When I first began working on side projects, I treated every one of them as if it was going to be the “big one.” 

I would spend hours (and even days) configuring: 

• the backend 

• authentication 

• database architecture 

• deployments

 

All before even knowing if the idea was feasible. 

And in many cases… it wasn’t. 

The issue I kept running into 

I realized that I wasn’t really building things 
I was building infrastructure. 

With each new project, I kept telling myself: “Let me just set this up properly first” 

Which usually led to: 

• Not shipping at all, or shipping too late 

• Losing interest along the way

 

The shift that changed everything 

I started asking myself: What is the fastest way to launch something and test whether anyone cares? 

That question completely changed how I worked. 

I stopped building full systems. Instead, I started: 

• Launching small-scale experiments 

• Focusing only on one core feature 

• Leaving out anything non-essential 

• Treating everything as an experiment

 

What I do differently now 

Today, my approach looks more like this: 

• Idea: define the simplest version possible 

• Build: just enough to prove value 

• Launch: immediately 

• Observe: iterate or drop

 

No long setup. No overengineering. No “perfect architecture”. 

Just shipping. 

Tools and approach 

Another important part of this shift was using simpler tools. 

Instead of building everything from scratch every time, I started looking for ways to: 

• minimize setup time 

• avoid backend-heavy solutions 

• launch lightweight apps quickly

 

Recently, I’ve been finding a lot of value in tools like Unstore. It helps me launch web apps quickly without getting stuck in setup hell. It doesn’t replace everything, but it’s really useful for prototyping and early-stage ideas. 

What I learned 

A few key lessons became clear: 

• Speed matters more than perfection at the beginning 

• Most ideas don’t need a full build before testing 

• The faster you launch, the faster you learn 

• Momentum is everything

 

Open question 

I’m curious to hear how others approach this: 

Do you still build everything from scratch for your side projects? Or have you also moved toward faster, simpler approaches?