No clue, but I'm all in.
A 16 y/o tries to build something real (2025. 06. 23. - 2025. 06. 29.)
So this is it. I’ve officially started documenting my journey.
I’ve been trying to build something real for 2 years. It never stuck. Until now.
Hey!
I’m Zoli, a 16 y/o building a tech business from scratch with no guide or guarantees.
I’ve started, stopped, restarted, and failed more times than I can count.
But this time, I’m doubling down by doing everything in public.
A brand new chapter.
But what am I building?
I’m building “app stacks“: sets of small, focused tools for solopreneurs and early-stage founders just like me. Each stack will be a bundle of apps to solve one set of specific problems.
And why am I documenting this?
I’m posting everything to stay honest, keep my consistency, and maybe help someone else, even if that someone is just the future-me. I also love documenting things so that later I can rewatch, reread, and relive every moment of this journey.
What have I done so far?
I started the week with one big goal in mind: figure out what people actually need. The mission was basic market research. I had a plan (more on that later).
But guess what?
None of it worked.
Still, I didn’t sit around doing nothing. These are the results I achieved:
I read chapters 12-14 of Psychology of Money (Morgan Housel)
Got 3 days into learning Figma for web design (click here to see my progression)
I set up most of my Substack account (branding, bio, about page, welcome flow)
But how did the market research fail?
The main goal for the week?
I wanted to know what people actually needed: tools, systems, anything I could build.
So I planned a short, week-long market research sprint.
The plan seemed simple:
Post my questions on Reddit (r/Entrepreneur, r/startups, etc.)
Ask it on Indie Hackers
DM a few early-stage founders I know on Discord
I just needed 15-25 meaningful answers that I can start from.
Here’s how it went:
Reddit: My first post got removed instantly. Turns out, in most subs, even asking for feedback is against the guidelines, unless you have years of karma and a handwritten letter from the moderators.
Indie Hackers: I wandered around on the page for a while, but… nothing. After a while, I (maybe) found the section I was looking for, but it was a true ghost town. Even those posts had barely 1-2 comments, which had solid questions.
Discord: I messaged all 10 people I thought might help. Two responded. Zero useful answers.
The result of this week’s market research? Zero usable responses. Zero real insight.
I didn’t give up — just realized that this will need more time, and needs to be a more thought-out process that I have to put more of my energy into.
So… What’s next?
Obviously, I didn’t give up, just accepted that this market research didn’t work out. So here are my plans for the next week:
Do something about the market research (top priority)
Finish the Psychology of Money
Finish the setup and start the public documentation on Substack* (this post)
Continue learning Figma
*There’s a one-week delay with the posting, so when I write this post, I’m actually at the end of week 2 (spoiler: a LOT of things happened, might need 2 posts to cover it).
This week’s takeaway
Each week, I’ll leave you with one idea I couldn’t stop thinking about. This week’s one is from Psychology of Money (Morgan Housel), which matched this week’s events:
“The most important part of every plan is planning on your plan not going according to plan.” (Ch. 13.: Room for Error)
If you’re reading this now (and not years after I posted), you’re lucky. You’re here before anything worked. Before the polished version.
You’re watching me build in public, IRL, real time.
See you next week! Wish me luck — I’ll need it.
PS: Are you an early-stage entrepreneur?
Hit reply: What’s one boring, repetitive task you wish tech could handle for you?