Many of you reading this are indie lurkers.
You subscribe to the Indie Hackers newsletter, share inspiring interviews with friends, and visit the forum to see what people are talking about. I bet a lot of you upvote forum posts and start typing out comments, too... only to change your mind and delete, delete, delete.
I know this because that's exactly what I did for months as an indie lurker.
But a couple of weeks ago that changed. I launched my product Key Values, something I built all on my own, and got it to the top of Hacker News and Product Hunt, netting almost 30,000 pageviews in a few days.
There is a lot to say about what comes after that initial traffic spike (the post-launch trough of sorrow as they call it), but today I'll talk about what came before it.
Below, I discuss the six major barriers that I had to break through in order to go from indie lurker to indie hacker.
Trust that slow progress is better than no progress.
I moved to San Francisco to go to grad school at UCSF and I didn't even know what a startup was until after I dropped out two years later. I was amazed by how people casually started companies, raised money, pivoted, folded, and then started new companies. It seemed like entrepreneurship was in everyone's DNA but mine.
Even after working at my first tech startup, I still didn't see founder potential in myself. I wondered what I could have been had I been born into a family of business owners instead of a family of academics. I was 26 years old and had worked hard my whole life pursuing a career I no longer had interest in. It was a pity party mixed with mania, and I felt so behind compared to everyone else. I felt like I'd never catch up.
Then I decided to embrace that.
I would trust that slow progress is better than no progress.
I decided I should learn to code. I mentally prepared for months of confusion and Lean Cuisines, signed up for a coding bootcamp (which I didn't actually finish), and started learning how to make something out of nothing. It was hard and I might have cried several times, but I knew this is what it'd take to catch up.
Even after I was able to get contract work, I still didn't have the confidence to start a business of my own. I didn't know when I'd feel ready or what kind of business I'd start, but I did know that whatever it was, I would need a marketing website.
I set out to find clients who needed a web developer to build a new website from scratch, but already had designers and a marketing team for me to learn from. I was looking for opportunities to get more exposure and breadth, and essentially bootstrap my education on how to become a founder.
Ironically, I needed Key Values to help me find jobs that aligned with my personal goals and values, but it didn't exist yet.
It took longer using the old-school method of waiting and hoping for the right opportunity to come my way, but I did eventually find work that paid me to round out my skill set and gain more confidence.
We all want to start at the finish line, but we can't. So start at the starting line and just focus on moving in the right direction. It doesn't matter how long it takes you.
Make sacrifices now to be a founder in the future.
I needed more than just confidence to try and start a business. I needed money. I needed time. There are tons of people who can work on passion projects after work or on the weekends, but I am not one of them. I've never been able to split my attention and focus on many things at once.
As a freelancer, I knew that I could start and stop at any time, but I needed enough of a cushion so that I could work for a long stretch of uninterrupted time. People suggested I find an angel investor or raise capital, but... I didn't even have an idea yet. I needed a financial situation that would give me time to make mistakes and learn things slowly.
So I decided to hustle hard, double up on client work, and save money myself.
I worked over the holidays and on weekends, and went back to poor grad student living (I was living off that $32k/year stipend in San Francisco not too long ago!). I stopped eating out, stopped drinking, and stopped buying things I didn't absolutely need. I even stopped taking Ubers and Lyfts and started biking everywhere.
I made sacrifices early so that I could later give starting a business my best shot. It took me more than 18 months, but eventually I saved up enough money to give me about 12 months of runway.
Everyone has a number of tolls to pay in order to get to where they're trying to go. It helped me to just focus on paying each of them, one at a time.
Stop trying to come up with a genius idea.
I was pumped to start my journey as a first-time founder. I knew how to code, I had money saved up, and felt confident that I'd be able to persevere through tough times. However, I was missing something pretty important.
I didn't have an idea!
Even as a web developer, I didn't see the world as a sea of problems that could be solved with technology. I'd often complain about things (why is it so hard to share bookmarks, I wish Spotify let me cut songs together in a playlist, it's so annoying when I forget my passwords!), but never thought whether I could engineer solutions myself. Idea generation was a muscle I'd never worked out before.
So I gave myself homework to write down ideas every day, no matter how bad they were. In addition to writing down ideas, I also got in the habit of validating ideas to see if they were any good. Unfortunately, I ruled out each of them because I'd find out that someone else had already thought of it before.
Then I had an incredibly important eureka moment.
Do not rule out ideas that there are already solutions for. I was listening to Laura Roeder talk about this while driving and nearly pulled over, it was such an a-ha moment for me.
It is one of the most recurring lessons on Indie Hackers, but it still took me a long time to understand it. If you look through each podcast episode and search for "competit" (for competitor, competition, competitive), you'll hear Wes Bos, Nathan Barry, Todd Garland, and others talk about the advantages of tackling a problem that already has solutions.
I didn't need a genius, never-before-done idea. In fact, I didn't even want one.
When I told people about Key Values, a product that helps engineers find jobs, everyone would name competitors. There are behemoths like Monster.com, LinkedIn, and Indeed, and at least a hundred more in the space. Dozens focus specifically on engineering recruiting and hiring. Previously, I would've given up on the idea immediately, but this time I didn't rule it out. Even in this crowded market, I still couldn't find an engineering team that shared my values.
I went further in validating my idea, making sure it was something I really wanted to work on.
Am I personally familiar with the problem I'm solving? Very. I literally spent the last couple of years working as an engineer, experiencing the pains of finding jobs myself.
Do I know if customers will pay? Yes! And this is part of the brilliance of not ruling out ideas that there are already solutions for. There are many competitors already making money from companies wanting to recruit, hire, and retain engineers.
Do I know of any effective channels to reach my target audience? Tons. As an engineer myself, I know that engineers hang out on Twitter, bootcamp alum mailing lists, and Hacker News.
Will I enjoy working on this every day for the next 2 years? I love meeting new people, talking about company culture, helping people find happiness and fulfillment, and learning about organizational psychology. I get to call this work?!
Is this a winner-take-all market? No way, Jose. It's a big pie and I only need a little slice. Nobody else has to lose in order for me to win.
If things go well, can I easily scale? Yes, I can automate the process of onboarding teams to my website by having them write their own profiles. It shouldn't require much, if any, extra money or manpower on my part.
Can I still walk away with a win even if my idea fails? Absolutely. I will learn so much talking to different engineering teams and building a product from scratch. More importantly, I can build an audience through Key Values and can take that with me even if the idea itself flops. Worst case scenario, I'm already researching which teams I'll apply to if this doesn't work out.
For anyone that isn't an idea person (🙋) coming up with an idea is a massive barrier. I admittedly still suck at it. But you'll immediately be better at it once you stop ruling out your non-genius ideas.
Take pride in showing people the ugly behind-the-scenes.
Before I started building anything for Key Values, I spent weeks interviewing engineers, meeting with engineering managers, getting coffees with technical recruiters, and researching personality tests, dating sites, and match-making algorithms. Meanwhile, I was keeping up my indie lurker status.
