"It's never about money nor the CEO tag. It is about building things with your own vision, and also learning along all other aspects of a business lifecycle."
I know it is like reinventing the same wheel from 0 to 1. But what this process really does is shape you from within.
The Reality of Building
This process teaches you much more than just building a product. Resilience, thick skin, perseverance, and self-esteem — those words start making real sense.
"You also learn about empathy, which I couldn't understand before."
Taking ownership was not that difficult, but building the team was the hardest. Sometimes I feel like being toxic at the workplace was me because I need everything perfect.
The Developer Mindset Trap
At the very start, I didn't really come out of the developer mindset — "How much complex things I can build."
But in reality, nobody really needs it. To get that understanding, it costs you effort and time. What people actually need are simple, useful solutions — not complexity.
The Audience & Communication Gap
Not reaching the target audience at the start or in between the process is a big concern. We often think, "Let's build a visible prototype first to really show something." but is it really the right approach?
And when hiring the team, I thought they know everything without me telling them anything. I thought they will ask or do it on their own. But they didn't.
That’s when I learned — proper continuous communication is the key.
And what about those exciting side projects that always fascinate us and distract us from our main goal?
Decisions, Struggles & Learning
One of the biggest decisions is whether to go for service-based or product-based.
With client projects, there is always uncertainty in estimating effort, time, and money. That uncertainty brings fear — getting stuck in a loop of changing client requirements. Sometimes even they don’t know what they really want.
The target was always to build something that is actually useful, not just a wow one-time experience.
"From hundreds of cold calls, emails, and DMs comes silence and self-doubt. But if the 100th attempt closes the deal, how fast are you willing to fail the first 99?"
Sales and marketing are not everyone's cup of tea, but they are unavoidable in this journey.
The Role of AI
AI is one of the most important tools today. It can bring your ideas into life in minutes. For small teams and solo builders, it is a must.
While typing these sentences, what I am speaking without AI feels more natural and more connecting. But spellings corrected by ChatGPT with those ("—")