My App Failed - My Brutal 6 Months Building a Startup — Transcript

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1. 0:00so last year I became the lead software
2. 0:01engineer in a new tech startup with two
3. 0:04co-founders we were building the startup
4. 0:05for around 6 months ending around
5. 0:08December of last year and today I'm here
6. 0:10to tell you the story of how the startup
7. 0:12failed miserably so that you can laugh
8. 0:15at me and hopefully learn something so
9. 0:17you don't make the same mistakes as me
10. 0:19and so that you don't end up spending 6
11. 0:22months working 70 hours a week only to
12. 0:24make 0 at the end of it I will briefly
13. 0:28tell you the story of what we were
14. 0:29trying to build what our idea was why we
15. 0:32thought it was a good idea and then my
16. 0:34theories on why it basically did not end
17. 0:37up working and why people did not want
18. 0:39this product and I will sort of try to
19. 0:41explain to you the brutal process of
20. 0:44what you will have to go through if you
21. 0:46try to build a tech company on your own
22. 0:49just how difficult it is and just how
23. 0:51many things there are to consider that
24. 0:53you probably not even thinking about
25. 0:54right now if you've never done this
26. 0:56before and then I will tell you what I
27. 0:58would do differently to day which I will
28. 1:01be once I eventually try again with
29. 1:04building a tech startup and by the way
30. 1:05before anyone worries about me I'm fine
31. 1:08I already have and already had a
32. 1:11successful business that was making me
33. 1:13and still is making me tens of thousands
34. 1:14of dollars a month so this was not the
35. 1:17kind of thing that was like makeup break
36. 1:18for me where I have to succeed where if
37. 1:20I don't succeed I'm going to be broke or
38. 1:22anything like that like I'm doing fine
39. 1:24you don't have to worry about me but
40. 1:26this is the story of how this particular
41. 1:27business completely failed so I made a
42. 1:29full video before on our process of how
43. 1:33we buil the product the entire story and
44. 1:35everything like that while we were
45. 1:36essentially still working on this so you
46. 1:38can watch that right here for the full
47. 1:40details was essentially the idea started
48. 1:42when an old high school friend of mine
49. 1:44invited me for coffee in Finland where
50. 1:46he basically told me about this idea
51. 1:48that that he had for this productivity
52. 1:50app that would essentially solve the
53. 1:51problem that a lot of us have on our
54. 1:53computers when we're trying to work on
55. 1:55many different things at the same time
56. 1:57which leads our computers to get very
57. 1:58cluttered we have a a lot of different
58. 2:00things open a million tabs open on our
59. 2:02computer so it would essentially build
60. 2:04this almost AI powered productivity tool
61. 2:07that would like automate everything
62. 2:08where everything is organized and you
63. 2:09can almost open these like folders what
64. 2:11we call boxes where everything that is
65. 2:13related to one particular project would
66. 2:16open up at the same time and everything
67. 2:18else that you don't need while you're
68. 2:19working on that thing would close and
69. 2:21that would sort of be the value
70. 2:22proposition initially I was like well I
71. 2:25don't really have time because I have
72. 2:26this YouTube thing and everything like
73. 2:27that but eventually after I finished on
74. 2:29working on my course and things like
75. 2:31this and now I suddenly had a bunch more
76. 2:33time I decided that I was going to join
77. 2:35so we started coding the app we coded
78. 2:37the app for a few months just between
79. 2:39the two of us everything was going well
80. 2:41although it was taking already much
81. 2:44longer than it was supposed take the
82. 2:46common advice for stter Founders is that
83. 2:48you should build something as fast as
84. 2:50possible to the point where you can
85. 2:51actually give some very broken demo
86. 2:54version to someone and to sort of start
87. 2:56to see if there is any demand for this
88. 2:58product and you can start to see how
89. 2:59people are using it things like this so
90. 3:02that was already sort of the first
91. 3:03mistake we had underestimated how long
92. 3:06it would take to build this app that we
93. 3:08wanted to build and it ended up being
94. 3:09much more complicated as things usually
95. 3:11are than we anticipated at some point we
96. 3:13got a third co-founder to sort of focus
97. 3:16on the non-technical sides of the
98. 3:17business like marketing things like this
99. 3:19and eventually we did get our app to the
100. 3:21point where we were able to start giving
101. 3:23it to uses we had like a beta version
102. 3:25that was honestly pretty good already
103. 3:27like it worked there were some bucks but
104. 3:29that is completely normal so we started
105. 3:31giving it out to users and this is where
106. 3:33actually our morale was at the highest
107. 3:35because initially the feedback was
108. 3:36actually really good it seemed like
109. 3:38everyone we were giving this app to was
110. 3:40liking it but this is where the second
111. 3:42mistake comes in the feedback we got was
112. 3:44deceiving and we were listening to it in
113. 3:46the wrong way if you ever build anything
114. 3:49and especially if you're putting a lot
115. 3:50of effort and especially if you then