I'd see other people ask for feedback about their products, and I'd think, "Wow. I'd be so embarrassed to show anyone that!" I was certain that my early versions would be prettier, better put together, and more thought out.
I promised myself to ask for feedback at the end of each week, and every week, I'd make an excuse and push it back. I kept delaying.
I spent almost 3 months working in a vacuum, obsessing over things like cool hover effects without having shown my website to anyone. I didn't even know if anyone wanted what I was making! I worked alone for so long that I went a little crazy. Don't do what I did.
After months of lurking, I finally got the courage to make my first post on the Indie Hackers forum. I had 15 replies (okay, 6 were mine), but the feedback was so helpful and it sucked me out of the dark and lonely hole I had been working in.
I wish I had asked for feedback sooner. I wasted time and energy building out features that no one even wanted and spent many weeks feeling lost, spinning my wheels.
So what if your design sucks? Ask for design help! Not sure what your business model will be? Then ask for feedback about different pricing models! Don't be afraid to put yourself out there.
If you're doing it alone, you're doing it wrong.
If you're stuck, show us the ugly behind-the-scenes and tell us what specifically you need help with. Fellow makers and founders can help you get unstuck.
The Indie Hackers community is your tribe. It's our tribe. Everyone is working through some set of challenges and remembers exactly what it feels like to get feedback on an early idea. You might not feel ready to put yourself out there, but I promise you that your product will never be good without your doing it.
Don't rely on one big launch.
I had never launched a product before and was incredibly worried that I'd mess it up. It was stressful thinking about when I'd launch, what I needed to get done before I launched, and how I'd recover if everyone who saw my product ended up hating it.
To get over my own anxiety, I decided to do a series of mini-launches first.
My first post in the IH forum? I absolutely count that as a mini-launch. I incorporated everyone's feedback, graduated my key-values.herokuapp.com domain to keyvalues.io, and a month later, I mini-launched again with my second IH forum post.
The next week, I posted in a Facebook group for Dev Bootcamp alums and then the week after that, in a stealth-mode all-women's forum.
Launch, get feedback, improve your product, and repeat.
Truth is, you don't want to go from zero traffic to 10k pageviews overnight. Thinking this way will give you unnecessary stress wrinkles, and it also makes it hard to prepare for.
By removing the intimidating, anxiogenic, self-imposed deadline to launch Key Values, I let myself reap the benefits of the Always Be Launching lifestyle. Each mini-launch let me practice answering tough questions, fix bugs that people reported, and make improvements to the design, UX, and marketing of my website.
You don't have to start with one big launch, so free yourself from thinking this way.
Prepare for your first big launch.
I heard tons of horrors stories about failed launches: misconfigured websites, servers crashing, only getting negative feedback, and of course the worst one, having a product launch be a total dud. As a first-timer, I was sure there were other things I didn't even know to worry about!
It's hard to defend against the unknown, so I decided to focus on what I did know.
I set up Google Analytics and Amplitude to make sure I was tracking basic user behavior. I didn't want to drive a lot of traffic to my site and miss the opportunity to understand how people were interacting with it.
I also read Pieter Levels' launch advice and took it to heart. Key Values is a static website hosted on Heroku, and I set up server-side caching using Amazon CloudFront to make sure my server wouldn't crash. I had identified Hacker News as being a good channel months earlier (during my validation phase), and I decided to post in "Show HN" where I thought I'd have a better chance of getting traction.
I jumped right into the comments. I introduced myself and provided some context based on the questions I had been getting from my previous mini-launches.
I ended up getting Key Values on the front page of HN where it reached #3 and stayed on the front page for about 14 hours!
Another thing I did to prepare for my HN launch was rewrite my About page. I knew this would be a good idea but vastly underestimated just how important it'd turn out to be.
I did some research on what makes a good About page and made sure to hit the major marks. Open with the single sentence you want everyone to read. Include a photo of yourself. Make it personal. Provide a call to action to get in contact, subscribe, or both.
My About page ended up being the 2nd most visited page on Key Values.
There are plenty of things to worry about when doing your first big launch. My advice? Identify, analyze, and prepare as best you can. You won't be able to prepare for everything and that's okay.
Two things happened that I didn't prepare for at all.
First, someone posted Key Values to Product Hunt on my behalf and I wasn't sure what to do. While it ended up on the front page all day, I wished I could have coordinated my own Product Hunt launch. (You'll see that I didn't reply to anyone because I didn't even have access to comment on my own product. 😂) It still feels like a missed opportunity, but hey, lesson learned!
Second, I hadn't prepared how I'd present Key Values to the press because it hadn't even crossed my mind. Matthew Hughes, a tech journalist, reached out to me over Twitter and since I didn't have a plan, I ended up forgetting some things I wanted to communicate. It ended up alright though and he published an article about Key Values in The Next Web!
I prepared for my launch to the best of my ability, but looking back, can think of a few things I'd do differently if I was granted a redo. The takeaway though is that launches are a combination of preparation and luck. Focus on the things you can control and cross your fingers for everything you can't.
Final thoughts about launching my first product.
I did it! I launched Key Values. I built something I love and put it out there for other people to see and use. It feels like a rite of passage that I wasn't sure I'd ever go through, and I couldn't be more proud or happy.
When people ask me how I started Key Values, I tell them it was a side project that quickly turned into my full-time passion some time back in May. While this isn't untrue, it also makes it sound like something that happened overnight. Trust me, it didn't.
In some ways, Key Values started in 2012 when I left academic research to find a more fast-paced and risky profession.
It started at Homejoy (my first job at a startup) where I realized that a single line of code can be as impactful as having hundreds of 1-on-1 meetings.
It started when I made yet another career change to become a web developer, because I wanted to be able to start and finish projects without relying on others.
It started when I got inspired to create and innovate something of my own after months of lurking on Indie Hackers.
It started when I learned how to adapt to the different working styles, goals, and values of my various clients.
It started when I became comfortable asking for feedback and engaging with my new community of indie hackers, founders, and entrepreneurs.
No one starts right at the finish line.
A lot of people are now asking me about what I'm going to do next. I've entered the post-launch trough of sorrow and the truth is that I'm still figuring out my next steps. I'm experimenting with different marketing strategies and exploring ways to turn Key Values into a revenue-generating business (I haven't started charging for my service). While I don't have all the answers right now, I'm optimistic and trust that slow progress is better than no progress.
I'll let you know how it goes. 😉
If you want to get in touch, you can email me ([email protected]), find me on Twitter (@lynnetye, @keyvaluesio), or better yet, stop lurking and leave a comment in the Indie Hackers forum!
i have a start up idea but i didn't knoe how to code and my idea is depend on app i have no money to hire A DEVLOPER IF I GO TO LEARN THE codeing someone ekse could make it so how should i found my tech co-founder????
