I've decided not to launch SendMyself.com.
For those unfamiliar with it - it is a website I have been building to allow people to send themselves files, text and links without using email or sync tools. The underlying premise - email isn't the "proper" tool to send yourself files, and to develop a dedicated tool for this.
Whilst I contract for Userware as Head of Innovation 4 days a week, I still build and run various side projects under my own business Intrepid Future.
I used the SendMyself.com concept in various assignments during my MSc Entrepreneurship Management & Innovation degree, exploring different aspects of it and developing the business model for it.
Whilst I have had "some" feedback that the tool may be a useful alternative, I don't believe I've had sufficient positive feedback to suggest that it would be adopted by a sufficient number of users or that SendMyself.com is sufficiently different or better than the alternatives.
I have tried to add more value than simple file transfer functionality by allowing online text editing to allow the easy saving and editing of simple text as well as the storage of useful hyperlinks. Is this sufficient to change peoples existing behavior of emailing themselves this information? - I'm not convinced it is.
The business model was planned to be Freemium - a free usage option with limited space, ads and expiring files, then Pro and Premium accounts which provided more space, no ads or expiring files.
I learnt some useful things building the tool including how to use Auth0 for user account management which handles user registration, login, password reset, user metadata and more, as well as how to use Stripe API to place orders for monthly recurring subscriptions. Knowledge that can be re-used for future SAAS products or services.
Whilst I have considered launching the tool, and just seeing how it performs - I'm quickly realising that I'm not passionate about the project, and I think for anything to succeed, passion is a pre-requisite. And it would be an significant ongoing commitment of time and energy.
I'm also increasingly conscious that whilst I have dozens of ideas (ranging between cloud, web, AI and XR) and can build any of them, what I have a finite amount of is time, so determining which business ideas to pursue needs to take into what limited time I have. Especially given as my preference is to bootstrap and not raise funding in exchange for equity.
The relief felt from concluding this project is matched by the excitement of freeing up time to pursue other business ideas.
Watch this space.
-- Lee
