Stress comes with startups, so I wouldn't say I'm more or less stressed out now doing a solo than I was when I did it with cofounders. There's something to knowing I'm on the hook for all of it - it keeps you honest to your intentions, if that makes any sense. You can only blame yourself if it fails, so stop fucking around! <--- this is what I tell myself most days! :)
I'm fortunate to have a rather wide range of skills that include marketing and software development. I'm probably innately better at the marketing stuff, but I've become a much better coder since I switched to solo mode. I suck at graphics design, but I have a few close friends that do that for a living so I can get around it by contracting it out to them. I'm also awesome at PM work, and basically do it live as I'm coding. Keeping projects simple is a requirement. You don't have a lot of time to go down a technical rabbit hole, so don't over scope.
If you find yourself thinking you need to do sales and BD at this point in the game, you should probably do a level set. Get people using your product first, then worry about how you'll sell lots of it later. Given it's a good idea, it's likely it will sell itself via the marketing work you do. Get a sales guy later when you know you can increase sales conversions. I can't really say how to solve the marketing problem other than just being yourself and being honest with your users. Someone who listens well usually makes a good marketer. Listen to your users.
You can cheat at marketing by observing what similar offerings do for marketing. A Twitter account, simple blog and a few visits a month to a meetup scene or demo day during lunch at some cool company will do wonders for your moral.
There are certainly days when I get frustrated. I spent the better part of Monday trying to get mod_wsgi serving up a Flask application for a piece of my current project. I thought I was going to lose it, so I stopped and went for an hour long bike ride. I figured out the issue when I got back and was able to start writing code shortly after.
Best of luck to you! I'm convinced that solo is the way to go. If there are others in the Bay interested in hanging out and talking about it over coffee or drinks, I'd be down with it!
Comments
Stress comes with startups, so I wouldn't say I'm more or less stressed out now doing a solo than I was when I did it with cofounders. There's something to knowing I'm on the hook for all of it - it keeps you honest to your intentions, if that makes any sense. You can only blame yourself if it fails, so stop fucking around! <--- this is what I tell myself most days! :)
I'm fortunate to have a rather wide range of skills that include marketing and software development. I'm probably innately better at the marketing stuff, but I've become a much better coder since I switched to solo mode. I suck at graphics design, but I have a few close friends that do that for a living so I can get around it by contracting it out to them. I'm also awesome at PM work, and basically do it live as I'm coding. Keeping projects simple is a requirement. You don't have a lot of time to go down a technical rabbit hole, so don't over scope.
If you find yourself thinking you need to do sales and BD at this point in the game, you should probably do a level set. Get people using your product first, then worry about how you'll sell lots of it later. Given it's a good idea, it's likely it will sell itself via the marketing work you do. Get a sales guy later when you know you can increase sales conversions. I can't really say how to solve the marketing problem other than just being yourself and being honest with your users. Someone who listens well usually makes a good marketer. Listen to your users.
You can cheat at marketing by observing what similar offerings do for marketing. A Twitter account, simple blog and a few visits a month to a meetup scene or demo day during lunch at some cool company will do wonders for your moral.
There are certainly days when I get frustrated. I spent the better part of Monday trying to get mod_wsgi serving up a Flask application for a piece of my current project. I thought I was going to lose it, so I stopped and went for an hour long bike ride. I figured out the issue when I got back and was able to start writing code shortly after.
Best of luck to you! I'm convinced that solo is the way to go. If there are others in the Bay interested in hanging out and talking about it over coffee or drinks, I'd be down with it!
Would be interested in talking more on email - whats your email?
Just Google me! :)