I know the secret formula. Every successful solopreneur screams it: start with the audience, validate the problem, don’t write code until people are begging for your solution.
Yet here I am, five projects later, still fighting my developer instincts.
The builder’s curse
I love building stuff. Sales? Marketing? Talking to strangers? That’s not why I learned to code.
My first few side projects were pure gut feeling. I’d think “this would be cool” and start coding. Most never went live. Zero users, zero income.
Then I got smarter and copied existing products. “If someone’s making money from this, it must work,” I thought.
Still zero users, still zero income. Turns out copying success doesn’t automatically copy the success part.
Reality check
Eventually I got desperate enough to put my projects in front of real humans. A few people actually used them. Some users, some income.
But those users didn’t magically appear. I had to do the thing I’d been avoiding: actually tell people about what I built.
The validation experiment
For my latest project, I decided to be really smart. Validate first, build second.
I posted on Reddit about a problem I wanted to solve. Asked for beta testers. Felt proud of myself for doing things “right.”
Result? Lots of views, barely any responses. Zero users, zero income, but zero lines of code written too.
The redditors weren’t as excited about my revolutionary solution as I was.
What I’m actually learning
Even when I know the right approach, I keep taking shortcuts.
I told myself I was validating, but really I was looking for confirmation my idea was brilliant. When I talked to potential users, I couldn’t help mentioning my solution.
It wasn’t a messaging problem. It was a me problem.
With each project, I’m forcing myself further from my comfort zone. More sales. More marketing. More talking to humans about their actual problems instead of my clever solutions.
It’s 100x harder than just building.
The pattern I can’t escape
The irony hurts. I read the same advice you do. I follow successful indie hackers. I know what works.
But my developer brain still thinks: “If I build something good enough, people will find it.”
My entrepreneur brain knows: “If people don’t know about it, it doesn’t exist.”
The entrepreneur brain is slowly winning, but it’s a fight.
Where this leads
I’m convinced that by project #20, I’ll start with paying customers before writing any code. Not because I’m getting smarter, but because I’m tired of wasting time.
The successful solopreneurs aren’t lying about starting with audience first. They just don’t tell you how hard it is when your fingers are itching to open VS Code.
The path that feels easier is usually wrong. I’m learning this one failed project at a time.
Next time, I’m spending a month just talking to people about their problems. No solutions, no pitches, just questions.
We’ll see if I actually do it.