5 ms·

Sounds like marketing and selling are not only outside your skillset, but outside your interest. You could have easily learned how to do it in the past 20 years

Sounds like marketing and selling are not only outside your skillset, but outside your interest. You could have easily learned how to do it in the past 20 years if you had the aptitude. You'll never make it solo if you can't find a passion for selling your product. Yes, you should give up and get a full-time job. I'm a developer and I've founded 3 startups over the past 10 years. None made it to unicorn status, but they all passed the $2M in annual revenue mark. Get a full-time job and make real money as an engineer. While you are doing that you can work on meeting the right co-founder and finding the right thing to build. The right product and market will pull you away from your job, you won't have to try and force it like you have been.

anonymouse008 5y ago
Ok, let's talk brass tacks here then, because I'm very curious. Your recent venture in profile is hard to put into the 'sell first, then build' bin. That wasn't your exact suggestion though - as I understand you, you say to have a passion for selling your product. This said, I feel like you could map out the 'how I knew I could sell this at a price point viable for me and my customers.' Mind digging into that a bit? Background: I'm getting better at my products/companies, but I've been burned recently taking on entirely too much (doing things that will actually never scale) because I was paid low thousands per setup and $500/month (I thought was huge for a SaaS), but that setup never got under 1-2 months like I wanted.
- rsweeney21 5y ago
  For my most recent venture I went into an existing market with hundreds of competitors (technical recruiting). I knew there was demand, though I did have to learn specific tactics for selling this service. I stumbled on the idea by experiencing a problem with the shady/spammy nature of the technical recruiting industry and feeling like I had a better way. I've killed 5+ startups in the first few months though by prioritizing talking to potential customers over building software. Hard to do as an introvert that loves building things. My recommendation to get a full-time job comes from the belief that if you are so focused on coming up with a winning idea, it becomes more illusive. (See: http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html)
eloff 5y ago
Thank you, this is good, frank advice coming from a place of experience. I really appreciate it.

anonymouse008 5y ago

Ok, let's talk brass tacks here then, because I'm very curious. Your recent venture in profile is hard to put into the 'sell first, then build' bin. That wasn't your exact suggestion though - as I understand you, you say to have a passion for selling your product. This said, I feel like you could map out the 'how I knew I could sell this at a price point viable for me and my customers.' Mind digging into that a bit? Background: I'm getting better at my products/companies, but I've been burned recently taking on entirely too much (doing things that will actually never scale) because I was paid low thousands per setup and $500/month (I thought was huge for a SaaS), but that setup never got under 1-2 months like I wanted.

rsweeney21 5y ago
For my most recent venture I went into an existing market with hundreds of competitors (technical recruiting). I knew there was demand, though I did have to learn specific tactics for selling this service. I stumbled on the idea by experiencing a problem with the shady/spammy nature of the technical recruiting industry and feeling like I had a better way. I've killed 5+ startups in the first few months though by prioritizing talking to potential customers over building software. Hard to do as an introvert that loves building things. My recommendation to get a full-time job comes from the belief that if you are so focused on coming up with a winning idea, it becomes more illusive. (See: http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html)

eloff 5y ago

Thank you, this is good, frank advice coming from a place of experience. I really appreciate it.