Startdowns
Startups are the most noble and hardest problem you can solve , starting a startup and succeeding is the most multi dimensional problem you can do. Not only do you have to be good at technically, but you gotta sell the product, you have to market the product. It’s like every single skill that existed, and that’s gonna take me to the next level mentally. I’ll be able to problem solve on a different level, opening up a whole new world of possibilities.
I’m not sure when maybe it was when I sold ninja stars for 2 rupees, but I don’t know making things for people was something I liked doing, and if I make money doing it then that’s best case scenario. These are the collection of failures that I’ve accumulated on the way to making a successful startup. I’m not sure if I’m just not working hard or if I’m doing something terribly wrong, maybe its a mix of both like always, but here’s everything. (Each header is a link to a visual)
Website agency (2022)
This was a freelance website agency, this isn’t a start up but the whole idea was to start making money by providing a service. I initially thought I’d start with just myself since I had a couple years of experience making websites and then as demand grows I’d just start hiring people and scaling. This went good for a while I made around 5k, but then I ran into some legal trouble with a customer. He wanted different deliverables, and it turned into a mess. I got sick and tired of making websites for people and I wanted to change things up.
Why I failed : I loved making websites for myself, but I just hated making websites for other people, instead of me making website. It was literally them telling me exactly what to do, not minding the experience I had. I also realized very early on that the website market would disappear pretty quick, even with CMS’s the market for custom development was dwindling.
Website - jessmanoj.com
Termin - Hair SaSS (2022-23)
This was supposed to be a platform where you could store your haircuts, the idea was to eliminate miscommunication between you and your barber. An issue I saw in my life was that every time you went to a different barber or even the same barber they would mess up your hair sometimes. The reason this happened is primarily the vagueness of how you described your haircut. I thought a good way to counteract that was to have an app that stores your haircuts, and lets the barber know ahead of time how to cut your hair. You would essentially take a couple pictures of your haircut and then it would get automatically saved to your profile, and that way barbers can ensure they give the best quality haircuts. Plus if you do go to the next guy down the street, he can also give you the same (best) quality.
Why I failed : I saw a company called Fresha that literally did exactly what I set out to do for FREE, and my heart sank and I decided to quit.
I also had projections for market cap and all these things about making money, but no actual product to show for it.
Wireframe : https://www.figma.com/design/WmPZMGMpVA1DHkQGqA4uZE/Termin?node-id=21-3&p=f
Notion : https://mulberry-wandflower-0b3.notion.site/Termin-SaSS-4cd92ea71ee746f5b825454e23d7180c
Book2you
I felt that reading books changed my life, more than anything and I wanted to make a community where we can all read. The reason I failed is because I stopped working on it.
Website : https://www.book2you.ca/
Weekly logs : https://www.lifeofjeso.ca/t/book2you
Everything on this is on the blog already under Book2you category.
Vandi
I worked in the car industry for about a year and I feel like I had a good founder-market fit. That was one key thing that all the other products lacked, an insider edge. First thing I did was talk to clients, I went to a couple dealerships and then I gave them a presentation on my product. Many said they were interested but no one really needed the product. I was sending emails, and it seemed like it was going nowhere. After that I just quit, I didn’t really care about helping dealerships get more clients.
Pitch : https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wchgSHv5_2A7JEZKloBh4DcBeOFXcpD2yoOl1EvbVww/edit?usp=sharing
Demo Website :
Why I failed : I didn’t even fail I just quit. I’m really struggling with meaning, like does the product I’m making even matter? I’ve heard a lot of startup advice regarding, are you passionate about the problem, and if you are ready to work on this for the next 10 years? and my answer to that question was a hard NO. Frankly, I think I just have to work on something because switching between product to product, is helping me learn a lot, but I feel like I can learn more if I had stuck to one. I could have probably even had success ( actual clients that use it) if I just did one of these for a longer duration.
One thing I realized when writing all this, is that I haven’t stuck to one project for more than 4 months. I’m having trouble weighing the odds against starting something new or just working on side projects that give me the opportunity to work on cooler things.
At this point. I think I’m ready to ask for help. I’m gonna try my best and work at a startup, that way I learn how to do it from the professionals.
Start downs it’s just that maybe I’m not meant to or I can’t make a start up because of me as a person, perhaps there is some key part of me that needs to develop. Clearly the incompetency is something I can’t see.
These are just my opinions, I’ll probably change them in the future, I’ll also come back and edit this tomorrow.