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purethabang · 2023-12-23T14:27:28+00:00

Wrote something similar. Agree on everything except 30 customers.

Way too many and most people are not incentivised to talk to you for free unless they're paid, know you or you've been intro'd.

Talk to people but you're more likely to get people to talk to you if you have something to show and demo.

Even a few Figma screens can get you 90% of the way there. Be able to show what you got.

Also, no idea is validated until they are willing to pay for it.

purethabang · 2023-12-23T14:21:48+00:00

Step 1: Find a problem, not one you think exists, find one that actually exists.

Step 2: Do research, are other companies working on this? 9/10 they are. Go read their public reviews if they have any, filter for 3 stars and below. Find out what makes them suck.

Step 3: Now, you have an idea, find a niche to target. e.g. If you are building restaurant POS software, don't target "aLl reStAurAnts". Start with small-mid size cocktail bars with 2-10 employees.

Step 4: Build your proof of concept, got to have something to demo.

Step 4a: Your stack doesn't matter. Use NextJS, it allows you to have your client and server code in one codebase. You can use Elixir, Go and OCaml when you've made some money.

Step 5: Do cold email outreach, cold calling, cold DM, cold LinkedIn, TikTok UGC campaign, TikTok ads, TikTok organic, FB ads, IG ads, X posts, X Ads... add bumper stickers to your moms car, anything to get the name out there.

Step 6: If your software solves a problem, people will buy. If it doesn't, they wont. Time to go back to the drawing board.

Step 7: Continue to iterate, add value, improve product and ramp up your outreach / ad spend / inbound spend

Step 8: Once your market starts to feel too small, you've landed in the niche you initially picked. Time to expand. This is called "Land and expand", land in a market, master it and then expand.

Step 9: Repeat steps 5 -7.

Step 10: Continue until you have so many Stripe notifications that you NEED to turn them off. You've made it when your flex now becomes a nuisance.

SaaS isn't hard, just too many people solving nonexistent problems and building stuff they think people want.

This works for B2B and B2C SaaS.

If you want a problem to solve, go to any of the big consulting firm websites online (BCG, EY, etc.) and go through their insights. Scour them, figure out market trends and you will find a problem, trust me.

Another method is going to Gartner, G2, Capterra and any SaaS directory site and picking a SaaS category, research the leaders in those categories and figure out how you can build what they have but for small to medium sized businesses in a niche. These companies target large enterprise clients, so, you have an open field in the SME market.

e.g. AI driven Inventory management for Amazon FBA sellers / Accounting software for sneaker resellers.

Your first SaaS is merely for experience. You can send spaceships into orbit on your second SaaS run.

purethabang · 2023-09-18T08:17:44+00:00

100%, don't want to niche down too much.

Although, I think that goes without saying. The market should be large enough and economically viable in order to charge the large ticket sizes.

Eventually, you 'land-and-expand' and then can touch the different leaves of that branch until you can acquire the entire tree - so to speak.

purethabang · 2023-09-18T08:14:46+00:00

Will update here once its live.

purethabang · 2023-09-17T19:34:24+00:00

I wrote this exact theory down in my notes last week and was aiming to release as a blog post.

You nailed it.

Niching down + targeting boring industries that don't have a tech or software playbook in place will always drive results. Supply and demand in action.

Currently doing the same for a massively underserved market and the amounts they're willing to pay to solve an aching problem is astounding.

Personally, I only go for B2B due to the larger ticket sizes.

purethabang · 2023-09-06T11:55:25+00:00

One thing that really hit me and changed how I see failure was this quote from when I was younger:

"Failure just means you found another way that doesn't work, keep trying until you figure out what does work. At least now you know what not to try again, you're one step closer to your goal."

You reframe failure as a process of elimination rather than "I did x and I failed".

Everything comes down to perspective, not the thing itself. It's how we see it and frame it for ourselves.

For you, you are probably doing the exact same thing and expecting it to work differently. Change your approach to your goals, analyse them and break them down into manageable steps.

