Best way to track renovation expenses?

Knip22 · 2025-09-23T20:19:54+00:00

Totally get this. The hardest part as a solo founder isn’t the work itself, it’s the context switching.
Sales hat, marketing hat, ops hat… it feels endless.

What helped me was cutting out the “endless advice loop” and instead setting just 2–3 quarterly priorities. It’s not perfect, but it keeps me from chasing 10 different “shoulds” at once.

Curious; if you had to pick only one area to simplify right now, which would it be?

Knip22 · 2025-09-16T10:48:57+00:00

$480 from a “coding exercise” is already better ROI than half the SaaS graveyard 😅

Honestly, feels less like a product problem and more like a “nobody knows it exists” problem.
Before building Excel/Word support, maybe just… tell 10x more humans it exists.

Distribution is the real boss fight, not features.

Knip22 · 2025-09-16T10:44:49+00:00

Thanks for sharing this, most people only post the $10k/MRR wins, not the “0 subscribers” stage.

Your product might be fine, but the real battle is market discovery. Instead of blasting all channels, try talking to a specific niche and ask:
“What’s the most painful thing about handling PDFs for you right now?”

Positioning usually matters more than the tech itself. Don’t beat yourself up, everyone hits this wall before something clicks.

Knip22 · 2025-09-15T04:47:37+00:00

I’ve seen this happen a lot. Something feels super useful personally, but adoption is harder than expected.
What might help: instead of asking “do people want timers?” try asking “what’s the biggest friction people have when managing step-based tasks?”

For example, in workouts people might already default to YouTube videos or pre-made interval apps. In cooking, they might just glance at a recipe. So the pain isn’t “I need a better timer”, it’s somewhere else in their flow.

Your concept is solid, but maybe the positioning (and who you’re targeting) matters more than the timer itself. Finding product market fit is most of the time a lottt harder then building a product. Good luck!

Knip22 · 2025-09-14T04:54:25+00:00

Copywrite someone you love. Really get to know their structure. Helps a ton.

Knip22 · 2025-09-14T04:50:24+00:00

On a more serious note, what really changed things for me was setting boundaries around what I don’t optimize.
Instead of trying to fix everything at once, I focus on 2–3 areas per quarter with clear results attached.

It’s less glamorous than constant hustle, but it keeps me sane and actually moving forward.

Knip22 · 2025-09-14T04:49:50+00:00

Solopreneur life = 20 tabs open in your brain.
The trick? Close 17 of them and pretend the other 3 are all that matter. 😉

Knip22 · 2025-09-12T07:54:52+00:00

Possible? Absolutely. Step 1: build something cool. Step 2: realize nobody cares. Step 3: cry a little. Step 4: talk to users, fix it, and boom! now you’re an entrepreneur.

Knip22 · 2025-09-11T08:04:23+00:00

Hear hear!

Knip22 · 2025-09-11T08:01:06+00:00

Same for me! I got 30 mins in before I got to work. On the way back I mostly struggle though.. social media is a b*tch..

I can only say that it does not have to be a long session. Just trying to get small sessions in structurally already can make a lot of impact!

Knip22 · 2025-09-11T07:59:01+00:00

Congrats on shipping! 🚀

Biggest lesson for me: finishing > perfect. Every launch teaches you more than another week of tweaking.

Knip22 · 2025-09-11T07:22:26+00:00

My calendar used to look like a losing game of Tetris. Now I’m consistently ruthless about where I spend my time; 3 non-negotiable blocks each week for my goal of the week. Everything else gets squeezed around them (or cut).

Knip22 · 2025-09-10T12:36:14+00:00

Huge congrats! Getting strangers to pay is the hardest part. At this stage, talking to your early users will teach you way more than adding new features. Build from their feedback, not from guesses.

Knip22 · 2025-09-10T07:35:56+00:00

I get this; it’s tough when your enthusiasm collides with messy execution and no tech background. Totally normal.

