Three Things I Got Wrong Building SideStall

Founders love to tell you what they got right. Here are three things I got wrong building SideStall, because the wrong guesses taught us more than the right ones.

1. I thought sellers wanted features. They wanted to be found.

Early on I assumed the way to win sellers was capability: more settings and more options. Then I actually listened. The thing every seller asked, in one form or another, was the same question: “will people find me?” A stall with three products and steady locals beats a feature-rich stall nobody visits. So the map, and getting stalls discovered, became the heart of the product. Everything else is there to serve that.

2. I thought buyers would search. They browse.

I pictured buyers arriving with a shopping list and typing it in. Watch real people use the app and they do something better: they open the map and just look. What's near me? What's on the way home? Search matters, and typing a product like honey or sourdough works well. But the pins do the heavy lifting. If I'd known that on day one, I'd have built the map first and everything else second.

3. I underestimated how much of this economy runs on cash and trust.

The honesty box isn't a quaint leftover. It's how roadside trade actually runs, and it works because the trust is real. Early on I thought digital payments would sweep all that aside. I was wrong, and I'm glad: SideStall is built so the app never gets in the way of a cash stall. You can be on the map, be found, and keep running your table exactly the way it's always worked. Card and pre-orders are there when you want them, not before.

What I hope I'm getting right now

Listening faster. If you've got opinions about what we're still getting wrong, my inbox is genuinely open: hello@sidestall.au. The best corrections in SideStall's history came from sellers and buyers who took the time to tell me.

Santo Arabia is the founder of SideStall, free on the App Store and Google Play.