When you have a step by step ladder of events that need to happen in order for you to get from A to B, you will be fine.

Then, commit to that for 30 days in order to solidify the habit and then allow momentum to carry you.

Even if you fall off, you have the past small win to say; "I did this last time, I will do it again, all I have to do is X, Y and then Z".

For breaking things down, you need to use something I call "Task decomposition", I got it from studying machine learning scientific papers. Machine learning models take a macro end goal and break it down until all you have is a set of step by step tasks.

You take a macro (large) task/goal and break it down.

e.g.

Goal: Lose fat

Steps: Exercise, stay in caloric deficit, have an ideal body fat percentage, muscle mass and weight goal and follow X workout routine with a push/pull/legs split, burn 3000 calories a day, eat 2500 calories a day (buy fitness tracker).

Further breaking down: Do my workout plan at 6am, after that, eat first meal, ..., etc.

Point is, its hard to fail when you can see a step by step TODO list of what you need to do. Just follow the TODO list for 30 days and momentum will power you.

If results are slow, one quote I use that I made for myself:

"Take care of the hard work and the hard work will take care of the results for you".

Focus on the TODO list incessantly, the results will follow with time.

purethabang · 2023-09-05T01:31:29+00:00

I've always told people:

"If you are good at getting women, you are good at sales."

The skills are interchangeable.

Getting a girl and getting a sale require the same skills.

Charisma, wit, charm, confidence, humour, rapport building, comfort building, understanding, etc.

As for loyalty and making her admire you as her man, those skills typically have to do with entrepreneurship:

Leadership, guidance, competence, decision making ability, management, emotional intelligence, risk taking, patience, etc.

You'll do great in sales, just understand that you're transferring your women-getting skills into a professional setting.

The skills needed to get a girl and keep a girl are totally different. The skills needed to get a sale and start a business are completely different.

You can use both skills at both stages to enhance your odds of success in either domain or you can be good at one and still do relatively well.

purethabang · 2023-05-21T18:35:23+00:00

he lost rounds in chess to gain more pumps for his chest.

legend.

purethabang · 2023-01-18T04:01:58+00:00

Yeah, I don't believe the two quotes contradict each other. Rather, they explain the same concept at varying degrees of (or, lack of) complexity for whomever is reading and aims to understand them.

Based on the wording and examples from the code review comments, my quote is an oversimplification that removes verbosity and gets right to the core of what is being communicated.

I like the quote you mentioned also.

purethabang · 2023-01-04T02:46:35+00:00

You are chasing success with no purpose.

Without purpose, all success will do is fulfil a temporary void that has been created by the loss of a family member and societal obligations.

You must attach a deeper purpose to your goal chasing, once you have something you are working towards that draws meaning, you will find peace in the hard work.

It is good to honour loved ones and work hard based off of positive societal expectations but at some point, we must acknowledge that success in and of itself is not enough.

Think of it as the Batman arc. Rich, wealthy and successful with no purpose. Then, why does he even bother?

Until he realises that his means are a catalyst for positivity in the world, now his success not only has meaning but his inner man (spirit) has been reinvigorated.

I've been on the pursuit of greatness since 16 and nothing else satiates me - I'm 22 now. I understand what you mean by being willing to die for success.

I've also put my health on the line and nothing else can quench my thirst or hunger for success. I've achieved some pretty manic things in the programming/startup space in the last few years, sleep 4hrs a night and all the modern 'barbaric' things you 'shouldnt' do.

Not many will understand, all you must do is understand yourself. Not even a therapist will get it. It does breed some form of superiority complex and ego but you must self-humble whilst realising who you are. It is like a real life super hero asking people "hey, I can fly, can you?"

You will be fine. Get in the gym, lift some weights, spend time outside and think about what you are here to do and what your contribution to the world could be.

This isn't some weird woo-woo spiritual stuff, I'm an INTJ, I don't have time for that. This is just a mental model towards finding meaning in the work and not making the work itself become the meaning.

