Failing Startups : Maybe I should get a job

Hey @muragefromstack, I voted "Get a job", but not because you shouldn't chase your dream, but rather because of three reasons. Full disclosure, I have never met you and can only take what you wrote above at face value, paired with my own experience:

1. Understanding your market, and monetization strategies. Who has a pain big enough to solve it with money. JPEG compression ain't it (manual labor seems too time intensive for almost no upside else than shaving of a few kilobyte).

2. Making no money can be a drain on your mental health, even if you may be fortunate enough to already have loads of it. Get a constant stream of cash coming in... even with a full time job, will lead you to a much more relaxed view and capital to spend on your startup as a side hustle. Make it a challenge to have your side hustle outperform your full time job. Then switch full time startup.

3. Having a full time job, will lead you to many new insights about things that needs fixing. Not every idea needs to be novel though. I have came across many great tools, but wished them to be cheaper, faster, easier to use or just have single features. That's when I usually jump in and build something I would pay for myself.

Good luck out there!

man keep pushing. the thing is, we need to decide what metrics matter for us and then only compare ourselves to how close we are to achieving those things. it's not about how prestigious your title sounds, it's about what makes you happy.

there are so many things trying to pull us into the "ordinary" way of doing things, parents, friends, society in general. not saying the ordinary way is bad, but we have to realize that we are taking this unique path for a reason. for me, my personality and interests just don't align with how others want to work and live their lives.

think hard about the reasons why you want to live the "entrepreneur lifestyle" and remind yourself what truly matters to you in the end. i also struggle sometimes, thinking maybe i'm just not good enough to start my own thing. but then i remind myself how far i've come since starting to learn how to code last year, and how exciting it is to just build stuff i care about.

you got this bro!

Hey Murage,

Great work on these past projects. Seriously, pat yourself on the back.

Something I am consistently guilty of is trying to build cool things that I would find helpful.

I have one bit of advice for you before you take a break from being your own boss.

Talk to customers

You might think, "Well, I don't have customers" - okay. Pick a niche you like, talk to people in that niche, and find a common issue. There is a lot of smoke and mirrors when finding a working product; however, it's not impossible.

It's nerve-wracking to start on this path, but once you realize that we're all just winging it, it gets much more fun.

Best of luck

Disclaimer: I'm new to this and i haven't made any money online. So take my viewpoint with a pinch of salt.

It sounds like you are too technical, that's not necessarily a bad thing but maybe (1) try making a simple solution that appeals to non devs and see how it goes. (2) Possibly partner with someone who is strong in marketing.

All this time my biggest hindrance has been not knowing how to code, now that I have improved in that front, I'm realising that marketing is more important and I am trying to learn marketing. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how good your solution is if no one knows about it.

It's clear you have the talent to ship products. I assume you have the same issue what I had/have, knowledge of coding and love for technology but not a business/sales mind. Work on your business mindset.
Before creating a new startup/project I would spend some quality time to create a business plan and market research, who I'm selling to, why, how I'm going to make money, etc. I would suggest to follow Alex Hormozi, he helped me to think like a business person not just a software engineer.

Hi Murage, I suggest you find a niche and find a problem or pain points.

Then solve it. Don't create a product that are nice to have. It is easy to sell a solution than a thing that is nice to have.

I am also curious, how do you sell, promote, or market your products?

Better Build a Brandawareness first on Twitter, LinkedIn and other social medias you like. Be consistent on posting and try to engage constantly to your target audiences.

That's FREE Marketing, weQA my company is getting some inbound message asking for our services. Given the fact that my startup is just 12 days old.

You have persevered and gained invaluable experience during your entrepreneurial journey.

I'm going to say something a little different.

Firstly, "You'll chance upon a banger startup idea" is the wrong way to go about things. You have to do relentless customer research and identify a real problem to solve, not chance upon a good one. An emphasis on an idea is not it.

You're also very young. Are you really giving up at 23? You are doing a lot and learning a lot, and you're already ahead of the curve.

I agree that if you're feeling this way you could get a job, and re-evaluate if you want to do a startup then, possibly while doing side projects.

But an alternative idea is that you should get a job, but at a startup. You wouldn't be a founder, but you'd still capture a lot of the upside of being part of a rocket ship while still having reasonable stability. You'd also get a chance to live that life and decide if you want to take that risk for what you want down the line. Maybe it's not for you.

