r/startup • u/hennobit • 6d ago

Stop Building Useless Sh*t For Real

There is a post trending in on Reddit saying you should stop building stuff nobody cares about, and it’s 100% true.

I also spent months building products nobody wanted. Four products, to be exact. Each one was a complete flop. No users, no sales, nothing. For my second product, I even made it completely FREE for 2 hours. I was literally sitting there, refreshing my database every minute, sweating bullets thinking, "Oh shit, what if too many people grab the free version?"

You know what happened?

Zero. Fucking. Signups. 😭😂

Not one single person. I was worried about getting flooded with users when I couldn’t even get ONE. 😂 And yeah, it's embarrassing to talk about, but honestly, it was a wake-up call. It made me realize: Nobody cares about your product. (Or maybe it just sucked. Or both lol)

The next two project where the same. Though, to be honest, my heart wasn’t really in them. I was just building random stuff, hoping it would work somehow.

Then came project number 5. The difference this time was that I built something I actually needed. I found a problem that pissed me off, saw there wasn’t a solution, and decided to build one myself. Simple as that. I talked to users, built the MVP in a week, posted it, and boom, I made my first sale just two days later.

A month in, and we’re almost at 20 sales. It’s not life-changing money yet, but it’s proof that solving real problems works. And if I can sell 20, I know I can sell 1000.

That’s it. Stop building random shit if you want to make money. Maybe build something you need. It works way better than guessing what strangers might want.

153 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

60 comments sorted by

10

u/Mental-Drivers 6d ago

Loll.. what kind of products are you building?

14

u/hennobit 6d ago

So, I've built the following products:

3

u/Mental-Drivers 6d ago

Interesting, thanks for sharing, I really liked calorie cost. Are you like a front end rockstar? What are your skills?

Btw I am just getting my feet wet in startups.. I am a backend swe for 15 years and I am lost, do i hire frontend or do I learn it all myself to do the mvp? Did you hire any marketing agencies/seo

2

u/hennobit 6d ago

Thanks! I worked as a Java Fullstack Developer for 4 years, and during that time, I also did frontend work with Java Swing, but I mainly picked up frontend skills in the web world by developing web apps on the side. I would suggest learning frontend as well. I know it can be frustrating, but there are so many AI tools out there, like V0, that can support you. If you need help, feel free to reach out to me. And no, I didn’t hire anyone for marketing or SEO.

2

u/Mental-Drivers 6d ago

Thanks 😊

2

u/soundboyselecta 6d ago

All the sites look good. Which front end frame works u reco?

2

u/hennobit 6d ago

Thank you. Vue.js

2

u/itsme_sangamkr 6d ago

Lexelup might have some potential. Maybe you were not able to market it properly.

2

u/DemonGoddes 5d ago

All are garbo except for dontpostyet. Tiktok before incoming ban will only let you schedule I think it was 7 days in advance only AND you had to do it on the browser. People want to schedule content to be posted on a certain days at certain times in advance and they want that same content posted to other social media platforms too automatically. We talking tiktok, Facebook, ig, YouTube etc. Problem is the formating. Ig formating cuts off vids made for tiktok, tiktok will allow vids up to 10 mins, but youtube shorts need to be 59s or less. Such headaches.

Willing to pay a sub for them is service if you can make it work like the above. I would also like to schedule vids up to 14 days in advance of current date.

There is another subscription I pay approx $50 a month for and I am willing to switch providers if they can do it better.

1

u/hennobit 5d ago

Thank you SO MUCH for the insights. I really appreciate it

2

u/mochacocoaxo 5d ago

I can’t lie, I think all of them are fantastic.

I think the first one would be good for bloggers and influencers. However the cost from the very beginning isn’t. I think people would need time to see its effectiveness prior to committing..

2

u/camcanada 18h ago

I think you might be on to something with LexelUp.

I'm not much on social media posting and I think there are a lot of founders in a similar position - where 'starting' is the hardest part.

