I am a full stack engineer. Without any funding I have been working on my app for nearly a year, 50-60 hour weeks, and it is finally complete. Now I find myself very depressed. I am simply afraid to release it. What if it fails? I can't face my fear.

Have you had beta testers or feedback? If you have, then you will probably know the response already and there’s nothing to worry about.

If no one has seen it, then you may be in for a bad time.

Working for a long time on a product in isolation is a dangerous strategy, but not necessarily a bad one.

Still, now that your app is (nearly) finished you should prepare a release in stages. You don’t want to put all your hope in a single release or you’ll set yourself up for failure. First verify that there are at least some people out there who really like what you built. Then figure out how to systematically attract people to your app.

Way too many full stack developers give up on marketing when they don’t see results immediately. Expect marketing to be a long slog. Congratulations for getting this far, but you still have big challenges ahead of you.

Typical engineer reaction …. the only way is to test it with real users. You have to jump in the cold water otherwise you can give up right now and you wasted a year of coding …

No anti-gay slurs please.

There’s a good chance you’ve screwed yourself. I launched an mvp no one saw before launch, and it utterly failed to gain traction. Luckily I only spent six months on it, 10 hours a week. Next thing I do I’ll follow the conventional wisdom; landing page and sign up form only. Gauge interest before writing a line of code.

Anonymous says:

December 31, 2016 at 2:39 am

Wise words right here.

Reply
Anonymous says:

January 3, 2017 at 4:16 pm

Maybe you can still do that? Then you will know if there is a market for your application before releasing anything.

Reply
Anonymous says:

July 23, 2017 at 9:13 pm

+1000

Reply
Anonymous says:

July 23, 2017 at 9:14 pm

I did the “code for a long time to develop a new thing and then release” thing…wow…that hurt in so many ways.

Then, I finally started testing with landing page/buy button, and A/B test to see what gets customers to the page, and what gets them to stay engaged.,.

My kingdom….my kingdom for traction 🙂

Reply

Release it today. Get feedback ASAP.

I usually get depressed after I finish a big project. Postpartum? Hang in there, everything will

be fine.

Read “Lean Startup” I disagree with most comments saying that it’s “too late”. It is not too late at all !

Things are getting started for real !

Just read this book, Eric Ries is an engineer and he felt the exact way you do.

What if you fail? You have learnt a valuable lesson. You have gained contact info and an expanded network for your next project. Before you launch make loads of small smart goal. If 10 users download your app thats a successful launch not everything has to be in VC terms. If a million users download then it’s a million times more successful but both are a success. NASA has a successful failure. It didn’t work this time but nobody died so we can try again good job team

Final comment. Release it. ASAP

… [Trackback]

[…] Read More Info here to that Topic: startupsanonymous.com/confession/full-stack-engineer-without-funding-working-app-nearly-year-50-60-hour-weeks-finally-complete-now-find-depressed-simply-afraid-r/ […]

… [Trackback]

[…] Find More here on that Topic: startupsanonymous.com/confession/full-stack-engineer-without-funding-working-app-nearly-year-50-60-hour-weeks-finally-complete-now-find-depressed-simply-afraid-r/ […]

… [Trackback]

[…] Info on that Topic: startupsanonymous.com/confession/full-stack-engineer-without-funding-working-app-nearly-year-50-60-hour-weeks-finally-complete-now-find-depressed-simply-afraid-r/ […]

… [Trackback]

[…] Read More Information here to that Topic: startupsanonymous.com/confession/full-stack-engineer-without-funding-working-app-nearly-year-50-60-hour-weeks-finally-complete-now-find-depressed-simply-afraid-r/ […]

… [Trackback]

[…] Here you will find 79687 more Information on that Topic: startupsanonymous.com/confession/full-stack-engineer-without-funding-working-app-nearly-year-50-60-hour-weeks-finally-complete-now-find-depressed-simply-afraid-r/ […]

… [Trackback]

[…] Find More to that Topic: startupsanonymous.com/confession/full-stack-engineer-without-funding-working-app-nearly-year-50-60-hour-weeks-finally-complete-now-find-depressed-simply-afraid-r/ […]

… [Trackback]

[…] Find More Information here on that Topic: startupsanonymous.com/confession/full-stack-engineer-without-funding-working-app-nearly-year-50-60-hour-weeks-finally-complete-now-find-depressed-simply-afraid-r/ […]

… [Trackback]

[…] Read More here to that Topic: startupsanonymous.com/confession/full-stack-engineer-without-funding-working-app-nearly-year-50-60-hour-weeks-finally-complete-now-find-depressed-simply-afraid-r/ […]

… [Trackback]

[…] Read More Information here on that Topic: startupsanonymous.com/confession/full-stack-engineer-without-funding-working-app-nearly-year-50-60-hour-weeks-finally-complete-now-find-depressed-simply-afraid-r/ […]

… [Trackback]

[…] Read More here on that Topic: startupsanonymous.com/confession/full-stack-engineer-without-funding-working-app-nearly-year-50-60-hour-weeks-finally-complete-now-find-depressed-simply-afraid-r/ […]

… [Trackback]

[…] Find More on on that Topic: startupsanonymous.com/confession/full-stack-engineer-without-funding-working-app-nearly-year-50-60-hour-weeks-finally-complete-now-find-depressed-simply-afraid-r/ […]