The Product Kept Evolving. The Customer Count Didn’t.

I applied to every Multimedia Designer role I could find after graduating.

I didn’t get a single one.

Looking back, I understand why. I wasn’t exceptional at any one thing in the way those roles required. I was broad — capable across design, development, video, UI/UX — but the job market doesn’t reward range the way a degree programme does. It rewards depth in a specific direction. I didn’t have that yet, not in a way that fit neatly into a job description.

So I did what I’d been doing anyway. I kept freelancing. And I kept building Jetdomains.

Version One: WordPress and a Bridge Plugin

The first version of Jetdomains ran on WordPress, WHMCS, and a bridge plugin I bought to connect them.

It worked. But it had a ceiling, and I hit it quickly (Or atleast I thought I did).

My precedent study had already shown me what the top domain and hosting companies looked like — how custom they felt, how deliberately designed every touchpoint was. And there I was, looking like every other average provider running the same WHMCS template.

That wasn’t the moat I wanted. So I blew it up and started again.

Version Two: Django, Full-Stack, and Real Pride

The second version was Django. Full-stack, built from scratch.

I designed the architecture. Built the backend. Wired everything together. When it was done, I was genuinely proud of it in a way the WordPress version hadn’t made me feel.

Then I waited for customers.

Very few came.

The technical overhead started taking its toll. I was managing infrastructure, fixing bugs, maintaining integrations — doing the work of an engineering team, alone, while also trying to freelance and find clients. It was too much for one person to hold.

But by this point I’d started identifying as a developer. And developers solve problems by building things.

Version Three: SvelteKit, DevOps, and a Comfortable Lie

I had a sharp eye. I liked things that looked and felt good. And the products I admired most all had dynamic JavaScript frontends — something the Django setup couldn’t easily give me.

I picked up AlpineJS first. Low-hanging fruit. Then decided that wasn’t enough and did a switch to SvelteKit for version three.

Separating the frontend and backend entirely.

Which added overhead.

So I got deeper into DevOps to manage the overhead. Then started looking at serverless architecture because the complexity had grown into its own full-time job. I was reading about infrastructure patterns, experimenting with deployment pipelines, learning things that had nothing to do with finding customers.

All of it felt like progress.

None of it was.

The Thing I Couldn’t Admit

Here’s the honest version of what was happening:

I was using the building to avoid the selling.

Every technical decision felt justified in the moment. The product genuinely did need to improve. The stack choices weren’t wrong in isolation. But the sequence was off — I kept prioritising architecture over outreach, infrastructure over conversations, the next version over the current customer.

I told myself the customers were waiting for me to finish.

That when it was really ready — when the frontend was smooth and the backend was elegant and the whole thing felt professional — then they would come.

I genuinely believed that.

The product went through three versions and multiple rewrites. The customer count barely moved.

That gap — between how much the product evolved and how little the business grew — was the clearest possible signal that I was solving the wrong problem.

Building is comfortable. It feels like progress without requiring you to put yourself in front of anyone who might say no.

Sales is uncomfortable. Every message is a risk. Every follow-up is a vulnerability.

I chose comfortable for longer than I should have. And I dressed it up in technical language so it felt legitimate.

It wasn’t. It was avoidance.

The story continues — France, a harder season, and what finally changed. Read the next post.

Jetdomains is live at jetdomains.co.za — domain registration and hosting for South African businesses and founders.