Be careful with the "build X for small businesses". It's deceptive to look around at small businesses, see them using bad tools and think there's opportunity there. The truth is there's usually a reason--the small businesses aren't willing to pay for better.

It's hard to find them too, it's better to build something where they come looking for you.

Someone told me early on that dealing with small businesses was a nightmare. You'ld get Mom or Pop quibbling over a $75 bill, whereas enterprise customers will pay a $40K bill without batting an eye as long as the paperwork is in order.

Over the years I've found the enterprise side of this to be true (although it will take forever to get them to sign in the first place and they'll sometimes pay their bills so late you're gasping by the time you see the cash).

I don't have any experience with dealing with small business, maybe it's not as bad as I imagine.

I've dealt with a few small businesses and none of them ever complained about price and they all paid their bills on time. They are usually very grateful that they have someone who is interested in doing their small projects.

A lesson I learned is look for hacks to do something without writing code. It’s hard when your idea really needs it though. Then it’s more about removing features from the mvp as much as you can.

Another one is an idea journal. Then over time you have a collection of things and can choose which one is exciting.

It can be hard, but if you can get potential customers to have a conversation with you and give you money ahead of time you’ve proven you are on to something.

I’ve been wanting a framework that makes mvps easier to ship. Planning on working on one that leverages server rendered react for ui with Airbnb Hypernova, rails for data and security, aws fargate for auto scaling compute, and aurora serverless for an auto scaling sql db. Would also be nice to auto generate react/redux crud like rails does. Or just use standard rails for stuff that doesn’t need polish.

I was convinced I should build a productivity app because none of the existing apps suited me. Turns out I was an unorganised person blaming their tools. I went low tech and organised myself by writing into Bear.app, which made me realise I didn’t want to make a productivity app I just wanted to be organised.

Thanks for this insight. There is a chance I'm in this boat. I'll have to think on this.

Would you actually use the productivity app if you build it? Or you just think you might?

How long would it take to prototype it out to the point that you can start dog fooding it?