The Startup Experiment | Launching my new Weekly Vlog | Ep. 4 Live Now!
Hey fellow Hackers! I'm Scott, a long time lurker, and first time poster. 🥷
Making videos and launching them into the YouTube void is fun and all, but I think it's time to share what I've been working on...
The Startup Experiment:
I'm a software engineer who is doing the 12 in 12 challenge, where I try to build 12 startups in 12 months. 👨🔬
I'm documenting the entire process of building these startups with weekly videos on YouTube. My goal is to share everything I'm creating, and being fully transparent about the challenges I face along the way.
Truth be told, these weekly videos serve as a way to keep me accountable towards creating a new product every month. I'm hoping that others will find them valuable and inspiring as well. 😊
I'm currently working on two startups:
-
The Salary Negotiation Agent - Let's face it, most of us feel like we stink at negotiating. Negotiating your salary is something that everyone should do, yet less than half of us do. Wouldn't it be great if everybody had an agent that handles their salary negotiation for them? Enter the Salary Negotiation Agent, the easiest way to negotiate your salary. Check out the LP here: www.salarynegotiationagent.com
-
1% Better - After recently re-reading Atomic Habits (James Clear), I sought out to find a habit building app that simply allowed me to track my progress towards becoming a piano maestro. Each day that I practice I get a little bit better, but it can be tough to see the compounding progress that I'm making towards this skill. This startup is still in the early stages, but I'm working to create a simple, yet beautiful product that showcases the totality of my progress over time. I can't wait to start using this one myself.
Check out my Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@ScottJames02
Watch my latest video (2/11/24):
https://youtu.be/ckkgFSfhiUw
Drop a comment below. I'd love to know what you think about the videos, or the startups that I'm creating.
Hello Scott, Love your approach
I have a question, if we set out to build a project in a month and the development is a little more complex, how would you manage to build and ship the project in the given timeframe?
Thanks Lisa!
That's a great question, and I think there are a couple things that I'm doing that will hopefully allow me to hit 12 projects in 12 months. 🤞
#1) Not all projects are the same size. As you mentioned some will be more complex, or use a tech I'm not comfortable with, and thus will take longer to create... and thats ok! I'm won't be holding myself to strict deadlines. If a project has traction and needs more work, then I'm happy to spend more time on it.
#2) Uncontrolled complexity kills many projects before they really get started. I've seen it time and time again in my previous work on corporate Digital Innovation teams. People will have great ideas, but drown themselves in the details early on. For this challenge I'm trying to focus my efforts on truly simple Minimal Viable Products that I can get off the ground quickly.
For example: in the Salary Negotiation Agent idea, I don't have any tech built out yet. 😲 It would take considerable time & effort to stand up Auth/Billing/Pages/LLM Integration/Backend/etc for that app. Instead, I'm offering the same service to customers (negotiating their salary), but doing the work manually for now. Until I reach a point where it's inefficient for me to serve all the clients, there is no reason to spend time building a complex solution.
This approach is often called "The Wizard of Oz Method" in the industry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_of_Oz_experiment
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/wizard-of-oz/
One thing to note about this method, is that there is often a point in time when you have to buckle down and build something. Thats when the fun begins. 🥳
Hey man great post :) Also was accepted to post, just a few days ago! Love the concept. Would love to join you on the 12 in 12 challenge. Currently doing a challenge of my own, set-up a business and reach PMF in 1 year. Would love to connect. Do you use Instagram? Username: ndr.dbrv. Also if you are interested check out my recent post, would love to hear ur feedback: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-to-validate-your-product-through-a-fake-door-4df8c323fe
Thanks Andrey! Good luck on your journey, your product seems really interesting!