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Comment by rorylaitila

3 days ago

It's an impressive accomplishment. I've always struggled to get through the valley of despair in a new project. I've decided that I can only build and sell things that I regularly use. Otherwise the signal is just too weak, and I eventually get burned out. But if I'm always a user of one, then at least it's validated for me.

Caring is kind of a superpower. And not just in terms of signal, but also the quality of work. I don't think this would have gone anywhere if I hadn't cared deeply about solving the problem in an elegant way.

Earlier in my career, I worked on some things as a corporate engineer that were hard to care about, and there's just no comparison.

  • >The willingness to doggedly show up every single day can take you to some really suprising and amazing places.

    >Caring is kind of a superpower.

    >the quality of work.

    >I was thrilled to spend my free time treating those early customers like royalty

    Well, the secret's out, thanks for that, now anybody can do it ;)

    • On my million-dollars project (now 10 employees) I hired someone for the support. She wasn’t in the startup ecosystem. What she was most surprised of / had to train most for was our requirement of benevolence: Always help the customer, even when it’s not in our scope.

      She thinks I’m a superboss, but I keep repeating her: We have to be nice to customers, we also have to give benefits to employees, otherwise both would leave us. It’s not a choice, it’s market pressure.

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