Congrats on the launch, at some point I too considered building something like this but after a quick research I realized there is a very popular free service and a freemium service which does exactly the same.
I genuinely want to know from you (and others) whats the motivation to build something like this which already exists, which doesn't have a unique feature either.
Honestly? It’s usually just for fun and a learning experience. When I first built Sendfly in 2017 I had a need for it, didn’t see any options I liked, and built it in a weekend. This time around I’m learning Elixir/Phoenix and re-wrote Sendfly as a learning experience. I’m going to run it anyways so why not share it with the word and see who else finds it useful?
Any of my limited success in life has come from my willingness to build things that already exist. The fact that competitors exist is a good thing; it means there’s already a market for the product. You just need to capture a small slice of an existing market to make a bit of money.
> Any of my limited success in life has come from my willingness to build things that already exist... ...You just need to capture a small slice of an existing market to make a bit of money.
That is an incredible piece of advice.
I often get disappointed or lose the motivation to keep building something that already exists. So reading this really helps knowing its not silly to feel that way but you have to go past it and be willing to create it despite knowing its not unique.
Yes exactly! I have another side project that had multiple competitors when I built it. I wanted to learn, had a need for it myself, and shared it for fun because why not. Its a decade only now, requires zero maintenance, and brings in about $30k ARR (2/3 of it is ad revenue, 1/3 is subscriptions) and costs $40/m to run. I definitely got lucky in terms of its limited success, but I couldn’t have gotten lucky if I wasn’t willing to try.
I genuinely want to know from you (and others) whats the motivation to build something like this which already exists, which doesn't have a unique feature either.