You seem to already have a strong technical ability, and you'd learn a lot more being part of a scaling business.

what's your "success criteria"? if it's about money, then the expected return of a job at big tech or hedge fund should be much better than building startups. but if money is not the single metric, then it might be worth considering more factors. e.g., are you willing to deal with corporate red tapes but with better paychecks?

Why can't you do both. I don't have the Ivy friends you do, but I got a Masters while working 40 hours a week (normally I work more). Stability and work on a project in your spare time. I'm sure you have connections.

My suggestion. Get a job. Have some stability. Explore and work on your startup. Once you are at a good place in your startup, quit your job and focus on your startup.
I have a full-time job and I was able to build and launch LeadzAgent. Sacrificed all my free time to learn to code in the past 6 months.

I think you should get a job. I've been involved in startups, VC and working at growth-stage startups. Usually hearing someone refer to an 'idea' is an indicator that their mental models and framing need to change. From my experience thinking about your startup as a focused on a problem to solve is a first step. It means what you build, how you market, how you sell will all need to constantly adjust to match the problem you are solving for your ICP. All that said, taking a break, being exposed to other perspectives at a business might be helpful...besides, you can always quit when you find the right problem/idea :)

Option c get a job and keep grinding

You're clearly talented, and able to put the work in. You clearly have sellable skills - if people in your shoes work for global brands.

Could you apply your engineering thinking to your startup process? What I mean is: have you thought of looking at interesting businesses/niches and reverse engineering them?

Rather than following your passion, follow the market to its logical end.

You can do this practically by getting a job and spending your free time doing research on the most viable markets to serve, and how to serve them differently from how your competitors do. This will help you predict with a higher degree of accuracy what opportunities are most viable for committing your resources to.

Never give up.

I think the best thing to do is get a job but also work on a startup idea as a side hustle.

You are quite young and still have a long way to go before you actually find out what you are good at or what makes you wake up at 6am every morning no matter how much money you are making from it.

There isn't a one size fits all.

I was an employee for 5+ years before making my first startup, which I sold. The second startup I built unfortunately failed after raising 5M+ USD.

I took a brief break, and I'm now doing a consultancy gig for a VC while I come up with my next business: a bootstrapped SaaS.

The point I'm making here is that it's ok to work for a while as an employee, gather some energy, and jump back in again when you're ready.

P.S.: have you considered validating your startups before developing them?

The right idea is just round the corner. Keep Grinding

Thanks for sharing your startup journey. You clearly have a solid technical background and network, but to move forward, you'll need a strong team. Keep hope, seek new talents, and let experience shape your future ventures. Best of luck, bro.

Failing isn't a reason. Failing is a part of the process. And actually there is no an amount of fails to say 'stop'. Keep trying it but be sure of taking a lesson from every one.

I don't know you or your business project ideas, and I am just gonna put my opinion out here because I feel like that is what you are looking for with this post.

--> Honestly, It seems like you have pursued some pretty bad ideas, which few people struggle enough with to pay for. It seems kind of obvious when you list them here, and I see many others posting similar comments.

You need to develop your skills in this regard -> maybe get out of your bubble and current environment a bit?

You might benefit from connecting with a person e.g. marketing individual, who has some real-world knowledge of problems to solve that are monetizable.

Getting a job in the real world might give you some more understanding of issues to solve.

You could get a job as a freelancer for a marketing agency. They have different kinds of clients, which would allow you to sniff out ideas in different businesses while connecting with the agency founders, who are often very focused on marketing first, which seems like you are not and could therefore benefit from.

No path is ever closed, so getting a job doesn't mean that you have given up. Consider it a 'break' or a 'study period'.

I know of people who did this, and because of their entrepreneurial mindset, the owners of the company offered them a partnership in the company, which could also be an option for you.

good luck to you,keep on it and find a partner

My dad is an entrepreneur. I'll talk to him about his businesses. He runs a comedy club called Learn to Laugh I think is what it's called. He basically lives life as one does in Gta 5. When you find something you're good at stick with it even if it fails. It'll be your mark and that's what's important in life. Understanding yourself is the key to business.

Thanks for sharing you experience. I needed this!

