How I Built a Minimum Maximum Viable Product, Burned Out, and Lived to Tell the Tale
Introduction
Let’s get one thing straight: I didn’t just build a startup. I built a Frankenstein’s monster. A job board with AI-powered forms, three OAuth logins, magic links, two payment gateways, API keys, and granular role-based access—all before realizing the "M" in MVP stands for minimum, not maximum. My name is Abdullah Bashir (@digitaldrreamer), founder of GoRemote Africa, and this is the story of how I learned to stop overengineering and love the grind.
1. My MVP Was a Maximum Viable Disaster
I restarted my codebase four times. Why? Because I kept cramming in features like a developer possessed: drag-and-drop builders, multiple auth providers, and API layers. By the fifth attempt, I was so demotivated. Finally, I stripped down the codebase to the simplest: a job board that lets jobseekers find roles and lets employers post jobs. That’s it. No custom drag-and-drop form builder, no magic links. Just. Jobs.
Lesson: Your MVP isn’t a trophy—it’s a test. What’s the one thing your product must do? Start there.
2. “Pretty UI” shouldn't distract you
Go to GoRemote Africa, and you’ll see a clean interface. What you won’t see? The weeks I wasted browsing Behance, obsessing over hex codes and button padding while the core product languished. Perfectionism is procrastination in disguise.
Lesson: Build something that works first. Refine the pixels after you’ve validated the idea.
3. The Dev/Prod Horror
I coded on Windows, deployed to Vercel’s serverless environment, then tried to run it on a Linux VPS with Coolify. It was like watching a Yoruba horror movie at night. The sharp library (for image processing) threw tantrums, and suddenly I was debugging OS-level dependencies at 2 AM.
Lesson: Develop in an environment that mirrors production. If you’re deploying to Linux, code on Linux. Your future self will thank you. Or just dockerize.
4. Multitasking Is a Fast Track to Burnout
I tried to code, design, handle payments, and answer support emails—all at once. Spoiler: Nothing got done. Now? I finish one task before moving on to the next. Even if it’s small. You need to learn to ignore the shiny things and focus.
Lesson: Focus is key. Never forget that.
5. Builders’ Communities Are The Best
Joining The Build Forge and MuslimBuilders changed everything. Suddenly, I wasn’t the “weirdo” who has seen Shege. I met founders who’d survived the same dumpster fires. Their advice? Priceless.
Lesson: Find your tribe. Even if you're passive and lurking in the shadows. At the very least, just show up.
6. Health = Productivity. No Exceptions.
I used to code until my eyes blurred and my brain flipped. Now? I take walks, play brain games like Limbo, and read fiction. Why? Dead men don’t make commits.
Lesson: Your startup is a marathon. You don't train for a marathon by running another marathon.
7. Your Workspace Matters More Than You Think
- 2018: Coding in notebooks (the paper kind).
- 2021: A 4GB RAM Celeron laptop that wheezed like an asthmatic goat and drew construction lines to render VSCode.
- 2024: A 27” monitor, chair, keyboard, and mouse (all ergonomic), and a room with actual airflow. Lesson: Invest in comfort. Laggy tools and back pain are tax on your focus.
8. Git Commits Are Your Time Machine
I used to write commits like “fixed stuff lol” and bundle 10 changes into one. Then a bad deployment broke my dashboard, and I had to roll back weeks of work. Now? Atomic commits with messages like “fix: auth token expiry logic.” plus some extra explanation.
Lesson: Treat git like a timeline. Future you will need receipts.
9. As a Failure, you learn more from Failure Stories
After my third restart, I binge-watched YouTube failure stories. Turns out, even Elon Musk got fired. My parents once punished me for coding “too much” and being “obsessed” before they were properly oriented. My point? I've given up too much to give up no tech.
Lesson: Failure isn’t fatal—it’s fertilizer.
10. Automation is the Way
Scraping and filtering 100% remote jobs from the web? Checking for dead links? Social posts? Without automation, I’d need 72-hour days. I did try. Now, AI and cron jobs handle the grunt work.
Lesson: If you do it twice, automate it.
11. Mentorship Is a Shortcut (That I Wish I’d Taken)
I spent years guessing. Then I met a lot of people who've gone much farther than I have. Guess what they all had in common? Mentors.
Lesson: A mentor is leverage. Find yours.
Closing Thoughts
Building GoRemote Africa taught me to ship fast, ask for help, and embrace the chaos. But the biggest lesson? It's not just about code—they’re about grit. Plus, I still have much more to learn!
What’s your “I learned this the hard way” story? Let’s have it.
P.S. If you’re hiring remotely, post a job on GoRemote. And yes, the AI forms are live now. 😉
Ready to build? Learn from my mistakes. Avoid them. Go make new ones. 🛠️
Top comments (4)
Thanks for sharing these hard-earned lessons! your journey really resonates with me, as I’ve been going through a similar experience while building Deeditt, a platform where people can share their real-life achievements and lessons, just like the ones you’ve outlined here.
I have a few questions that I’d love to hear your thoughts on:
I also wanted to invite you to check out Deeditt! Your startup journey is full of valuable insights that could really inspire and help others who are just starting out, the platform is all about sharing real experiences, celebrating milestones, and learning from each other’s journeys.
Hey! First off, thanks for the kind words—and huge props for building Deeditt. Sharing real, unfiltered lessons is so needed. The startup world’s full of “overnight success” myths, so kudos for creating a space that keeps it real.
Your questions:
“How long did it take to recognize these mistakes?”
Oh, I was deep in denial for months. Like, “No, adding a third payment gateway IS necessary!” 😂 The MVP bloat hit me early, but I kept gaslighting myself into thinking, “users will want this.” It wasn’t until I launched and crickets chirped that I went, “Oh. Oh no.” Some lessons (like environment mismatches) bit me after deployment—like the
sharplibrary fiasco that broke took an entire night of trial and error. Classic “works on my machine” trauma.“Getting first users?”
Begging. Literally. I jumped into every WhatsApp group that had ever mentioned “remote work” and guilt-tripped my friends into testing it. Cold DMs, Twitter threads, even slid into a few Slack communities. The first 100 users were 80% people I knew personally. Pro tip: Offer something immediately useful. For us, it was “post a job for free while we’re in beta.” Scarcity works, but desperation works better.
“Moments of doubt?”
Bro, I rewrote the entire backend four times because I kept thinking, “This codebase is trash.” I had a full existential crisis when my parents asked, “When are you getting a real job?” Confidence? Nah. Stubbornness? Absolutely. The Build Forge community kept me sane—turns out, everyone feels like a fraud at 3 AM.
I see a pattern here too, and I think it’s because there’s no easy path to success, just our beliefs (or stubbornness, as you put it 😂).
Since I’m in a similar phase with Deeditt, I’d love to hear—how long did it take from idea to launch? And how did you approach budgeting in the early days? Bootstrapped all the way, or did you allocate a set amount from the start?
Hey, thanks again for sharing your journey, wishing GoRemote Africa all the growth and success, it’s an awesome mission!
Awesome post. 💯 Really liked the way you presented the lessons with a touch of humour. Thanks for sharing.