It took me 2 years to build Dabble while raising 6 kids
With a full-time job at Riot Games!
I made the deal with my wife. 2 hours every morning before work and 4 hours on Saturday morning. The rest of my time was the family's.
It took me 2 years to build Dabble in my spare time. I gave up all personal time: running, games, reading, but I did it! All while being present in the life of my 6 children.
The first year ended up being a prototype with user feedback. It wasn't the plan, but the code was too awful. The second year I had to re-build with learnings made. And after a 6-month open (but quiet) beta that second year, I launched early.
Too early. Always too early.
When I launched, I did not have all the features I wanted, even those I thought should be necessary for launch (e.g. proper Operational Transformation syncing), but I had a deadline which I self-imposed by dropping $12k to sponsor the big event for my space (money I had saved up and was able to lose if things didn't work out, but it was still a lot of money!). Best decision I made.
I'm very glad I launched when I did. It did 2 things for me.
First, it gave me validation. People loved the product! This was confidence and motivation to keep going. Multiple people told me (nicely) it wouldn't work. The market was too small. This proved it would work.
Second, it gave me feedback. Direction in my product. I learned immediately that mobile support was the #1 feature request, something I could never have guessed before launch. Who would want to write a novel on their phone?! Apparently, writers don't want to have to put away their books for silly things like social events or grocery store trips.
Launching early helped me understand my customers better, and it gave me a greater passion and confidence in what I was doing.
2.5 years later I had a full salary. I got back to running (and got Achilles Tendonitis from lack of exercise for so long). Not so much games. The product is too fulfilling. There has been some sacrifice. But the company continues to grow! So worth it!!
My favorite (and most unexpected) part about building my own product is the joy I have providing value to customers. It's the excitement you have before Christmas imagining your kids opening presents you know they will absolutely love. I feel the same way with every feature or update I push out. There is so much personal fulfillment building something you know people will love.
Good luck in your own unique journey to personal fulfillment. We are all builders!
What I want to know is where the hell do you live and how do you make a decent living enough to raise six kiddos. That's the real story here.
Oh an please expand on the sponsorship thingy . I would loves to know that too as marketing is the bain of my resistance.
Not California! :) Soo expensive there. I lived in Colorado at the time, but worked remotely for Riot Games based in LA.
There is a big writing event every year, and I saw on their website they accepted sponsors. So I was brave and acted against my introvert programmer nature and reached out about it. After learning more, I picked a package and went for it.
Find the publications, events, conferences, etc. in your space. Maybe one will work well.
Awesome story Jacob!
Congrats on keeping the wife and kids happy while realizing your professional dreams too!
Dads for the win!
This is very inspiring to me, because I'd never think anyone would want to use your software. Haha!
I wrote two novels with Scrivener and find their features more comprehensive for my purposes, but you've focused on some features they don't provide--at least not directly.
It's encouraging to know a person can jump into a red market and still attract users just by building a good product with a slightly different model.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks! One group we are appealing to are those who found Scrivener too complex to use. There’s always another take or niche.
Okay:
Keep it up!
It is so inspirational to read something like this as I am raising a kid with full time job and bootstaped project on the side. Thank you for sharing your story.
Such a nice message! Thanks a lot for sharing! I can feel the weight in your words! You came a long way and sacrificed a lot! And at the end you came out stronger!! Thanks again, I needed this as i think i am alone doing the same as you!
You just gave me more hope. I though I was the only crazy person mixing a job and a product. It takes forever :) Thanks.
It really does. But it’s worth it!
Wow, it's so cool! I am bootstrapping a startup https://storist.me/ that turns business best sellers into mini-courses (sometimes called interactive summaries) that help readers not only understand but learn how to use these ideas on a daily basis.
Now we and our authors actively use Google Doc, but it's not the most productive place to write because our interactive summaries have the same structure as novels (chapters, particular structures and so on).
In short, I'll try to use your service and if we find it useful, we will use it in our job :) Thanks!
That would be so cool!
That idea of sponsoring related events is actually great. And your perseverance is inspiring.
Thanks for sharing what it takes to launch your own product. It gives founders who have yet to launch their product an extra boost of hope.
Your perseverance is mind-blowing! Such an amazing story.
I wonder, with 14 hours a week for 2 years, it took you about 1456 hours to launch a beta? Even working full-time, it's 9 months, which is a long timeline for an MVP. So it's very heartwarming to hear that you found the courage to launch. Your kid can be proud of you!
How many kids?
trying to create his own football team
A few extra in case we messed up on any.
Good job Jocob, this is very inspirational, keep up the grit!
This is such a great point, and one that a lot of would-be entrepreneurs miss.
Probably 99% of the idea-people here just need to launch something. Doesn't matter if it's shit, just start getting a really basic prototype out there and taking feedback.
Kudos to you for recognizing this and then slogging through the long road to improve it. 👏👏👏
I agree. Launching is a great teaching experience.
It will never be perfect, but it does need to provide value and not be crap. There are plenty of crappy writer tools in my space that were thrown together to scratch someone’s itch. They’re not doing well. The good ones will.
You just have to remember that your customers don’t know what your product is supposed to be, just what it is. So it may be 1% complete, from all the plans you have in your head, but if 1% is a good product, don’t hold back a launch. Get out to those customers!
Great story Jacob! How did you get your first customers? Twitter, Blog Posts, SEO?
It was the event sponsorship. A month-long event to write Novel. So I made the trial last all month and launched with a 50% off “Launch Plan” to encourage people to join now.
Great to hear a success story!! Do you still own your entire business, and if not, what made you choose to sell a bit? I'm interested in the pros and cons of giving up a bit of control of somethnig you built and always ask people this when they hit the big time.