Why I Build Small Apps Instead of One Big Service

"Does that stuff actually make money?" I get that question a lot. Honestly, most of it doesn't. And yet I keep building small apps. Why?

I burned out building big

There was a time I poured months into one "proper service." Refining the plan, drawing the perfect architecture, piling on features before launch. Several of those projects ended with me too exhausted to even ship.

The problem was that feedback arrived far too late. Only after months of building did I find out "nobody's using this."

What changes when you build small

Small apps play by different rules.

• Ship in 2 weeks. A month at most.
• No response? Fold it fast. You only lost 2 weeks.
• Response? Grow it from there.

Instead of spending a year on one big thing, I learn by building ten small things. If even one or two out of ten survive, that's plenty.

Shrink the size of failure, and failure becomes learning.

Above all, the joy of finishing

The biggest advantage of a small app is that it actually gets finished. The experience of completing what you started is more powerful than you'd think. Building a mini game like Daily Wave, putting it into the world, and watching someone open it every day - that's the fun of it. And it's what fuels the next one.

Which is why, even now

This blog is an extension of that. Not some grand media venture - just a place to stack up small stories about what I've made. Finishing one thing today has always taken me further than any big plan.

Try building one small thing. More changes than you'd expect.