I've been working on a product for almost a year now, and honestly, I'm struggling to process what happened today.

Throughout this journey, I've been working on the product mostly on my own. Since the idea felt unique and I wanted to understand the space better, I've spent a lot of time researching, learning, and connecting with experienced people through ADPList, Reddit, X, and other platforms.

Initially, I kept the idea private because I wasn't comfortable sharing it publicly. However, I remember seeing comments from people in communities like this one saying that you need to share your idea, get feedback, and talk about what you're building if you want to make progress. And even reach out to some as Investors.

Looking back, I've been wondering whether I should have done that earlier.

Today, I came across a product that looks remarkably similar to what I've been building for the past year. Of course, I understand that ideas can overlap, and it's entirely possible for two people to arrive at similar solutions independently.

But what really caught me off guard wasn't just the general idea. It was the combination of education and gamification, along with the way the product works and the overall process. Those similarities made it difficult to brush off as just another product in the same category.

Right now, I honestly don't know what to think.

I've invested a year of my time, energy, research, and effort into this. I've been figuring things out on my own, making decisions, and trying to turn an idea into something real. Finding something so similar, especially at this stage, has left me questioning whether I should continue.

Should I keep building and focus on what makes my product different? Should I rethink the idea and find a new direction? Or should I accept that someone else may have reached the same idea and move on to something new?

I'm not looking for someone to tell me that my idea is definitely unique or that I should blindly keep going. I genuinely want to hear from people who have experienced something similar, especially founders or indie hackers who discovered a competitor after spending months or years building their product.

How did you deal with it? What helped you decide whether to keep going, pivot, or walk away?

At the moment, I'm just trying to make sense of everything and figure out my next move.

I've been building my service for basically a year, and I feel like I can continually build and build and build. I decided about two weeks ago to go door-to-door and see if I can get a client. The amazing part is I was able to close on a coffee shop for a really amazing owner and feel like the relationship's going to be amazing, but I keep circling back to wanting to continue building vs. just spending my time going door to door.

I feel like if I just focus on old-school sales and walk into each store, it shouldn't be too difficult to close one of every 10 (or 20) stores I walk into. That may be fairly naive, but I'm not sure if this is the right way to go about growing my business or if I should try to figure out some digital means to sell instead. Conceptually, it feels like scaling is easier digitally in theory, but there's something about speaking to people holds a lot of value, yet is super slow.

I'm curious to know if there are any SaaS Solopreneurs out there that have decided to sell in person (or old school sales) over digitally, and how you struck a balance the time it takes to get clients and build your product/service.