How I Built a Product No One Asked For (Yet)

"Customers Aren’t Always Right, But They are Not Wrong Either"

👋 INTRO: HOW IT STARTED (AKA, HOW MARK ZUCKERBERG PUSHED ME INTO TECH 😅)

CirclesApp started in 2022 but not from a hackathon or a startup incubator. Nah.

This one started from pure, unfiltered frustration.

It genuinely felt like Mark Zuckerberg had it out for me. I’d open my Facebook Ads dashboard, blink twice, and boom, another account banned.

No warning. No explanation. Just “Your ad account has been disabled for violating our policies.” Which policies? Nobody knows. Not even Mark, I suspect.

And it wasn’t just me. Every other Nigerian entrepreneur I knew was also crying in group chats.

It was like a nationwide digital funeral. One person said, “I just created a new account with my cousin’s email. Facebook banned it before I even clicked ‘Create Ad.’” That was the last straw.

I wanted out of the algorithm rat race. So I asked myself:

What if I built something that helped small business owners grow without depending on Zuckerberg’s mood swings?

So I did what any desperate, overambitious builder would do:

I duct-taped a bunch of third-party tools together and gave birth to the first version of CirclesApp.

The idea? Referral marketing, but on a micro scale, pay regular people small money to promote your product to friends and family.

I will be honest it was giving early 2000s Craigslist energy. 😅

When I think of the first version now, I cringe like someone licking a phone screen in harmattan. It was rough. But it was mine.

We didn’t stay on that idea for long.

While obsessively scrolling Instagram one night, I noticed something odd (and painfully consistent). Small business owners, especially in Nigeria were all dragging their store builders in the comments. Not once in a while. Daily.

They were tired. Tired of no replies. Tired of no support. Tired of paying monthly fees and getting ghosted.

It hit me:

What if I gave them something they already understood but wrapped it with the kind of support they’d never seen?

That was the real beginning of CirclesApp.

Not the tool. Not the referral model.

The mission: to help people grow their business without feeling like they’re begging for help

🛠 THE BUILDING PHASE: Big Features, Bigger Lessons

Let’s rewind real quick.

The first version of CirclesApp? I still can’t explain it without breaking into nervous laughter.

It had a Tinder-style interface. Yes, swipe right to connect, swipe left to ignore. But instead of dating, you were supposed to network and sell your product. 😅

For the love of God, I don’t know what possessed me to build it that way.

I even forced my friends and family to hop on the app. They were like, “What exactly am I doing here?” and I was like, “Just swipe and sell something.”

Looking back now? I feel secondhand embarrassment from my own memory. Goosebumps of pure cringe. Let’s move on.

The real build? the version I spent real money on is what I thought would take things to the next level.

After weeks of digital detective work (i.e., me deep-diving into the Instagram comment sections of store builders), I found a recurring theme: people were always complaining about customer support.

So I figured, Ah! Here’s the opportunity.

I built a store builder loaded with features:

- AI integration

- In-built email marketing automation

- Pre-built funnels

- Clean, fast interfaces

- Pricing that was half of what the big names were charging

I built it for social commerce sellers, those running their business entirely from Instagram DMs, WhatsApp groups, or Twitter threads.

But I also made it flexible enough for professionals to build sleek portfolios and personal sites. It was versatile. It was powerful. I was proud.

And then reality hit me like a badly timed Kelvin Hart joke.

Customer complaints ≠ business opportunity.

Turns out, most of those angry users weren’t actually looking to switch platforms.

They were just venting. Loudly. Passionately. But not seriously.

It’s what I now call Stockholm Syndrome as a Service.

You know how some football fans stuck with Arsenal for like 10 straight years without touching a Premier League trophy, yet showed up every season full of hope?

That’s exactly what I saw here.

People complained publicly about bad support, but privately?

They were too used to their current platform to move.

They’d rather tolerate suffering than start over.

Because let’s be honest:

- Migrating product catalogues is stressful

- Relearning a new platform is energy-draining

- Re-integrating payment and analytics tools? Nightmare.

They weren’t crying for freedom. They were crying for their captor to behave better.

That’s when I learned a big lesson, just because people complain doesn’t mean they’re ready to move or pay you.

As a product builder, you have to know the difference between what users complain about and what they’re actually willing to pay to solve.

They’ll ask for everything, but only spend money on what gives them relief right now.

🎯 Preventive Features vs. Cure Features

You remember that saying: humans have insatiable wants?

Yeah!, turns out they bring those same chaotic cravings into business too.

