#MVP

"I failed at 3 businesses by 28. At 31, I finally hit $2M ARR. Here's what nobody tells you about the "overnight success" myth.” ------28岁前创业3次全败,31岁终破200万ARR;没人会透露给你的‘一夜成功’真相 Three years ago, I was sleeping on my sister's couch, $47,000 in debt, and convinced I was just another wannabe entrepreneur who'd never make it. My first business? A meal prep service that burned through $12K in 6 months. Turns out, people in my small town weren't willing to pay $15/meal for "gourmet" chicken and rice. Second attempt was a dropshipping store. Made $200 total revenue over 8 months. The ads cost me $3,400. Third failure was an app I spent 14 months building. Got 23 downloads. My mom accounted for 3 of them. I was ready to give up. My girlfriend (now wife) was supporting both of us on her teacher's salary. The shame was crushing. Every family gathering felt like an interrogation: "So... how's the business going?" But here's the thing nobody talks about: Those failures weren't wasted time. They were expensive education. The meal prep business taught me about unit economics and local market research. The dropshipping disaster showed me the importance of product-market fit. The app failure? That one hurt the most, but it taught me to validate ideas BEFORE building. In late 2022, I stumbled onto a problem I actually understood: Small construction companies struggling with invoicing and payment collection. I'd worked construction summers during college, so I knew their pain points intimately. Instead of building first, I spent 3 months just talking to contractors. Went to supply stores, job sites, industry meetups. Asked questions. Listened. Built an MVP in 6 weeks. Nothing fancy - just a simple invoicing tool that automatically sent payment reminders and tracked outstanding balances. First paying customer came in month 2. Then 3 more. Then 10. Today we are at $2.1M ARR with 340+ contractors using our platform Teamcamp. We have 7 employees, and I finally moved out of my sister's house (she's probably relieved). But here's what I wish someone had told me at 25: Your first business probably won't work. Neither will your second. That's normal, not a character flaw. Solve problems you actually understand, not problems you think are cool. Talk to customers obsessively. Build solutions, not features. Most "overnight successes" took 5-10 years of invisible grinding. The media loves the college dropout billionaire story, but that's not reality for 99% of us. Real entrepreneurship is messy, slow, and full of false starts. I'm sharing this because three years ago, I desperately needed to hear that failure isn't the end of the story. It's just expensive tuition for the school of hard knocks. To anyone grinding through their first, second, or fifth failure right now: Keep going. Your breakthrough might be closer than you think.
sitin
1个月前
这几个月的AI出海实践,让我总结出几个关键点: 1. 从小切口开始 不要想着做平台,先做一个解决具体问题的小工具。比如专门帮设计师生成特定风格的图片,专门帮程序员生成测试用例等。 有很多人一开始就想做"中国版的ChatGPT",结果陷入无穷无尽的功能开发中。相反,那些专注于解决一个具体问题的产品,往往更容易获得用户认可。 小切口的好处显而易见:开发周期短、用户需求明确、容易做到极致、更容易获得第一批种子用户。 2. 重视用户反馈 海外用户很愿意给反馈,要善于倾听并快速迭代。就有一些产品因为固执己见而错失机会。 这一点和国内用户差别很大。海外用户,特别是欧美用户,他们习惯于主动表达意见,会告诉你哪里好用,哪里不好用,甚至会建议你应该加什么功能。 这种反馈是金矿,要建立快速响应机制,用户提出合理建议,争取在一周内就能看到改进。 3. 营销同等重要 好产品也要会吆喝。Reddit、Twitter、Product Hunt这些平台的运营策略,和技术开发同等重要。 很多程序员朋友觉得只要产品做得好,用户自然会来。这在AI出海领域是行不通的。 海外用户获取信息的渠道和习惯与国内不同。Reddit上的相关社区、Twitter的话题讨论、Product Hunt的产品发布,这些都需要精心运营。 酒香也怕巷子深,如果没有营销,再好的产品也无人问津。 4. 现金流优先 不要追求完美产品再收费,先让产品产生现金流,再持续优化。 这一点对程序员来说特别重要,因为我们天生有完美主义倾向,总想着功能再完善一点再上线。 但在AI出海领域,MVP(最小可行产品)思维更重要。先让产品产生哪怕1美元的收入,证明商业模式可行,然后再持续迭代。 有了现金流,你就有了持续优化的动力和资源,也有了与用户对话的基础。