I’m Finally Ready to Launch a Real Product, But the Reality Is More Complicated Than I Thought

I’ve always wanted to use my skills—whether in development, music, or creativity—to create something meaningful that delivers real value to people.
But in reality, I’ve often been overwhelmed by studying code or taking on freelance work, and those personal creative ideas always got pushed to the back burner.

Still, reading about indie hacker stories has been a strong source of inspiration.
I don’t remember who said it, but one line stuck with me:

“The important thing isn’t the perfect idea—it’s launching and putting it out into the world.”

With AI advancing so rapidly, I don’t know what the future holds.
But at the very least, my goal for this year is to finally act on the ideas I’ve been writing in my notes for years—and actually ship them.

Before I get started though, there are quite a few things I need to think through.
The product I want to build is a web-based service (I’ll share more details after launch), and right now, I’m facing three major challenges:

1. Development Cost

Even after building the product, hosting it is a challenge.
Running it on my local computer could save money upfront, but it comes with more manual work and lower reliability.
On the other hand, using something like GCP Cloud Run or AWS would offer automation and scalability, but I’m worried about how expensive it might get as usage increases.

It gets even more concerning if I plan to integrate an AI API—if the service grows, the cost could become hard to manage on my own.

2. Pricing Strategy

If I launch this globally, should I offer different pricing tiers based on purchasing power in each country?
And how do I even put a price tag on the value of my own product?
Would that feel unfair?

From what I’ve read, the average conversion rate from free to paid users is around 3%.
So that means I’d have to provide core features for free and paywall the rest.
That entire pricing strategy feels more complex than the development itself.

3. Marketing

No matter how good the service is, it won’t matter if nobody knows about it.
Promoting it only on Reddit, Product Hunt, or Twitter feels like shouting into a tiny room.
To reach a broader audience, I’ll need to spend money on marketing—but I’ve never done this before, and I have no clue where to start.
This part feels especially overwhelming.

💬 Final Thoughts
Sure, I have a lot of concerns. But all of this is part of the process—and I’m actually enjoying it.
Being scared and not doing anything is the worst choice I could make.
But facing each problem one by one, understanding it, and finding a way forward? That feels right.

If you’ve read this and have any advice or insights to share, I’d truly appreciate it.
📩 Feel free to reach out: thunderbizlab@gmail.com