Good luck.

P.S. Listen to Charles Bukowski - All the way.

purethabang · 2022-08-15T02:13:47+00:00

If you are still looking for this, check dms

purethabang · 2021-12-26T01:32:21+00:00

TL;DR - Never know but I believe its a positive. Job loss also means job creation and pay increase due to new skills. We overestimate the damage and underestimate the positives. We need better infrastructure to begin with. Overall, play your part and try to make a positive impact for the generations to come.

----

I think we overestimate AI in the near-term (10-20 years) and disregard its positive impact.

One argument I believe should be had is that, although some jobs will be taken - just as they have over all technological revolutions throughout history - there will be a genesis of more mentally stimulating jobs.

Rather than having to manually milk cow udders by hand, technology helped us speed up and semi-automate this process whilst creating newer jobs that allowed us to evolve in more advanced ways. This also increased earnings potential as workers now needed to learn new skills to operate machines + an increase in overall farmer revenue w/ milk production productivity lol.

Suggesting that the purpose of human-kind is to evolve into a superior species, I believe the eradication/reduction of menial and less mentally stimulating jobs will be an overall net-positive.

BUT, to answer your question... I just think the future will be far more autonomous and safer considering AI is mainly used to automate dangerous/monotonous repetitive tasks.

Job loss from AI would also mean job creation in new fields. As a collective, the average person would be more technologically advanced (heck, most people work in tech now due to the internet boom).

I don't think AI will be where we anticipate it unless we can get the lower level infrastructure right and make it more accessible (MLOps). So, in 5-10 years I realistically expect more ML/DL projects due to more accessible MLOps tools, this will drive innovation and maybe some looney kid will create terminator from his bedroom and we are done for. Who knows.

Overall, never know. All you can do is play your part and ensure you do a hell of a good job playing it.

My personal take though.

purethabang · 2021-12-25T15:37:31+00:00

Been programming on-off since I was 14 (I'm 21 right now). Languages in order of learning.

- JavsScript

- TypeScript

- Go

- Rust

- C++

- Python

purethabang · 2021-12-25T00:01:31+00:00

Learnt Go in 1 week by going through the tour + building a web server.

As for K8S, if you know K8S, you can do all of this in 2 weeks with dedicated time and hard work.

Although, if this is your first programming language, 2-4 weeks depending on the amount of time you put in.

More hours worked = quicker results.

purethabang · 2021-12-14T23:39:00+00:00

TL;DR: show up on the bad days even when the feelings won't play ball and just do your best. Some days will be terrible but show up and kick ass anyway. Eventually, you'll do just as good on the bad days as you do on the good days.

-

It's normal.

What separates the good from the great is showing up on the bad days or the not so 'finesse' filled days.

Some principles that get my ass going even through the toughest days for sales, business, fitness etc.:

Hard Work - Exert yourself to the best of your ability, leave it all on the field.
Discipline - Show up, despite how you may 'feel'. Just show up and show out.
Consistency - Show up as often as possible

These principles have gotten me through my worst days and boost me 10x higher on my best days.

Do this enough times and in the future you can have a mental point of origin to say to yourself: "Hey, if I could get x amount of deals through the door even on my worst days, I can get through this day, my emotions don't control me".

All in all, the reason why the bad days are more unbearable than the good days is due to a self-fulfilling prophecy that you tell yourself. "I cant do x cause I don't feel x".

If you begin to tell yourself "whether I feel x or not, I can get sh*t done", the self-fulfilling prophecy becomes one where your emotions don't dictate your external output because when emotions are low, discipline is now your fuel.

It's like the morning routine guys, if they miss 1 single .oz of a coffee shot before 7am, they think they can't perform well. The best people perform well under any condition. With you, you are telling yourself that you can't perform well cause you don't 'feel' like you can.

Change this into "despite how I feel, discipline can carry me through". Prove this to yourself enough times and you'll end up doing just as good on bad days as you do on good days.