Valuable lessons from someone who walked the walk. It's always nicer to read and generally is more solid advice than people who preach and write a lot of theories about things they don't practice.
Great story, Thanks for posting this!
Thx. Right now Im still at the stage of "do things that don't scale", but I'm glad to get started.
Thank you for sharing, I needed this.
Inspiring journey
great story, thanks for posting! is there any update?
Learning Slow progress is better than no progress. Thanks for sharing!
I hate reading, but somehow I felt I should read this article and Oh! I'm so glad that I did! On top of that, I actually read it out loud.
I could connect with you when you described your condition before starting up, that you stopped going for dinners, parties so that you could save to bootstrap. I am going through the same.
Funny thing is, I've a very cool idea which could help so many people is such a good way. But I don't know how to code or neither do I have any team, all I have is me and my friends who helped me fill out the google form for validating that my idea could work. It is sooooo hard and confusing and frustrating and awesome at the same time.
I feel like starting a youtube channel or to start the struggle one goes to create something from scratch but I feel so shy in front of the camera. Like how Mom's, Chef's create amazing food by spending hours which gets eaten in minutes.
Great read
I really love to read stories like this feels like I'm not the only one starting from scratch. Now, I'm more eager to start my own Saas. Thank your for this!
Great insights, Lynne! How did you overcome doubts about entering a space with big players, especially considering the initial lack of a 'genius' idea? Would love to hear about the mindset or strategies that helped you push through these common fears.
Best thing to read at the start of the new year 2024. Really loved the part where you described that your idea does not need to be genius always. Good learning for the lurkers.
Thank you, Lynne, this article made my day. I learn a lot as an lurker.
Thank you, Lynne, your transparency and insights about overcoming barriers are truly inspiring. It's a reminder that progress takes time, and each step, no matter how small, contributes to the bigger picture. Looking forward to hearing more about your adventures with Key Values. Cheers to your continued success!
Thank you for sharing this! This article is very encouraging and makes me want to start taking steps to launch my own product.
very good
Congratulations on the Key Values launch! Your journey from indie lurker to hacker is inspiring. Valuable insights on slow progress, sacrifices, and idea validation. Transparency in sharing the process is appreciated. The mini-launch strategy and preparation for the big launch are smart moves. Best of luck in turning Key Values into a successful business!
Congrats, Lynne! And thank you for sharing. Very inspiring. Great lessons to be learned from your story
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for this inspiring post! I have had one failed startup (If I had continued on that, might have worked). Now, gearing up for the next one and I never knew that I needed to read this post. :)
Thanks for this post! It's encouraging, I want to start working on side projects even if I don't have a concrete idea on what I want to build haha
Thank you so much for the inspiring post. It gives me the courage to launch my indie project :)
Quite inspiring. I am a stats person. Learning web dev right now. I hope to build my own analytics product. However, I am putting more emphasis on learning the skills at a level so that I can build simple apps.
Thank you for sharing your experience Lynne! Your article opened my mind to understand that there is no problem in building something that already exists. Your article is inspiring, and I feel motivated again to build and launch a new product, I hope to do it soon.
Loved this article! Thank you Lynne! I'm in the process right now of trying to figure out how to start my "mini-launches". I love the idea of getting help from the IH community and making the product better little by little.
"Focus on the things you can control and cross your fingers for everything you can't." Thank you so much! It hits me.
I found this article very inspiring.
You practically described my identical situation.
assdsada
I really liked this article
Thank you for sharing the detailed journey leading up to the launch of your product. It was fascinating and inspirational. I support your future endeavors.
Stop trying to come up with a genius idea. Do not be afraid of existing commercial ideas in the market, as it only proves the validity of the idea. Moreover, we are not aiming to build a groundbreaking large company, and that is really important.
thanks for your tip "Stop trying to come up with a genius idea".
Thanks for sharing. Very good read.
Thanks for your sharing Lynne.I'm for indie lurker some years, I need to change.
Wow so detailed article! Thanks lynne for your sharing, there're so much valuable informative experience in your article.
Thank you! This really helps me get started as I'm new to the community. I appreciated it.
Thanks for your sharing Lynne.
'Stop trying to come up with a genius idea.' is my my greatest gain.
I hope that in the future, I can also create my own product.
Hey this is a great story.
I have take some great insights from this and will be revamping my strategy for building, marketing and selling my product.
Thank so much for sharing, and I will definitely follow you on X.
Look out for me Lynne ;)
Thanks for sharing, I had no idea I have been lurking all these while. I will keep gathering experience as I go till I build a product people are willing to pay for.
Reading this in 2023 and it still serves immense value to me today!
Just quit my full-time job to pursue my passion. Thanks for the motivation and tips!
same to me
Same thoughts here.
Your story makes my conversion to an indie developer even stronger, Thanks for sharing!
Lynne, you just dropped a playbook on launching. I am in the lurking phase. I find this extremely motivating.
Thank you for sharing!
I liked the 5 "It started..." thanks for sharing.
You had a great marketing outreach for the first time. Sounds like you really got lucky with media. Nice job!
Thank you for sharing your valuable experience. I am building my own product, doing some things right and many things wrong. If only I had seen your sharing earlier.
You history motive me. Thank you for sharing.
nice story will share with our community members as well
Your story was truly inspiring @lynnetye :)
Am now here to get started
Thank you for this informative and inspiring article.
Thank you for sharing :)
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” And this is my first step.
Thank you for sharing your journey @lynnetye :>
What an accomplishment! Your journey is truly inspiring. Congratulations!
Congrats Lynne, I can say your successes continue to inspire me. So keep going!
Congrats Lynne
Great Article! Meant for people starting to start working on their passion .
stop lurking and leave a comment in the Indie Hackers forum!
3 a.m motivation, great article Lynne, I'm still a lurker with plans to becoming an active member in a few months, I just got an idea that feels right and I'd love to work with.
Thank you very much for sharing, I gotta admit this journey is scary but I'm still making the leap :)
“Stop trying to come up with a genius idea.” hit me. It's luck to read this post.
Thanks for sharing this Lynne. I liked the point regarding your product doesn't have to be radically different to others, as well as the many other tips in your post.
Great article! Thank you for this! So this might not be the place where I should address this topic, but here it goes: I am psychology graduate, working in IT as a low level pseudocode employee (regex, css selectors and xpath), now a project manager, and a dreamer of having my own thing to focus on for 6-7 years now. I have graphic design experience and also graduated a C Essentials course a few years back, and now I have a few ideas of building an app with Flutter (that I have to learn). My question to you is what should my first steps be? I am following the steps laid out on IH and aside from that I think I need some encouragement, if that is something to ask for here. Nevertheless, I hope I haven't wasted your time with my post, thank you again for this article and best of luck to everyone working on their dream!
Much appreciated for your valuable share! As my friend and I gear up to launch a product we've dedicated around 2 years to, advice such as implementing mini-launches is precisely the kind of guidance I was seeking
Thank you for sharing! I'm preparing to launch a product we (a friend and I) have worked for ~2 years so advices like mini-launches are exactly what I needed to read.
