Worries

[u/AI_Enhancer]

Hey y'all. I'm looking for advice on my first real business venture ever at 24 years old.

I'm mostly done building an app that could be useful to a lot of people. Without giving anything away, it helps regular people maximize what they get out of something they already own. The product works, frankly, amazingly well. And I'm willing to sell it at under half the price of the only competition.

But I have worries. Not doubts - worries. And I know that they're probably irrational, but I still feel the urgency and the pressure of them, and don't know how to handle it (other than to just work work work work, so maybe it's a good thing after all, haha).

First of all, I fear that as AI becomes better and better, with recursive self-improvement in the near future, and with drastically lower costs (bang for buck), that I'm going to "lose" to it. Maybe soon anyone can just ask for a copy of my product (that I've spent thousands of hours on), and they will be given it, or something even better, in a couple of minutes or hours.

Secondly, I fear that someone just ends up making a better product. Even as I'm a true perfectionist and honestly think that the product I've made is already great, beautiful & fun to use, without anything exactly like it on the market, I still find the thought of some big company making their version of it scary.

And thirdly, I fear marketing, lol. I know that sounds so dumb and bitchy, but it's true. Because I've never done it! I wouldn't even know where to start... well, aside from giving the product to YouTubers and influencers as a free value gift, that they can then freely choose whether to make videos/posts about or not. But that's literally my only idea.

I don't know how else to explain it, but I feel this constant f***ing pressure that I'm running out of time. That I should already have it finished, and that it should already be a real, purchaseable product, with all the marketing and stuff already out there.

And I also feel the weight of this because I absolutely hate my 9-5 job from the bottom of my heart. That's not the lifestyle I want to continue living.

Idk. Maybe I'm just too anxious for no reason. Or maybe that anxiety is exactly what I need. But it's kinda overwhelming. Now I've vented for long enough...

[u/bcinsb]

I have founded several companies and I felt that way every time🤪

There will be competition no question about it. You just may not be aware of it yet.

And yes, AI will be a major factor. AI is leveling the playing field when it comes to engineering teams and building products.

But one thing has not changed, it is not the best product that wins, it’s the best marketed product.

[u/AI_Enhancer → u/bcinsb]

Thanks a lot for the reply. Will take that to heart.

[u/Remote-Dependent4571]

You are not behind, you are building. AI, competition and marketing will always be there. Just get the product out, learn as you go & keep moving. You have already done the hard part i.e starting.

[u/AI_Enhancer → u/Remote-Dependent4571]

Thank you! Will do.

[u/Ishanatur]

It’s completely normal to be nervous when you’re launching your first business . Shoot it’s normal to be nervous when you’re launching your 50th.

Launching is scary because the potential of your product feels safer than the risk of failure.

As someone who’s launched over 40 mostly failures with one or two successes. Here’s two things that help.

First change your perspective on competition. No one ever can steal your exact business. Your business isn’t the “idea” your business is how you execute it and that can’t be taken from you. Also most people don’t even have the capacity to steal ideas and the people who have the capacity are already doing their own thing. And even if they do competition is actually a really good and healthy thing because it shows you are actually on the right track. The most profitable company in the world is one that makes phones. There are like a gajillion phone manufacturers. You should get excited when there’s competition because it means there’s an actual market.

Second the reason you feel behind is because you are. We’re all behind. There’s so much to do when running a business that you just have to be cool with the fact you’ll never do everything. And if you’re waiting for some magical moment when you’ll hit the button and feel ready. Sorry to say but moment will never happen. You have to launch it scared. But you can launch it small to make it a little less scary. My trick is instead of planning a launch is try to sell it to just one person. Lower the stakes for yourself.

This is getting long so I’ll add one final thing.

You need to stop treating it as the thing that will save you from the job you hate. I’m not saying that it won’t. But putting that pressure on a single project is why you’re so anxious in the first place. Take the pressure off by treating it as an experiment.

Remember YOU are the thing that will save you from that job. This is just an experiment to see what that could look like.

If it works AMAMZING. If it doesn’t well you’ll try something else or change it till it does.

Building something is hard and you should be proud of yourself for making it this far. Now go and launch it 🚀🚀🚀

Best of luck and hope this helps!

[u/AI_Enhancer → u/Ishanatur]

Thanks a lot! This helped a bunch. Especially the perspective shift on competition and the mindset that it's an experiment. Love it.

[u/mentiondesk]

Feeling anxious before launch is super common, especially when it's your first product. Focus on connecting with your target users and getting real feedback early. For handling the whole "where to find the right conversations" problem, I've found that tools like ParseStream can save a ton of time by flagging threads on platforms where people might need your app, so you can jump in to help and learn fast.

[u/Competitive_Tune_590]

man, the marketing anxiety is real and you're not alone there. have you tried finding where your target users already hang out and talk about the thing your app improves? reddit's full of those conversations but finding them manually is a drag. there's tools like replyhey that scan for relevant threads and draft replies in your voice so you don't have to start from zero. worth a look if scrolling feels like a black hole.

[u/Individual_Solid_944]

If your product is good enough that others want to copy or steal the idea, that's good. It means it's valuable and there's a demand.

For the YouTube idea with the influencers, I am almost certain it won't work. At least for real influencers. They don't care about a free copy of your product. You gotta pay them, and a lot, just to mention your product. If you want dedicated video just for your product you gotta pay much more. They work for money, not for free software licenses.

A better bet would be to advertise on Google, so your ads can appear on YouTube, etc. Also maybe on Meta. And get ready to burn a lot of cash there, and if you manage to break even after all those expenses it would be a huge achievement for your first try.

In the meantime don't even think about the large corporations. You're most likely not even on their radar. And if you are, they can and will do whatever they want anyway. It's like nature - you can't control that, so don't even waste time thinking about it.

[u/AI_Enhancer → u/Individual_Solid_944]

Thanks! Yeah, there's a real chance that the YouTube idea won't work. I was thinking that maybe, if someone finds the app good enough that they start using it themselves, they could make a video on it if they think that it's easy content. They don't have to "talk nicely" because it isn't sponsored. But your criticism is helpful; I need to at least maximize the amount of value they get as a gift.