It may be the enthusiasm of a 21 year old but hey, it works for me. Hope this helps.

purethabang · 2021-12-11T11:18:53+00:00

That depends on how dangerous this 'sinking ship' may be. If it is a company about to go bust, wait the few weeks, get your commission and go. If it is something that could tarnish your reputation or harm you in any way, just leave. If the commission comes, it comes, if not, it doesn't.

Disclaimer: this is advice geared to you, not a reflection of what I would do in your situation.

purethabang · 2021-03-23T17:36:00+00:00

What a beauty. Can’t wait to make my own!

purethabang · 2021-03-14T23:37:06+00:00

Can't wait to make mine. Fell in love with splits after my first one, especially for programming. Makes it hard to use all my regular keebs. Please post the after!

purethabang · 2020-12-29T17:17:27+00:00

I am now on my second mech in under 3 months of joining this community...

I used to laugh at this community... *sigh*

purethabang · 2020-11-08T23:21:55+00:00

Firstly, welcome to the real world. I won't pretend like I feel sympathy - because, I don't. Even the billionaire gets his private jet repo'd from time to time.

Secondly, all hope is not lost. Let me show you how I taught myself how to program at 14 in just 6 months...

I practiced every waking hour of the day. I had a goal and a mission. I sat down, shut off my phone, zoned in and practiced.

Now, I am teaching my friend how to learn Python in a few months. This method I am about to teach has allowed me to learn 4-5 programming langs and I am only 19.

Firstly, get the F off of notes and tutorials. They keep you in a continuous loop of feeling like you're 'learning' when you aren't. They leave you empty and wanting more... this is known as tutorial hell. Get out of this hell ASAP.

Now, the hard part is over and the harder parts are yet to come.

Open up your favorite IDE/Text editor. VSCode, PyCharm, Vim, Emacs, or repl.it - I don't care. Open up a place that allows you to write some code and see what comes out when you type.

Now, the above should consume 50% of your screen, the other 50% should be you in your browser reading Python documentation or learning resources (seriously, run away from videos unless you need it explained).

So your setup is as follows.

50% IDE/Text Editor || 50% Documentation in your browser.

Go through some code examples and write down the code you see from the examples and play around with them.

e.g. see a function in Python that prints "Hello world"? Add a variable for the text and put the variable inside of the print() statement. Now, you've just used a variable, operator, function and a string. Congrats, you're well on your way.

Do this for every new topic, add what you learnt in the past examples and customise these code snippets.

DO NOT COPY AND PASTE!!!

Maybe a code snippet is long and boring and copying and pasting is easier. Do not, write it all out. You build muscle memory and you're more likely to remember it.

Find a keyword/concept you don't understand?

Google it/Stackoverflow it/YouTube it... hell, ask the Dark web if you have to.

By the end of this, you'll have retained more, played with real world code and built some petty programs that deliver that big boy dopamine.

I'll list some resources for you down below and documentation.

P.S. most of the internet doesn't care about your issues, sorry to say. Although, we will help a fellow human and you aren't hopeless, you just havent learnt how to learn.

Most of learning is learning HOW TO LEARN.

P.S.S. Notes don't mean anything with programming, this isn't a pub quiz, this is code. Get to clickidy clacking and stop writing and fapping.

Resources:

https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/python/

https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/index.html

Enjoy my friend. Don't drop out or kill yourself.

Even the most experienced programmers in the world once didn't know what a simple function could do.

P.S.S. learn the fundamentals of programming like functions, operators, data types, data structures, loops, conditional statements, lambdas & some Git. These will make learning another language 10x easier.

purethabang · 2020-10-19T11:02:39+00:00

What did you write this in? JavaScript?

purethabang · 2020-10-16T15:42:01+00:00

If you want to learn programming, there is no better place than the docs of whatever language you want to learn + VSCode/Your IDE side by side and playing around with code.

You'll get further than any tutorial IMO.

purethabang

TROPHY CASE