This post opened my eyes so that I don't give up on my dreams even if others talk me down and there are too many competitors. I always believed that I had to reinvent the wheel to be successful. Thanks!
Thanks for this motivation words. I am working on a idea and I will check the website About page as you mentioned.
The post has resonated with me on so many levels. Thank you for sharing your journey!
Thanks for this motivation words. I am working on a idea and I will check the website About page as you mentioned.
Thank you so much for sharing your journey, Lynne! Your story resonates with me on so many levels. I've also been an indie lurker for a while, but reading about your experiences and the barriers you overcame gives me a new perspective and a burst of motivation. It's incredible to see how you turned your passion into a reality, step by step. Your insights about not needing a 'genius' idea, the importance of seeking feedback, and embracing the process of slow progress are truly valuable. Wishing you all the best with Key Values and your future endeavors. Looking forward to your updates!
what a nice and simple idea!
Thank you for this informative and inspiring article. I think it is something we all need!
Hey Hackers!,
This is my first time turning into an indie Hacker from an indie Lurker, thanks to @lynnetye.
About me?
I dropped out of university and joined a startup as a web developer (and a no-code developer). It's been more than one year working at the startup and gaining experience from the mistakes made by the founders, but there's a reason I am unable to get my true potential out of myself. This post made it clear to me about the thing that I've been doing wrong.
When I start to work on a project, I expect quick results, which leads to dropping the whole side project and thinking it was not worth it from the start just to make me feel better. How am I going to change that?
I'll start to document the next project status on IH, making me responsible and connected to you, indie hackers.
I am not making enough sacrifices; "watching a few more YouTube shorts won't make a difference" made all the difference; getting all that dopamine in my system made me less likely to do the difficult task; how am I going to change that?
I'll start doing things that are less likely to give me a small burst of dopamine but that must be done.
I started hiding my mistakes and used to show that I'm all sorted out, which even made me ignore the issue and just go on with what it is. How will I solve this?
I've already started solving this issue by acknowledging that there's a problem, and I will work on it and get something good out of it.
especial thanks to @lynnetye
Great article, Lynne and congrats on a great launch! 'Stop trying to come up with a genius idea', I really identify with that, as I often thought too hard, to come up with the next big thing - what I ended up doing is actually quite simple.
Thanks Leandro! And yeah, I still don't know we default to thinking that brand new ideas are the only ones worth pursuing. We don't think that way for anything else! No one says, "I really want to open a bakery but -- oh wait -- someone else already did that."
Ps. I've been following your UNUBO journey! 😊 Excited to see where we'll both be in a few months.
Some VC's and founders were already spreading that idea in the late 90s.. but I think Peter Thiel really made it the main ideology when he shared his zero to one philosophy w "competition is for losers" being his main thesis.
Human beings have a tendency (maybe due to our educational system) to not question things and accept them as facts when they sound logical to us. I suppose this isn't as irrational as it seems because it's not possible to question everything all the time but it does lead to bugs in our mental software.
Anyway, I hypothesize that if your goal (or VC's goal) is winner take all / winner take most, then you'd prob wanna do something new and build a monopoly where you're in a pos to be the last one ( durability).. but if your ambition is to build something and make a profit that ideology becomes toxic in a hurry.
I think it's best to separate the two philosophies because there are fundamental differences between a small business (where you're doing something that's already being done i.e. a CRM system) vs a startup (where you're doing something new like spaceX).
------------
'Some examples of how this works in practice. I always use restaurants as the example of a terrible business, this is always sort of the idea that capital [accumulation] and competition are antonyms. If someone accumulates capital, a world of perfect competition is a world where all the capital gets competed away. So you're opening a restaurant business, no one wants to invest because you just lose money, so you have to tell some idiosyncratic narrative and you'll say something like. "Well we're the only British food restaurant in Palo Alto.” So its British, Palo Alto and of course that's too small a market because people may be able to drive all the way to Mountain View or even Menlo Park and there probably are no people who eat nothing but British food, at least no people who are still alive.'
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Hi Thomas! First off, thank you for your feedback on my very first IH post! You played a huge role in digging me out of that hole. 🙏
Re: bakeries, I made that statement thinking that most of us (as indie hackers) aren't wanting to go head to head with the big players. We're hoping to make ~$10k/mo.
I never wanted to build an empire that would "take over the world" and as you said, I just hoped I could successfully serve a small, local market. Even still, I kept thinking that I still needed a genius idea to do that.
What I've learned (and am still learning!) is that there are all sorts of traps that people fall into when it comes to idea generation/validation. This forum discussion highlights that, don't you think? When I first learned to code and was brainstorming project ideas for my portfolio/resume, people would tell me that someone else had already done that. Somewhere along the way, some of us (myself included) learned that the only ideas worth pursuing are the ones no one else has thought of.
This comment was deleted 5 years ago.
This is something I need to get reminded of everyday!
Great read! Congrats on your success.
I read and back to read this a few times. And it's still inspiring no matter how many times I read it.
<3
nice work
Same situation for me, trying to end up being an indie lurker. Show what you can do and launch it with no fear on what others could think. Only taking care of true feedback is the correct way even if there are various competitors out there. Nice reflexion 🤘.
<3
Great post, I can't wait to revisit this and see how much it helped me!
Amazing Journey Lynne, this give me more courage to pursue indie hacking
Thank you for sharing, starting from now on
It's incredibly inspiring to see how this article has resonated with so many people, even in 2023! Congratulations to those who have taken the leap and pursued their passions by quitting their full-time jobs. Your determination and courage are commendable.
To the fellow indie lurkers, take heart! This article proves that you don't need to have a completely unique and groundbreaking idea to start your entrepreneurial journey. Sometimes, success lies in refining existing solutions or approaching problems from a different perspective. Remember, slow progress is still progress, and it's better to take small steps towards your goals than to remain stagnant.
For those struggling with idea generation, consider looking around you and identifying problems that could be solved with technology. Often, everyday complaints can be transformed into innovative solutions. Don't be afraid to ask for feedback, even if your product is unfinished; it can help you refine your ideas and build something that truly addresses a need.
Overall, the key takeaway is that building a successful business is about persistence, hard work, and continuously learning and adapting. No matter where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, know that it's never too late to start, and success is within reach with dedication and the right mindset.
Thank you, Lynne, for sharing your journey and inspiring so many aspiring indie hackers. Your story has undoubtedly motivated countless others to pursue their dreams and make a difference in the world. Here's to all the future successes and impact that this community will create!
Very cool , this is the first article I read in indie hacker ,I want to thanks to you to share all this , I write down two ideas during I read this article , you inspire me a lot , Thank you again!
Excellent, with a clear understanding of the product being released
Can I ask how you learned web development?
cool
Excellent post! Great introduction to the community here on Indie Hackers.
