Why Software Engineers Suck at Startups

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  • Опубліковано 7 сер 2019
  • Many people get into software engineering to build startups, but few succeed. I spent 5 years coding side projects before I could fully support myself from them. This is why I kept failing.

КОМЕНТАРІ • 367

  • @py_addo
    @py_addo 4 роки тому +223

    Feels like he is staring into my soul...

  • @RyanSaplanPT
    @RyanSaplanPT 4 роки тому +54

    “When you build something for yourself you have much intuition for how to design and market the product. This is better than any market research you can do.” Love this

  • @ankitaaarya
    @ankitaaarya 4 роки тому +699

    My instincts tells me that this channel gonna get huge real fast.

    • @ankitaaarya
      @ankitaaarya 4 роки тому +8

      Yesyerday it had 1.something subs
      Today right now it has
      2.4k subs

    • @Thomas-rc9sc
      @Thomas-rc9sc 4 роки тому +3

      @@ankitaaarya Now it has 4.35k lmaio

    • @changwufei5
      @changwufei5 4 роки тому

      I think you are right buddy

    • @FleshToDust
      @FleshToDust 4 роки тому +1

      10k subs before halloween. Calling it.

    • @ankitaaarya
      @ankitaaarya 4 роки тому +1

      @@Thomas-rc9sc yepp, now its 5.14k

  • @NFSprostreet98
    @NFSprostreet98 4 роки тому +42

    This is one of the most genuine youtube channels out there.

  • @aweinfinitebliss
    @aweinfinitebliss 4 роки тому +1

    Love that you just keep going. No giving up. Love you.

  • @angelofechter5666
    @angelofechter5666 4 роки тому +1

    will kwan thank you for being so transparent and honest about yourself it takes so much courage you have my full respect. im not even into coding and entrepenuer i just want to live off photography but still your videos teach so much about how career works. your existence is truely valuable for others.

  • @rckahale
    @rckahale 4 роки тому +1

    Your content is really good!
    Research materials, example clips, analysis and opinions is all solid gold.

  • @tayyabnouman8240
    @tayyabnouman8240 2 місяці тому

    thanks for the video man. I wish I had discovered your channel earlier but hopefully its not too late

  • @shibakaneki555
    @shibakaneki555 4 роки тому +4

    more videos like this please. i wanna make my own business but i'm working full time at the same time. so few progress on my projects and i need motivation, seriously

  • @LeveragedFinance
    @LeveragedFinance 4 роки тому +1

    Thank you for sharing your experiences for us!

  • @bantinggamer4962
    @bantinggamer4962 4 роки тому +1

    you are so right. i just feel that without a good mentor and a good story most people have to go through this themselves. you have to figure out how not to do something. thanks for the super inspirational video. rock on!

  • @jordysinke
    @jordysinke 4 роки тому +1

    Love your videos man, keep going 💪

  • @radueminea
    @radueminea 4 роки тому

    love your fresh perspective on the tech entepreneurship blend! brew it well!

  • @johnn4314
    @johnn4314 4 роки тому +1

    This guy is really awesome for being so honest

  • @younggiltak7719
    @younggiltak7719 4 роки тому

    Very straight forward and genuine. Thanks for sharing!

  • @mileslakewood8731
    @mileslakewood8731 3 роки тому +9

    This man will never lose a staring contest. Now that's confidence!

  • @jason3319
    @jason3319 4 роки тому +1

    Appreciate the advice. I'm a CS student at UBC and I'm glad I discovered your channel. Keep the content coming!

    • @willkwan
      @willkwan  4 роки тому

      Nice! A lot of my friends went there, though I went to U of T.

  • @raphaeljaggerd3585
    @raphaeljaggerd3585 4 роки тому

    Dude thanks. You've really cleared up a lot of things for me.

  • @blasttrash
    @blasttrash 4 роки тому +329

    Jr Techlead in the making.

    • @namesare4fools
      @namesare4fools 4 роки тому +3

      close your eyes and listen to his voice.. he's Ben Shapiro in the making

    • @blasttrash
      @blasttrash 4 роки тому +10

      @@namesare4fools no idea who this Bun Shapio is.

