Startup Dilemmas

After running my own startup for a few months there are a few recurring dilemmas I have realized for an aspiring entrepreneur:

Do you target consumers (B2C) or businesses (B2B)? Consumers don’t want to pay anything for software. If Facebook starts charging $1/month tomorrow for their service, all users will go away. Businesses want to buy from other established businesses and through connections. Either way you are up against a a wall. For consumer oriented software the most likely route to monetization will be through ads. Dan Martell has a powerful piece of advice – sell to rich people. You will face less drama and tantrums. Rob Walling suggests avoiding B2C at all costs [1]. Its interesting because in his first book that he wrote decades ago, he was actually advocating for B2C at that time. This is his other video that I find myself rewatching again and again.

Do you build something that already exists in the market or something completely new? If you build something that already exists in the market people will ask why should I buy from you. If you build something completely new, the product-market fit is untested. Once again, either way you are up against a a wall. The advice is to build something that already exists [1] but I prefer building something completely new as you can have the whole market to yourself and don’t worry about competition. Btw, its not easy to build something completely new. Consider yourself lucky if you can come up with an idea for which a product does not already exist in the market. Its incredibly difficult to come up with genuinely new and original product ideas.
Do you bootstrap or raise funding? For me its bootstrap. Start Small and Stay Small.
Do you go horizontal or vertical?

As with any dilemma there is no right or wrong answer to above. that’s what makes it a dilemma.

Timeless Advice

Sell before you build — Dan Martell
Market comes first, marketing second, aesthetics third and functionality a distant fourth — Rob Walling
Sell to rich people
Most startups fail not because they build something that no one wants to buy, its because they are not able to sell.
Niche markets are absolutely critical for the solopreneur. These markets are big enough for you but small enough for big players that they are not interested in entering. As a solo developer you have no chance of competing with big players. The riches are in the niches.
Listen to everyone but make your own decisions. Every situation is unique.