The biggest problem you'll face as a SaaS founder
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SUMMARY
An entrepreneur who dropped out of college after two years shares his three-year journey of failures in businesses like YouTube and agencies, pinpointing doubt and half-commitment as the core challenge for SaaS founders, urging full dedication for success.
STATEMENTS
- Failure has been a constant thread throughout the speaker's entrepreneurial career, linking to a pattern of half-hearted efforts in sports, school, and business.
- Half-commitment in entrepreneurship is detrimental, akin to botching a flip into water by bailing midway, resulting in wasted time and pain without progress.
- Founders commonly experience doubt about wasting time on their projects, intensified by rapid changes like AI advancements and competitor innovations.
- Full commitment reduces the likelihood of failure, though it doesn't eliminate it, by pushing past doubt and focusing solely on execution.
- Past moderate successes, such as a YouTube channel, build precedence that motivates tackling subsequent ventures, reinforcing belief in potential outcomes.
- Obvious future trends like humanoid robotics and self-driving cars have already attracted billions in investment, leaving niche SaaS opportunities harder to predict.
- With existing paying customers, founders can confidently acquire more by iteratively proving demand one user at a time, scaling gradually without overreaching.
- The obsession with finding a "forever business" immediately is misguided; most entrepreneurs cycle through four or five ventures before discovering a sustainable one with tailwinds and luck.
- Staying focused on long-term projects like product development is challenging due to intrusive doubts, but ignoring them or leveraging precedents is key to success.
- The speaker delays video creation until unproductive evenings, as it doesn't generate income, prioritizing core work over non-essential content.
IDEAS
- Entrepreneurship mirrors physical risks like flips into water, where half-measures lead to the worst outcomes, emphasizing total commitment for any chance of success.
- Doubt in founders often stems from unseen competitor moves and AI's accelerating pace, creating an emotional whirlwind that questions every decision's validity.
- Building on prior achievements creates a psychological chain: a successful YouTube channel boosts confidence for a design business, which in turn supports SaaS pursuits.
- First customers validate desires, prompting logical progression: if one person wants it, others must too, fueling iterative growth without future prediction.
- Obvious tech frontiers like voice AI and humanoid robots are overcrowded with investments, making subtle SaaS innovations riskier but potentially more rewarding.
- Momentum from customers follows a compounding principle—if ten exist, acquiring an eleventh is probable, sustaining growth even if not to billion-dollar scales.
- The quest for an eternal business is a fallacy; iterative failures across multiple startups are necessary to uncover viable paths with luck's assistance.
- Founders battle focus erosion on extended projects, where basic tasks feel easier, but overcoming head noise through ignorance or precedents unlocks progress.
- "[__] it energy" represents a defiant mindset that could counter doubt, suggesting raw determination as an underrated entrepreneurial meta-strategy.
- Non-monetized activities like advice videos get deprioritized, recorded hastily late at night, highlighting the tension between sharing wisdom and productive work.
- Precedents from wanted outcomes self-fulfill: desiring and building something ensures initial validation, turning aspiration into tangible proof.
- Niche markets evade easy foresight, unlike hyped sectors, forcing reliance on current traction rather than speculative trends for SaaS viability.
- Luck plays a pivotal role in big wins, but consistent commitment positions founders to capitalize when tailwinds align after several attempts.
- Emotional steroids from tech evolution amplify founder anxiety, making commitment feel like a gamble against unpredictable shifts.
- Iterative customer acquisition operates like philosophical induction: each success increases the probability of the next, building an unstoppable sequence.
INSIGHTS
- True entrepreneurial progress demands abandoning partial efforts, as incomplete commitment drains resources without yielding breakthroughs, much like a flawed dive.
- Doubt's grip tightens with technological flux, but overriding it through unwavering focus transforms uncertainty into self-reinforcing success cycles.
- Historical precedents from modest wins forge resilience, illustrating how incremental validations eclipse futile future-gazing in sustaining momentum.
- Scalable growth in SaaS hinges on micro-validations—one customer's desire implies broader demand—bypassing the paralysis of total market prediction.
- The illusion of instant permanence in business ignores the reality of serial experimentation, where failures refine paths to enduring ventures.
- Defiant energy and selective ignorance neutralize mental barriers, enabling founders to navigate long-haul projects amid pervasive second-guessing.
QUOTES
- "If you don't fully commit to something, it's just going to suck all your time away and beat the [__] out of you and it's going to suck dick."
- "You can't predict the future right so um but yeah I think as a founder you just naturally have this kind of this doubt."
- "If I already have 10 customers, there's a good chance I can find one more. From there, there's going to be a better chance I can find one more."
- "I'm going to find my forever business, you know, right right away. It's not at all how it works."
- "If you have any customers right now, I guarantee you you can get at least one more."
HABITS
- Prioritizing core productive work over non-revenue activities, like delaying video recordings until evenings when focus wanes.
- Building on past ventures sequentially, using moderate successes in one area to fuel commitment to the next business idea.
- Fully committing to projects once started, avoiding half-hearted efforts to prevent wasted time and self-inflicted setbacks.
