Every startup guru, YouTube video, Product Hunt, and indie influencer tells you to build with validated ideas through social networks or other means. But what happened to building for fun or yourself?
Linus Torvalds created Linux only for himself. He didn't create Git to solve the world's software version control problem. He built it to manage Linux kernel development. Now, we have both Linux and Git.
I understand building for customers. That's consulting or work for hire. I know how to find and solve a big problem for the world market. I'm not opposed to any of that. That's the path of every startup today. But when I created my first software in my second year of college, it was for fun. It was to show a friend that Turbo Pascal was good enough to make something outside of academic use. We ended up selling this MS-DOS-based multi-user calendar and boot customization software via military FTP sites and CDROM.COM, funding our pizza parties every other week for months!
Building software for fun and personal use can be a great way to start entrepreneurship if you need help finding something big or marketable to solve or create. Getting started is the key. So many of my friends never got started. Some work for huge software companies and yet feel stuck or institutionalized.
I'm totally for solving problems that have marketability or customers. Please do. But if you can't find a problem that meets a startup's business requirements, consider a fun idea for yourself and get started. You never know what you'll end up making!
I never wanted to build the most boring franchise management software for multinational corporations. I had never known it was my calling to make money and have a niche presence for 22 years. I wanted to show other developers that a low-level framework-based object-oriented programming platform could be entertaining when starting to write code. Who knew that would lead to building a PCI-compliant web-based solution that replaced AS/400-based systems standard in a dull niche market?
In business, we don't often get to control our destinations, but we can enjoy the journey!