116. 3:52give that app to someone who is your
117. 3:54friend or who has some reason to be nice
118. 3:56to you they are going to say only nice
119. 3:59things about the thing not because they
120. 4:00actually like it but because they want
121. 4:02to be nice to you and we ended up in
122. 4:04this situation a lot where we were
123. 4:05giving this thing to people they were
124. 4:06giving good feedback and they were like
125. 4:08oh if it just had this one thing then I
126. 4:10would definitely use it so then what did
127. 4:12we do well we went ahead and built that
128. 4:15thing that they were asking for so we
129. 4:16ended up with this massive list of
130. 4:18features that we just kept adding to the
131. 4:20app because we were like oh if it just
132. 4:21has this one more thing or this one more
133. 4:23thing then it's going to be good enough
134. 4:24for for us to finally release it and
135. 4:26then people are really going to love it
136. 4:28but really what was going on here is
137. 4:30that people don't really even know what
138. 4:33they want it's sort of your job as the
139. 4:35entrepreneur to figure out what the core
140. 4:37problem is that you're trying to solve
141. 4:39and make the simplest possible thing to
142. 4:41only solve that problem and then give it
143. 4:44to people and see if they use it or not
144. 4:47so the reality is that we simply made
145. 4:48the app way too complicated it had way
146. 4:50too many features which made it very
147. 4:52difficult for people to start using it a
148. 4:54lot of people who downloaded it simply
149. 4:56didn't even know how to use it because
150. 4:58it was so complicated and there was so
151. 5:00many things on the screen which to us
152. 5:02because we had spent months every single
153. 5:04day working on it for us it was obvious
154. 5:05well obviously you do this but for
155. 5:07someone seeing it for the first time it
156. 5:08was not obvious at all so what we
157. 5:10started noticing is that while we were
158. 5:12ostensibly getting this really good
159. 5:13feedback and people were excited and
160. 5:15they were excited to try and things like
161. 5:17this after a few days or sometimes even
162. 5:19the first day of people using it because
163. 5:21we were tracking in the analytics of how
164. 5:23much people used it people simply
165. 5:25dropped off they stopped using it and we
166. 5:27like well why is this they were asking
167. 5:29for these things and we build these
168. 5:30things so why are people using it and I
169. 5:31think the core problem with this app was
170. 5:34that the problem was not enough of a
171. 5:37pain like it was not a painful enough
172. 5:39problem for people to even bother
173. 5:42learning this new tool to solve this
174. 5:44problem of having too many things open
175. 5:46on your computer like it's a problem all
176. 5:48of us can understand and recognize in
177. 5:51our lives like right now I have freaking
178. 5:5210 tabs open on my computer as I'm
179. 5:54filming this video but it's not enough
180. 5:56of a problem where I would go out of my
181. 5:58way to seek out out and learn some tool
182. 6:01to solve this problem so that's another
183. 6:03lesson here if you're building a startup
184. 6:05if you're building a business you want
185. 6:07to make sure that the problem you're
186. 6:08solving is a real problem that's
187. 6:10actually really painful for people so
188. 6:12that they will be willing to actually
189. 6:14get some new tool or especially even pay
190. 6:16for a new tool to solve that problem so
191. 6:19given that this was still a free app we
192. 6:21never charged any money for this app
193. 6:23because we were going to have a paid
194. 6:25version later on after we perfect the
195. 6:27first version yet given that people were
196. 6:29not even using this free version you're
197. 6:31like well no one's probably going to pay
198. 6:33for this thing So eventually we just
199. 6:34sort of left it and by the way the app
200. 6:36still exist you can download it down
201. 6:38below in the description if you want to
202. 6:39use it there's still actually some
203. 6:41people who actively use this so at least
204. 6:43that makes us feel good at least there's
205. 6:45some people in the world who have found
206. 6:47enough use in this app to keep using it
207. 6:50every single day but for most people
208. 6:53that simply wasn't the case so we
209. 6:54decided it's probably not worth the
210. 6:56effort to keep working on these all of
211. 6:59us proba have better higher leverage
212. 7:01things that we could be focused on like
213. 7:03I still have my YouTube business I have
214. 7:05a second YouTube channel as well that's
215. 7:06already making more than $10,000 a month
216. 7:08as well so I have all of these things
217. 7:10that already generating all this cash
218. 7:12flow so it's much better use of my time
219. 7:14for me to just for now Focus my
220. 7:16attention on that and then only once I'm
221. 7:18at the point where I really had a good
222. 7:20problem a good idea to focus on and I
223. 7:23have the time for it that is when I'm
224. 7:24going to try again with a different
225. 7:26business and a few things that I will do
226. 7:28differently next time when when I will
227. 7:29try to build an app on my own number one
228. 7:32I will absolutely not build a
229. 7:34productivity app one thing about
230. 7:36building a business that I've learned is
231. 7:37that you only want to get into business
