I’m taking a few products to market right now, and the single most common response when I describe one of them is some version of “but X already does that.” Reddit is the worst for it, but I get it in person too.

I know it shouldn’t stop anyone. Taken seriously, it’s the argument for a world with only Ford cars and Coca-Cola. No market worth entering is a blue ocean.

My problem is what it does to the conversation. I’ve spent months on positioning, they’ve had five minutes of intro, and the first thing I get is a weakness I’m already aware of.

I know it's not a blue ocean market. I feel the irritation rising, I go defensive, and the conversation is dead. That’s on me, and I’d like to stop doing it. So I’m thinking the fix is in the pitch itself: name the incumbent before they do, say what’s wrong with it, and lead with my angle (a, b, c) instead of the category. Something like “people use X for this and hate Y, we remove Y.”

But I’m honestly not sure that’s the whole story. Is “X already does that” usually a sign that my pitch failed, and I should fix it? Or is it mostly just a reflex from a certain kind of commenter, the one who always needs to pull something down, and the right move is to nod and move on? How do you tell the two apart in the moment?

Originally studying mechanical engineering I always thought I would have a very predictable stable life, and working in a foreign country as one, I found it extremely boring and lonely then I one day I just came across to the movie “The Big Short” the dynamics, the industry, interactions and conversations just mesmerized me. I mean of course I was aware that it was overly dramatized but nevertheless I wanted in so badly. The problem was my background did not have so much interaction with Economics or accounting but I was an engineer after all so I saw being a financial analyst - data scientist as a way to pave my way.  Then just started learning python and via scraping the veery bottom tables of wikipedia and making them into separate pages created 300+ android apps (App Store would not accept them since they we too shitty and was literally just ad baiting apps) so that I would have some capital along the way while increasing my knowledge to get into Finance sector did not matter what I would do just wanted “The Big Short” environment :).

After a year or so of course because of the quality and maintenance and bad reviews on that developer account we opened (under my brother’s name because I anticipated it) the developer account imploded (completely banned , and I remember vividly the last strike was that in one of the wikipedia articles there were children depicted smoking -it was a health article , which lead the ultimate ban of my brothers developer account) by this time again I only have some data-science knowledge of python which I just used to automate a system to make wrapped web apps and package them into android app. Well this implosion led me to think about my life choices and during that time I saw the myfitnesspal app being acquired or valued - I don’t remember hundreds of millions of dollars. And when I have checked the app I believed I can do better -Jesus the delusional confidense :) Then I started while also learning software engineering coded this app day and night then again being the delusional confident person I am I started and LLC :) yeah even before the launch this is 2020 -mind that I have been paying to my accountant since then. well then the staleness for official marketing started kept pushing features and updated half-assed producthunt launches new features, future-proofing, security improvements never till maybe a week ago felt it was good enough to really all-in tell the world about my fitness application. 

But thinking in medical, health and fitness terms in a creative way became my personality every time when I saw an app claiming having an “original idea nobody thought before” I either implemented without anyone knowing or just kept as a hidden feature. I became a person whom one thing about in their life is their whole personality, I would meet with friends would talk about my app, I would go on a date would talk about my app, I would visit my family would talk about my app, same in parties , in gym, on queue of a goverment office but mind you still just as “an app to be launch”. This even shaped the Birthday gifts I received, last one was RANG & DALE’S Pharmacology so that I would know better implementing supplement/drug features that nobody will ever use :)

In the meantime, this was sooo long and thinking and working only on this single app day and night brought me very broad software skill, from security to databases , search engines -for fast food , exercise, supplements etc search, hosting services,  good UI and UX design and underlying frontend and backend skills and before I event really really market it I got an acceptance from one of the biggest firms I dreamed almost 10 years ago. Well I will not talk talk about how much of my expectations is covered from my “The Big Short” view but I know I got the biggest possible compensation while two companies fought over me (I swear to got this is the truth) not that I was always getting so many offers but two came at the same time and I had leverage. 

