[HN Gopher] How I Stay Motivated Working on My Solo SaaS (When I...
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How I Stay Motivated Working on My Solo SaaS (When It Feels Like
Nobody Cares)
I've been grinding on my solo project--a little app to help remote
workers find coworking spots nearby--for months, and some days it
feels like I'm yelling into the void. Nobody's signing up, and I'm
burned out. But I've figured out a few tricks to keep going: Set
Tiny Wins: I break it into micro-goals, like "fix that bug today"
or "post on X once." Hitting those feels good, even if the big
picture's slow. Talk to People: I hop on X, ask random remote
workers what they'd want in an app like mine. Even if they don't
sign up, the feedback keeps me pumped. Track Progress, Not Just
Users: I log every little improvement--code commits, design tweaks,
whatever. Seeing a list of wins reminds me I'm moving forward, even
if signups are slow. Take Breaks: When I'm stuck, I step away--go
for a walk, play a game. Coming back fresh helps me see the project
differently. It's not glamorous, but it's keeping me in the game.
Last week, I got one signup after months, and it felt huge. How do
you stay motivated on your solo projects? Any tips to share?
Author : Sayyidalijufri
Score : 77 points
Date : 2025-03-18 12:33 UTC (10 hours ago)
| bochoh wrote:
| I've been grinding on kidcarekit.com for a long while in fits in
| spurts. I find myself working more on the DevOps side rather than
| the actual functionality but I've learned so much about rails and
| DevOps that it's been a net win for me even though it doesn't
| functionally do much yet!
| ptsneves wrote:
| Be careful if you see yourself spending too much time on the
| devops side of things. You can be building a tower of work that
| has zero customer value in the end.
|
| Even the supposed quality improvements found in an automated
| way may just turn out very expensive compared to just spending
| the time doing the QA yourself at specific milestones. Unless
| your career is devops be very skeptical and track your time and
| return on that time.
|
| I learned this the hard way although I am a build/devops person
| professional I came to realise I had a tendency to build really
| complicated processes that would be ok in a hundred person
| team, while I actually was working solo. The upside is that
| there is lots of reusability for future projects and I also
| became very skeptical of custom CI jobs and CD tools, and try
| to reduce everything to env variables 1 line bash scripts. I
| also am very skeptical of automated integration tests as they
| are incredibly expensive to build and maintain.
| fourseventy wrote:
| This is the way
| StickyRibbs wrote:
| All my solo projects suffered from all the things you mentioned.
| Once I found a cofounder for my current project, these problems
| went away because
|
| 1. There's social altruism activated because you two are
| constantly doing things not just for yourself, but for the other
| person. 2. View point diversity. You get way more feedback with
| another talking head at the same table, helps unblock you more
| than you think. And this can ignite new insight and therefore new
| notification energy!
|
| Is there a way to hack this as a solo founder? I think so!
|
| I had a former co founder who I would always bounce ideas off of
| and even tho he wasn't directly working on my projects, he would
| check in with me and kind of act like a rubber duck I could talk
| to. This could be your friends, partner, or strangers!
|
| Also, time is your best friend, for good or for worse. I think
| back on projects I started and quit after a year, I would like to
| think those projects would be successful if I just put more time
| into it.
| jmathai wrote:
| Having just one other person in the trenches is so helpful. I
| hadn't thought about the social altruism angle but I think
| there's a lot of truth to it.
|
| I also agree about time. I think new products follow a model
| similar to compounding interest. It's very small at the start -
| sometimes negligible but over time things add up.
|
| Lastly, I think we get desensitized to success. Getting the
| first user, the first ten, etc. These are not small milestones.
| They're meaningful.
|
| Lastly lastly, if it's something you want to make money from
| then focus primarily on user acquisition and secondly on
| product. Commonly difficult for builders to do but not doing so
| cements delayed failure.
| gadders wrote:
| Forget AI Girlfriends - let's launch AI Co-Founders.
|
| The only problem is I'm a solo developer so need to bootstrap
| my own AI co-founder first.
| comrade1234 wrote:
| AI co-founder with equity.
| gadders wrote:
| 2 years time:
|
| "My AI co-founder has just stitched me up on the cap table.
| Does anyone know a good AI lawyer that can sue them?"
| CharlesW wrote:
| > _The only problem is I 'm a solo developer so need to
| bootstrap my own AI co-founder first._
|
| Here you go: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-67d9acd9106881919145eacc
| 538ec9a2-vir...
| danjl wrote:
| While a co-founder can help, it can also ruin everything. As
| you say, there are other relationships and ways of interacting
| that can easily fill the same role, ie. advisors, board
| members, customers, etc. Statistically, I think that co-founder
| infighting is one of the largest reasons why many startups
| fail. It's also a fantastic way to ruin friendships.
| pacifika wrote:
| What's the app? Might not sign up but am interested in creations
| theoryofx wrote:
| You've got to work on something where there's an immediate
| distribution channel and customers. Don't work on anything so
| speculative as this, where you're just hoping there will be
| someone who wants it.
|
| You have to know how you're going to sell it before you build it.
| There are only a handful of things that work, which other people
| are using and you can copy.
| naveed125 wrote:
| These are some good tips. One thing I would add is to build
| habits, once you have a routine of working on the solo project it
| makes it easier to keep going on not quit.
| sky_rw wrote:
| You stay motivated by remaining as close to the value you are
| delivering to your customers as possible, so you can feed energy
| from their use of the product.
|
| This is almost impossible in a marketplace business, which is one
| of the infinite number of reasons that building a marketplace
| inevitably fails.
