How I Designed and Built VidsFetch as a Full-Time Developer
The notification on my phone read 11:42 PM.
After a full day of writing code at my software engineering job, I was tired and my eyes were heavy. But I still wanted to keep working.
My laptop was open. My code editor was on one side, and on the other side I had some video downloader websites open. Most of them were full of ads, slow, and difficult to use.
I thought, "There has to be a better and easier way."
That was the moment VidsFetch was born.
I didn't have a big team or a big budget. I started working on it at night after finishing my full-time job.
Building a product while working a full-time job was not easy. During the day, I had to focus on my work, solve problems, complete tasks, and meet deadlines. After work, I was usually tired.
So instead of working on VidsFetch for many hours every day, I focused on just two hours of quality work whenever I could. I treated VidsFetch like a real product and worked on it step by step.
My main goal was to make it simple, fast, and easy to use.
In the evenings and on weekends, I worked on the design, video processing, and user experience. I wanted users to simply paste a video link and get the result with just a few clicks.
Sometimes I faced problems with APIs, video links, or other technical issues. I fixed them one by one and kept moving forward.
There were many times when I was tired. Sometimes I worked late and still had to wake up early for my job the next morning. Some weekends were also spent fixing bugs and testing the app.
But seeing VidsFetch improve kept me motivated.
The first time I saw VidsFetch successfully process a video link quickly and without annoying ads, I felt that all the hard work was worth it.
VidsFetch was not built overnight. I built it line by line, after work, with patience and consistency.
It taught me that you don't need to quit your job or have a big team to build something of your own. Sometimes, all you need is a good idea, a little time, and the discipline to keep working on it.
