I just launched my first startup - here's how I got here

A few days ago I launched my first startup GRW Investment Tracking. A year ago if you would have told me this is the situation I'd be in now I most likely would have scoffed and rolled my eyes, but here I am. I wanted to share some of my voyage through building and things I learned along the way.

I graduated with a Master's degree in data science in May of 2021. I then embarked on the soulless journey of applying for jobs. After about 8 harrowing months going through the same bullshit routine of applying for jobs I didn't even want, I received nothing but rejections and reasons why I wasn't a good fit for jobs I was often overqualified for. I had such a bad taste in my mouth from all of the applications and interviews I knew I needed a break. I could rant about the current state of hiring in tech for days, but I digress.

I took a step back to gather my thoughts and reassess, during which I noticed a problem I thought was worth solving - thus, GRW was born.

I began by telling myself I would just try to build something as a quick project to give myself a break from the job hunt, never thinking it would turn in to what it is today. After starting to build, I quickly realized how much I liked developing and decided to pour more focus into it.

As I spent more time developing, I got better at it and gained enough confidence to set a goal of releasing what I was building to the public. What I once thought of as a quick project quickly grew into something much bigger. I'm pretty introverted by nature and have never really enjoyed showing off any of my work before, so sharing something I spent months building to the general public was initially a terrifying idea.

But if there's one thing I learned throughout this process, it's that sometimes it's good to chase that uncomfortable feeling. I was certainly out of my comfort zone when I made the decision to spend my days coding instead of applying for jobs and I feel like I learned, grew, and accomplished a lot over that time period, so why should I need to feel comfortable now?

I pretty much stopped doing everything I was doing to go down this path of entrepreneurship by myself. I'm definitely aware of the fact that it's a risky move, but have enough confidence and trust in myself to explore it. The past months I've spent doing this have been challenging, rewarding, frustrating, stressful, and amazing.

This whole thing just kind of snowballed for me. Before I knew it I was creating a product that I genuinely think can benefit a lot of people. I blinked and all of the sudden have a completed app I built myself. All I did was follow my interests and not shy away from anything challenging and I'm super excited about where I ended up from it.

It was never my intention to build my own startup, but that's what happened. For me this happened organically and I wouldn't want to have it any other way. At the very least, if not a single soul downloads my app, I'm proud of myself and all I've learned trying to solve a problem I'm passionate about, and had a lot of fun along the way.

What kickstarted your quest down the road of indie hacking?