Ask HN: Fear of launching a product

[grezql]

I work on different type of ideas and side projects. So far I have worked on around 7-8 large projects. With only 1 of them being what I call success.

One thing I noticed is that, I always have this fear of failure right before the product is finished. When this mindset sets in, I become less productive. Even though I sit in front of the PC and ready to work, my mind simply won't let me work. It lets other thoughts pass through and I get depressed. I suddenly become a pessimist losing the belief in my own work.

My success ratio is there as a good evidence for my mind. The downside with launching and failing is that if you get 1-10 users/customers, you can't kill off the project. You have to sustain support and server infrastructure, which is an extra burden.

3 of the projects I spent months on I didn't even launch, I lost all belief in it.

Has anyone else experienced such, and how did you convince yourself to carry on with the launch?

[brudgers]

Random advice from the internet.

Maybe reframing what it means to start side project as talking to potential users (rather than writing code) might get the projects further. Talking to people is often harder because it includes the possibility of rejection.

Good luck.

[mattbgates]

I can tell you that I am in the same boat: I have been working on 3 side projects for over a year now (and I have plans to build about 5-8 more) and I'm a little fearful of releasing them. I've been working on them since March 2016 and I was supposed to go live in June 2016, then February 2017, and now I'm pushing July 2017.

My delays aren't the fear of launching, however, as much of the time it has been life issues: from trying to make sure my lady is happy, to having to work extra hours at work, to having to spend time with family and friends, to having to fix bugs and update features (I had to update everything from PHP 5.4 to PHP 7), to running out of money to support the projects -- as I pay third parties for their API, to procrastinating and being unable to focus, to just plainly being exhausted, where I've opened up the project to work on it, and the next thing I know.. the laptop is next to me, sometimes even on my chest, and it's morning time.

I run a semi-popular website called Confessions of the Professions ( http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com ) a few years ago that began with just 3 visitors: my mom, my girlfriend, and Google bot. And yet today, it receives about an average of 1,000 visitors. A few weeks ago, several articles went viral, and for two weeks, it was receiving 10,000-20,000 visitors a day.

I released another project, a free web app, called MyPost ( https://mypost.io ) that was really a test to see if people would even use something I created. With over 3000 posts created and worldwide use, I'd say it taught me a lot but gave me confidence to know that people actually would use the things I build.

These were easy to launch as I really didn't feel any pressure to "make sure everything worked 100%" and even sometimes I catch things broken.. and I just fix them, and no one complains. I think I may have had one person just let me know that something wasn't working correctly, but for the most part, I don't feel any pressure in knowing that these two projects have their minor issues. It also helps that both are free to visit and use.

However, lately since I'm working on projects that I actually charge for, I fear the launch.

My fear is not really the launch itself, but the fact that: What if I launch it and there are a ton of errors while live? What if I launch it and not a single person signs up? What if everyone hates it? Although I have done my best to test and test and even got other people to help with beta testing and there are no major issues, I still have that fear of that one error that we all didn't catch that is going to wreck me and cause me to be a failure.

I am nearly done with all my testing enough to say: Let me just go for it, at least, get friends and acquaintances to use it before I go completely public with it. I just keep convincing myself to move forward: I want to turn these side projects into a business and make a living off of them. That is what keeps me going. If I don't, someone else will.

KEEP GOING MAN! KEEP GOING! YOU CAN DO THIS! YOU GOT THIS! DON'T LOSE HOPE!

There may be failure, but if you never launch it, than how will you ever know? Besides, failure always tends to eventually lead to success. With every thing you do, you are constantly learning. Now you and I .. we just have to learn to have that confidence in ourselves to know that our products aren't that bad at all.. and other people may find them useful. If anything, at least we find our own products useful.

Good luck. Just know.. there are others out there... like me, who are going through exactly what you are going through.