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A Small Journal About Becoming Technical Solo Founder

A Journal About Becoming Solo Founder

In December 2019 - I decided to work on my own project or business idea. I set out to work on something of 'my own' to prove myself and others I carve my own path after not passing the final interview on a particular games company. Fortunately still landed on my feet a week later, after receiving a call for another great company. Been working there since February.

January 2020 - I had written a full Product Page detailing every major aspect of a new PaaS for Contact Centre, MVP development approach. I approached a few colleagues that worked in that industry. After what seemed a positive response later met complete radio silence after asking for funding upfront to build this product.

In February 2020 - I continued working on the idea, registered and Trademark.

In March 2020 - I put my initial idea into the freezer. I realized that it was way beyond my expertise, time, and money I could put into. A good idea nonetheless.

In April 2020 - I played around with the business idea of specialized in solving a very specific technical problem. My main audience and clients would be other developers in other business trying to solve that particular problem.

In May 2020 - Slowing starting build a library that would solve this problem.

In June 2020 - I scrapped initial attempt at a library, with a clear picture of how the solution could be designed I continued working on this library. The library is based on Typescript / Javascript and I have been following a strict TTD approach to create code that feels rock-solid with very high quality. I also looked at some documentation automation but the jury is still out on which way to go about this.

This month - Continued working on this library, getting much closer to completing the MVP for the technical solution. I am also passively thinking about the best business model, keeping in mind I want to optimize for time/freedom. I am debating internally whether this solution should be provided as service or open-source software dependant on backers/donations.

I also identified that priority should be dev experience, and besides providing a technical solution and documentation, it could also benefit from IDE language support and an online playground for testing.

In May I was thinking I would be done with building the technical solution by the end of this month. I think I might be off for another month, given the current time I have available, then I will have to switch gears and work towards building an audience pre-launch and building support around the product.

I am very reluctant on discussing the details of the problem and solution themselves online as I worry someone could beat me to it. In fact, last week, I discovered someone almost a year earlier started creating a similar solution licensed under the Creative Commons License. At first sight, I found this discouraging. In terms of scope, this other solution has broad coverage. However, the solution I am working towards it is much more convenient but has a much narrow coverage at the moment. The solution is designed to be easily extendable, but being the only author at the moment would eventually need to bring other people in to broaden coverage.

Feel free to leave comments and/or advice.

  1. 2

    Sounds like your well on your way. I wouldn't worry about competition, that just serves as market validation. What I would concentrate on is how to solve the problem the best way possible. This way you'll have your own unique approach. You could always scope out competitors but more so to differentiate yourself rather than a comparison.
    Goodluck OP

    1. 1

      Thanks for the advice. At the moment that is my focus.

  2. 1

    Thanks for sharing. Just my 2 cents, while I speed read through your journal, I didn't capture a lot on talking to potential users. It's super important to get feedback continuously to shape your product.

    1. 1

      I suppose you are right. I find it a bit challenging to reach out to more people when my MVP is not complete.

      Usually a demonstration is much more engaging than a lengthy explanation I think.

      I do need to come with a plan to build a dev/techincal audience. I was thinking write several articles on mainstream media.

      1. 1

        You can try a tool like this - https://leadflare.app to reach out to your target audience for feedback. Happy to help.

      2. 1

        Prototypes can work pretty well. Remember next time anything you're building is either funded by you or your customer. If it's funded by you (maybe as an interest) then it's a project, if it's funded by customers, then it's a business.

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