No Job? No Problem. I Started Selling Software in High School.
Most people think the only way to “make it” in software is to get hired by a tech company. That’s the usual path — study hard, apply to companies, and hope to land your first job.
But that wasn’t my path.
I started making money from my own commercial software before I ever worked for a company — back when I was still in 10th grade in Cambodia, just 15 years old.
🧩 The Problem That Started It All
It was 2013. I had just gotten into coding and was obsessed with HTML, CSS, and a bit of JavaScript.
In 2014, I noticed people were making money online through Google AdSense, and I became really interested in it. Someone helped me set up a simple WordPress website and get approved for AdSense — but I quickly realized that getting traffic was the hard part.
Back then, people were spamming Facebook groups to drive traffic. I saw tools that could automate this — software that could post to many groups using multiple accounts. But the tool I found cost $10/month, which was way too much for me. I was a Cambodian kid with just $5 (20,000 riel) in weekly school allowance.
Worse, the tool didn’t even work how I wanted. I needed more control, more flexibility. I wanted to customize it to fit my exact use case.
So instead of paying for it, I thought: Why not try building it myself? 💡
🛠️ From Zero Knowledge to First Sale
I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t even know what programming language to use. After some research, I landed on VB.NET and just started learning by doing — day by day, line by line, with lots of trial and error.
Sometimes I lost motivation and paused for several days, but eventually I’d come back and push forward again.
Finally, in 2015, I got it working. My tool could do exactly what the $10/month software did — and more. I was proud. It felt like all the time I spent learning and building was finally worth it.
Then I thought: If it’s useful for me, maybe it’s useful for others too.
So I put it up for sale. To my surprise, people started buying. I made ~$1,000/month — which, for a teenager in Cambodia, was life-changing money. 💰🔥
And the craziest part?
I didn’t ever know anything about professional software development. I didn’t know how to commercialize a product. I didn’t understand marketing, product design, or infrastructure.
I remember I was shipping the debug .exe version because I didn’t even know the difference between “debug” and “release.” 😅
I didn’t even know Git — I just copy-pasted folders and renamed them v1, v2, and so on.
But despite all that, it worked. ✅
🌱 Growing From There
That first project completely changed my mindset:
You don’t need a job to make money as a software developer. You just need to solve a real problem — and be bold enough to sell the solution.
That mentality stuck with me. In 2019, I launched another software product that brought in around $3,000 MRR through license sales.
None of that came from a “real job.” It came from solving problems — first for myself, then for others.
I learned so much — way more than school ever taught me. By the time I graduated high school and enrolled in university, I had already built, shipped, and supported real software products. I had experienced the full cycle — from having an idea to making money from it.
Even if I didn’t learn everything the “correct” way, I learned by doing. And that was more valuable than any textbook.
⚠️ But Here's the Catch…
There are downsides too. When you work solo early on, you miss out on some important skills, like:
- Collaborating with teams
- Using tools like Git the right way
- Writing clean, maintainable code for others
- Building scalable infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines
You don’t get the company experience — the kind that teaches you how to work in large teams or contribute to complex systems.
But honestly, those things are teachable. You can learn them later.
What’s harder — and arguably more valuable — is learning how to:
- Think independently
- Ship real products
- Understand user needs
- Build things people actually want
✨ Final Thoughts
If you’re struggling to find a job in tech, or you're still in school wondering how to get started — I want you to know something:
You don’t need permission.
You don’t need a degree.
You don’t need a company.
Just build something useful.
If it solves your problem, there’s a good chance it’ll solve someone else’s too.
That’s how it started for me.
📸 Some Throwback Screenshots
Image 1: Unprofessional landing page
Image 2: Screenshot of the software
Image 3: Sale through PayPal excluding cash, Wing, eMoney, etc
