Reminds me of Headlime's founder, who was kind enough to share his journey, but instead people copied his work/content (and had the audacity to ask for his advice) and then launched their own competing services that are downright identical.
That said, I don't know what else can be done differently, since Headlime seems to lack a protective technical moat. His story is certainly inspiring though.
I remember once upon a time I took a stab at spec work on 99designs. All the designs were sucky, but the contest holder commented he liked the direction my design was heading.
Within 24 hours all the other entrants copied it. That was my last foray into sharing my work. Of course, I knew this was the game, but I summarily bounced from playing that game ever again.
Don’t share your stuff until you are literally done getting what you intended to get (a job, money, credit, etc). It’s not a small community anymore, and people will copy everything.
Of that enormous set of potential is a much smaller set that satisfies the criteria:
- Is small enough to be done in spare time by a single developer
- Is not so complex it can be automated to run mostly by itself
- Is a service someone is willing to pay for
- Has real customers
^ those filter criteria make the set of “profitable side projects” much smaller than the set of “dime a dozen” ideas
Profitable side projects have a low barrier to entry and are much more easily exploitable / copyable, hence my reluctance to share and probably many others reluctance to share
The ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s the market demand that’s the unknown. Once you identify that, then you can build your product to fulfill the demand.
This meme is thrown around a lot, except by the people who've actually found a lucrative little niche. These people understand that one of the major reasons why there's so many coconuts for them is because they're the only one on the island.
Reminds me of Headlime's founder, who was kind enough to share his journey, but instead people copied his work/content (and had the audacity to ask for his advice) and then launched their own competing services that are downright identical.
That said, I don't know what else can be done differently, since Headlime seems to lack a protective technical moat. His story is certainly inspiring though.
I remember once upon a time I took a stab at spec work on 99designs. All the designs were sucky, but the contest holder commented he liked the direction my design was heading.
Within 24 hours all the other entrants copied it. That was my last foray into sharing my work. Of course, I knew this was the game, but I summarily bounced from playing that game ever again.
Don’t share your stuff until you are literally done getting what you intended to get (a job, money, credit, etc). It’s not a small community anymore, and people will copy everything.
Ideas are a dime a dozen.
Of that enormous set of potential is a much smaller set that satisfies the criteria:
- Is small enough to be done in spare time by a single developer - Is not so complex it can be automated to run mostly by itself - Is a service someone is willing to pay for - Has real customers
^ those filter criteria make the set of “profitable side projects” much smaller than the set of “dime a dozen” ideas
Profitable side projects have a low barrier to entry and are much more easily exploitable / copyable, hence my reluctance to share and probably many others reluctance to share
They are no longer just ideas. They would be sharing executions and proof of market demand.
This is the key: the market demand.
The ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s the market demand that’s the unknown. Once you identify that, then you can build your product to fulfill the demand.
It's very easy for niches to be overrun with folks once people get wind of it.
This meme is thrown around a lot, except by the people who've actually found a lucrative little niche. These people understand that one of the major reasons why there's so many coconuts for them is because they're the only one on the island.