How I built 21 products in 2 years

2017: I spent a year building a startup that made $0.
2023: I launched 10 products and made $263,000.

Speed is solopreneurs' best friend. Here is how to get ideas and build them fast.

An idea, quick

The most successful products were built by solopreneurs scratching their itches. Pieter Levels building NomadList while traveling the world is a great example.

There are tons of existing problems gravitating around you. Build a habit of looking around. If you’re working 9/5, it’s the best place to explore. Search for experiences that bother you. Or knowledge you wish you had.

If nothing comes, start something new. Try a new sport, start a new daily routine, or acquire new skills. You can also solve universal problems: Businesses want more revenue, and people want to be more productive. Finally, you can upgrade a product you or your friends are using.

When you get started, ideas don’t matter. Building them does. You’ll discover real problems and get tons of promising ideas.

The 24-hour startup

My 2017 startup failure went like this: I threw away all the code, quit my girlfriend, and moved to a new country.

The more time invested, the higher the expectations. In the tough world of entrepreneurship where expectations are rarely met, spending months on a product is a recipe for burnout.

Every startup has a 24-hour version: Airbnb is a spreadsheet, and Instagram is a Google Drive.

Find yours. Remove all non-critical features. Spend a week or two building. Write a good headline and ship with a buy button.

Building a successful startup is a repetition of tiny failures.

Be comfortable being imperfect. Take action. Now is a good time to write some code.