Things I've learned from failing as an entrepreneur while being a developer

Like many of us, I've been trying to make my personal projects work and navigate the tough path of entrepreneurship. In my case, I am a programmer, or I used to be. I learned programming before going to university and honed my skills by working on projects with friends and professionally in startups, I must say I don't like big companies.

But always with the entrepreneur's serpent bite lurking in my thoughts. I think today I accumulate more failures than victories, but I am always learning and not afraid to fail again. Along my journey, I've learned many things that I want to share today, hoping it might help someone.

Your idea is not as original as you think

It's hard to accept sometimes, but there are 8 billion people in the world. Do you sincerely believe that no one has thought of your idea? I was very reluctant to talk about my idea until it was working, fearing someone might steal or copy it.

The reality is that no one is going to steal your idea, and very few are likely interested. Even if someone does copy your idea, it doesn't mean you can't succeed. On the contrary, having your idea copied is a sign that it's good. You may have customers and users who want to use it, and you can go far with it. Besides, copies are never like the originals.

Not talking about your project even before starting it

Another thing I failed at in all my projects is not starting to connect with people interested in my project before having it. As a programmer, your most important skill is building. It's very easy to click on the new project option in the code editor, start choosing frameworks, setting up databases, etc. From my experience, that might be the worst mistake you can make.

If you have an idea for a project, the first thing you should do, even if you're super good at building apps and can do it between two whiskies or a weekend, is not doing it. Use your programming experience, create a mini-website explaining your project with the typical subscription banner to collect contact with potential users and start contacting people in forums, chats, or other mediums interested in your app's topic. This way, you'll see if there's really interest in your idea or not. Once you make your first release, send emails to everyone to notify them that your app is ready, and they can start using it.

Going too far with the project from the beginning

This might be worth a whole post. As a developer, it's very easy to get obsessed with features and bugs. In my experience, I had several whole months free when I didn't need to work, and I got obsessed. I liked frameworks and what I was doing so much that I completely forgot about the rest of the world and developed a giant app with many options and details.

The feedback when it hit the market was that it was a very complex app, and 90% of the developed features were unnecessary. In conclusion, when you start making the app, choose the fewest possible features or even talk to people interested in your app to try to make your app as minimal as possible to start moving it through the user base created in the previous point.

At this point, I want to make a special mention of the "while I'm at it..." or “is easy to add…” factor. The mindset of adding a feature because it will take little time and therefore putting it in from the beginning will only delay your launch, and that easy-to-do feature probably won't have any impact on the release.

Stuck trying to have a bug-free product

I'm sorry, and this might hurt someone's feelings. But no matter how good a programmer you are, having a project without flaws, being complete, and working perfectly is impossible. It may have more or less quality. It may fail more or less often. It may have more or fewer flaws. But it will surely fail.

After years of developing apps and working in startups, I must say that all the products I've brought to the market or the projects I've been involved in have always been projects with flaws. Even Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Github... have bugs. So don't obsess about finding all the flaws and making your product perfect. It never will be, and you will never make a living from it because you will never reach the market by forever seeking bugs and not doing other necessary things.

Not talking enough about the project

That's something I still fail at today, as my training is as a developer, and I'm not a social person. But you have to understand that we live in a society of people, and apps are made for people to use.

If no one knows about your project, no one will use it. The best thing you can do is go to all the forums, chats, Twitter, or other places to talk to people, interact, and show your project. Don't stop. Whether your project is developed or not, never stop contacting people interested in your project because, above ads, SEO, and other advanced marketing techniques, the marketing channel that works best is word of mouth. Nothing motivates a person more to use an app than knowing and having contact with the people who made it, and these people might be the ones who talk about your app to their friends and family, increasing your downloads, visits, and impressions. It's the cheapest and most powerful marketing that exists.

Do not use marketing tools

I categorize this as a significant failure, but at the same time, it's not a failure. One of the things I've tried in all projects is using ads, social networks, hiring marketing or SEO specialists, and other internet mechanisms like influencers. Unless your best friend is an influencer or a marketing specialist, don't do it, and it won't be necessary.

These marketing tools are increasingly available to anyone with a Visa card and money in their account, but the reality is that, although they may seem cheap, they are not. Ad algorithms will take months to find the target audience for your promotion, and influencers, although they may be cheap at first, you'll have to keep buying their marketing mechanisms constantly to ensure impressions don't plummet.

In contrast, and as I mentioned in the previous article, don't hesitate to do word-of-mouth marketing. Talk to people on the internet, interact on Twitter, participate on Reddit. Do it, and don't stop; consistency is the key, and it's marketing that will help you pivot your app with features that your audience likes and make it grow organically. Until your business has an MRR that can support steady income of a few hundred dollars for months in marketing, it's not worth hiring these tools; focus on getting in touch with your users.

Venture capital, Seed Capital, etc. What?

If you think you have enough experience, contacts, you've used all the mechanisms I mentioned earlier, and you're ready, then do it, study it well, review the contracts, and talk to various venture capital sites.

But if you don't have your first customers, your app is still the first release, and you're not making enough to live, don't try it. Keep looking for a community of people who are interested because building a project with high investment requires a lot of skills that you still don’t have and you will start to kill flies with cannon shots. You're going to use a lot of money from these agencies and start shooting at the market with cannon shots, making it harder to control results, collect feedback, pivot the app etc., which is easy to achieve by talking one-on-one with real people. And you also will have more problems like deal with employees, legal business, inverters, etc..

Anyway if you have your first customers and your app is growing and you have plans to grow your app and put it to another level. Then go for it. Think about these mechanisms as financing mechanisms to accelerate the development of more features, contract people, or power your marketing investments and not as a mechanism to get started, because they are not.

After all, how to start?

In all the startups I've been in and in some personal projects that have worked, the most important points to start are:

1. Set up a small one-page website explaining your project with a form to collect emails. Create personal accounts on forums, Reddit, Twitter, Discord, etc., and join communities that may have interests in your app.
2. Dedicate 50% of your weekly hours to talking to people you find, talking about how your website/app is developing, sharing screenshots, asking for feedback, and don't hesitate to publish content continuously.
3. Dedicate the remaining 40% of the time to minimizing your app and thinking about what is necessary and what is not. Design your app well so that the number of features is the minimum possible that interests your customers.
4. Then 10% to write code. Seriously, your code is not important. When your business is established you can open source 100% of your app and nobody will steal your app or business. Because business is a social thing not a technical thing.
5. Once you make your release, use mailing or contact tools to inform all your potential users that they can now try the app and, please, give you feedback, which is the most important thing to keep moving forward.
6. Select a series of most requested features from the feedback that interests you and align with the plans for your app and start the cycle again.

Once your app generates enough money to pay its expenses and a little more or even enough for you to afford some pizzas with what it generates, it's time to go to the next level and try all those things talked about on the internet like ads, SEO, ASO, marketing, etc. with this money.

When your app gives you a living then is time to think if you want to continue growing as you do or you want to accelerate with venture capital or things like this.

Finally, As I said, these are some notes from my career and failures from the perspective of a person who trained as a programmer engineer and who, to this day, does it every time I open a new project.

For example, my last side project an AI-powered travel guide named Kaita AI, that is another project that I open recently with my son which I take the opportunity to say that it can now be downloaded, and I'm open to any feedback, whether negative or positive!

Thank you all for reading!