[cfitz]

To your defense, you're sharing a truth that is often difficult for many technical founders to hear/read. Many either over-estimate their non-technical skills or don't care to think about them at all, as "the better product always wins" myth remains present to this day. I am not personally exempt from this thinking, especially at the start of my entrepreneurial journey, where I wasted many months bringing products to market, to no avail. I am also certainly not the first person to make this observation.

If you aren't willing to hop on a demo of your product via video chat with a potential customer, per their request, you're directly lessening the chances of that product's success. With that said, once you realize that without marketing or sales, nobody will see your beautiful creation(s), you quickly realize the need for such. Personally, this lead to a desire to learn, practice, and master these skills. However, you can easily find others with a seemingly natural affinity for these skills and delegate these efforts to these individuals (whether partners or employees), enticing them with stock and/or salary should you have sufficient revenue and/or funding.

EDIT: I want to make it clear that I am not suggesting solo ventures succeed less often than those with more than one founder. There is research (see that from NYU and Wharton) pointing to exactly the opposite.

[thaumasiotes]

> once you realize that without marketing or sales, nobody will see your beautiful creation(s), you quickly realize the need for such

Compare https://dilbert.com/strip/1998-02-14 :

> I realized that what's inside a person doesn't count because no one can see it.

> I didn't realize you were such a philosopher.

> That's my point!

[alexyz12]

Do you know any good ways to improve your non-technical skills as a founder? I am at the point where I've built the mvp, but growth is very slow. I use the mvp personally so I know its useful, but I really think Im not good at getting it out there to get enough feedback to iterate.

Any suggestions on getting better at this side of entrepreneurship?

[keenmaster]

Confidence is key. It is a magical trait that energizes you, enhances your executive presence, and supercharges sales. I have no idea what your product does. However, if you truly believe that it could provide value, then that should give you the confidence you need to sell it. There is no better way to sell than with the sincere belief that a potential customer will be better off if they buy your product. It seems like you have that part down, since you personally use your product and it solves at least one person's problems.

Practice pitching your product concisely in front of the mirror. Refine your pitch until you don't bore yourself anymore, then go talk to prospective customers knowing that a majority of the time you will fall flat on your face. Use those interactions to refine your pitch, tweak or pivot your product, and find out what really resonates with people.