A couple of weeks ago, I lived one of the most exciting moments of my entrepreneurial life.
I was working on LatinoSuperato (yes, the name is Italian beacuse it was for the Italian market): an app to help university students pass the dreaded Latin exam.
Having suffered through that exam myself, I knew how painful it could be. Some students even tried — and failed — to pass it seven times. Latin was often the final boss standing between them and their degree.
Confident the problem was real, I interviewed a few students and quickly threw together an offer: UVP, a demo, and a price (150 euros, one-time). I followed the Ash Maurya method — one of my favorites.
Then the big moment came: I pitched the app to a student… and she bought it!
I couldn’t believe it. Seeing the money hit my account gave me a dopamine rush like never before. It was my first real B2C offer validation with a profitable idea.
Euphoric, I immediately promised the app would be ready in a month.
But something unexpected happened: the next day, reality hit hard.
I felt numb. Doubts kicked in: What if I can’t find a scalable marketing channel?
I realized reaching university students isn’t so simple — they’re a profitable niche but you need to meet them in person, and online marketing wasn’t as straightforward as I hoped.
It was a wake-up call: selling once is exciting, but building and scaling are whole different beasts. I realized I needed entire years to make it.
I spent several days stuck, asking myself what to do, until I stumbled upon a video by “The Average Tech Bro” that completely lit up my brain.
He explained that there are basically two types of entrepreneurs:
- Those who don’t really care about the niche or product — they just get fired up by the opportunity to make tons of money.
- Those who genuinely care about the niche and their customers, pushing themselves to build the best possible product out of passion.
That blew my mind.
I realized… I didn’t actually care about students at all. I was just chasing the money with a profitable idea.
And you know what? That’s perfectly fine. Being the first type of entrepreneur isn’t wrong — you just have to be aware of it.
In fact, I already am the first type: my first company, Daedalus XR, is doing great and is profitable. I love working on it even though I don’t have any emotional attachment to its target customers: industrial manufacturing companies. Yet, it makes money and it allows me to have fun while working with my friends. And I’m happy for that.
However, for my side business, I realized I want something different — something I genuinely enjoy doing, something aligned with my core values and mission.
I still want it to be a profitable business, but I also want it to feel so good that I’d happily do it even if it didn’t make a dime.
How do you figure out which type of entrepreneur you are?
Simple: ask yourself — Would I still do this even if I made no money from it?
If the answer is no, you’re Type 1. If yes, you’re Type 2.
Both are fine — you just need to know which game you’re playing.
And what about LatinoSuperato?
Well… I ditched it.
Instead, I’m focusing on blogging and creating content like this — something I’ve been enjoing doing for years in private and now finally want to share with the world, just as an italian poet taught me.