On The Brink of Launching

I’m sitting here tonight on the brink of launching. The problem is, I’ve been like this for months.

Any geek with a few hours free and a web host (I have 3+) can throw together a web application. Take an idea you have, or just find one online. Buy a domain name for it, upload it, and you are done. Tell a few friends, maybe post in some forums. You stare at the analytics for weeks on end, hoping that the usage break into the three or four digit range. And it never does. I know because I’ve done this at least half a dozen times, know others who have done it more. Moreover, I’ve seen literally thousands of other applications out there, built with care, but then forgotten, lingering online until someone forgets to renew the domain name.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” – Thomas Edison

It’s not because they don’t care. It’s fear of the unknown. Building is what we’re good at. Getting people to use it is a totally different thing. So what do we do? We tinker, we perfect. Make some minimal attempts at promoting it. Then say you tried, and give up. I’ve been tinkering with my application for months now, the bulk of the development completed. I am making changes, adding new features, tweaking the site design, getting feedback from people. I like to say I am distilling it. In truth, I am hesitant. I don’t want this one to fail. I have to figure out how to launch it in just the right way so that it will actually gain traction.

“An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it” – Roy Ash

But in that I find strength. Knowing that this barrier exists, and seeing countless people that have not yet made it over the barrier, to me shows promise. I’ve been stopped at this point many times before. From that, I know that if I break through this, just jump off the cliff and go, that I’ll be far more successful than I and others have been before. And I hope that somehow, the fear will fade. And results will arise. Powering through “The Dip”, as Seth Godin calls it.

I’ve had a funny idea in my head for a while that if you were to give me a ridiculous amount of money to spend in any way I want, I would go right out and set up a restaurant or a brick and mortar store in a populated area, just to see if “build it and they will come” holds true.

Being a one-person startup makes it even more volatile. I was the only one who brought this idea to fruition. And I’m the only one who has to kill it. Getting bored, moving on to another idea, hitting a roadblock, too many distractions, or even just having a bad day has left my projects folder brimming with “startups.” My one solution to this has been involving other people. I used to, but am no longer aggressively looking for a co-founder. Instead, I’m reaching out to my network (a pretty new discovery for me) for validation, feedback, suggestions, and help. But maybe having someone else who was equally as invested, pushing me along, would help.

Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them.

I will do this.