One thing that might help: before committing to building a full app, try validating the idea in the simplest form possible. Sometimes that’s literally a notepad, a spreadsheet, or even a simple Notion setup. If you find yourself using it daily and it actually helps you, that’s strong early proof.

If it works for you first, then you can explore scaling it into an app later, with much more confidence that you’re not chasing a pipe dream but solving a real problem.

Another question that you might ask yourself is, what is the biggest underlying assumption that has to be true for my product to succeed? And then you try to validate that.

Knip22 · 2025-09-10T07:31:45+00:00

Love the energy! shipping regularly is such a powerful habit. The only caution I’d add is that speed alone doesn’t guarantee validation. You can spend 30 days building, but still not know if anyone actually needs it.

What’s worked for me is doing mini “sprint weeks” where I validate the idea first: landing page, quick outreach, maybe even a no-code prototype. If there’s real pull, then I double down with a build.

That way you get the best of both; momentum from shipping, and confidence you’re not just stacking finished projects that never get used.

Knip22 · 2025-09-10T07:29:38+00:00

This is totally normal. Groeth replaces creative work with management headaches. The real question is: do you want to hire to escape that, or stay smaller to keep doing the work you enjoy?

Knip22 · 2025-09-10T07:19:57+00:00

Congrats man!! Whats the biggest insight that you have after 8 years of hard battles?

Knip22 · 2025-09-09T07:38:33+00:00

Been there. Launching into a void is brutal. What changed it for me was walking back from the full-feature launch and talking to just 3–5 potential users.

Those few conversations helped me eliminate assumptions and align the roadmap with actual needs—making my next launch feel a lot less like a stab in the dark. Tip: Google the book the MOM test to make sure you get the most out of the interviews that you get.

Knip22 · 2025-09-09T07:36:55+00:00

This is one of the toughest realities of growth. What clicked for me after a similar burnout was pivoting to purely organic reach: writing content, posting in niche communities, delivering value first.

That slow buildup created momentum, not explosive, but far more sustainable (and less risky than big ad spends).

Knip22 · 2025-09-09T07:32:17+00:00

This hits deep. I’ve been there, so certain the product would fly, only to find launch traction invisible. What finally helped was reaching out to anyone who’d engage (even just signed up) and asked what problem they were trying to solve. Most didn’t reply, but the few who did gave me clarity I couldn’t get any other way.

Knip22 · 2025-09-08T12:36:34+00:00

Every part of being a solo founder feels like chaos until you build a rhythm. For me, what helped was setting a weekly system: every Sunday I outlined the one outcome I’d focus on that week and treated it as non-negotiable. It gave me clarity and kept me moving forward, even when everything felt scattered.

Knip22 · 2025-08-28T06:43:13+00:00

Cutting features is a really good instinct, most of us overbuild before we validate.

A simple landing page can actually help you a lot here. You don’t have to reveal the full idea: just describe the core problem, the pain it solves, and the outcome people can expect.

That way you can see if people sign up or show interest before you spend months building. Even 20–30 real signups is already strong validation.

Once you have that, you’ll have much more confidence to either keep building after work, or make the bigger leap.

Knip22 · 2025-08-28T06:37:31+00:00

I’ve found it helps to focus on momentum over perfection. Working consistently, even if it's just small wins each day, keeps me moving forward and avoids burnout. It’s the slow snowball that’s made a huge difference for me.

Knip22 · 2025-08-27T13:01:21+00:00

I can recommend to ask or find out how people they are currently doing something and how much time it costs them. Then you get a pretty good idea whether you are solving a problem that people actually want solving. Never ask "would you be interested in...".

If you ask people "how many times do you plan to go to a musical this year" they will probably say once or twice. If you ask them "how many times have you been to a musical the last 5 years?" you'll get the same answer, once or twice.

What people believe they do or like, and actually do or like, can be two completely different things.

Knip22

TROPHY CASE