Things I learned building a startup

Smarthash wasn’t my first app.  Not by a long shot.
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Before Smarthash there were several apps, products and services that I came out with... and they all failed. Horribly.

​And they all had one thing in common, the product came before the customer. 

Smarthash was completely different.

​I wasn’t even trying to build anything at first.

All of my past failed projects had one thing in common, the product came before the customer. 

My intention was to grow my personal Instagram, so that I could be part of a community where I could learn and bounce ideas off of.

That community eventually turned out to be my first beta users for Smarthash.

While growing my account, I listened to people’s pain points when growing their accounts, and realized that I had the same pain points.

One of them, was not knowing which hashtags were actually performing for them on Instagram.

I went around and asked people, “if there was a product that did this, would you be interested?”

There was a resounding yes!

The customer came before the product, and I was one one of them!

Scratching your own itch seems to be a very good start to any product because you at least have one customer.

Scratching your own itch seems to be a very good start to any product because you at least have one customer.

Not only did I have the customer before the product, but that customer base grew, and actually had a personal stake in the app since they watched the journey ( via Instagram stories ) of the app being built and even had some suggestions for features. 
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Put the customer before the product, and they won’t have to come, they’ll already be there. Most likely with a few of their friends to try your product out.