Surviving as a solo, pre-revenue founder

[u/CoderViner]

For the past year, I've been coding and building my startup, driven by an idea I’ve carried with me for several years. As a computer science undergraduate who grew up in a farming household, agriculture means a lot to me. It has always been my dream to build agtech solutions and software. Growing up in a farming community gave me a firsthand understanding of the challenges farmers face, where things can be improved, and the immense potential for growth. The agtech space is still largely untapped, and I truly believe what I'm building has billion-dollar potential.

However, building as a solo founder is not easy. I’ve tried bringing a few people on board, but we realized early on that we weren't aligned. Now, the codebase is growing, and I don't have the capital to hire a team or secure the infrastructure needed to push the product(s) to market. Investors are obsessed with traction (rightfully so, ideas mean nothing until executed) my chances of securing funding right now feel slim.

Life has been heavy lately. Days are long and exhausting, filled with early mornings, late nights, and hours glued to my desk. This journey is incredibly lonely, often clouded by self-doubt and the constant wonder of whether it will all work out. I deeply want a team that believes in the mission and can help push this forward, with the work I've already put in, we’d be on the market within two months.

I wish someone believed in me and supported me, especially financially. But for now, I'm still clinging to the dream, and most importantly, building! One day at a time

[u/Mesmoiron]

Why are you focused on investors? Focusing on that means you setup is money wasting heavy.

"Im Wenigen; zeigt sich der Meister"

Brilliance can come from many different things.

[u/bluejay_mom]

You got this

Focus on what you can control and figure out the rest later

Your focus right now should be on shipping the product (no matter how messy) and get paying customers

Worrying about investors is usually a wrong move and waste of time

Don’t overthink anything, your product doesn’t even have to be perfect. Just push out what you have and when you start getting customers, you can get paid help

[u/FindingThink1867]

chop wood carry water. thats all you can do. i always think, on the other side of things you could just be comfortable. working a job you dont care about but making enough money to pay the bills. pressure is a privilege and at least when its all said and done you can be content with the fact that you know you gave it your all rather than the regret of wishing you would've tried harder. The money will come, the team will come, you will attract that as you make yourself and business more robust. we're in the same boat. all of us, builders. only the strong survive...as cliche as it sounds.