Things building Uny has taught me at 23.
If someone asked me, “What has building Uny taught you at 23?”
I think the first thing I'd say is that an idea can sound really good in your head and still be completely unproven.
I’ve had people hear the Uny idea and go, “yeah, I’d use that.”
It feels good.
But then you go outside and actually talk to students, organisers, agents, vendors...
You start noticing all the little things you completely missed while sitting with the idea.
I remember manually helping students find accommodation before Uny was even live.
That experience changed something for me.
I realised you don't always need the finished product to test whether there's something worth building.
Sometimes you just need to get your hands dirty and solve the problem yourself.
I’ve also learned that validation feels very different when there’s something real on the line.
Someone actually paying you.
Someone coming back because they need help again.
Someone changing what they normally do because you've made something easier.
Those moments hit differently from someone saying, “this is a cool idea.”
And I've had to learn not to dress up the story either.
There’s a lot of pressure as a founder to make it look like everything is moving.
Big numbers. Big projections. Big announcements.
But if something hasn't happened, it hasn't happened.
I'd rather have a small piece of real evidence than a beautiful story I can't defend.
I think I'm also learning that building a startup is basically a long conversation with reality.
You have an idea.
Reality pushes back.
You adjust.
You try again.
Reality pushes back somewhere else.
And slowly, the thing you're building starts looking less like what you imagined and more like what people actually need.
At 23, I don't think I know enough to have all the answers.
But I know I'm much less interested in proving that I'm right now.
I just want to find out what's true.
And keep building from there.