| DazWilkin wrote:
| This really resonates with me.
|
| Your insight is helpful almost as much as knowing that other
| people like me are out there too.
|
| I think (!?) I've finally let go of a project that I've been
| working on for a couple of years.
|
| A key tenet of the project (which I frequently forgot) was that
| it was a way for me to learn|refine technical skills and to keep
| me entertained|occupied.
|
| The project certainly achieved those objectives for me and I'm a
| better person for doing it.
|
| Good luck to you and I hope you continue to succeed!
| ph4evers wrote:
| Is this a side project or your main endeavor?
|
| It will take time to get traction. I have a bigger picture in
| mind and shipping small updates and features constantly helps a
| lot. I'm building a tool for myself and I use it on a daily basis
| and keep improving it with the things I like, that keeps me
| motivated.
| suyash wrote:
| Welcome to the world of crowded apps and busy professionals. In
| coming future real problem would be getting people's attention,
| building apps is the easy bit.
| digital_sawzall wrote:
| Attention is easy. Tikok is able to get mass attention in any
| niche.
| davidtinker wrote:
| When it seems like the mountain is impossible to climb and it's
| overwhelming I just look for the next small thing to
| fix/implement and get it done. Rinse and repeat. Don't think
| about the bigger picture, just get stuff done. Eventually a lot
| of stuff gets done and you make progress.
| rixed wrote:
| 1. Write realistic weekly plans and stick to them. There is
| satisfaction in being able to reach a goal every week, even if
| you have to compromise on the quality sometime. It also helps not
| feeling lost if the project takes a long time.
|
| 2. Have frequent debriefs with friends and, if none is available,
| an IA (which will be less afraid to offend you actually).
|
| 3. A _lot_ of sport
| basisword wrote:
| Depending on how long you've been working on it and how hard
| you've marketed it, it's important not to miss a signal that you
| should move on. While we all have problems with motivation from
| time to time, some things aren't worth motivating yourself for
| and it's important to recognise that. This might not apply if
| it's just a hobby project - but a hobby project should probably
| be fun. If it's a serious attempt at a business rethink your
| marketing strategy. Nothing will motivate you more than signups
| and revenue.
| mertleee wrote:
| As a past founder this is immensely important. Think very
| carefully about he financial impacts of "taking the idea to
| term" and more importantly if you're happy with your current
| life. In many cases if you're asking yourself questions like
| this you likely don't have traction to make this a real thing
| and should maybe consider moving on.
| chrisweekly wrote:
| Respectfully, I don't see a viable business here. As a remote
| worker, I can hardly imagine "signing up" for an app to find
| coworking space. Your efforts would be better spent on something
| more compelling. PMF (Product:Market Fit) is hard enough when
| there's actually a decent addressable market.
| sky2224 wrote:
| > Respectfully, I don't see a viable business here.
|
| Isn't all of WeWork this business? Granted, I know they've had
| their share of problems with profitability and bankruptcy,
| however, I think that stems from issues other than the business
| not necessarily being viable.
| chrisweekly wrote:
| > Isn't all of WeWork this business?
|
| No, it's not even close. WeWork owns real estate.
|
| OP is trying to sell subscriptions to an app that helps users
| find coworking locations.
| danjl wrote:
| That's an excellent list of positive strokes. I wanted to punch
| up your bullet on talking to people. Face to face is always
| better. It pulls me out of the void. Rather than chatting on
| text-based social media, set up video chats. Going to small
| conferences in your market is a great way to get a boost of
| energy. If you're good at it, you can even get a few customers.
| Seeing the emotions on the face of the person I'm talking to
| really helps boost my energy.
| akomtu wrote:
| I'm afraid, those remote workers you're trying to help prefer
| working solo, for the same reason you're working solo. Perhaps,
| try to change your idea: make it an airbnb-style office rental
| app, where tech workers rent a home office to other tech workers.
| robot wrote:
| I don't see this to be a problem worth solving.
|
| Some problems are problems but for a startup to succeed it needs
| to be a very important problem.
|
| Having a unique insight is also not enough. It needs to be a
| highly leverageable insight or advantage. One that you can use in
| this startup; as you grow your leverage it will help you get
| users and revenue.
|
| Neither seem true here. When that happens, the journey is a
| grind, you try to push hard but people don't seem interested.
|
| how do I get motivated? well I have to believe there is a
| 'leverageable' insight or angle that will grow when I make
| progress ;) belief that it's a big problem people care about and
| that I am growing unfair advantage over time solving it.
| mertleee wrote:
| I think it's important to highlight that this kind of advice
| isn't negative and it's well meaning. As engineers it can be
| easy to form a distortion field about what we're working on and
| the perception of those who might actually want (or not want)
| to actually buy it.
|
| Being honest with yourself is the best way to be kind to
| yourself. Moving on is not giving up.
| cjs_ac wrote:
| I used to be a schoolteacher; I left teaching and became a
| software engineer a few years ago. For the past two years, I've
| been building a solo Saas product, that solves a problem I
| spotted when I was teaching. I hope to launch later this year.
|
| To answer OP's question, about a year ago, I told my parents what
| I was building. My mum is a teacher, so she's my first test user.
| Every time I talk to them, they ask how things are going, so I
| need to keep working on it so I've got something to tell them.
|
| To join in on everyone else's roasting OP's business idea: OP,
| what are you offering your users that they can't get from typing
| 'coworking space' or 'cafe' into their search engine of choice?
| It's not enough to make something useful, it also has to be
| something that your customers don't already have.
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(page generated 2025-03-18 23:01 UTC)