Why I'm Building Multiple Products at Once (And Why You Probably Shouldn't)

If you look at SelfCEO right now, it looks scattered:

SelfCEO Labs: Two software products (offer.guide and Mory)
SelfCEO Production: A meditation music YouTube channel
SelfCEO Publishing: A book project

That's four different ventures. As a solo founder. While also working full-time and house hunting.

Every piece of startup advice says: "Focus on one thing."

And that advice is right. For most people. Most of the time.

But I'm intentionally breaking this rule, and here's why—plus why you probably shouldn't do what I'm doing.

The Case for Focus (Why Conventional Wisdom Exists)

Let's be clear: focusing on one product is objectively the smartest path for most founders.

Why focus wins:

You ship faster when you're not context-switching
You learn deeper lessons about one market instead of shallow lessons about many
You build momentum and traction in one area
Your marketing efforts compound
You're not exhausted and burnt out

Look at any successful indie hacker or solo founder—they almost always focused obsessively on ONE thing until it worked.

So why am I doing the opposite?

My Reasoning (That Might Not Apply to You)

1. I'm in exploration mode, not execution mode

I'm not trying to scale a business to $100K MRR right now. I'm trying to figure out what I actually want to build for the next 5-10 years.

offer.guide might be great, but what if real estate tech isn't my passion? What if I'm more energized by accountability tools? Or creative projects like music?

I'd rather test multiple directions now than commit 3 years to the wrong thing.

Once I find what clicks, I'll ruthlessly cut everything else. But right now? I'm gathering data.

2. The projects serve different needs

offer.guide: Scratches my analytical, problem-solving itch. High revenue potential.
Mory: Daily personal use. Solves my own accountability problem.
Production: Creative outlet. Low effort, high enjoyment.
Publishing: Long-term intellectual project.

They're not competing for the same mental energy. Building offer.guide doesn't prevent me from uploading music or writing in the morning.

If I was building four SaaS products, that would be chaos. But these are different enough that they feel complementary, not competitive.

3. I have clear prioritization

I'm not splitting effort equally. Here's my actual hierarchy:

Tier 1 (Active focus):

offer.guide: 70% of my product time
Validating, manual analyses, growing waitlist

Tier 2 (Active, but lower effort):

Mory: Seeking beta testers, minimal ongoing work
Building the landing page was the bulk of the effort

Tier 3 (Future/passive):

Production: Upload when inspired, not on a schedule
Publishing: On hold until Labs is stable

This isn't "do everything at once." It's "focus on one, keep others alive."

4. Hedging against validation failure

Brutal truth: offer.guide might not work.

Maybe people won't pay for it. Maybe the market is too small. Maybe realtors provide enough value that buyers don't need a second opinion.

If I spent 6 months solely on offer.guide and it failed, I'd have to start from scratch. By keeping Mory alive (even just a landing page and waitlist), I have an immediate backup plan.

It's strategic hedging, not lack of focus.

Why You Probably Shouldn't Do This

Here's the honest truth: my approach only works because of my specific circumstances:

I'm not trying to replace my income yet (no pressure to monetize fast)
I have technical skills to build quickly (I can ship MVPs in days, not months)
I'm house hunting (which is literally research for offer.guide)
I have systems for accountability (which is literally using Mory daily)
I'm comfortable with ambiguity and slow progress

If you're trying to quit your job, or you're already full-time on your startup, or you need revenue in 6 months—focus on ONE thing.

Multiple projects only makes sense when:

You're exploring, not executing
The projects serve genuinely different purposes
You have clear prioritization (not equal effort)
You're okay with slower progress on each individual thing

What I'd Do Differently

Even with all my reasoning, there are costs:

I'm shipping slower. If I only worked on offer.guide, I'd probably already have the backend built. Instead, I'm still validating.

I'm building less traction. My Twitter audience doesn't know if I'm "the offer.guide guy" or "the accountability SMS guy" or "the meditation music person." Unclear positioning.

I'm mentally tired. Context switching has a real cost, even when the projects are different.

If I could go back, I'd probably start with just offer.guide and Mory—and leave Production and Publishing for later.

The Real Lesson: Know Your Season

There are different seasons of entrepreneurship:

Exploration season: Try multiple things, learn what energizes you, test different markets. That's where I am.

Execution season: Pick one thing and go deep. Build, iterate, scale.

Scaling season: Double down on what's working. Cut everything else ruthlessly.

Most founders skip exploration and jump straight to execution. They pick an idea, commit hard, and grind for years.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes they burn out working on something they don't actually care about.

I'm choosing to explore first, knowing it will take longer but might lead to a better long-term outcome.

My Plan Forward

Over the next 2-3 months:

Validate offer.guide: Get to 20 manual analyses, confirm people will pay
Test Mory traction: See if anyone signs up for beta
Make a decision: By March, pick ONE to go all-in on

If offer.guide validates, I'll build it and put Mory on hold. If Mory shows unexpected traction, I might pivot there. If both fail, I'll try something new—but I'll only try ONE thing next time.

The exploration phase has an expiration date. I won't do this forever.

So Should You Build Multiple Products?

Probably not.

If you're already 6 months into a product with some traction—don't get distracted. Keep going.

If you're brand new and don't know what to build yet—pick ONE thing that excites you and validate it fully before moving on.

If you're like me (exploring what you want to work on long-term, have the skills to ship fast, and can afford slow progress)—then maybe multiple experiments make sense.

But when in doubt, focus.

The world doesn't need more half-built projects. It needs founders who finish things.

What about you? Are you focused on one thing or juggling multiple projects? I'd love to hear your take—connect with me on Twitter / LinkedIn.

Building something? Follow my journey at SelfCEO Strategy where I'm documenting the process of building multiple products and (eventually) choosing one to go all-in on.