... convinced you're building the next big thing. Then slowly, quietly, it creeps in: "Who even needs this?" "Why would anyone pay for this?" "Am I just building a solution looking for a problem?" Been there. Still visit there sometimes. Here's what I've learned about wrestling this demon: 1. Talk to Users, Not Your Mirror When doubt hits, your brain becomes an echo chamber. Break the loop. Schedule 5 user calls this week. Not surveys. Real conversations ... ... cocoon before the butterfly. 5. Set Micro-Milestones Instead of "change the world," try "get 10 users this week" or "solve one specific problem really well." Momentum kills doubt better than motivation ever will. Here's the thing sometimes

... what I was working on, they wanted to use it too. That's when it clicked - I wasn't the only one dealing with these problems. I'm building multiple items like this simultaneously. Usually the focus shifts - sometimes I spend more than half my time on one project, sometimes

... that, we weren't even a consumer software company. By January, we were seeing long posts on LinkedIn and X about how the product had changed people s lives. We also saw ~20% of our users convert to paid (vs. the usual 3 4%), and organic growth of ~90% month-over-month in January and February. On average, users were doing around 100 dictations a day and typing only 25 30% of their total input on a keyboard ... ... customer who saw that and said, I know exactly what I'm going to do with it. We just thought it would be like Field of Dreams if we build it, they will come. Sure, that happens sometimes

... seen founders spend weeks (sometimes months) polishing logos, color palettes, and taglines before they ve written a single line of code or spoken to a customer. On the other hand, I ve also seen startups whose brand presence got them credibility, early press, and investor meetings even before launch. Personally, I like good optics. The visual promise, even before interacting with the product, says a lot. You can tell in my case from our website . A well-chosen color scheme ... ... obsessing over branding early on just procrastination disguised as productivity? Or is it a strategic move to position yourself in a crowded market from day one? If you re building now, how much time are you putting into branding versus

... Over the past 10 years, influencers have taken over : from fashion to finance, from food to AI tools. Sometimes they feel genuine, sometimes

... someone who questions the nature of existence." Our AI doesn't just look at your ratings; it has conversations with you to understand your life context, your current mood, your relationships, even your upcoming trips or career changes. Because sometimes you need a comfort watch after a hard day, and sometimes

... part works, you move to the next. I found that this incremental approach keeps both me and the AI on track. Be Specific About What You Want: Vibe coding is not mind-reading. The AI will do exactly (and sometimes only ) what you ask, so clarity is key. Provide as much detail and context as possible in your prompts. Mention the language or framework, describe the desired behavior, and even outline the steps if you have a particular approach ... ... Cobol programmers of yesteryear, insisting that real programmers punch cards while the world moves on. My journey from hating the concept of vibe coding to adopting it has been humbling, to say the least. It taught me that sometimes

... platform do you usually use to look up product reviews? And are there any others you know of besides the ones I mention below? For me personally, it s: Google Reviews TrustPilot G2 (And you d be surprised, but sometimes even Facebook helps some businesses forget to delete bad reviews from their old, abandoned Facebook pages, and thanks to that, I ve managed to avoid a few scams.) P.S. When we talk about this topic, Google Chrome just added ... ... have to say reddit. You get a lot more of a nuanced review section compared to most other sites, in my opinion. Comment from Kerem Can(@keremcan01): @busmark_w_nika  Exactly, however I have also noticed that reddit sometimes

... Claude Code handles the "thinking" work - architectural decisions, complex implementations. Cursor handles the "typing" work - completing patterns, fixing syntax. Comment from Daniel Bernasconi(@daniel_bernasconi): @chrismessina  have you tried Claude Code? Do you think Warp is a valid alternative? I know they are a bit different, but with the weekly limits and all coming to CC, I better prepare and incorporate new tech "under my belt".. Cheers Comment from Michael Schuchardt(@michael_schuchardt): @timsu  100% agree! Comment from ... ... much clearer, and the responsiveness is outstanding right now. What I do is use Cloud Code inside the Cursor IDE, which helps me visualize things better. Comment from Hussain Attari(@hussain_attari): I use copilot in IDE. But sometimes

... attention.") Familiarity with the company's vision/product. Collegiality and friendly ties with team members. Employment contract (someone works for the company and so, understandably, wants to use their role for positioning). Money(?) I'm discussing this because sometimes this status requires you to be cautious. I've come across hunted products that later turned out to be scams and unreliable companies, so I want to know if you even check them out. For those who are trying to find hunters ... ... Victoria Wu(@victoria_wu): @busmark_w_nika Sounds like a great idea! Comment from Victoria Wu(@victoria_wu): Aha. Such an interesting topic! It really made me reflect on things from the perspective of a launching team as well. Sometimes

... this your first product? If not, what else have you built, or are currently working on? This is my second product. I realized the need to build YoinkUI while building my first product actually. It was a competitor marketing analysis tool, but I abandoned the project. What s your secret weapon or go-to when you get stuck while building? Going for a walk or taking a shower always helps me clear my mind and oftentimes the solution comes ... ... teaser page for a few days, and promoted my launch on my site and told some friends. That's exactly what I recommend people do. What's the most surprising or unexpected learning and/or feedback you've received? Sometimes

... product and ended up using that domain. Comment from Victoria Wu(@victoria_wu): Everyone says they build the product first but let s be real most of us have emotionally committed to a domain name before we even open VS Code. Haha. Domain first, denial second, MVP third. Comment from Ryan Dean(@ryan_dean): @ideaxton  these reseller prices are wild. Launchlist.com $345K lol. I've gotten lucky at times like you and scored the domain later for the lower ... ... just makes me feel more at ease. Comment from Jamie(@codeandconsciousness): I buy the domain about half way thru the project, when I think it's viable and not at risk of being abandoned. Now there are plenty of alternative