    • @kirill4531
      @kirill4531 4 роки тому +5

      @@blasttrash one of the last sane people on Earth ))

    • @Rivabomb
      @Rivabomb 4 роки тому +14

      @@kirill4531 lolol psuedo-intellectuals unite

    • @christianjamesguevarra6257
      @christianjamesguevarra6257 4 роки тому +4

      Techlead is not legit

  • @richardantao3249
    @richardantao3249 4 роки тому

    First time seeing your content; I loved the insight you provided and I think you're absolutely right!

  • @5to9blog
    @5to9blog 4 роки тому +5

    Former engineer. This video is fantastic. I would recommend elaborating further or making a follow up video with other examples!

  • @karlbooklover
    @karlbooklover 4 роки тому

    great advice, totally agree about the importance of allocating focus correctly

  • @dudebroepicgamer4847
    @dudebroepicgamer4847 4 роки тому +73

    1.5 months isn't that long. Just release it. I want to play the aquarium game!

  • @clouis906
    @clouis906 4 роки тому +1

    Brutal honesty man, love it, not what wantpreneurs want to hear but what they need to hear

  • @Deepankarsingh1993
    @Deepankarsingh1993 4 роки тому +37

    I love this channel, also I don't think that any other channel that I have came across,
    Which have the this look in the eyes like it will kill you, if you don't watch the video completely...
    😂😂😂

  • @mnesvat
    @mnesvat 4 роки тому

    Thanks for the honest advices man, your videos are really cool 🙂👌🏻

  • @ultralord2680
    @ultralord2680 4 роки тому +1

    Keep on making software and business vids great content

  • @PranayPratyush
    @PranayPratyush 4 роки тому

    Unique channel dude. Really liking it.

  • @Chris-kt9yq
    @Chris-kt9yq 4 роки тому +1

    100% my story through yours. Hated mobile games, but loved game dev. Start with simple concepts and get use to failure. Failing is upwards in software development. Wish you the best of luck in the business, hope to see you in it someday.

  • @plc12234
    @plc12234 4 роки тому

    you are charismatic, keep up the good work bro!

  • @GortonaGaming
    @GortonaGaming 4 роки тому

    Hey Will! This was very helpful for me. Thx for sharing experiences! I do not code or publish, but your message is valid over many fields of creative works! Thx

  • @mandelbro777
    @mandelbro777 4 роки тому

    good advice dude. Thanks for sharing

  • @Pedro5antos_
    @Pedro5antos_ 3 роки тому

    AWESOME
    Really appreciated the tips

  • @pwan3971
    @pwan3971 4 роки тому

    Love this channel

  • @Othello379
    @Othello379 4 роки тому

    really great video!

  • @mpwsh
    @mpwsh 4 роки тому +1

    Right now i'm exactly in the position you described with super aquarium. I'm developing a web app and the product is completed, but instead of showing it to people and start promoting it i'm adding features day after day without even having any feedback on usability or anything. Thank you for sharing your experience , dude!

  • @tomdon3138
    @tomdon3138 4 роки тому

    Nothing is random, it's your life path. You will be huge! Don't forget to buckle up because it's going to be a damn good ride!

  • @vyacheslavzgordan6725
    @vyacheslavzgordan6725 4 роки тому

    Great, thank you for sharing your experience

  • @leu2304
    @leu2304 4 роки тому

    Men, please do more content. I'm so glad that youtube showed me this channel! I hope in the next series you will lunch a multi billion start up! Good luck!

  • @dila8621
    @dila8621 4 роки тому

    thank you. this made my day!

  • @arontuhafenihamukwaya2520
    @arontuhafenihamukwaya2520 4 роки тому

    You are good man. Thanks for sharing

  • @DiggOlive
    @DiggOlive 4 роки тому +91

    Yo that livestreaming fishing game sounds fire

    • @PassportGods
      @PassportGods 4 роки тому +3

      I know right! Engaging with those streaming the game?? I haven't heard that anywhere. But to be fair, I'm not really a gamer

  • @siyabonganobela2859
    @siyabonganobela2859 4 роки тому

    You're a pretty good videographer, I just subscribed.

