Not everyone has to get it

And that is okay.

From my years of building products, I learned to start with a niche. If you build for everyone, you build for no one. No product serves everyone well right away.

But it is always tempting to build for the masses. It sucks to describe your creation at a party and have nobody get it.

I made this mistake when I launched Fernsage. Everyone understands what a notes app is. But nobody wants another notes app. Few know what a commonplace book is. And they are underserved by generic notes apps. So, I narrowed my focus and have been building a digital commonplace book app specifically for the practice. The cited quote block makes collecting and indexing quotes easier; resurfacing helps you review your notes regularly.

Seth Godin reframed building for a niche as doing something special:

The opposite of mass is special.

People who have chosen not to be in the mass market. People who want something else. Perhaps something better, certainly something interesting.

You can seek to serve the masses.

Or you can make something special. For people seeking special.

I'm making something special. For people seeking special. Not everyone has to get it.