Consequences of others' enthusiasm
Throughout my computer sciences studies, I created countless designs and prototypes of software that may or may not have been helpful. I was never actually interested in creating a "real-life" ready product, so planning and thinking stopped shortly after the idea initially came up. In the first semester, I used this motivation to apply to a startup competition to fail miserably. I tried to hand in a technical review paper to an economics-based funding competition. To this day, I'm certain that no one of the judges understood my idea, and maybe that's why I never got a response about my application. This, however, wasn't a significant drawback because a security professor at the University greatly approved my idea and told me to "keep working on it; it looks interesting". Spoilers ahead: I didn't.
After finishing my bachelor's in Computer Sciences, I didn't have any publicly available projects that I had completed, from the idea to the final product. This changed in 2024 when I released the first public version of tsv.coach, a management tool for sports clubs.
The success story of this software started like it has countless times before. I had an idea, worked on it innumerable hours, and then stopped and focused on something else. Out of sheer luck, I told the head trainer of my sports department about the idea and showed him my very slim prototype. Later that evening, I got a message about extending the software and what features would be excellent. The first time I told someone about my idea, I got positive feedback and the motivation to continue working on the concept. Fast forward to today, the software has been launched and is used by the department. My first project wasn't finished because I liked the idea that much or saw a significant revenue potential, but because another person enjoyed the idea and wanted me to continue.
The due date for the innovation competition that I applied to in the first semester ends later this month. I will hand in a very detailed technical paper again and not care about the economic background of the judges. I probably won't get a response again, but history will not repeat itself entirely because I will share my idea again with a professor at the university. This time, I will take his feedback as motivation to continue working and not get sad because many people at a founding competition couldn't understand my exposes.