  • @mattgraves3709
    @mattgraves3709 3 роки тому

    Invaluable.
    Thank you .

  • @jameshome4252
    @jameshome4252 4 роки тому +3

    My first startup was the same, I wasn't really interested but I thought it could make money. Subscribed.

  • @benardirungu2449
    @benardirungu2449 4 роки тому

    Good work, I can totally relate.

  • @forsanityandreason5356
    @forsanityandreason5356 4 роки тому +191

    Oh my god! That death stare.... it’s like he’s looking right into my soul..

    • @mayankraj2294
      @mayankraj2294 4 роки тому

      .

    • @ustiesto
      @ustiesto 4 роки тому +8

      ikr, after a few minutes into the video I was embarrassed I never coded a successful app

    • @syrenarch251
      @syrenarch251 4 роки тому +4

      1:16 you're welcome

    • @entnixe
      @entnixe 4 роки тому

      Haha, got him. He just looking through the wall, i dont have soul.

  • @ivoriankoua3916
    @ivoriankoua3916 4 роки тому

    You're doing a really VALUABLE job for actual engineer solopreneur out there , thanks.

  • @MarioScott
    @MarioScott 4 роки тому

    Good video and advise

  • @KyleShankin
    @KyleShankin 4 роки тому +36

    You hit the nail on the head when you said the bit about developers thinking that adding features is productivity.
    I also liked what you said about leveraging social media, it's super important. But how do you balance the other hats you have to wear as an individual entrepreneur with building a social media following? It seems like such a big undertaking to create quality content.
    Also, as much as I like the idea of building a following, Id rather work on my business than in it, and doing something like a UA-cam channel seems like a huge time commitment that requires my own personal time and attention. How do you handle something like that?

    • @ZVEKOfficial
      @ZVEKOfficial 4 роки тому +3

      If only this dude actually replied to any of his comments

  • @ChristopherCameronAudiRepair
    @ChristopherCameronAudiRepair 4 роки тому +2

    Nice video! I almost have my BS in Computer Science, and I'm trying to find out the best way to go. Keep the vids up! Cheers

  • @AdamDawoodjee3
    @AdamDawoodjee3 4 роки тому

    Nice vid bro

  • @CarlosHernandez-lb3wq
    @CarlosHernandez-lb3wq 4 роки тому +3

    Cool video and thanks for posting. IMO, another reason why (fellow) software engineers struggle with startups/entrepreneurship is they can't sell. Not to throw darts, but the email pitch you did is a perfect example. An email pitch should be at most 3 lines selling the end result which you did address in the vid, after the fact. Typically developers are introverts and reserved and don't know the value they bring, not to mention outsourced labor is buckling the market. But thanks again for posting, I'm going to watch a few of your other vids in the near future!

    • @malcorub
      @malcorub 4 роки тому

      True, Steve Jobs was not an engineer or programmer but he is considered one of the biggest influencers in tech.

  • @davidhahn7391
    @davidhahn7391 4 роки тому

    Techpreneur: (time > value > money). Keep doing you, Will! Sounds like you're on the right path and post more videos.

  • @iandrabedin
    @iandrabedin 4 роки тому

    It´s great to hear real life examples, thanks for sharing your experience! I was just hoping you had said the formal concepts, so people could look it up, like MVP, user testing, user research, ux writing, user flow, growth hacking. At the end, your main problems was because of design, that just shows the importance of a really well done research before beginning the development.

  • @gauravshinde6306
    @gauravshinde6306 4 роки тому +26

    This guy is probably the most ambitious and motivated person I have ever seen.

    • @conceptrat
      @conceptrat 2 роки тому

      Other than TechLead or JomaTech or Tran. Gaaa mix and repeat 😞

  • @marks3208
    @marks3208 4 роки тому

    You just earned yourself a subscriber. Congrats.