232. 7:39in something if you have some unfair
233. 7:41advantage in that thing the thing with
234. 7:43something like a productivity app anyone
235. 7:45has the ability to understand and to
236. 7:47build a productivity app which leads to
237. 7:49the fact that there's a million
238. 7:51bazillion productivity tools out there
239. 7:53because when you're thinking about
240. 7:54building some kind of app usually the
241. 7:57first thing you think about is something
242. 7:59related to productivity like automating
243. 8:01some things or something like that which
244. 8:03makes it a great thing for beginners to
245. 8:05Tinker in things like that but for a
246. 8:07serious business it's very very
247. 8:08difficult because you have so much
248. 8:09competition but if you think about
249. 8:11something very very specific where you
250. 8:13specifically have experience or some
251. 8:15expertise that most people are not going
252. 8:16to have that's going to be a much better
253. 8:19area for you to build a business and in
254. 8:21the future I'm only going to build
255. 8:22things related to these kinds of things
256. 8:24where I have some unfair Advantage the
257. 8:26second thing is build something that we
258. 8:27can launch in 1 month the thing with
259. 8:30this app is that it was so technically
260. 8:32complex to achieve the thing that we
261. 8:34were trying to build that it just ended
262. 8:35up taking so long for us to even get to
263. 8:38the point where we were able to give
264. 8:40this to people and determine that in the
265. 8:42end it wasn't a good idea that we simply
266. 8:44wasted so much time where if we had
267. 8:46focused on something where it's simple
268. 8:48to build it solves a real problem but
269. 8:50it's simple to actually build some kind
270. 8:52of working version of it we could have
271. 8:54realized in like 2 weeks or one month
272. 8:56that actually this doesn't make sense
273. 8:58and then we could have moved on do the
274. 8:59new thing and that's very very key when
275. 9:01you're building a startup especially if
276. 9:03you don't have a lot of resources you
277. 9:04want to ship fast this is what people
278. 9:06say ship fast see what doesn't work see
279. 9:09what works see what doesn't work and if
280. 9:10it doesn't work just kill it and move
281. 9:12forward because usually when you're
282. 9:14building a business the first 10 ideas
283. 9:16are not going to work but then there's
284. 9:17going to be that one that works so the
285. 9:19faster you can get to the point where
286. 9:20you try these 10 ideas first the faster
287. 9:23you're going to get your first success
288. 9:24and the third reason is I'm only going
289. 9:26to focus on some problem that I
290. 9:28personally know as an entrepreneur you
291. 9:30have to solve a problem but
292. 9:32understanding what is a real problem can
293. 9:34be really difficult you might look at
294. 9:36some industry you have no idea about
295. 9:38like in the background there's a bunch
296. 9:39of banks out there you might think about
297. 9:41okay how can I build an app to solve a
298. 9:43problem for banks the thing is if you're
299. 9:45not a banker if you have no experience
300. 9:47with working in a bank it's unlikely
301. 9:50that you're going to know the real
302. 9:51painful problems that Bankers have if
303. 9:54you don't have any experience and it's
304. 9:55very very unlikely that you're going to
305. 9:57know exactly what is a good solution for
306. 10:00some Banker if you haven't been a banker
307. 10:03yourself so for me next time what I'm
308. 10:05specifically going to do is I'm only
309. 10:06going to look at what are some problems
310. 10:08that I really understand and sort of
311. 10:10this ties in with Point number one is
312. 10:12with having an unfair Advantage if you
313. 10:14yourself have experienced that problem
314. 10:16you have an unfair Advantage with
315. 10:18solving that problem because you
316. 10:19actually understand that problem which
317. 10:21makes you so much more equipped to
318. 10:22actually build a solution for it so I'm
319. 10:24only going to look at spaces that I have
320. 10:26experience in and build something
321. 10:28related to that that doesn't mean that
322. 10:30my next idea is going to succeed it's
323. 10:31still probably going to fail but at
324. 10:33least it's going to have a higher
325. 10:35likelihood of success and if I keep
326. 10:37trying enough times then eventually I'm
327. 10:39going to succeed as happened with my
328. 10:41YouTube businesses I actually had
329. 10:43several YouTube channels before the
330. 10:45first one succeeded that is just usually
331. 10:47how it works I hope you can learn
332. 10:49something out of this video and have
333. 10:50some ideas or some insight on what you
334. 10:52could do better than me if you're
335. 10:54building a business if you yourself are
336. 10:56looking for business ideas that you can
337. 10:58build with coding actually made a list
338. 11:00of the five ideas that I think have a
339. 11:02lot of potential so I recommend you
340. 11:03watch this video right here and
341. 11:05previously I actually interviewed my
342. 11:07startup Mentor my startup coach on the
343. 11:10sort of philosophy of building a startup
344. 11:12with coding so if you want to see that
345. 11:14video you can watch start right here so
346. 11:16watch one of these videos next I'll see
347. 11:17you in the next one