@bryce: Just Ship.
About a year ago is when I made a more conscious effort to get consistent posting stuff here. Around that time I caught up with my friend Marc Hedlund at Chelsea Market. I was bemoaning to him how hard it was to be consistent. How much effort it was taking to come up with something to say every day. How few people were even paying attention. And how even fewer people cared. To each point I posited and every doubt I dropped, Marc kept hitting me with the same answer:
Just Ship.
There’s an event called open coffee up here in Seattle every Tuesday morning. It’s a chance for entrepreneurs both new and old to come together and chat with their peers. Sometimes I’ll find the budding wantrepreneur who shows up to discuss what he’s been thinking about and hasn’t yet made the plunge. Sometimes I’ll find the very early entrepreneur who has a product in development, but she hasn’t yet shipped because they’re working diligently on adding new features. My advice is the same: get your product into people’s hands. And do it soon.
Hook or crook, come hell or high water, you need to get your product out of your head and into people’s lives. That is, after all, the first major challenge that any entrepreneur must overcome.
If you are not a technical person, then either find a technical cofounder or get a team to help you build the product. The point is that whatever path you choose, you have to stay focused on that goal. It’s critical. The path to releasing a product is easier said than done: just ship, ship early, and ship often. Take lessons from companies you admire, but don’t fool yourself into think you are those companies just yet. Startups fumble and stumble around until their product either gets its sea legs or they change course to calmer waters. Without a product in the wild you don’t know: you are simply guessing.
Indeed… just ship.
