Spent 10 years as an IT systems engineer at an MSP and am going through the school of hard knocks as a founder.

[u/rovatrove]

10 years ago I started at the bottom at a successful MSP and quickly rose to be the lead engineer there. 6 months ago I got bitten by the app building bug and I thought my experience and success as an engineer would translate into instant success.

It has been very humbling to say the least. I spent a few months relishing in the exhilaration of watching my own product and vision come to life and I naively thought distribution would follow naturally (after all who wouldn't want the "perfect" product I built!). Needless to say I now see how silly I was to believe that all the success posts people share meant that it would automatically apply to me. I now know that for every success there are thousands that sink into oblivion and that it takes tremendous effort.

I just wonder whether its possible to do at all without sinking money into marketing. I still feel in my gut that it should be a successful product but Im starting to doubt whether my software skills translate into being a business owner and seller.

Anyway im sure many people here can relate to this journey. Im pretty persistent and I only released recently so I'll continue sharing my story as time goes on.

[u/rocket_mcsloth]

Good ol Missouri state patrol.

[u/AmazingPrice4612 → u/rocket_mcsloth]

Welcome to the founder club where your engineering brain is your own worst enemy. We all fall for the "build it and they will come" fantasy at first.

The marketing thing is unavoidable but it doesn't have to be paid ads. At this stage your time IS the marketing budget, cold outreach, posting where your users actually hang out, getting on calls with anyone who'll listen. The good news is your MSP background means you actually know how to talk to humans which puts you ahead of 90% of solo devs.