Amazing Thanks!
yes it is
This was such an enlightening read, reflecting the journey of so many of us lurking on the fringes of entrepreneurship, grappling with our own inhibitions, fear of failure, and the uncertainty of the unknown. You beautifully articulated the reality that innovation is not always about novel, earth-shattering ideas; often, it's about fine-tuning existing ones or simply viewing problems through a different lens. I hope this goes on to inspire more of us 'indie lurkers' to transition to becoming 'indie hackers.'
Thanks for the motivation
good ..
Great, your approach has also inspired me. In your post, I saw sincerity and the idea of "continuous release" and "not relying on a big release" helps me
Reading in 2023 when I am planning to launch my own first serious SaaS
Thanks for this amazing post
Specially the Part of Peter Level's advice and also the Launch near Competitor's Strategy
Thank you for sharing! I think asking for feedback even if your product is unfinished and kind of embarrassing is important
amazing post
Thx !!! I'll not be a lurker anymore
Great post. I have been wanting to start a side project for a long time and hopefully eventually turn it into a full time income. I have been an Indie Lurker for too long.
I ran head first into the i-need-a-genius-idea brick wall and could not get past that. Thank you for the insights about not needing an idea so unique that it's never been done before. That help me realize that even if the problem has been solved, as long as the pie is big enough, I can try to get a little slice and maybe put my own spin on the solution.
The second part that really hit me is the notion that slow progress is better than no progress. I kept stalling out on trying to find an idea or start working on something and then not have the time for a while and then going back to square one. I need to just keep putting one foot in front of the other and taking baby steps. I will eventually get to the finish line.
Thanks again for the great behind the scenes of Key Values.
Love this.
Very inspirational. Just what I needed to read
We have only one life... Do you want to waste it watching Netflix or do something that will bring you joy? Its time I start too.
what a worth reading piece of article
This is me right now. At the start of my journey. I' m 27 and life has taken me on a similar path as yours Lynne. The job I wanted didn't work out and I've always had an interest in software/website development.
Your post of which I have read it all has made me extremely happy. All you hear around the internet is of engineers and entrepreneurs whom have been in this environment since they were conceived.
Thanks for sharing and giving me that much needed inspo!
Hope your expansion and revenue generating exercises go well.
I really like posts that are not soft pitches but just reflection of what's happening, we can learn from each other this way a lot. Thanks for sharing.
this is 2023 and this is what i wanted to hear!
Very inspiring, I am in kind of a similar position as you were before you started Key Values, thanks for sharing!
What an inspiring story, I wish you best of luck Lynne. 👏
a true story of perseverance and hardwork! You story inspires me to continue the grind. Thanks for sharing @lynnetye
This was best indie lurker to hacker journey article I have ever read! Thanks Lynne.
What I found useful from this big post....
Developing Idea Generation Skills as a First-Time Founder
Background:
Challenges:
Solution:
Reflection:
Overall, developing idea generation skills is essential for success as a founder. It requires daily practice, critical thinking, and a willingness to explore new perspectives. By valuing all ideas, even those with pre-existing solutions, entrepreneurs can identify new opportunities for innovation and make a significant impact in their industry.
Your summary is excellent, concise, and easy to understand. Thank you very much for this. I am curious if you maintain a blog where you summarize interesting things that you come across?
This is a very interesting summary. After reading the entire post, this summary helped me put all the thoughts into perspective, better.
Thanks
Nice article - it's even bringing me out of lurking here...!
Could you add a geographic filter to Key Values, as having a great fit with a team on the other side of the planet doesn't really help me out much, even if it is just North America, Europe, Asia etc. to at least filter it a little bit
Hi Ben! You're certainly not the first person to ask for this. I only recently started adding teams based outside of the Bay Area. I think there's a need for a location filter but it also doesn't seem to make sense just yet because I don't have enough content/team profiles.
The intermediate step/solution was to show locations in the search results on the homepage. It's not great, but it helps. Even filtering by continent as you suggested would be a sad experience right now. They'd be 0 for all of them but North America, and only 1 team for Europe (Algolia).
For now, I'd suggest using the Remote-OK filter.
I promise to add a location filter once I have more team profiles 😊
Very inspiring article, Lynne. I also tend to want to find the perfect, unique idea. It's not going to happen. I like your launch advice, too. Thanks for getting me pumped up...
🤗!!!
I hope you'll include me (and the rest of the IH community) as you brainstorm and test out new ideas. And I know this might be considered "bad advice" because it isn't very actionable, but I think part of what makes an idea perfect is that you enjoy doing it. Someone w/ minimal skills and loves working on X will be more successful than someone who has 10x the skills but hates working on X.
Lynne,
Wow. Your story really reinforced the notion that I need to come up with a completely original idea. Thanks for writing it up. I will not be a lurker any longer.
Tony
Wait... did you make a typo? You do not need to come up with a completely original idea!
I enjoyed your story and found a way to fix my self-perception and how I think about my ideas. I used to struggle with imposter syndrome, feeling inferior to my peers. But now I've embraced a simple mantra: Slow progress is better than no progress.
Found this post after reading @bensheldon 's "5 Years Later" post: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/5-years-later-i-never-thought-id-be-renewing-my-business-license-61310ba756
Lynne, this is such a great and informative story. I learned a ton.
Consistent, incremental progress is the key to building great products, and of course great businesses. You also hit on something really important when you talked about creating the conditions for success long before you started the project.
Step 1. Learn to code
Step 2. Focus on getting paid
Step 3. Have the skills and money stashed away so that you "hit go" as soon as you find something you're passionate about
Thanks for sharing!
WOW, 4 months later... (🙈 sorry!).
Thanks for taking the time to read and leave a note! Your 3-step breakdown is pretty frickin' accurate too. 👌
I remember seeing this on HN! I also remember loving the concept because actually being able to connect with your values in a team is something I have discovered is a really big benefit and I strive for more of that in my life. One thing I notice some companies are good at is clearly communicating their values by almost becoming media companies in a sense that they put a lot of content out there in the world that is in line with their values and as a consumer of that content you innately begin to get a sense of their values. It's great to see there is a paragraph for each key value on each companies profile to explain how those values manifest in their workplace. I also think professionally produced video is a really powerful medium to communicate that too... keyvalues.io branding and all! Would just love to see that.
Thanks for your kind words!
Re: companies being excellent at branding and marketing themselves, I agree. But engineers? Not so much. Engineers are pretty terrible at talking about and promoting themselves, which is why it's so hard to learn anything about them. Marketing teams can do a great job selling the company as a whole, but they don't know how to talk about their engineering culture as well. My hope is that by having engineers talk about their engineering culture, we can really get a peak into what it's like to work there.
I enjoyed reading your story Lynne, and congrats on your first launch!
Thanks for these great insights, Lynne! It will help a lot of starting founders.
I am happy for you Lynne, best wishes for you! And great article!