I didn’t read everyone’s comment so my apologies if these are repeats but I think you should do both. They are fulfilling different needs in your life. “Failure” is really just a lesson and quitting after you learn a new lesson is an anti-pattern. So get comfortable with less sleep and do both as well get comfortable with learning new lessons and go harder. Giving up isn’t an option. You just need a sustainable strategy.

It seems like you believe you have everything you need, but you don't. You just don't suffer from the same difficulties as most of us: technical skills, networking. But that is not all. There are several other skills that we need to master, such as marketing and sales strategies, prioritizing tasks and most importantly: being very close to potential customers. Speaking of which, it seems that you are thinking more about who you will sell the idea to and where you will promote the idea, than who will use the idea. Your persona is basically technical users or micro entrepreneurs, people like us indie hackers. We don't like spending money on paid solutions lol. Maybe you should spend more time exploring audiences of well-established businesses willing to take out their credit cards.

have you studied marketing? i feel like what we developers need to make it a solopreneurs is the knowledge to validate business ideas and market them, so that we end up building something people use.

building is the easiest and most fun part for us, so it's easy to fall into the trap of just building something people don't need.

How old were you when you learned Pascal? You said you are 23, so you were born around 2000, right?

To answer your question, I would advise you to get a job in a company where you can learn some skills that will serve your overall purpose to become an entrepreneur. Don't see it as "giving up on your dream" but as "learning".

I'm thinking a start up may be the best choice for you. You will hear/get involved in discussions about product, about marketing etc You can then re-apply what you learn to your own ideas.

Murage, there's really good advice in the comments, from alexakten and Kong. Please consider it. Just wishing you well. Utawezana 💪

May be, if you decide to get a job in near future, I suggest you to continue your startup dreams as a side hustle with help from others for marketing.

I suggest you to keep pushing. I voted for keep grinding. But you can have a side job for you to provide yourself while you are working hard toward your business idea.

It's best to secure a job to ensure a steady income.

Continue working on side projects, believing that one day they will lead to success!

Props for having the courage to put in the extreme effort needed to build stuff from scratch. I know how difficult and painful it is to code your own startup, pour your soul, all your waking hours, and sacrifice your social life to try to become successful. I voted to get a job in the meantime.

(That's what I'm doing right now as I'm taking a break from studying data structures and algorithms)

Once you are making more money, you'll feel better. You can go out more and also work on side projects with all your knowledge from your past projects. It's never too late to achieve success.

Some books I recommend, "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution" by Uri Levine. Also Alex Hormozi's books because I feel he has a good understanding of modern online sales.

Best wishes to you and the future is bright. (For both of us)

Trust me. My startup isn't doing well either and I'm in some serious depression. But trucking through it. Whenever I open up VSCode, put on some classical music, I'm happy again.

No matter how good the thing, it's useless until you can sell it.

I've made a framework that I thought it's better than any other framework in the market. But I can't even get projects, even I place it in online market place. Until an old friend talked to me, and I show it to him. He said this is good, he said he has projects but it's in different language and environment. So, I converted my framework to new language and environment, and use it for doing the projects.

You may be very smart, can build products quickly, but you need other people to market your product or to reorient the product purpose.

Hi Murage,

Your work is impressive. You've built some really cool and hard stuff.

Problem is, you built the wrong thing.

Just grinding is going to get you more of the same unless you get really lucky.

The right way to build a startup is the opposite of the intuitive approach.

First find the customers, then build the product. Not the other way around.

I strongly recommend watching the talk "Build the Right It" by Alberto Savoia. Really great advice on how to test ideas before you build anything.

I voted 'get a job' too. But I'd find a job that gives you the most for your time/energy spent on it, so you can spend the rest of your time building one of these.

Don't compare with your friends, peers. They probably have different goals, values, and motivations.. and most likely, their own problems in life. so, no comparison. They might actually be looking at how chilled out your life is while they suck up to their bosses at the cos you mentioned :D

I'd be happy to help or guide you with marketing, if you think that might help you.

Maybe it's time to remix those past ventures?
Your GitHub repos are like a treasure trove of 'almost hit singles.' Polish them up, sample the best parts, and drop that hit. With your network, a retweet from the right hedge fund manager's daughter could be all it takes for your next project to go viral in the tech world. Keep your code sharp, your pitches sharper, and your spirits up.

The startup life's about the grind, and it sounds like you're ready to keep rolling the dice.

mrquickrepairdubai