Well this was also the time LLMs boomed and I still did not start marketing my app and already saturated Fitness App realm became impossible to penetrate. But I never stopped, now even more than ever the free time I had was going into developing my app. Which I have now purposelessly finished and warmed up the social media pages. I was asking myself that when am I gonna be able to say “I fought, I lost. Now I rest” but realized it will never come. Because I really don’t care, I don’t care if openAI, Antropic or big tech having vertical integration with wearables and their own apps, I don’t care that there is no MOAT anymore and no matter how long I worked people can copy my app and make it even better, I don’t care that important thing was to acquire users now I am too late for that, I don’t

care that I spent sleepless nights on “1s and 0s” instead of living life the fullest, well I know whatever what happens I will work on this app for decades to come and I am perfectly content with being like Theo Jansen working on something loon years but unlike him on something extremely unoriginal :)

TLDR: guy misses his time and tries to squeeze wisdom out of it

I feel great. Worked all year and 4th quarter of 2025 to get the idea on paper and build my MVP for several states’ procurement opportunities that open up starting early next year.

The tech is good, but really it was the story that and the vision that sold it. I was afraid I didn’t do enough showing the platform live, but in the end I got 3 commits signing and funding this week making 3/4 of my seed round finished.

I’ve been in startup hell the past 5 years. Took over as ceo of a startup and had to resign due to some fairly public tragic events that happened in my life (not that I was center of attention and was not named, but an event happened way out of our control that has destroyed our lives as we knew it) and couldn’t dedicate my efforts to it, the drive I had just disappeared. 1.5 years after I resigned , the company folded, along with the money I put into it.

Was literally lost in my life and didn’t know what to do. It took months for me to mentally recover to a point where I could even think about work. Our finances kept draining and savings dwindled. I was determined not to go back to an office job that I know I could’ve gotten from a previous employer given the situation.

Lots of work to do, but I know that being passionate about what I am doing has been my key to progress so far.

Not every idea is sexy and world changing, and while some people may think your startup is boring, as long as you have the drive and make the right connections, the road is wide open.

I kept tweaking ads and landing pages for a little product I run, and nothing moved. So I called five people who'd bought once and never came back, and I asked one question: what almost stopped you from buying? Three of them said the same thing, they didn't trust the checkout page, not the product. I fixed one line on that page and the next week was better than the previous three combined. If you're stuck, skip the next tool or tactic for a day and ask the people who already paid you. What did your last five customers almost not buy because of?

I’m a 20 year old junior at a top engineering college, Tech lead at my uni's Programming Club and I’ve been building a fintech/trading infrastructure product full time for about 4 months, alongside classes (skipping most).

What’s going well:

• Built the whole stack myself in about 10 weeks
• Placed well in an international trading-agent competition, which is where the idea came from.
• A couple of established projects in the space want to work with us, and I’m co-organising a session at a major industry conference next week.
• A "big leagues" investor (accelerator) reached out on campus. The first meeting went pretty well, and the second, with a senior partner, was relatively intense.

feedback was “Why is there a need for this? Get more customers.” Fair. I’m a builder, and I’ve spent far more time on the product than on talking to non-tech users.

what’s getting to me:

• For months it’s been a sine curve. Some days I’m sure this will work, and some days it feels pointless.
• I don’t have an internship or job lined up as a backup. Family worries about me dropping out (I’m not planning to; my college allows credited leave for startup work).
• Every tough meeting feels like a verdict, even when it’s just feedback.

questions i'd like get answers for (but not limited to)

1. How did you handle the emotional swings early on, especially before you had traction?
2. as a technical founder how did you get good at customer discovery? Who did you talk to first, and what did you ask?
3. if you started as students, how did you think about the risk of having no backup and/or about taking a sem drop/break to go attend a cohort?

Not promoting anything, and happy to keep the product out of it. I just want to hear from people who’ve been here

For those who’ve had a waitlist up before launching, what did you find converted best on your landing page?

I’m not sure a minimal page can convert, but as a solo founder there’s sometimes limited capacity to build a fully fleshed out landing page.

Curious how other solo founders handled it. What do you think got people to sign up?