In product terms, I now group requests into two categories:

- Preventive features = like vitamins. They stop bad things from happening.

- Cure features = like antibiotics. They fix the mess once it’s already here.

Let me give you a real-world example:

Build an app that reminds people to go to the gym = meh, maybe.

Build one that promises to burn 50% of their calories in 2 weeks with AI workouts = take my money.

Same with fraud prevention.

Build a tool that blocks scammers = cool.

But build one that helps people recover their stolen funds in 10 minutes = instant virality.

That’s why people will ignore a healthy diet plan but gladly spend money on waist trainers and miracle teas.

One prevents. The other cures.

And guess which one people are more emotionally ready to pay for?

This was one of my hardest lessons, learnt after I had already spent months and money building features that people applauded but didn’t adopt.

💡 THE PIVOT: From Batman to Superman (Yes, Really)

After learning the hard truth about “preventive features” and watching my beautifully built platform get politely ignored by the very people I built it for, we made a major decision:

No more guessing. No more building based on Instagram complaints. And absolutely no more features that “sound good” but don't solve real pain.

We shifted our focus entirely.

From now on, we were only building cure features, features that don’t just prevent a problem, but actively rescue people from it.

The Batman days were over. It was time to go full Superman.

And yes, there’s a difference.

Batman is cautious. He plans. He stalks around in shadows hoping to stop things before they happen.

Superman? That guy doesn’t show up until everything is literally falling apart.

He lands in flames, cape blowing, and saves the day with drama. He probably likes the suspense.

Me? I didn’t want to be the guy sending gentle nudges.

I wanted to be the guy who shows up when you’re drowning in content stress and gives you air.

So how did we come up with the idea for our AI Product Video Generator?

Let’s just say this time, it didn’t come from the comment section.

It came from me becoming the customer.

🚀 Going Undercover: My Life as a Dropshipper

To understand the market better, I did something wild.

I started a dropshipping store.

Yes, I used the same store builders my target audience used. I joined seller groups. I paid for ecom courses. I sold things.

And that’s where I saw the real pain.

These sellers didn’t want another dashboard, another CRM, or some beautiful analytics graph.

They wanted one thing: “How do you help me make more money?”

And another harsh truth: most small business owners don’t have a big budget for content or ads.

So guess what they do?

They DIY their content.

Bad lighting. No models. No time. Just vibes, Canva, and the hope that “God when” will apply to engagement too.

So I ran a mini survey in one of the seller groups I had joined.

I asked a fun, open-ended question:

“If you had magical powers and could speak anything into existence to improve your business, what would it be?”

One answer stood out:

“I wish I could generate viral content while I sleep.”

🔥 Lightbulb moment.

That was it. That was the clue we needed.

What if we could help sellers take a picture of their product and automatically generate a realistic, high-quality video of someone using it?

Something that looked like real user-generated content, not a template.

So we built it.

I won’t bore you with the technical details (that’s another blog post), but when we put out a call for beta testers, people didn’t just sign up, they offered to buy the solution outright.

At that moment, I knew:

This wasn’t just a cool feature. It was the feature.

We soft launched it.

And to this day, it remains our highest earner yet.

There’s still more to come in the months ahead (depending on a few variables I can’t talk about yet 😉), but one thing is certain:

When you stop building from assumption and start building from empathy and immersion, the game changes.

🧭 WRAPPING UP: Build, Break, Learn, Repeat

If there's anything CirclesApp has taught me, other than how not to design a Tinder-style sales tool it's this:

People don’t always want innovation. They want help.

Not tomorrow. Not after onboarding. Now.

I’ve learned that building a product isn’t just about features, interfaces, or AI-powered buzzwords.

It’s about empathy. About listening without assumption, and about being brave enough to shift when your “brilliant idea” gets ignored by the people you built it for.

From swiping to selling, from ghost complaints to real buyer pain, and from preventive dashboards to cure-first AI tools, this journey has been full of learning, laughter, and the occasional existential spiral at 2 a.m.

But I wouldn’t trade it.

Because through every version, every pivot, and every feedback form that said, “I love it, but…”,

I have become the kind of builder that doesn’t just build, I try to solve problems that matter.

So, to the other makers, founders, and “I-have-this-idea” dreamers out there:

Build. Break. Listen. Learn.

Repeat as many times as needed until what you’ve made finally clicks.

And when it does?

Oh, you’ll know.

Till next month

DMD

PS: I am about creating an email list, so you get an email immediately a new blog post is available. it should be ready by next issue. till then. Don't stop! keep going!