u/Fun-Cheek-2276

Ben benieuwd hoe anderen dit ervaren.

Hebben jullie ook weleens het gevoel dat iedereen in het OV een beetje in z’n eigen bubbel zit? Koptelefoon op, telefoon erbij, en eigenlijk geen contact met de mensen om je heen.

Best grappig eigenlijk, zeker in zo’n divers land als Nederland, dat we zo weinig contact hebben met de persoon die naast ons zit.

Wat zou het voor jou makkelijker of minder ongemakkelijk maken om even contact te maken met een onbekende in de trein, bus of tram?

Zou bijvoorbeeld een klein spelletje of quiz helpen? Iedereen in dezelfde trein krijgt op hetzelfde moment een vraag en kan anoniem meedoen. Gewoon iets leuks om de reis wat minder saai te maken, zonder dat je meteen met elkaar hoeft te praten.

Zou je zoiets doen, of zou je het juist een beetje ongemakkelijk vinden?

Ben vooral benieuwd wat jullie denken en wat voor jullie de drempel lager zou maken om eens contact te maken met iemand naast je.

I'm a software engineer and I've been trying to build my own SaaS for about a year now.

The problem is… I haven't actually built anything.

Over the past year I've come up with a lot of ideas. And honestly, most of them came from research rather than actually noticing a problem myself, which I know is probably part of the problem.

I'll get excited about an idea, spend a couple of days thinking about it and discussing it with Claude, and then eventually abandon it because Claude basically talks me out of it.

"It’s a crowded market."

"There are already 200 products doing this."

"What's your differentiation?"

"You’re not solving a problem that's painful enough."

And then I move on to the next idea.

A few weeks/months later, same thing.

I've basically been repeating this loop for a year:

Idea → research → get excited → talk to AI → abandon it → new idea.

And I'm honestly starting to feel pretty lost.

What's making it worse is everything I'm hearing about SaaS right now:

• SaaS is "dying"
• Everyone is a founder now
• AI has made building software ridiculously easy
• Therefore building isn't the bottleneck anymore
• Customers are harder to get
• Competition is insane
• Every idea already has 20–300 competitors
• And if you don't have distribution, an audience, or some unique advantage, you're basically screwed

At the same time, I keep thinking about just giving up on the idea of building something of my own and focusing on my career instead.

But then I look at what's happening with AI and software engineering and think: is that even a safe bet anymore?

So I feel stuck between two things:

"Just build something and stop overthinking it."

and

"Be realistic, the market is insanely competitive and you probably don't have an advantage."

I'm not looking for someone to tell me "just believe in yourself."

I'd genuinely like to hear from people who have actually gone through this.

How did you get out of this loop?

Did you eventually find an idea by just building something, or did you spend months validating before writing code?

And for those of you who successfully built a SaaS/business as a solo developer: what did you have that made you believe it was worth pursuing despite the competition?

I managed to have a quick chat with a guy in an event for founders, he has a strong portfolio of AI tools making close to $20k MRR I asked him, what do you advice me to get there and I was expecting some complicated growth strategy Instead, his advice was surprisingly simple:

He told me that he came across a framework about startup launch mistakes that really resonated with him.

The biggest takeaway launch day usually isn't the problem. what happens before launch is.

some mistakes he has been doing and he knows some people have done as well:

1. Expecting one big launch to change everything Product Hunt, Hacker News, X, etc. can create a spike, but a spike isn't traction. You need demand before launch.
2. Trying to build for everyone A vague “all-in-one platform for businesses” makes it difficult for anyone to know if the product is actually for them. Start with a specific ICP and expand later.
3. Building instead of talking to customers Six months of coding doesn't necessarily mean six months of progress. Talk to potential customers early and look for real behavior, not “yeah, I'd probably use that.”
4. Building too many features Every feature adds complexity. Before building one, ask: does this solve a painful problem, help someone buy, or improve retention?
5. Overpromising Your vision can be huge, but your marketing should describe what the product can actually do today. Otherwise, you attract customers whose expectations your product can't meet.
6. Building in stealth If nobody knows what you're building, you launch with no audience, no feedback, no early users, and no demand.

