Solo founders, what’s the biggest obstacle for your startup right now?
Use this as a vent session. What is the biggest obstacle your startup faces? What solutions have to tried so far?
Use this as a vent session. What is the biggest obstacle your startup faces? What solutions have to tried so far?
Being solo. :D
Although it's possible to do everything - it's just really hard to do everything well. And some things are just not motivating.
Design and UX for instance - it's just so hard to turn that brain on and start thinking through that bit. So much easier to do the backend logic and functionality.
And marketing. Really starting to understand how good I had it at my last startup job haha. Had teammates, who were excellent at what they did, and you could just trust them to do it.
But yeah - the real culprit here is still time though (and money). If I had all the time I wanted, then it wouldn't matter how unmotivating some things were, you could just muscle through them. But when it's hard to find time as is, it's hard to do the stuff you're not really good at. Easier to just fiddle with more features. :D
I'm sailing on same boat
And can relate to almost everything what you mentioned
Marketing and selling a product WHILE building it is no joke.
I actually just posted to our Twitter today: “You can either do everything or you can do some things really well.”, so I know exactly what you mean. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all those responsibilities and just default to the work that feels most comfortable. Although marketing and customer engagement are essential to growth, they’re a HASSLE when building is your forte.
How do you handle them?
Btw, our Twitter handle is @getchipbot, if you’d like a new mutual follower!
Well. I've just been taking it slow in that regard. Making myself a bit more visible by posting and sharing more often. Recently had a breakthrough in that I realized that I'm only the main character in my own life and not anyone elses. Which means things that seem so important to me may not even register on people's attention.
This made me realize I had been under sharing and actually avoiding putting myself out there and talking to customers.
So I just got over it. Posted in hacker news and got ignored as expected. Which was actually a nice thing because it confirmed that I can totally be braver with my outreach.
So yeah. Nothing special. Just slow outreach and trying to get things compounding. The thing to remember is that most people quit. So if I don't, I've already got one thing working for me.
That’s a good point! I just read a post on here about a founder who landed his first 2 customers after 5 years. Sometimes embracing the long game means you’ll be around the longest.
Also, that realization about under sharing — very important. When people aren’t jumping over hurdles to try your product, it can feel discouraging. But most of the time, they just don’t know enough about it.
hopefully I won't have to wait 5 years :D
I did recently get my first actual user from my target audience. Not just a friend or an acquaintance. But someone who actually fits the profile for who I built this thing for.
And that's still registering actually :D
But I think it feels great!
I have a twitter - @roznoshchik but I'm rarely on it. Never figured it out :D
I did follow you in IH. Looking forward to staying connected.
Cheers
That’s awesome, congrats!! That first real users is a HUGE milestone.
Also, I’d be more than happy to give you a few pointers on Twitter if you ever decide to give it another try. Lots of founders are finding their footing there right now.
Will definitely stay connected. Thanks for the follow!
Finding time to work on everything and finding customers.
I guess I just have to start blasting it out on every possible channel or something. My network doesn't really have any indie hackers or side project builders that would be interested in a SaaS, so the comments are like "oh looks cool, good luck!"
I know what you mean. Getting scrappy and establishing those acquisition channels is one of the most important (and time-consuming parts) of getting leads. But the good thing is that if you can get a consistent flow of traffic to your website, there are a lot of tools to automate converting them into leads and then customers.
Do you have any on your radar yet?
Time! It's always about finding time. I have a business partner who's tied up with some other things, and I do have a regular job on top of this newsletter/digital product hustle we're working on. So making time for everything in life plus this is a big obstacle. Great question. How about you?
Yup! I hear that one a lot. The workload can get seriously overwhelming. I’ve found it helpful to put as many of my tasks on autopilot as possible. Scheduling social posts, using a self-help tool for customer support, etc.
yeah I'm sure it's top of the list for most people. Need smart prioritization!
Interesting that you say that. Most people I talk to about this have trouble identifying what is priority and what can be outsourced/delegated/automated. Is that an issue for you?
Not really. At this point we do t outsource anything. We focus on the core items of content creation and audience interaction. Everything else is secondary at this point.
Good move! Great content and products are key to attracting consistent, quality leads. Once you’ve solved that, conversion can be scaled and mostly handled on auto-pilot. That’s a sweet spot (especially for solo founders). Agree?
totally agree! Just takes a ton of work to get there. Probably more time and endless keyboard tapping than most realize at first 🤣