  • @HouseFromSmartCity
    @HouseFromSmartCity 4 роки тому +2

    Short, crisp, clear sentences that communicate what it does for the end user. Young men and women should be practicing this skill relentlessly

  • @TheBlackManMythLegend
    @TheBlackManMythLegend 4 роки тому +155

    I am not a genius or even a crazy hard worker like you. But my logic is that: the money is in the people. Not the tech. Understand the people, understand why they do or do not do something . Then you build your stuff based on that knowledge. And that's it. Do you think that your addiction to DOTA is a random phenomenon? Nope there are people at Dota or Facebook or Kings (candy crush) who's job is to make people addict, with science. A book "
    Hooked" explain that . Good luck you deserve to make it bigger . Peace.

    • @vijay_pagare
      @vijay_pagare 4 роки тому

      Author?

    • @ashishkulkarni2520
      @ashishkulkarni2520 4 роки тому +2

      @@vijay_pagare Nir Eyal

    • @tapwater424
      @tapwater424 4 роки тому +2

      I think DOTA being addictive is a pure accident. Dota was made by hobby programmers in 2003 and since 2008 the core gameplay has pretty much stayed the same. It just happened to become the best map for WC3

    • @Sevendogtags
      @Sevendogtags 4 роки тому +4

      Yes, the core mechanics are more or less the same as the original Dota. But there's a been a lot of development around that, many features, the feel of the game, the sound (don't underestimate sound) etc... that are designed to be addictive.
      If Dota was still the same old game with just better graphics, it wouldn't be anywhere nearly as popular.

    • @tapwater424
      @tapwater424 4 роки тому +2

      @@Sevendogtags Good take actually. I'd still argue most addictive games are not intended to be so. It's mostly after the fact that people have studied the properties of addictive apps and games.

  • @relakjdlkfja
    @relakjdlkfja 4 роки тому

    Yea this channel is gonna go viral

  • @sybily_du7456
    @sybily_du7456 4 роки тому +3

    I quit a great job a couple years ago to start my own company and create an app called Sybily, which is a very different concept for social media. You give excellent advice on entrepreneurship and the challenges you encounter in starting a company.

    • @Synnipoe
      @Synnipoe 4 роки тому +1

      Isn't your app just Facebook but the privacy controls are based on how much you interact with someone? why would people completely switch to a new social media out of the 1000s that are already available just for weird privacy controls. surely people that care about privacy would rather decide themselves went to share different stuff?

    • @mattmattson4207
      @mattmattson4207 4 роки тому

      Hey, I tested your app, is that the final version? I mean is it as it should be?

  • @basspalace2920
    @basspalace2920 4 роки тому

    Man, you’re amazing

  • @ussefdlxrd916
    @ussefdlxrd916 4 роки тому

    I loved watching this !

  • @olegbondarenko6149
    @olegbondarenko6149 4 роки тому

    Solid advice.

  • @AntonioManaligod
    @AntonioManaligod 4 роки тому

    Thanks for making this video. I'm a visual designers that's interested in app/game development and I'm always curious how developers/programmers think and work.

  • @stevensun369
    @stevensun369 4 роки тому +4

    He should definetly write a book about this stuff!!!

  • @3moluvr
    @3moluvr 4 роки тому

    god i love all of your videos

  • @napalm_exe
    @napalm_exe 4 роки тому +3

    Subscribed. I don't know who this guy is, but he is now my second favorite UA-camr. After The Techlead of course.

    • @fridayimp7784
      @fridayimp7784 4 роки тому

      Techlead is another whole mood you can't compare them lol

  • @mutumalensingh1523
    @mutumalensingh1523 4 роки тому +1

    Yo, this shitt is really usefull dude.. Thank you so much

  • @Othello379
    @Othello379 4 роки тому +1

    Will Kwan, you look like a nice person. Keep on going! :D

  • @leaflo6960
    @leaflo6960 4 роки тому

    After watching Simon Sinek video on Why, How and What video, this sure makes a lot of sense.

  • @reecek1dd
    @reecek1dd 4 роки тому

    Couldn't agree more there is a programming storm coming to social media. 🏄‍♂️

  • @M0K0K0
    @M0K0K0 4 роки тому

    Hi! Thank you for this feedback on your experience, I was about to make the mistakes you were talking about! :)
    Thank you for this nice video!