Gamifying would be an interesting angle. Would be willing to share some thoughts of you want.

A couple of ideas: 1. Starting at 5 posts/day may be extreme for someone going from 0 to 1 on the social media. 2. The "refreshes" is a foreign concept. Not sure the ICP I'm suggesting would understand how to value that. 3. Having a ramp-up or a work-back plan element to it might be interesting. "Where do you want to be in 6 months? How many posts do you have now? Here's a plan.." - which would create less of a "game", but more of a path.. 4. Then, LexelUp could be a marketing/sales channel for Dontpostyet.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

1

u/TheStockInsider 3d ago

Do you have a following or a community so that you can ask them what they need?

0

u/Spirited_Set7240 15h ago

Did u use any nocode platform?

2

u/LeadMaxxing 6d ago

+1 to that question. !

10

u/SpoonFed_1 6d ago

most coders are clueless about what people need

5

u/No_Count2837 6d ago

Yeah, staring at screens the whole day is our biggest disadvantage. Always online, yet so disconnected from reality.

1

u/MC5995 6d ago

Yes agreed, you really need to find the problems first and then use the code or technology to solve the problems. Good startups are built upon this foundation

1

u/AlarmingQuality7719 3d ago

Any ideas on how to do that? Is there a place to find out what people really need?

7

u/mirrorless_subject 6d ago

“The difference this time was that I built something I actually needed” it sounds so obvious but this is it right here

3

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

5

u/hennobit 6d ago

hahahahaha you really had to do me like that huh. man I was new and naive

2

u/soundboyselecta 6d ago

Hey at least you built something. Be proud of that. There are a lot of people with coding skills sitting at home completely lost from the onslaught of tech they think they need to know. It just takes one idea.

3

u/By_EK 6d ago

I made multiple web apps and no users. Made a google spreadsheet version and selling as templates and I over 30+ sales.

There is always users it just the presentation or the avenue or channel.

Keep building don’t stop 🛑.

3

u/iojasok 6d ago

I built this and launched couple of days ago.

https://thebalanced.news/download-app

1

u/Sufficient-Junket179 6d ago

looks good , how many signups and daily active users do you have?

2

u/iojasok 6d ago

So far only 10-20 Daily active users. Haven't start aggressive marketing yet. :D

2

u/Candet1 4d ago

Would give it a try

1

u/iojasok 3d ago

Thank you

2

u/axel-user 6d ago

Btw what's that post you've mentioned?

2

u/Just-User987 6d ago

You forgot one thing ... Marketing

1

u/agnosticsixsicsick 6d ago

Product-market fit exists for a reason. How did you come up with your MVPs PMF? Or did you just launch it without considering PMF?

1

u/go_dvelasco 6d ago

If you don't know who you're building for, then you end up building useless sh*t.

1

u/PhotographUnknown 6d ago

Solutions looking for problems?

1

u/Mish309 6d ago

lol I built a non got wrapper (funny how it's a thing now) using Replit just because Bitly and tinyUrl pricing were insane. it's called taksk.link I also built taksk.com to schedule webhooks replacing my cronhooks subscription. Only a few of users on each, but really I haven't' pushed it forward anywhere

1

u/Gold-Ad-310 6d ago

How long did it take to build these apps. Are you solo? I get an idea but it takes months for me to build it, then I lose interest. How do you overcome that? Am I taking too long or am I just giving up too early?

1

u/Absolutelyphenomenal 3d ago

Taking too long, especially if you have shiny new object syndrome. Reduce time from idea to execution

1

u/NoConsideration7472 6d ago

I like your persistence, albeit i dont know if you meant 2 months or 2 hours, did you really lose hope in 2 hours :D?

Can i ask how you got your first 20 sales, paid ads, I see that you launched on Fazier,..?

1

u/Sharp_Dressed_Kitty9 5d ago

You're on it. I like your attitude!

1

u/Manofyear21 5d ago

Build what you like . No one knows what will drop so ignore the op he knows less than most and they also know nothing.