- Iteratively seeking one more customer after each acquisition, treating existing traction as proof for continued outreach.
- Ignoring intrusive doubts during product development, focusing instead on execution to maintain long-term momentum.
FACTS
- The speaker has been an entrepreneur for over three years, starting with a YouTube channel after dropping out of college.
- Billions of dollars have been invested in obvious tech areas like humanoid robotics, voice AI, and self-driving cars for years.
- Most entrepreneurs likely need to attempt at least four or five businesses before finding one with sustainable growth potential.
- The speaker launched multiple ventures, including a website design business, marketing agency, and several SaaS products.
- Obvious future tech trends are already "mined out," leaving niche areas like SaaS harder to forecast amid rapid AI changes.
REFERENCES
- Feedback form for collaboration ideas: https://tally.so/r/mVyWlE
HOW TO APPLY
- Identify patterns of half-commitment in your past efforts, such as in sports or previous projects, and consciously decide to go all-in on your current SaaS venture to avoid similar drains.
- When doubt arises about wasting time, especially seeing competitors or AI shifts, pause and list one specific action to execute immediately, bypassing overanalysis.
- Leverage any prior success, even modest like a YouTube channel, as precedent: document how it proved your ability to attract users, then apply that confidence to acquire your next SaaS customer.
- After landing your first paying customer, immediately target one more by reaching out to a similar prospect, repeating this micro-validation to build momentum without predicting broader markets.
- Reframe the search for a "forever business" by treating each startup as an experiment: after three to five attempts, evaluate tailwinds and luck, then double down on the most promising one.
- Combat focus loss on long projects by scheduling doubt-ignoring sessions, where you work solely on product improvements for set blocks, ignoring external noise.
ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY
Overcome SaaS founder doubt by fully committing, using past precedents to iteratively validate and scale without fearing unpredictable futures.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- Embrace full commitment to your SaaS project, treating partial efforts as guaranteed failures that waste more energy than bold risks.
- Ignore fleeting doubts fueled by competitors or AI hype, focusing instead on immediate execution to build unshakeable momentum.
- Use existing customers as proof of concept: always pursue one more to compound growth, avoiding the trap of total market speculation.
- Abandon the hunt for an instant "forever business," viewing four to five ventures as essential steps toward a lucky, tailwind-aligned success.
- Cultivate "[__] it energy" during low-focus periods, channeling defiance to push through mental barriers on extended product work.
MEMO
In the high-stakes world of software-as-a-service startups, where ambition collides with relentless uncertainty, one entrepreneur lays bare the silent saboteur that derails most founders: a creeping doubt intertwined with half-hearted execution. Having abandoned college computer science after two years to chase dreams of independence, this self-taught trailblazer has navigated a gauntlet of ventures—a YouTube channel that sparked moderate buzz, a website design outfit, a marketing agency, and now multiple SaaS experiments. Yet failure shadows each step, not as a defeat but as a persistent echo of incomplete resolve. "If you don't fully commit," he warns, likening business to a daring backflip into water, "it's just going to suck all your time away and beat the [__] out of you."
This half-send mentality, a holdover from school and sports where mediocrity sufficed, proves toxic in entrepreneurship. The speaker recounts how doubt amplifies under AI's shadow, where competitors pivot overnight and innovations render dashboards obsolete in a flash. Am I wasting my time? The question gnaws, steroid-fueled by tech's velocity. But prediction is futile; obvious frontiers like humanoid robots and self-driving cars have long swallowed billions, leaving SaaS niches opaque and ripe for the committed. His antidote: willful ignorance of the inner critic, or better, chaining past wins as anchors. A thriving YouTube stint begat confidence for design gigs; early SaaS users now propel the hunt for more, each validating the dream one client at a time.
The myth of the "forever business" crumbles under scrutiny—it's not found on day one but forged through serial reinvention, perhaps four or five grueling cycles until luck and tailwinds converge. Focus fractures on marathon tasks like product refinement, yet precedents self-perpetuate: desiring a tool ensures its build, its build draws adopters, adopters demand expansion. For those grinding in the trenches, the lesson resonates: if ten customers exist, an eleventh lurks nearby, compounding into viability without billion-dollar illusions. Not every SaaS scales infinitely, nor must it; steady iteration suffices.
Even sharing this wisdom comes at a cost—these videos, unmonetized and raw, get squeezed into late-night lulls when real work stalls. A feedback form dangles an invitation for kindred spirits to collaborate, hinting at communal momentum. In an era of fleeting distractions, the speaker's raw plea cuts through: entrepreneurship rewards the defiant, not the doubter. By shunning half-measures and leaning on proven sparks, founders can transmute failure's thread into a tapestry of fulfillment—one committed flip at a time.
Ultimately, this candid dispatch from the SaaS frontier underscores a timeless truth amid silicon flux: success blooms not from foresight but from ferocious persistence. As AI reshapes horizons, the biggest hurdle remains internal—conquering the voice that whispers retreat. For aspiring builders, the path forward lies in bold immersion, where each small win defies the void, crafting not just income but a life of purpose.