This was another brilliant reminder to not care if someone has already done a similar thing. Thank you :)
This is one of the post, that i was looking for. Thanks for sharing your journey wonderfully.
wow, this is the second article i am reading on indiehackers (late adopter from germany right here 😄) and i am stunned by the density and depth of insights. although having worked in the startup ecosystem for a bunch of years now, i have rarely come across something so close to actually taking the leap, quitting one's job and starting out to build.
the only caveat i see, is that 'recruiting', the market in which key values has been built, is 'evergreen' and a never fully solved problem space and thus, will more often than not work and bring about at least some $$$. would love to hear what the IH community thinks of that?
How can I begin
I'm really agreed with this, Take pride in showing people the ugly behind-the-scenes.
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I quite unexpectedly ended up on your post through HN and I am so glad I did. Was in quite a similar predicament and this post just inspired me not only to join the IH community, but also not to let anyone discourage me from trying out my ideas. Thank you!
This is very welcome news given how positive the discussion was... 🙈
Glad you've joined IH and hope we'll being seeing some of those ideas soon!
❤️ key : values
I've discovered the importance of value fit over the last few years so I just wanted to say how much I love this site.
Thank you! Hearing that makes me so incredibly happy 🤗
Thanks for posting this great article Lynne! I have been working on a few side projects using squarespace (I am not a developer) so I was wondering if this is a good route to go or if you believe I should start learning basic developer skills? If it is the latter I was wondering where I should start?
Thanks again for the inspiration 👊
There is no way for me to give you good advice here w/o more information. In fact, you probably shouldn't listen to anyone else's advice unless you're sure that they fully understand your circumstance and goals first.
What's a "good route" for you totally depends on what kind of side projects you're working on now and what kind you want to work on in the future.
If your objective is to create a beautiful portfolio to showcase artwork you've created, then I don't think you need know much more. If you want to develop a product or app that's more complex, then that's a different conversation. I'd then ask...
If you're pretty sure you want to learn how to code yourself after all of this, you should then weigh all of your options and find the one that best suits you (aka your learning style, geographic location, ability to pay for courses and set aside time to learn, etc.). Maybe you should check out Lambda School, or find a local bootcamp that you can attend in person. Maybe you're the type of person who can just sit down and teach themselves? There are plenty of online resources you can leverage, like egghead.io.
Hope this helps!
Being always late to the party, I just found this article. Really identified with a lot of stuff in it.Packed full of useful advice that I can take action on RIGHT NOW. Thank you, Lynne, for writing it!
Looks like I left the party too early, and returned too late! Glad you liked it and hope you took action 2 months ago!
Your post is absolutely great, but the name of your product is the best thing I've seen today! Awesome!
🙌😍🙏🏼
This is so inspiring! Laura's podcast really struck a chord with me as well and I specifically remember the piece you quoted.
Hey, Lynne. This is an old post I guess but I just now found it and read it. You've convinced me to submit my first question to this forum and ask for advice about my indiehack!
The most interesting part of your story to me is your freelancing rate. How did you manage to get it up to $100/hr as a relatively jr dev just two years out from a bootcamp you didn't finish? I'm sure you must have been a quick study but I know people who have been doing deep technical work for over a decade but still struggle to make that rate!
That makes me so happy to hear! Congrats on your first post and officially leaving your indie lurker status behind!
The first gig I got by myself was at $60/hr. I remember talking to the CTO over the phone and just throwing that number out. I immediately wished I had said something lower because I really wanted the work, but a moment later she said, "Sounds good. I'll send you a contract later today." I immediately wished I had said a higher number!
I'm embarrassed to say that the same thing happened with the next client a few months later, except this time I said $100/hour. I wasn't confident at all asking for these rates, but I should have been. In fact, looking back, I definitely should have increased my rate every few months.
I will say two things:
First, one of the best things about web development (and software engineering in general) is that a lot of people only care if you can do the job. You might not have relevant work experience or a degree in CS, but it doesn't matter if you can do the thing they want to pay you to do. So prove that you can do the thing. Contribute to open source projects, build a personal website showcasing your skills, and/or work on a side project that demonstrates that you know how to do the thing. I always loved that Jennifer Dewalt built a new website every day as she was learning to code. Who wouldn't hire her?!
Second, I should really point you to @patio11. His podcast on IH was really eye-opening for me (maybe around 0h 29m 46s is most relevant). He has written a lot about salary negotiations and how to charge clients as a consultant, and is much more knowledgable than I am. I wish I had learned more from him sooner. You should tell the people you know that have been doing deep technical work for over a decade to also read up on Patrick McKenzie. I bet they can be better compensated.
Thanks Lynne. I remember seeing Jennifer Dewalt's site on social media a few times and thinking about how it was such a good learning vehicle, but hadn't even thought about the marketing angle! The @patio11 interview is ridiculous... Especially since he's in Asia, too. Though maybe Japan is a bit better a market for engineers than Taiwan.
Step one is clearly blog and get that HN karma!
Congrats on the launch, Lynne! And a great article! It resonated so much with me. I've been an indie lurker for so many months. Like Key Values, my project is also in a saturated market, so I put off building it for a long time. But I've finally taken the plunge and I'm working on my side project now. Your words have pumped me up even more. Cheers!
Lurkers unite!!! 😂
If you're excited about your project, then keep going! And continue to do market and user research as you do. If you have questions or get stuck, post in the IH forum. Especially when you're in need of more "pumping up".
Thanks for reading and I look forward to see your MVP 😊
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'Stop trying to come up with a genius idea' probably the most important advice for starting entrepreneur. Great article Lynne, lots of useful advices!
Lynne, is there any reason that you planned to launch at first on Hacker News and after in on ProductHunt?
I am planning to launch my project - https://techevents.co/ next week. Not sure where I should post first and if that's even matters.
I talk about this some in my article, but I never decided to launch in PH. Someone else posted on my behalf, and I definitely wished I could have coordinated it myself instead.
Launching on HN was part of the plan from the beginning. Key Values' target audience is much more in line w/ the HN community.
I don't think it matters where you post first, or if you post them on the same day. Just know that you can post to HN repeatedly, but you can only launch once in PH. I link to some other sources (Pieter Levels and the guide to launching in PH) in my article. Reading these (Pieter Levels' launch advice, How to Launch on PH) might answer other questions you have. The communities are really different and it's important to tailor your launch as best as you can to whatever channel you're using.
Also, Tech Events looks great. There was a time when I was looking to attends as many events as possible. I would have used this!
Thanks for the great feedback! I see I was thinking that maybe success in one platform can help to another platform launch too.
Yes, I read them and other articles of Pieter Levels' launches. Lost of helpful information for sure.
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^^^ Thomas droppin' knowledge on us time and time again 🙌🏼
I agree with everything he said. There isn't a perfect time, place, or order so don't stress out trying to figure one out.
SO true. You saw that first graph in my article right? The peak was really great! But then... it died... and stayed dead. I genuinely thought I'd launch and then people would keep talking about Key Values, telling all of their friends and family about it. 😂 It doesn't work like that.
