Finding an Idea Worth Coding

I quit my lucrative Solution Architect job at Optimizely 11 months ago to bring my vision of helping people become more active into reality. The vision was something I had been working on since 2014. It became Ayup — www.ayup.events.

Entrepreneurship is tougher and more character defining then I could have imagined. I experienced 11 months of anxiety induxed coding stupors, long nights plugging through a few last bugs before big launches, and exhausting pitches to VCs testing the limits of my salesmanship.

Fast forward to today: I realized that my idea needs to be seriously reconfigured. I learned this through pitching the idea to VCs and founders I was connected to in San Francisco. I wish I had realized how valuable this step would be earlier on. By the time I started pitching, the app was completely built and on the app store. We had built a serious stack in React Native, Go, MongoDB, and hosted on Digital Ocean.

I have many important learnings from all of this. I’ve listed the ones that come to mind first below.

1. Hack together an initial version as fast as you can and show it to anybody that will listen; but especially your most valuable connections that are VCs and founders.
2. I thought my first idea could land and be hugely successful. This is very wrong. You only get better by trying and falling on your face.
3. My 3 years of successful web consulting experience are helping me find value in myself despite my recent failings.
4. I’m really glad I spent the first two years in San Francisco building a strong network. I would have trudged on through this idea longer without my network’s help.
5. San Francisco is a very supportive network of entrepreneurs. If you have a burning entrepreneurial desire and will put up with living in a basement with 5 roomates for a long while, your best place to be is here. Luckily I have a wonderful fiance who is supporting my endevours.
6. The skills I acquired building my first app translate to the things I’m pivoting towards now. Building and pitching are both extremely useful skills to have as an entrepreneur.

I’m looking forward to finding my way as an entrepreneur. I have an undying sense of hope in the face of almost any adversity. I have to thank my entrepreneurial parents for cultivating that. I would love to hear your thoughts and comments!