I met up with an old friend of mine from college today. We’ve known each other for 13 years, and earlier today he hit me up out of the blue. He said he was in town from Lubbock and wanted to hang out. I dropped everything I was doing (about to get started working on my startup for the day on my day off), and met up with him in North Dallas.

It was good seeing him, but it was really quite disappointing. I told him about the project I’ve been working on hoping he might be somewhat interested in what I’ve been up to. But he didn’t really care, and completely refused to try my new app. And that’s when an uncomfortable truth set in.

To date I’ve acquired over 9,000 users for my most popular app, RoboStop (a telemarketer call blocking application for Android). RoboStop is a real app, with real users, and I receive real emails and reviews on the Google Play Store from people telling me how much they love the app. However, none of those 9,000 people are friends, family, or acquaintances. I literally convinced 9,000 people to use my app before a single person that I know in real life. Uncomfortable but true. Thinking back, I probably should have ignored my friend’s text and just kept working on my startup for the day. It’s 7:11 PM now, so that’s an entire work day wasted.

Lessons learned: your time is valuable, and your friends– maybe not so much. Don’t waste your time on zero, go for the 9,000 strangers instead.

EDIT (5/19/2019): Shout out to a certain someone that wishes to remain nameless that has been giving me some help with MoneyPhone, and another certain someone that is at least considering signing up.