I’ve been building products and running startups for years now, 50+ production-ready apps, a creative agency, and now my global developer platform & community DevDisplay.
If I could go back and give my younger self one piece of advice, it would be this:
Stop trying to build something “revolutionary.” Start building things people already pay for and make them better.
This sounds boring, right? We all want to be “that founder” - the one who changes the world, disrupts industries, and raises millions. But here’s the harsh truth I learned:
Your landlord doesn’t accept GitHub stars as rent. Your team can’t eat “innovation.”
I learned this the hard way with one of my first startups. We spent months building something no one had seen before. Guess how many paying customers we had after launch? Zero.
Then I started building what I call “boring sh*t that scales” - products in proven markets. The result? Paying customers, clear growth, and a business that could actually survive. That mindset became the DNA of DevDisplay’s business model (Platform + Community + Labs).
Why “Boring” Wins - and Why DevDisplay Exists
When you see 50 project management tools out there, that’s not a signal to stay away. That’s a green light. It means people are already spending money there.
That’s why I built DevDisplay - not as a “new category” but as a better solution for an existing pain:
- Developers already join communities.
- Developers already look for opportunities, jobs, hackathons, and collaborators.
- Developers already showcase projects - just scattered everywhere (LinkedIn, GitHub, Discords).
DevDisplay simply brings all of that together - one platform where developers can discover, connect, collaborate, and promote their work.
This is exactly the advice I wish I gave myself earlier: don’t try to convince the world to behave differently - just build something that fits their existing behavior and solves their frustration better.
The Math Still Works
Let’s be brutally practical.
Want to make \$10K/month?
- You can gamble on something no one understands, spend a year building it, and pray.
- Or you can find a market where thousands already pay and just get 1-2% of them.
With DevDisplay, even a small slice of the global developer market (20M+ developers worldwide) is enough to build a sustainable, profitable organization - and then invest in DevDisplay Labs, where we can finally experiment with moonshot ideas.
How I Apply This Playbook at DevDisplay
Here’s what I personally do now (and what I’d tell any indie hacker):
- Pick Proven Markets – I look for areas where money already flows. Developer platforms, hiring tools, collab spaces. ✅
- Find Gaps – DevDisplay didn’t copy LinkedIn or GitHub. We built for indie hackers, students, open-source builders - the ones big platforms ignore.
- Ship Fast – Every feature on DevDisplay has an MVP phase. If we can’t build it in 4-6 weeks, we cut scope.
- Charge Early – Even with free features, we have real monetization in mind (Labs, Promotion, Community Benefits).
- Use Community Feedback as Roadmap – DevDisplay itself is shaped by contributors and users — they literally tell us what to build next.
- Double Down – When a feature or campaign works (like hackathon boards or collab requests), we scale it hard.
Final Thought: Stability Before Moonshots
Yes, I still dream about building wild, world-changing products. But first, I need stability. I need to make sure DevDisplay survives and grows before we try to “reinvent” developer collaboration.
So here’s my advice to any builder reading this - and my past self:
✅ Build boring sh*t that sells.
✅ Make it useful for real people right now.
✅ Reach \$10K MRR.
✅ Then - and only then - start changing the world.
That’s exactly how DevDisplay was born.
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