BTW, Thomas' advice might seem straight forward, but reading it now, I can tell that I didn't understand it at all until about 10 days ago. I don't have any experience in marketing/growth and "review your marketing strategy" meant nothing to me.
Example: I love IH, but this isn't the ideal audience for me. Sure, there are lots of engineers are here, but the majority of them want to leave their full-time jobs and start a business. Key Values isn't a product they'd use, it's simply a good example of a product one can build.
Maybe IH isn't your target audience either. Maybe your strategy will be building relationships with influencers and people who regularly speak at conference and host meetups. Maybe you'll need to customize partnerships with R-Ladies or Women Who Code, or focus on non-engineers who attend these events. I'm just saying things now, but you get my point, right?
Great point! I had similar thoughts, will work on that.
Awesome advice! Can't disagree with anything.
I was thinking that maybe success in one platform can help to another platform launch/success too.
I don't have any expectation for one-night success or betting all into one marketing channel. Just want wisely use every marketing channel that is available to me.
Thanks for sharing! Really appreciate the detailed step by step and your own journey in finally launching.
Thanks for commenting! I see that you joined IH just today, which is awesome ☺️
I did not expect such a detailed post. Thank you!
Dear Lynne, I was truly inspired by your story and I am curious to know if you were able to successfully monetize KeyValues and turn it into a profitable venture. Alternatively, have you since moved on to other startup projects? Your journey is truly remarkable and I appreciate you sharing it with us in such a wonderful way.
This is one of the posts, that I was looking for. Thanks for sharing your journey wonderfully.
I recently joined IH and it's exactly this sort of content that makes me excited to dive in head first and get involved with the community. I'm really looking forward to connecting with new people and starting my own projects!
Nice story of incubation. I like to read the journeys of people with great accomplishment after hardwork and hardships. I have started thinking as a entrepreneur. Atleast started to pretend. The indiehacker is a good plateform to look around. I came across an idea about incubation platform, and for that I have been looking around to get some feedback from great minds as you all. I want to check if my assumptions are true about incubation. It will be great if a few people answer my questions here: https://lnkd.in/dqaCxqSG
Thanks for sharing
5 star for willingness to be candid! transparency is a key value.
LP: I peeked into you landing page. I see this layout so often, that I am already normalised to it. Am a curious cat + would like to inquire about one of the design decisions made.
What made you select this layout?
The business is one of 'discover-ability' + match. Yes?
How easy do you feel it is discover the right person on your site?
When our users/audience are specialist in the area of our tool e.g. all are technical, some are UI specialists, then the UI must be exceptional. Must be soo enjoyable to use. HackerNews distraction free UI gets that for me.
Recently, I was mapping my experience out when buying a bottle of wine the other day. There are 1000s of excellent wine options.. E-commerce sites have some of the best discoverability gallery layouts and comparison tool pickers. NSW these have to be adopted to B2B and B2C gallery layouts. Never seen any though flip to a graph data viz that shows placement of the 100 items selected (ie forrester curve style)
AP- for me, given your product is about Key Values, I hope the about page tracks even higher. For me it is actually the origin story that is the differentiator and establishes the base rapport
Hello Lynne, your story is very inspiring. I'm wondering, did you manage to turn KeyValues into a revenue generating business or did you move to build other startups in the meantime?
Loved what you shared here. Like the idea of keep launching always, like having mini launches now n then and slowly prep for the bug launch.
Also, the thing about not waiting for the geniou idea to spark is very real, I was doing same for quite a time but last month I started working on something that's already there in the market but just betted on executing the product way better than other competitors. I still have to launch but its promising.
I leave here a reminder for myself in the future. Today is the day I started. Tomorrow will be a better day.
Until 2023, I think it will still teach me a lot.
wow
I am someone aspiring for starting a company and this story keeps me motivated. Thanks!
It's incredibly inspiring. I have a lot of fears and thanks to your text, some of them have receded.
Really enjoyed the read, and taking some lessons home from it! Thanks a lot for putting this out! :)
Thank you @lynnetye for being honest and explaining every small detail in your story!
Thank you so much for sharing! I'm starting indie hacking, and this post is exactly what I needed to read.
Very nice post, super motivating and realistic as well. I love how well articulated and easy-to-read this article was!
Thank you for sharing your story! Last week I needed some motivation to continue the development of my current project and it was a huge help!
This post is the first that I've read on the IH. And it's kind of a soft introduction. I got some really useful thoughts. Thank you for the inspiration
That was pretty interesting, your journey I mean. I'm sure that I will get back to this article multiple times in the future :D
Thank you so much for this. A lot of points hit home, but I took a screenshot of the whole "Don't rely on one big launch." section as a reminder for future launches. This was my "a-ha" moment.
Thanks for the post, I feel like i'm the one being talking to, my best take from this post is to never cancel an idea just because someone has already implemented that before
Great article! I appreciate the honesty of the mistakes and struggles, and about how it still turned out better than hoped for.
Thanks for the article, I got a few new insights :)
I had a lot of the same fears in the "Take pride in showing people the ugly behind-the-scenes." building in isolation helps no one but building in public helps give you feedback, and new way of improving. Thank you.
It's good to hear your story.
You hit on a lot of things I feel myself here. It's terrifying to put a project out there. I know I need to get past that and just do it. That's the only way it's going to get easier. Congrats on your launch!
Quite Inspiring!!!
Thanks for your post. It is useful for me.
Getting to know Indiehacker Thanks for the article. Very inspiring
Thanks for your post. For now, I am still a lurker but hopefully, that will change soon.
Thank you for sharing 🙏 This article is a great source of inspiration for people that are just starting like me!
Great articles, congrats!! Wouldlove to know how's it going now
How many years does it take to see results?
Ik answer can vary I wanna get a rough approximation
Am definitely a lurker, slowly progressing to a hacker
This article was a must read for the indie lurker I am. Thx for it Lynnetye even 4 years after !
I can't get over how brilliant the name "Key Values" is. Thank you for this brilliant article <3
Very interesting. It was written in a way that kept me engaged start to finish.
Very inspiring article. Please keep sharing your journey. Thank you.
I'm reading this in 2021 and feel like it's as true now as it was when this was first written. (To me, anyways.) How has Key Values evolved since you first wrote the post? Has it entered a continued growth phase or are you working on something else? Both?
I am 19 and thanks for letting me know this at early age
Awesome article, so many useful take aways. In a world so associated with marketing I love all the authentic journeys shared on IH. You have a great voice.
Just wanted to say your article really helped me! What I especially liked were your "idea validation algorithm" questions. I also appreciated the water bottle example. This really hit home for me. Thank you for writing this!
This is really inspirational I just stared Indie hackers a week ago and I’m glad this was the first post I read. Awesome.
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Thank you for the great post! I am currently working on passportlist.co
Hey Lynn,
How are you?.
