---
author: "Robert Pearce"
authorTwitter: "@RobertWPearce"
desc: "Selling sucks, but you need to get your project out in the real world."
keywords: "entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, product, getting things done, tech, 1776dc, sales"
title: "Your product doesn’t judge you; people do."
updated: "2023-02-04T13:00:00Z"
---

I ran in to [Doug](http://www.infieldhealth.com/about-us/), a fellow
entrepreneur in the [1776 startup co-working space](http://1776dc.com/), today
at the coffee/water/pb&j oasis. After exchanging a few words, we somehow found
our way into a conversation about being in a small company and the battle
between focusing on ***sales*** and focusing on ***product***.

What we agreed on was that being out in the wild, pounding pavement, selling
your product is exactly what every single startup founder and/or entrepreneur
should be doing. Doug told me that he likes my company,
[RidePost](https://www.ridepost.com/), because we are not hiding in our code,
adding this and that feature, saying, _&quot;If we just add/change/remove this
one feature, people will start to buy our product!&quot;_

I know this has been written about 1 x 10^255 times, but he said something in
this conversation which really hit home:

> ***&quot;Your product doesn’t judge you; people do.&quot;***

Fact: **It is easier to hide in your product than take the beating that is the
outside world.**

**Selling sucks**. You know that terrible feeling in middle school where you ask
the girl of your dreams if you can walk her home and she says no? Yeah, that.
Every day. Forever. Most developers would rather deal with failing unit tests
than deal with the anxiety and inevitable depression that is sales. However,
when you don’t have your very own sales team, you have got to learn to take
this. If you do not, then you should stop what you’re working on, return your
friends/family funding and go home.

**“But how will sales build the product I’m selling if I’m not focusing on
product?”** First of all, sales will not only _allow_ you to continue building
your product, but it will also _drive_ what your product becomes. It is
pointless to build a product that people do not need and are not willing to buy.
For example: I can build a 100% gas-free, solar-powered lawn mower that leaves
zero carbon footprint and is super duper in every respect. But nobody is going
to buy this when gas-powered ones are cheaper and have worked fine for >50
years. Regardless of how amazing your product is, if people don’t need it right
now, they are not going to buy it. Instead, let potential customers beat your
idea in to the ground. **Take their blows, but also take notes.** You will
likely see a pattern evolve after your dreams have been crushed in to the
ground for the thousandth time. Let these sales experiences drive (and fund)
what your product becomes.

**TL;DR** => Stop hiding in a fantasy world of product and go out and sell
something first. When you’ve got customers beating down your door, then you can
go heads down.
