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Comment by llmblockchain

12 days ago

I can relate to this, though I came into it already knowing how to do the coding part. I had no idea how to do the rest of it.

My entire career was spent building valuable software for companies to generate large profits only for me to be laid off (and fired, once). After the firing I was quite angry and probably a bit arrogant.

I went on a bit of a rage.. "I built the most successful product there, I can do it on my own."

So that's what I did and I haven't worked for anyone else since (on 8 years now).

I'm right at your starting point. Can basically build anything but committing to an idea is the sticking point. What product would you want to start with today?

  • I'm unsure if my advice is any good, but it's what worked for me. Here's the general thought process/flow I use.

    1) Start by picking your customer. Pick a customer that is easy to find and has a clear channel to access them. For example, maybe I want to target sales people. I know a lot of sales folks use LinkedIn, seems like an easy channel to them. edit: Also, pick a customer that _pays_ for things. B2B-type customers. You don't want to be selling a product to teenagers, developers or anyone that doesn't like to pay for solutions :)

    2) Don't invent anything new. Pick a well established idea/business that is already being done (and most importantly, people are paying for). Continuing on the sales example, I know sales people often pay for technographic data. There are plenty of SaaS products out there selling that kind of data. I build a list of them.

    3) Scope the product down to its bare essentials. What exactly are the sales people buying? The products probably have a lot of fluff that isn't needed. Get rid of it. This is a good time to talk to the target customer. It can be nice to hear their complaints about the products they are currently using, etc.

    4) Finally, build the product and ship it. Get the initial version out quickly and keep refining it.