Do you doubt your idea when you are 50% done?

It's normal, just keep going. When in doubt, remember the six steps of the creative process :

1. This is awesome
2. This is tricky
3. This is shit
4. I am shit
5. This might be ok
6. This is awesome

I'm constantly on the roller-coaster of thinking it's the best idea ever to "it will fail". I found a way for my negative self to talk to my positive self: write down the doubts and questions you have right now. Then a bit later when you are positive, answer or adres those doubts. Next time you have doubts again, pick up that document and let your positive self take it away.

Happened to me twice. It took me years later to realise there was a solution, I just couldn't see it. The first time my co founder bailed and I got cold feet because he was the product master. I was too afraid to go on the domain alone. What I should have done was to understand that I could have learned. But I just wasn't ready.
The 2nd time I aimed at OEM and I already had customers, they just did not want to pay enough. A year after bailing, one of the CEOs of these companies said to me in a mentorship capacity that what I should have done is bundle the product with theirs and sell it myself. I was too afraid to go to the end customers myself because people around me scared me not to.
Today I learned both lessons. Don't be afraid to go into a new domain and don't be afraid to talk with SMBs.
I have some more notes on occasion here https://tzahifadida.com

It happens to me all the time, especially for a large project that takes up a lot of time to develop. And there are some suggestions to overcome this feeling:

Split your work into smaller tasks:
List out all the tasks you have not done, and finish at least one task a day. It encourages you when you see progress.

Pre-release your Alpha/Beta version:
Let people know about your project before its actual release. You can get feedback from other people for inspiring and navigating you on how to enhance your project, and where your next step is.

Make a deadline:
It is really important to set a deadline. It can force you to push your project forward because you know time is limited.

Happens all the time, especially right before the launch—my product looks like shit.

Then I remind myself:

1. It's normal
2. I'm badly biased
3. To launch that startup asap because a beautiful thing will happen.\

I felt the same for 50 Hacks on Monday—almost didn't launch. In 24 hours, got 40,000 visitors... 🤯

Don't listen to yourself too much.

At 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 100%, 150%, 200%, etc

Yes! I'm at 5k/mo right now with Boot.dev and I've had some serious ups and downs. It's still a side project, and I often wonder if it's worth all the time I've put into it over the last 2 years.

The fundamental questions are:

1. Do I have at least a few examples of my target user?
2. Do I properly understand my target user's problem?
3. Am I able to solve that problem?
4. Am I able to cost-effectively find more of my target users?

Good luck!

Take a short break from your SAAS and just reach out to potential customers. Get some feedback. It'll reassure you or let you know that you must modify your original saas idea. You can always change the course of your product halfway through. In other words, you can still modify the product while you're building it.

Been there at 90% as well...

But today, I believe that it's always worth investing a bit more, even when you have the doubt, launch the product, and let the market decide. It's always easy to shut down a project, but it is never easy to succeed.

Never. At 1% many times. At 99.9% painfully, just once.

Yep. I doubt my idea during the first stages of the journey before "ramen profitable". The best picture to describe my feelings is below.

Moreover, I have asked this question to many founders, and they have similar thoughts and doubts at the beginning.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrey-zavada_business-career-planning-activity-6939845279537889280-AaCO?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web

I think all makers doubt their ideas , I doubt my startup weekly. Especially when I get no outside feedback for a while …and the. I get some confidence again. 🤷🏻‍♂️

When first starting out, I suppose every entrepreneur has doubts about their ideas. This is perfectly natural and healthy. Considering the high rate of initial failure, complete confidence is certainly unwise. It's important to be wary of letting your fears prevent you from taking action.

The man who gets an idea, then bets his house, money, and other assets on the concept while declaring, "I have no doubts!" I'm certain that my suggestion is the most effective. The phrase "I'm so into it!" is usually received with silence or indifference. It was reasonable for him to have some skepticism, since that would have led to a more thorough examination of the risks involved.

On the other side, there's the man who's so paralyzed by his own uncertainties that he never takes any action at all. And then, thirty years later, they realize they haven't made any progress toward their goals.

