One of the hardest parts about building a SaaS is choosing which features not to work on.
You also have to know when to give up on something you're trying to build.
In the early stages of building, all that matters is shipping something and getting it in the hands of users.
The scope of my MVP, the first version of my product I feel comfortable giving to people, has shrunk drastically since I started working on it.
The initial idea for Creator Kiwi was an "AI Content Copilot" some sort of tool where you'd plan, write, and schedule content with the help of AI.
My first mistake was trying to integrate with multiple social platforms at once.
I wanted to support, at a minimum, YouTube and LinkedIn but also try for Instagram and Twitter/X.
The extra time to build wasn't the only problem with this approach, but that I was trying to appeal to 4 different customer profiles before I had a sense of the value I could provide.
The type of person looking for a YouTube tool wants different things from someone who wants a LinkedIn tool.
They might be similar enough for a mature software application, but my MVP is not that.
I quickly realized how difficult integrating with even just a single application was, so I decided to focus my efforts entirely on YouTube.
This was an easy decision for me because I know YouTube the best.
It gives me a slight advantage over someone building something similar who doesn't have the same experience and knowledge about the platform.
Despite making this decision about a month into building, it was still another month or two until I realized I had no idea what I was building.
I was trying to solve 10 problems at the same time — Project Management, content approval, file management, the list goes on…
I was afraid of building a "simple" MVP because it felt like I didn't have enough functionality.
This is a fear I'm sure many solo developers relate to.
We know what's possible with programming, so we want to go all out.
But when you're building a product you want people to pay for, the value needs to be clear.
The best advice I can give you is to try explaining what you're building to someone who has no idea about the niche you're in.
I was chatting with my friend Pascal about my business and gave him a demo of what I'd been working through with Creator Kiwi.
At this time I still had the idea of a "Project" where you could plan multiple videos underneath it.
I needed to hear and experience his confusion as I tried explaining the use case of what I was building.
Immediately after that call I stripped out everything related to projects and content planning and focused on the single core feature I've wanted for ages — easier link management with better attribution.
At the rate I was building at that time I wouldn't have shipped anything for a year.
And when I finally did, it would have been a hodgepodge of six different apps, all poorly implemented.
That was a turning point for me, but I still had to learn how to prioritize functionality even in a smaller problem space.
I don't (yet) have a clean method for deciding what features to focus on, but I can tell you that being willing to rip out what you've worked on is a superpower.
It hurts to throw away 4 hours of work, but giving up then is much better than wasting another 20.
I try to view it as a learning experience. While I didn't add anything to the app, I'm now more knowledgeable about building.
The biggest trap aside from building useless features is building systems that sound like a good idea.
What I mean is trying to build "scalable" software before you have any paying users.
Just yesterday I struggled to reimplement my database for an hour until I realized it did not matter for MVP.
As a developer you don't want to give up, especially when it feels like a solution is right around the corner.
But when you have no clue what you're doing it's a waste of time and a distraction from working on useful functionality.
Knowing when to cut your losses is a skill I'll no longer underestimate.
Have a great week.
Cole
P.S. Tell me something you were working on recently that you decided to throw away. I read every reply.
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