The discomfort of selling first

I am doing something different this time compared to how I used to build ideate and build products. This time, I am not building anything until I see paying customers. And oh boy, it is unsettling to be selling anything without anything more than a brochure and a promise.

Eureka

You see, historically, all my projects were born out of a eureka moment. A particular eureka moment that was born of a personal pain so immense and annoying, that it will go on to fuel a firm conviction in me to commit. And conviction matters. I need it so no one (except our users) can tell me that I will not succeed.

The entire world will tell me why I will fail, and it would not leave a dent on me. But who will protect me from myself? I need firm conviction to defend myself from the case of self-doubt.

Problems born out of personal pain and market opportunity

If the solutions born out of my pain points carried sizeable market opportunities, I will gladly repeat the process and allow product ideas come to me (organically) again. But they are not.

Anecdotally, Kloudsec, which was not born out of a pain point of mine, was a rare product that carried a significant market opportunity. So I know it can be done because I have ideated through iteration before.

The current business model for Sapiengraph is always simmering at the back of my head. Today, I found out that there exist multiple startups that are doing what I am trying to do. Not as cool, but more or less the same.

I am not building another me-too product. So I will have to go back to the drawing board again. Honestly, this iterative ideation process is unsettling. But like a daily blog post, it must be done because discipline.