTM skill gap, or is this just the normal shape of solo building before something clicks?
And a real idea I want to float. If there are others here who can build and validate fast but keep hitting the same wall on distribution and marketing, would it make sense to band together? Not a vague accountability group, more like actually pooling skills, someone strong on growth or sales paired with people who can already build. I've got working products and a backlog of validated ideas sitting there. I'd rather have serious people pressure-test them than let them sit.
Anyone else feel like building was never the bottleneck?