I’m writing this guide in late 2024 because I believe it’s the perfect time to start a one-person company. This deck will explain what you need to know and why now, more than ever, is the right moment to start your solo venture.
Why Now?
Starting a business used to be much harder. Traditionally, you needed something tangible to sell – whether physical products or digital goods.
These physical products required human labor for production, assembly, and sales – meaning you needed to hire employees from day one. This is where the software industry has a significant advantage: the costs are much lower since digital products can be created once and distributed infinitely without additional production costs.
But there also comes one thing: in the past, a mature software product couldn’t be created by one person. If you look carefully at modern software company structures, you’ll find that most roles are focused on just one thing. For example, they have UI/UX Designers, Human Resources, Product Managers, and of course, Developers. And the developers are also divided into front-end or back-end specialists.
And these positions were designed artificially because it made people easier for managers to manage. Also, becoming a full-stack developer takes years because it requires understanding various types of knowledge. Well, even if you have full-stack development skills, it doesn’t mean you understand graphics, UI/UX design, or business aspects like accounting.
So modern software companies are built this way because they have to be, or they are forced to choose this structure.
But now things have changed in various ways. The first biggest shift is that cloud services have matured. Right now, you don’t need to be a sophisticated database expert, and you don’t need to build servers by yourself in your garage.
Thanks to modern cloud services and SaaS software engineering, you can easily and quickly deploy and launch products.
And the second is AI. Remember I said before that a full-stack developer’s skills require lots of time. But in my opinion, UI/UX design, front-end, and back-end knowledge are sometimes not things you can simply learn. These skills are accumulated over time, and that’s why they require a certain amount of time – because you’re not just learning, you’re actually getting familiar with using these tools. But with AI’s power, you can easily design logos, draw pictures, or connect your front-end to back-end with ease.
And the third thing is social media. Nowadays, people can easily post their products, videos, thoughts, and blogs online. And of course, you can distribute all those contents to any platform you want – for example, YouTube, X, and TikTok. And what’s different from previous legacy media, like newspapers or news channels, is that you don’t need any extra effort to publish. They are free. Thanks to those algorithms and platforms, the better content you have, the more audience you will grow.
And this is a necessary condition for a person or capable of handling or start a one person company.
What you need
First is a product. I think, of course, that people have different definitions of a product, but in my point of view, everything could be a product: your newsletters, your books, your videos, your podcasts, your courses, your services, your ideas, your thoughts, your feelings, your experience, your stories – everything.
And the second thing is a media platform, or I would say a platform. You need a platform to distribute your product. And of course, you can use social media platforms like X, YouTube, TikTok, and so on. More importantly, you also need to build your own website. You can use Vercel or Cloudflare to build it with ease. That’s very easy. And you can also use all kinds of AI tools such as Bolt and Cursor.
And the third thing is a company. Of course, you need a company to sell your product or tell people what you are doing, and you also need a company to receive the money. And luckily, there are lots of software-as-a-service options to help you build a company in the US or Europe. You can start a company at any place, anytime.
And the last thing is payment. You need a payment method to receive money. And luckily, there are lots of software-as-a-service options to help you set up payment methods. If you are in the United States or any other place, you can use Stripe or PayPal to receive money.
How to start
Just ship it, ship your product and ship fast! There are a lot of people that I see who failed because they weren’t shipping fast enough or they thought they were shipping fast enough.
The reason we try to ship it is that you need to get audience feedback very quickly so you can adjust in the near future. And also, of course, as a person, you need to find your unique point. For example, what is your advantage, and why would other people need your advantage to, for example, buy your knowledge, products, or services?
And of course, grow your audience as soon as possible. You need to find your audience and reach them across various platforms. Tell them what you’re working on, tell them what you’re building, and make sure you charge them from the start.
And remember, be a creator, be yourself. So you don’t have to worry about your moat, your uniqueness, or anything else.