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Comment by hogrider | Hacker News Reader

Evrrytime someone asks this questions it's always the same, people thinking "build it and they'll come". I don't know how anyone can embark on projects like this without being sure there's a market for it. I guess that's what it means taking a risk, but still, you can be throwning years of your life at something that no one wanted.

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If you don't check the market, it's not a risk. It's just a poor decision.

I would counter that some of the best software was built to simply fix a problem the dev had.

Although you could argue the market had at least one interested party.

I’m good at slowly building a product I understand. I’m horrible at iterating quickly and I’m not super great at whipping out a front end. I might try random business ideas when I have money to risk on such things, but for now I make a better employee than entrepreneur. I had a modestly successful recruiting business with a Rails app about 10 years ago, but I’m glad to be free of it. I had a chance to sell for like 2x my annual income and transitioned to software development. It was a great decision and I make more money as a developer than I ever did as a recruiter.

Yes, but checking the market isn't as easy as people make it sound. The only true validation is people giving you cash.

It feels a little obvious in hindsight, but I agree with this. I wish I'd done things differently. I'm not too old to learn the lessons and try again one day, but I think it's time to regroup and do the responsible thing for a while to get things setup financially for my future family.

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