Building On the Side

April 9, 2025

19 min episode · 2 min read

Kimberly Rhodes,Jason Fried,David Heinemeier Hansson

Episode

19 min

Read time

2 min

AI-Generated Summary

Published Dec 22, 2025

Key Takeaways

✓Consulting as primary product: Treat consulting services as your main product to sell first since acquiring clients for your expertise is significantly easier than building, launching, and sustaining a new software product with paying subscribers.
✓Market timing paradox: Building and hosting software costs almost nothing today with AI assistance and services like Stripe, but breaking through constant market noise to gain customer attention has never been more difficult or competitive.
✓Success measurement framework: Invest months not days in each product, maintain conviction it will succeed while accepting statistical likelihood of failure, and ensure every attempt makes you more skilled regardless of commercial outcome.

What It Covers

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson advise on building consulting income while developing side products, addressing market saturation and realistic expectations for entrepreneurial success.

Key Questions Answered

•Consulting as primary product: Treat consulting services as your main product to sell first since acquiring clients for your expertise is significantly easier than building, launching, and sustaining a new software product with paying subscribers.
•Market timing paradox: Building and hosting software costs almost nothing today with AI assistance and services like Stripe, but breaking through constant market noise to gain customer attention has never been more difficult or competitive.
•Success measurement framework: Invest months not days in each product, maintain conviction it will succeed while accepting statistical likelihood of failure, and ensure every attempt makes you more skilled regardless of commercial outcome.

Notable Moment

David compares software entrepreneurship to music streaming platforms where anyone can publish globally now, but breaking out from millions of releases remains mysteriously unpredictable despite quality execution.

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