Love the advice! I made a targeted team move last year to help my side project, but didn't even consider marketing. I might have to see whats available.
> Even if my thing never takes off, it's a tool I've wanted for a long time, so I'm motivated to keep going even if it never makes a penny.
This is what motivates me! Humorously, I keep getting pulled back to building the features I want instead of actually getting the thing in front of people :)
Marketing is a VERY different skill from building, and can take years to master. As someone who has built several side projects that landed in the "didn't make any money" bucket, it's easy to fall for the "build it and they will come" mental trap. I am starting the journey of learning marketing now, but I have a lot of optimism, as I am learning all sorts of things that don't work, and looking forward to trying the things that people say do work.
Not Matt, but I have a similar situation (3 kids, FT job, side project). My side project has been running for a few years now, but I am able to be pretty productive on it.
First, I wake up early, and make sure the side project is the first thing I do every day. There's a book "the richest man in Babylon" and one of the ideas is "pay yourself first". I take that principle to my side project. I work on the side project first thing in the morning, to ensure I give it my best. I still want to learn and deliver good work at my FT job, but I've always ensured that from a time perspective I've paid into the side project first, because I believe thats the best long term career investment. Unfortunately, yes, this means that you need to set an alarm, but I enjoy the work, so I don't feel like I'm dragging myself out of bed.
That leads me to my second point which is make sure you enjoy the side project. I've worked on multiple and the biggest mistake I've made is building something I didn't need or want. I built a few projects because they were technically interesting, not because I really needed them. For SAAS you might not necessarily directly need or enjoy the tool you build, but you better enjoy building it, and enabling others to use it! If not, it will be difficult to keep up motivation when things get tough.
IMO it's good to take the advice of consistently successful investors who seem to prioritize honesty. Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger, and Chamath Palihapitiya are my favorites. My reasoning is that you can't make consistently good investment decisions without having a reliable mental framework for how to look at the world.
For other classes of successful people it makes more sense to read a biography (or autobiography if you feel the subject is intellectually honest) of successful people to understand how they think and operate. Many of these people won't be looking to give advice, but it is worthwhile to learn from them. For instance you can read the biography of Rockefeller, Carnegie, Franklin, and listen to "How I made this" featuring Michael Dell, and see the threads that are common amongst them. You may then compare that to yourself and understand the differences.
IMO there's plenty of value in the article, but it's an example of something you should critically analyze and verify against other sources before acting on.
Not being too smart can be a forcing function on the quality of ideas. Very frequently the idea that wins in the minds of others is the one that is easy to think about.
I am frequently caught in the trap where I am enjoying the puzzlebox complexity of a problem, and building an equally complicated solution. I then attempt to explain my complicated solution to someone else, and I fail on delivery.
I also have a coworker whos mantra is "if its hard to think about, I don't do it". We actually worked on similarly aligned solutions to the same problem. His version met with significantly more success than mine did, and I credit the fact that he ensured that it was all easy to think about (and thus talk about). I don't begrudge him at all though, he's one of my favs!
IMO if you are unwilling or unable to think about overly complicated ideas, it might force you to eliminate them and develop new ones that are easier to talk about and think about.
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I'd love to hear what you guys think. Thanks!