Build for Yourself First

Every zzOwn tool started as something we needed and could not find. Not "could not find for free" — could not find at all. Or found, but it was slow, required an account, or had seventeen features when we needed one.

So we built it. Then we gave it away.

THE VALIDATION SHORTCUT

Building for yourself skips the whole product-market fit guessing game. You are the market. You know exactly what the tool needs to do. You will know immediately if it works because you will use it the next day.

If you stop using your own tool a week after building it, that is data. It means the tool does not actually solve the problem you thought it did. Kill it. Move on.

THE RISK

You are not always the average user. What frustrates you might not frustrate anyone else. A tool built for a very specific workflow might have an audience of one.

That is fine. Ship it anyway. The cost of shipping a free tool is low. The cost of not shipping and never finding out is higher.

Build the thing you wish existed. Someone else probably wishes it existed too.