10 Hard-Earned Lessons (Plus One Bonus!) From Launching My First Startup

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,](www.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, find or 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. 🛠️