So a little while ago I had this great idea for this Saas business. There definitely seemed to be a need. I could certainly use it myself, as well as a number of other businesses around me. A quick Google search showed that there was no-one else really offering the solution in quite as good a way as I was planning to.
Great! I jumped in and spent every spare minute I could developing the business. About four months in, it has been coming on well and I am almost ready with a minimum viable product. Last night I did another Google search to see if there was any competition. I'm not quite sure what I did last time, but I clearly didn't search for the right thing. This time my search brought up a ton of competition. It's almost as if every monkey with a bit of coding skill has decided to create a Saas exactly like I have been doing. There are also a number of large and well established solutions available.
Now, I know having some competition is a good thing, but this is ridiculous. I am struggling to see how I could possibly do anything to differentiate myself in such a crowded pool.
I know what the root problem is. I did not spend enough time validating my idea. Why did I not do this? Because that would have involved getting out there and talking to people. This is totally out of my comfort zone. I chose instead to stay comfortable, lock myself away and code.
I think this chap sums it up very well :
(You can skip to about 5 minutes in)
So three months work down the toilet. I am really going to have to rethink my whole life.
Great! I jumped in and spent every spare minute I could developing the business. About four months in, it has been coming on well and I am almost ready with a minimum viable product. Last night I did another Google search to see if there was any competition. I'm not quite sure what I did last time, but I clearly didn't search for the right thing. This time my search brought up a ton of competition. It's almost as if every monkey with a bit of coding skill has decided to create a Saas exactly like I have been doing. There are also a number of large and well established solutions available.
Now, I know having some competition is a good thing, but this is ridiculous. I am struggling to see how I could possibly do anything to differentiate myself in such a crowded pool.
I know what the root problem is. I did not spend enough time validating my idea. Why did I not do this? Because that would have involved getting out there and talking to people. This is totally out of my comfort zone. I chose instead to stay comfortable, lock myself away and code.
I think this chap sums it up very well :
(You can skip to about 5 minutes in)
So three months work down the toilet. I am really going to have to rethink my whole life.
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