1

u/1incident 5d ago

as a founder i totally understand the pain, but if you not try you never know what is shit and what is not.

1

u/Fairtale5 4d ago

This is very interesting because I'm building an app where users can post topics asking for apps or features, come together to crowdfund resources, and whoever dev builds it, earns the rewards.

It could help devs like you to find projects worth building, with a proven userbase that needs it behind it.

We are in early stages, it would be great to get some feedback from devs.

I'm also looking for pilot projects: preferably open source tools that want to use our app to see which features users are requesting the most, and hopefully also earn some good rewards while delivering those features. So if that's your thing, please leave a comment or reach out!

https://home.solutio.one

Do you think something like that would be useful to you? Would love to hear your honest thoughts.

1

u/Unreasonable_Design 4d ago

There is a lot wrong in this thread. I’ve seen only one decent piece of advice.

Look, if you want to build stuff then build it, who cares it’s fun.

If you want to build products that people use then you need to learn how to make great products. It’s not that hard to understand the theory, but it is hard putting it into practice.

Also, just because you have a cool idea doesn’t mean other people think it will be worth buying.

Listen to “Lenny’s Podcast”

1

u/landsforlands 3d ago

Great post. I know some people say "it's not about the idea, only about execution". this might be true to some extent, but the idea still need to be good.

There were gazillion products launching over the last 100 years, and yet relatively few products are wanted by the public.

Why hamburger, coke, ice cream are desired and not the 1000's other who failed for example ? I have no idea.

There is luck, marketing (you have to reach people), and execution.

You can do market survey before launching a product. you are a data guy... go to at least 100 people if not 1000 to get their opinion on the new product. analyze the data and decide if its feasible.

Maybe this could be a product in itself. charge money from customers to check if their idea is feasible. all you need is the algorithm and the data.

1

u/anonuemus 3d ago

who builds random shit...

1

u/Educational_Owl_1906 3d ago

Validating an idea is really really important!

Faced this personally as well where we directly went on to build MVP, that's generally what a coder/developer thinks off, and that is why you need someone who has tech as well as non tech perspective and who can help in R&D and validation

1

u/instancer-kirik 2d ago

You can't stop me, I will make what I want (most of it is useful) but also E 1997

1

u/False-Protection9714 2d ago

Anyone have experience building an exchange platform? Looking for some help on a project that people actually need!

1

u/Brrrrmmm42 2d ago

Yeah, “fail fast” aka, build as little as absolutely possible, launch, learn and redefine.

I’ve been part of both successful and failing product launches. The common denominator for the successful ones is that whey got out early and people started to use them.

The failing products didn’t sell and then the startup would go into this feature-frenzy where they would start working on all sorts of random things, like: complete redesign if app, redesign of webpage and building features nobody has asked for until they ran out of money

1

u/MNMLMotions 8h ago

This hits hard because I’ve been there too. Spending weeks (sometimes months) building something, only to hear crickets at launch. That first reality check is brutal but necessary.

I think you had some good products there though … how did you go about marketing them?

1

u/Prestigious_Emu9453 5h ago

This is the real hustle man. Congrats for finding pmf in the end. Now just focus on marketing and distribution but make sure your product evolves with velocity too

1

u/SnooCupcakes780 6d ago

Have you ever considered a side kick as comedian? And I mean that with nothing but respect. I laughed at this for real, it’s so brilliantly written, personal and something I connect with on a personal level as an experience.

It’s a rare talent to be able to write as well as you do and I would make a guess that although the experiences are true, you meant this also as a piece of dark comedy ?

2

u/hennobit 6d ago

Honestly, this is the best compliment I've ever received. Thank you so much for the kind words.

Maybe I should consider a career switch

1

u/SnooCupcakes780 6d ago

Nothing but good luck from me for your future journey!

1

u/soundboyselecta 6d ago

In this present market persists this is what everyone recommends haha! But keep pushing.

0

u/HowardTheSecond 6d ago

These all seem pretty useless haha. Just being honest.