  • @jasoneddy5298
    @jasoneddy5298 4 роки тому +4

    More videos like this 🔥

    • @willkwan
      @willkwan  4 роки тому +1

      Got lots coming!

  • @PotatoMagnet
    @PotatoMagnet 4 роки тому

    Holy shit. This is young TechLead

  • @adamday5045
    @adamday5045 4 роки тому

    Kwan, you madman

  • @JimmyGeniusEllis
    @JimmyGeniusEllis 4 роки тому

    I work as a software engineer but I want to sustain off personal projects alone. That's why i watch videos of people like you who enter the wild wild west of indie game entrepreneurship. I like your speech. It's really what I wanted to hear. I think you want to make more indie games since you talk about it so much

  • @Mrpoopy5
    @Mrpoopy5 4 роки тому +1

    I love your videos and I want to get into the stuff that you work on, it would be a huge help if you explained which softwares you used to create your games. Thank you🙂

    • @MathieuPrevot
      @MathieuPrevot 4 роки тому

      He used Unity3D and Android studio

  • @jooky87
    @jooky87 4 роки тому +6

    “This game design doesn’t even make any sense.” Lol

  • @wildalain
    @wildalain 4 роки тому

    this some good content

  • @sor3999
    @sor3999 4 роки тому

    It's a good learning experience for sure. But it's even better to learn from other's mistakes.

  • @MiketheCoder
    @MiketheCoder 4 роки тому

    I feel like this channel is going to grow very fast.

  • @rammaheshwari9748
    @rammaheshwari9748 4 роки тому

    Living Legend

  • @benjaminchen4367
    @benjaminchen4367 4 роки тому +1

    Shit that fishing game sounds 🔥might have to steal your idea

  • @mangowarrior
    @mangowarrior 4 роки тому +27

    I dunno man ... he looks like he's gonna be the next Asian version of Hannibal Lecter

  • @omancoding5687
    @omancoding5687 3 роки тому

    Thank you

  • @thegeeksvillage
    @thegeeksvillage 4 роки тому

    Thank you for sharing. I love the mic you are using, what's the name and where can I get one.

  • @sebastianwardana1527
    @sebastianwardana1527 4 роки тому +2

    This is the good sauce! Get the good sauce! Put the good sauce on everything!

  • @Chips4Real1
    @Chips4Real1 Рік тому

    the fishing game looks cool tbh

  • @Sesshoumaruoni
    @Sesshoumaruoni 4 роки тому +4

    How do you get the graphic assets for your games, do you hire someone to make them or you make them by yourself? That's the part I'm struggling with...

  • @introversado7599
    @introversado7599 4 роки тому

    You have some very good advice here, +1 and sub.

  • @vikiv.1352
    @vikiv.1352 3 роки тому

    Most of channels braggle about how cool they are but he explains the possible mistakes. This is more useful

  • @orlovskyconsultinggbr2849
    @orlovskyconsultinggbr2849 4 роки тому

    Hi Will , so business skills before coding skills, many young nerds need to understand this.

  • @DevAnon
    @DevAnon 4 роки тому +1

    focusing on my projects for 14 months now but only achieving 20% of what i should.

  • @osasosazuwa5165
    @osasosazuwa5165 4 роки тому +1

    Everything you said in this video that was just me, I spent a lot time and money adding features after features to a product that was cool but actually useless and didn't solve any problems

  • @jeanmichelsarr6040
    @jeanmichelsarr6040 4 роки тому

    Very nice video ! The content of this channel is original.

  • @BaikalLV
    @BaikalLV 4 роки тому

    really relatable

  • @DotSimLtd
    @DotSimLtd 4 роки тому

    IDK that fishing game looks kind of interesting. Something I'd play at work for sure.

  • @romulino
    @romulino 4 роки тому

    I think I'll try to make that aquarium game for streams, sounds like it would be very fun!

  • @henrikf8777
    @henrikf8777 4 роки тому +1

    7:37 You missed the opportunity to pitch nordvpn untill the 10 minute mark