Ask HN:How do you cope with frustrations in single person startups.
While starting up I'm sure all of us have times when we are frustrated or dejected. With n-person startups you usually have someone to listen to/help you. What do you do when you are a single person startup and specially when you are not very comfortable with people around you ? My wife is very understanding, so we talk a lot. In fact, I talk about just about every medium-sized (and larger) decision with her. When we were first married, it took her a while to get that when I started talking about a new project or idea (and this was before I could even program), that it didn't mean that I was actually going to do it ... they were more mental exercises. But once she figured out how I think, she's rolled with it. She challenges my ideas, forcing me to refine them, and making me develop better narratives for them. Occasionally, there'll be some project I think is a good idea that she doesn't share my enthusiasm about. Curiously, those are usually my weakest ones. But even with her support and counsel, I definitely wish I had a cofounder or two I could work alongside every day. I wonder if there is some service/directory/matchmaking app which helps idle individuals work together on a project. I'm certain there are millions of entrepreneurs with ideas and bored programmers with nothing to do which could hook up over the internet and work on some interesting idea together. Anyone know if something like this exists? Oh, how I identify with everything you just said. A couple options. Take a break. Go to the gym. Talk to friends or professional peers about it. Vent on the Internet. Get out your shoebox of postcards sent from third graders and reread some. Go do something which brings you joy. etc, etc. Talk to a rubber duck - it's not just for technical problems. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RubberDucking I take a walk and observe nature, the smallness of myself and how little control I have over the rest of the world - yet everything keeps going.
Go to a cafe, go to the supermarket - even a DVD is good for a change in a sense of place. Making progress on 'unimportant' side-projects is very encouraging. Making progress on little utilities (like bash techniques) is very satisfying, and even marginally justifiable. Make time to do things that you think are really cool.
Credit yourself for each little step of progress you do make, by comparing with where you were before that step - you did that! (when focussed on the big, distant goal, it's easy to not notice the progress that we do make. But the journey of 10,000 miles is made of steps.) I found some other singer founder friends online. We all had different startups and were not in competition with each other. This allowed us to share openly with each other and discuss ideas, issues, problems, etc. The group went slowly dissolved, but I still keep in contact with on of they guys. This was a big help early on. I also got a lot of help from business communities online. Listening and learning from others that have been successful. The single biggest factor was getting paying customers. This validates your product/service, and gives you a huge boost of energy and confidence. This is one reason to cut back requirements and get your MVP out the door as soon as possible. Also if you are stuck (or in a rut technically) pick something on the fringe of your project that is small and that you can quickly do. Making progress helps ease the frustration. Things I do: - Take half a day off and try not to think about your startup for the first few hours - Go watch a movie - Go sailing or any other outdoors sport After a few hours I usually start seeing my problems in a different light. That helps a lot. Get a co-founder? No, really.. I think that being able of finding / attracting a great co-founder is one of the "need to have" features of an entrepreneur. Know that at times things will get in the way and prevent you from working on your project, even for weeks at a time, don't give up. You can't do everything but being a single founder you will, so do it as you need to. At times your progress will creep along, if at all, take no mind of "Oh here's an app I built over lunch have a looky" posts. Just keep going, don't give up. Reach for your goals. Have them present all the time.
This will help you refocus when you seem to lose faith...
Take a break. Sometimes I am frustrated and i just go out to watch some planes landing and taking off(I live near an airport). This little move is enough for me to recharge and think what's ahead and why i'm doing this...
Ultimately don't give up! I usually go for beer with other "geek" friends, complain to them. Another thing would be to do some physical work and shift all your focus on that, like building a dog/bird house or smth :)... bottom line: take a break and accomplish something your sure of than go back at it with higher morale.repeat if necessary. Even if you work alone - make sure you keep touch with your friends. And make sure you get a network of business contacts to talk to, people from your part of the tech world. It´s not only important to keep morale up, it´s also important to get other people's feedback early stage! This probably won't solve your problem in the long term, but maybe it can make one afternoon a bit brighter for you: watch Office Space and think about the life you are not living. Usually I go sleep 10+ hours. The next day start with good breakfast and all looks better. It is like reseting your machine :-)