There is no good in either.

To illustrate, I say that skepticism is normal. In my opinion, they're perfect as is. While you shouldn't disregard these concerns, you also shouldn't let them stall your progress.

Week 1: My product are awesome
w2: That´s a shit.
w3: User1, that´s a great idea. To de moon..
w4: why no one buy my product?
w5: first buy?
LOOL

This is normal. Just push through and try validating the idea with a MVP to get some traction with customers. If it is useful, start selling and get feedback as soon as you can.

Thanks for all of your feedback :) I did it! My first ever SAAS is here (https://linksight.app/) it is a link preview open graph API. It can scrape any URL and take metadata from it so you can use it for link preview for your new social network or messaging app.

All the time, did that with every single business idea of mine. The ones I kept going with, turned out to be a success however without exception! (but I had this feeling with those as well, I just didn't give up)

Now if you keep going with your idea, and it doesn't work out, it is still much better than quitting. You'll keep quitting in future projects as well, because you will have the same feeling. But what's better, even in an unlucky scenario? Quitting 5 times or failing 4 times and succeeding in 1?

Yes, sure. Often have the same feeling : ))

Holy crap! I thought I was the only one whew....right after finishing http://powa.link I started to doubt myself and the product, but after I introduced it to a couple of friends and they started using it I got back the confidence which I held at inception. When you are done and you get your first user your doubts would disappear.

i doubt my idea when i'm 100% done 😂

If you validated your idea carefully, there is no need to doubt.
What is the impact on your first testers? Any feedback?

With era.sh I did the first validations very carefully and listened to what my potential customer said to me. Besides that, I took a lot of wonderful advice and tips from other founders, which I met on my path.

I am working on getting a work permit on the UK blog page. I am feeling very bad. Plz share your views about the project https://paragoneducation.pk/getting-a-work-permit-in-the-uk/.

When in doubt sell.

It's not too late to throw a landing page together and try selling it.

You can doubt your idea but not pre-sales OR your target audience's thoughts about your SaaS.

Try this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT4Ig2uqjTc

My idea no,but my designs...🤦

I used to do this a lot than i made a rule for myself that "in data we trust everybody else bring evidence". Now when there is a doubt i ask do i have the data to to doubt? if not either collect the data and prove otherwise else shut up and keep on working.

This is normal.

Put some numbers and be honest about how realistic it is. I wrote this financial modeling tool recently that helps some back-envelop calculation. https://increnovation.azurewebsites.net/fermi/highlevel

I'm sorry! Saw something similar happen recently...

Yes, you should doubt. I did too while starting my design agency and now the new SaaS I'm working on.

I'm not sure if you can avoid the doubt when you are 50% done with the work, but Doubting is good—it motivates you to work harder at your idea, to make it the best idea it can be.

It's because of those doubts that we put in more work and effort.

I often tell myself, "What if this thing doesn't become a success?"

Then I get scared.

Then I have to push through.

My experience tells me that if you first define your "why" and secondly really understand the target audience, then the rest is almost a given of sorts.

When that happens, I like to take a step away from the project. It generally means that I'm too far in the weeds and I've gone into hopeless mode. I'm not going to be very productive at that point anyway so I take a few days or weeks (or at least a few hours — go meditate or exercise or something). Get some space. Noodle on it. Generally, once the dust settles, I've got a new perspective.

The most important thing IMO is to wait on making a decision until you're out of hopeless mode. That's not a place where good decisions are made.

Yeah, as you can see by these comments, it's really common. What I do to overcome it is this: I set a timeframe.

Essentially, I know that there will come a time when I feel like the project is worthless. And I know there will come a time when I feel like I just don't have the time for it. So when I start, I tell myself I will work on it no matter what for X months — X being however many months I think it will take to get a reasonable level of validation. And then even if it's the worst project in the world and I have no time whatsoever, I just stick to my commitment.

By the end of the timeframe, I know the truth about whether it's worthwhile or not.

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