We are in the business of creating value, but sometimes we forget. Sometimes we are just focussing on the monetary side of value: money. But a man of wrong ambition and focus is a man on a path to misery. Here is how I was led astray.
More than 1 and a half years ago, I started working on B2C companies. Mainly because of the influence the indie hacking community had on me and therefore the possibilities of “digitally earning money from anywhere”, a premise that still sounds attractive to me to this day.
Phase 1: Building
One of the things they say is “just build” and so I did. I know how to code, which makes building easy. Modern tech stacks with open-source templates make getting out an MVP pretty damn easy and fast. This is how I was able to build more than 3 products in 5 months. Every product focussed on the German EdTech market, a space I find interesting because of the opportunity for disruption and innovation.
Phase 2: Launching
My first B2C product was RedeRadar, a small tool that helps students improve their presentation skills through something called “PowerPoint Karaoke”. The idea popped up in my head as I was trying to find a free website offering PowerPoint-Karaoke and found none. I “launched” it by doing random Reddit posts and sending it out to friends. Surprisingly, the response was awesome. From the beginning, dozens of people started using the site. I worked on optimizing SEO, and it now has more than a dozen thousand monthly users. But I was still demoralized, the product had extreme seasonality to it (lots of users stopped using it in the holidays and didn’t get back to it after they had ended) and I didn’t see a way for commercialization, so I stopped actively working on the project (which lead to a downfall in time on site).
Phase 3: Trying to make a quick buck
After being depressed about not making any revenue through RedeRadar the only thing in my mind was to make some money as fast as possible. Still personally interested in the education industry, I started talking to students and getting some inspiration for tools I could build. Dam dam dam… I didn’t follow them because I thought I knew better. I wanted to make a website that helps students improve their writing and listening. So I built SchreibRadar, a tool that uses AI to create personalized dictates (for example: you can input your vocabulary, and it creates a dictate for you), which you can then listen to and try your best at writing down everything correctly. What problem does it solve? I am not sure. But here is the thing: I never really tried to promote the product, as I didn’t know how because I wasn’t sure what the problem was and thus who the optimal customer was. Eventually, I talked to friends of mine who are still students and one specifically told me that I should lean into the flashcard learning features, specifically for vocabulary. He sensed that I wasn’t convinced and added that he would be willing to pay. That was the tipping point, and I started working week after week to build out the features he requested (keep in mind, it was only a single person I was talking to). After some time, I released the new version under the new product name: VokabelRadar. He was happy and signed up (also the premium version). What I failed to realize is that I had tunnel vision the entire time. I achieved what I was striving for, a quick buck, but increasingly realized how invaluable the tool I was building was. It was pretty much just a bad copy of Quizlet, with the only added benefit of it being free (except for the AI dictate feature, for which users had to pay).
I tried promoting the product as a free Quizlet alternative, but there were already plenty of free Quizlet alternatives (some better than my version). My depression started to kick in. No vision, no goal, no traction. I only had my failed products. The depression was amplified through health issues, stress because of school (I am still a student), and relationship troubles.
Phase 4: Getting back on track
Typically, this is the part where the story continues with how the tables turned. But they didn’t turn. I started getting back on track: getting back into knowing what I love doing, and that is building valuable things. Not only that but I also got back into doing sports actively, writing, reading, and meditating.
This article here helped me figure out the mistakes I made and the missteps I took. It helped me realize the value of taking a step back and having a macro vision.
Thanks.
Mikitu