I wanted to reach out to you after reading some of your posts here on Indie Hackers.
I'm currently developing a hiring platform to better connect in demand digital candidates with innovative companies over in the UK.
I want to provide more transparency within the market place for candidates especially as they are in demand and companies are competing to hire the best talent.
I was reading about how you started your business, and i wanted to gain some feedback from you if you would be kind enough:
Any help, advice, tips would be great :). Look forward to hearing back from you :).
Best Wishes
Soph
Thank you for sharing this piece Lynne. It's clear that you want to see others succeed and that's why you built this product. I hope you continue to help others with this tool and many others.
❤️❤️❤️ I hope to continue helping others, too!
Congratulations for your decisions !!
Thank you!
Great article! So many truths in here. Wondering how you are monetizing or if you have generated revenue yet. And if so, how much? Always curious about monetizing marketplaces...
Companies pay to be listed on Key Values and for help creating quality content for their profiles. I'm hoping to make $100k in revenue by the end of the year, and am certainly planning to write about all of this in an IH article. (I mean... I've been meaning to write a lot more... in general... 🙈 but it will happen!)
100K was a great target! Hope you succeeded
This gives me SO much motivation. You da bomb.
Thanks @Squishy! ❤️ Hope you're still feeling motivated 2 months later! 💪
Thank you for sharing! I identified with a lot of what you said, and I think it's a great idea. One piece of feedback on keyvalues. When I selected multiple criteria (or values), I expected the results to only show companies where all of the values held true, i.e. an intersection not a union of values.
Yes! I initially had to use OR logic instead of AND simply because I didn't have enough teams (and the search results would have been a very sad 😂), but I might be able to change that soon!
Thank you so much for the feedback!
Great article, Lynne. Been coding for a very long time and I'm only now realizing the opportunities I've been leaving behind. Thanks for your inspiring story.
Thanks for reading, and I share that sentiment a thousand fold. It's not so much leaving them behind as much as it is not seeing them. There are opportunities all around us, all the time, but we just don't always recognize them or know to even look for them. Whatever you do, keep us posted. 🙌
Awesome work! I enjoyed every bit of advice you have said in the article. Congrats!
I love the UX of the site. I have been trying myself to be a self-taught web dev and your work gives me hope and courage that anything is achievable once you set your mind to it!
May I also ask about the tech stack you used to build the product?
Thanks!
Learning to code takes time, but you can absolutely do it! Just keep at it and know that even though it can be challenging at times, it's worth it!
Also, Key Values is a Node/Express and Heroku app!
Great and inspiring article! Thank you for sharing your lurker to hacker evolution story :)
Thanks so much for taking the time to read it!
This is awesome! So many pieces of information in this post that resonate with me!
Thanks for sharing this with us, feeling extra motivated now to finish and put some stuff out there.
"upvote forum posts and start typing out comments, too... only to change your mind and delete, delete, delete."
Also that line kills me 😆. I do this far too often. No more!!
Sorry for replying 10 days late!!! I'm the worst.
Hopefully you've been posting commenting though instead of deleting them. I actually thought everyone did this but... you're the only person so far to have confirmed that it isn't just me 🙈
Hi Lynne, first of all: great article and idea. I always wanted a tool like that back then when I was freelancing. Just wanted to let you know, that your post gave me the motivation to pick up an idea which I almost gave up. :)
Keep doing awesome stuff. 😬
!!! I guess it's convenient that I'm taking almost 2 weeks to respond to this. Did you end up breathing some life into that idea?!
Sure, no problem.
Yeah I am working on a market validation right now and will start interviewing next week.
Since I started working on it again I already found some potential competitors but I don't really mind because my product will be more specific than theirs but as always this makes me think "is it really worth building that thing when somebody's already working on it?"
Totally depends on how close their idea/product is to yours and how far along they are, among many other factors. Sounds like you'll be better suited to answer that question once you do some research though. Also, this sounds like an interesting forum post if you want to ask the IH community!
Your story is very relatable to me. I went through the same process, although I haven't launched any product yet. Good luck on your journey!
Rooting for you and your first launch, whenever it happens! Thanks for the luck, I'm gonna need it haha
One of the best articles I ever read on bootstraping.
Resonates a lot with me.
Now I have a Title. indie-lurker ;)
Lurker no more! You at least left a comment!!! And thank you so much, that is really very kind of you to say that! I've been trying to write more and it takes me forever to do it. I feel encouraged to keep writing now ☺️ Thank you.
Hi , the unique article who make me think again about having a product !, you make it simple Big Thanks .., but i do not know how you mange to publish your work before finish it without taken on consideration that someone ( or company ) can simply take your idea and lunch the same product before you publish your first version ??
Hi there!! I'm so sorry for taking SO long to reply.
I was a little paranoid in the beginning actually, but everyone I talked to advised me to stop worrying about being copied or scooped. The majority of the time, our idea isn't new, nor is our website or design or anything else like that. You don't have to disclose much more to get feedback on an MVP. Also, being paranoid is really not fun...
YC's advice sums it up really nicely here: "Ignore your competitors, you will more likely die of suicide than murder."
Congrats, Lynne! And thank you for sharing. Very inspiring. Great lessons to be learned from your story, as I'm trying to validate my next project idea after my first product launch failed.
Thanks Mario! I'm glad people can learn something from my very limited experience, because I certainly wouldn't have done anything w/o the wisdom shared by others! How is Conferify going?
Hi Lynne, thanks for asking! I'm currently just trying to validate the Conferify idea, before I write any code. At the moment it hasn't generated enough interest for me to consider it successfully validated. I'll continue on this path a little longer, and if things don't change I'll have to make some adjustments. I may have to rethink the scope of the project and narrow it down to a single focus (conference speakers). I'll have to see if that generates more interest.
lurker here. Thanks for this!
I see that you've been at posting and commenting, so you're better than me. I was too shy to even do that. Lurker no more!
I heard Airbnb launched at least 3 times, so it's never too late to work on first impressions.
Or to find new people to make first impressions on? 😜
Love it. I'm 24 and still at the start. This is inspiring. :)
24?! You've got your whole life ahead of you! 😉
Congrats for this post and for what you built!!
Thanks Cezar! 🤗 Fingers crossed that this is just the beginning.
hi
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Thanks for reading it, and taking the time to comment 🤗
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Don't be afraid to show people your work! I remember feeling really shy and afraid to at first, thinking that people would see it, dislike it, and remember me for it. The reality is... we wish it were that easy! People have short attention spans and so many things competing for their attention that even if the worst things happens, we'll all forget it in minutes/hours. Sadly, even if the best thing happens, people will forget. 😂 But anyway, first step is to get over any friction preventing you from getting feedback/help.
post and examining this topic!
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Hi there! You're a familiar face! (err... username? 😂)
You've given me really actionable feedback time and time again, and I really appreciate it. Thank you!
A quick ask from me to you: 🙏🏼
Great Post
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