... with nothing but my phone camera and wild hand gestures, I decided to build the tool I couldn t find: PitchGrid a free app that lets you sync and compare sports videos side-by-side. I use it constantly sometimes to break down a swing, sometimes

... more I ve seen it play out in reality. Yes, AI speeds things up. Yes, it automates tasks. But what happens with the time it frees? Often, it disappears into distractions - social media, online shopping, context switching. And sometimes, the saved time is misleading because reviewing and editing the AI output can take just as long. The data reflects this too: Generative AI boosts productivity in specific tasks and groups (especially less experienced employees), but for others, it actually adds ... ... nice, but no one tells you how mentally fried people are after wrangling imperfect AI output for hours. The editing, the validation, the context correction, all of that is real work. So do we actually gain time using AI? Sometimes

... company or go to the events, I'm reminded what top speed looks like. And I'm also reminded that the speed that start-ups are capable of gets faster every year, especially with AI. As for hesitations...sometimes people balk at the dilution, but generally speaking, the higher price that startups command in their next round at Demo Day more than compensates.     https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Comment from Hong Phat Ly(@1001binary): Thanks for the nudge . I founded ... ... until then, but if so I will apply for sure. Thanks for the heads-up! Comment from Mohamed Ashraf(@dagermohamed): I have already applied, and I am building an open-source business management platform that could serve as an alternative

... Sometimes I wish I had a clear answer to this question, but... I don't :D A lot of people ask me in DMs what to do and when the best time to start. I know people who prepared 6 months in advance and were not featured. Then I know a guy who set up a page literally 3 hours before and got into the top five promoted products. Sometimes

... where the whole team works in sync - same space (or online Google Meet), full focus, no context switching. We d usually run it in 2 3 sprints of 12 hours. I ve seen other teams go even harder : 24, sometimes even 72 hours straight with rotating shifts. It s intense, but the output is always worth it. You ship more in 24 hours than you sometimes

... beat. This habit saved my project and a few broken screens. Learn Warp - Over the past month or so I ve become using CLI s like Gemini CLI and Warp a lot more. They re quite powerful and can sometimes take more actions than a traditional IDE or their approach on taking those actions is different at least. For my Raycast Extension, I tried publishing it to Raycast 3x with Cursor and constantly failed. On my first attempt with Warp ... ... agent quality). We're also working on a better dashboard in settings to be more transparent about exactly how many tokens in/out/cached, etc. Feedback is heard and we're working on it, coming soon! 2. Re: fully automating agent vs

... coding is pretty mindblowing but sometimes it's a headache built on a mountain of bugs. Usually that comes down to issues with how you prompt. So, with that in mind, I'm starting a crowdsourcing discussion so we can all improve our prompts and in turn our apps. Share the exact prompts that turn blank AI requests into real world code. Show us how you go from generate a REST API to a deployable service in just ... ... initepo Example project : https://github.com/initrepo/vent... Example Description: VenturePilot AI is a SaaS platform providing founders with comprehensive, AI-driven market intelligence and validation reports. It empowers data-backed decisions by analyzing startup ideas against market trends, competitor

... deadlines, everyone wins: Product teams understand their real shipping velocity and can plan the roadmap more effectively. Engineering teams stay motivated because they re working toward achievable goals. As soon as the deadline gets crossed, you ll sometimes see an engineer s motivation to keep working hard on that project suddenly drop. Sales teams know what they can promise to prospects. Support teams know what they can share with existing customers. In the long run, building a system that helps ... ... being discarded or thrown away. When you are phasing the deployments this way, communication between engineering and design is extremely critical. We ve learned this the hard way. When engineers or PMs take shortcuts to move fast (which is sometimes

... write quickly. And when we do, tone and grammar slip. Sometimes it sounds too harsh. Sometimes

... several years I have used a utility I built to give me an alternative to the Start menu. I have always preferred being able to right click anywhere on the desktop and have my custom menu options right there. And I don't mean a customized desktop menu on right click, but a completely custom menu, just the programs I want, nothing else. Sometimes

... been managing an international community across social media and platforms for over 3 years. The more active and visible I am, the more people reach out to me. It s a great feeling to connect, but sometimes it leads to complicated situations that are uncomfortable to deal with. So I decided to write down some lessons and real-life examples I ve come across. Here s what NOT to do! 1. Saying yes to every opportunity Whether ... ... Newsletter, YouTube and Substack  literally according to my dedicated time in this order. First, try to acquire only one and build a strong presence there. Comment from Fei C.(@feichen_): Completely agree. Rejection is not personal, sometimes

... smart web crawler. In software projects, a full restart is not an easy option even when we know we have learned from our current project and the project now has many layers of code that make it hard to sometimes navigate it. The crawler project was not quite so hard but I kept think the cost to restart maybe zero and I may get to focus on my successful experiments a lot better . A leaner project helps sometimes

... nobody can surprise you later) Breathing techniques and non-verbal communication once I interviewed a voice coach for Slovak Forbes and she advised the following techniques/practices: practice non-verbal communication (upright posture) adequate eye contact making grimaces (e.g., alternately pursing your lips and smiling broadly) to activate the jaw muscles imitating different sounds yawning is a great help because it stretches the muscles in the throat the larynx is lower than in the starting position and relaxes. Comment from Nika ... ... some things only if I can do them quickly enough. Something like Mel Robbins' "5 second rule". So whenever possible I actively make myself act instantly. Of course it's not always possible to do that as sometimes