On Building Shovels with Software - Vlog (Business, SaaS)

I keep hearing the phrase "building shovels" in the software product world.

I may be butchering the real meaning but in my mind a "shovel" means a useful tool that enables others to more easily build their business with. These tools might come in the form of membership platforms, hosted private communities, course platforms, payment platforms, and site builders. We're seeing a big rise of all these things right now.

It seems as though the "no-code" movement has prompted a lot of these patterns to emerge which also means almost anyone can build a complete website or application that earns them some sort of money. 2020 has been wild

I think we can all agree this past year (2020) has been a whirlwind.

We have been dealing with a global pandemic, high unemployment rates, shortages on goods, and toppling industries (travel, events, entertainment, etc...).

It's really no wonder why so many people are starting their own businesses. Some people simply want to whereas others have to.

History tends to repeat itself. In terms of pandemics, there was one back in 1918. Recessions in the United States tend to occur overtime as well. Many big businesses that exist today were born in or around 2008 when the last major recession hit. Would they have started building if that never occurred?

This year more entrepreneurs, indie hackers, and solo-preneurs are emerging. It's now more common for people to be chasing their dreams of starting a business. What shovels should you build?

Not knowing what to build can send you down a rabbit hole of idea generation. I've been there all too often. It's probably why I have so many failed attempts at products.

It seems that most successful entrepreneurs advocate not deciding what to build in a vacuum. If you can find a way to get feedback before building anything from a handful of potential customers it might save you a lot of time and stress.

📌Read my full blog post: https://web-crunch.com/posts/building-shovels

Hi, My name is Andy Leverenz and I work as a product designer and developer. For fun, I design, code, and write. Check out my blog called Web-Crunch https://web-crunch.com where I publish design and development tutorials with the occasional vlog.

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