Curious what others here think are these mistakes resonate to you? what's the biggest mistake you've made (or seen others make) ?

I'm not selling anything, currently I'm cooking something for small independent repair shops, and before go deep in building I need help as I'd really like to hear from people who actually run these businesses if possible.

The idea is a simple repair-shop management system that combines:

• Repair tickets / work orders
• Customer + device history
• Inventory tracking
• Invoicing
• Repair status updates
• Warranty tracking
• DOR / second-hand purchase registration (still validate if this matter for majority or no)
• Documentation around the repair (still validate if this worth to be on list)

The main idea isn't to build another Repair tickets or another POS system for shops

It's more like a complete system for a repair shop, with the compliance stuff built in if needed

I'm particularly interested in shops that currently use some combination of Excel, paper, accounting software, POS software, WhatsApp, etc.

I will be grateful if you have 2 minutes for few questions:

1. What are you currently using to manage repairs?
2. What do you hate about your current setup?
3. If you trade used phones, laptops, etc., how do you handle the required purchase/registration records?
4. Would having DOR + invoicing + repair management in one system actually be valuable to you?
5. Most importantly: how much would you pay for something like this?

Again I'm not selling anything yet and there is no product to sell. I'm trying to figure out whether this is actually a painful problem before spending time building you will help me save months of my life.

Honest "this is completely unnecessary" answers are just as useful as positive ones.

I'm not selling anything, currently I'm cooking something for small independent repair shops, and before go deep in building I need help as I'd really like to hear from people who actually run these businesses if possible.

The idea is a simple repair-shop management system that combines:

• Repair tickets / work orders
• Customer + device history
• Inventory tracking
• Invoicing
• Repair status updates
• Warranty tracking
• DOR / second-hand purchase registration (still validate if this matter for majority or no)
• Documentation around the repair (still validate if this worth to be on list)

The main idea isn't to build another Repair tickets or another POS system for shops

It's more like a complete system for a repair shop, with the compliance stuff built in if needed

I'm particularly interested in shops that currently use some combination of Excel, paper, accounting software, POS software, WhatsApp, etc.

I will be grateful if you have 2 minutes for few questions:

1. What are you currently using to manage repairs?
2. What do you hate about your current setup?
3. If you trade used phones, laptops, etc., how do you handle the required purchase/registration records?
4. Would having DOR + invoicing + repair management in one system actually be valuable to you?
5. Most importantly: how much would you pay for something like this?

Again I'm not selling anything yet and there is no product to sell. I'm trying to figure out whether this is actually a painful problem before spending time building you will help me save months of my life.

Honest "this is completely unnecessary" answers are just as useful as positive ones.

I'm not selling anything, currently I'm cooking something for small independent repair shops, and before go deep in building I need help as I'd really like to hear from people who actually run these businesses if possible.

The idea is a simple repair-shop management system that combines:

• Repair tickets / work orders
• Customer + device history
• Inventory tracking
• Invoicing
• Repair status updates
• Warranty tracking
• DOR / second-hand purchase registration (still validate if this matter for majority or no)
• Documentation around the repair (still validate if this worth to be on list)

The main idea isn't to build another Repair tickets or another POS system for shops

It's more like a complete system for a repair shop, with the compliance stuff built in if needed

I'm particularly interested in shops that currently use some combination of Excel, paper, accounting software, POS software, WhatsApp, etc.

I will be grateful if you have 2 minutes for few questions:

1. What are you currently using to manage repairs?
2. What do you hate about your current setup?
3. If you trade used phones, laptops, etc., how do you handle the required purchase/registration records?
4. Would having DOR + invoicing + repair management in one system actually be valuable to you?
5. Most importantly: how much would you pay for something like this?

Again I'm not selling anything yet and there is no product to sell. I'm trying to figure out whether this is actually a painful problem before spending time building you will help me save months of my life.

Honest "this is completely unnecessary" answers are just as useful as positive ones.