First Step To Be An Indie Hacker
Hi everyone, 2 days ago I quit my full-time job that i work for 6 months and start working on my side projects full-time. Do you have any recommendation for a newbie?
Hi everyone, 2 days ago I quit my full-time job that i work for 6 months and start working on my side projects full-time. Do you have any recommendation for a newbie?
Hi there - my advice would be to put an x on the calendar for when you are going to release a product, and work like a junk yard dog to make sure the you release.
Do you have a fallback in case the side project doesn’t take off? If not I would start lining up part time freelance work to pay the bills.
Make sure that you multiply on the amount of work you did when you had a job. Work at least twice as hard.
You mentioned you’re a developer? Me too, figure out sales and marketing as quickly as you can.
Meet as many like minded people as you can, they will open doors for you.
This is such good advice! I feel like my current blockers are building out the actual MVP. I've already come across 3-5 potential customers. What are others doing to build thier MVP and get thier product out there, even if just in beta or demo stage?
Just focus on building the base functionality you believe is the MVP. Since you have interested customers, focus on things they want.
Since you're a developer (same here), don't fall into code overoptimization and obsessing! Chances are that your MVP will not exist in a few months, if that. You don't have to build a product supporting 1000s of customers if you don't have a single one. Focus on getting it out there as soon as possible with least functionalities that will make your (potential) customers happy. Then, TALK to your (now new) customers and see what they use, don't use, like and don't like. Reiterate.
If you get enough traction, market will push you in a proper direction, helping you figure out what you need to do next (product-wise). Early-stage ideas/products pivot almost weekly :) But also, don't try to build EVERYTHING your customers want - you don't want to build a monster, you want to build a tool.
Thank you for your advice. Yes I've some savings for bad days and working freelance. Currently reading books and trying to figure out marketing part.
Firstly congrats & good luck!
Find your customers asap. Talk to them. Know them better than they know themselves.
Make sure you're solving a real problem, not an imaginary problem that you made up yourself. Happens way too often.
Ship, ship, ship. Get feedback from customers asap. Monetize asap.
Don't get into paralysis by analysis. Read & learn, but don't read too much, focus on shipping and fixing stuff later.
Figure out how to stay productive. Set goals, get an accountability buddy, block all distractions to get into the deep work state.
Hope this helps & keep us posted!
/m
Congrats! Huge step!
The interviews on IH are great for getting motivation, but also some tips for managing the day-to-day of being an entrepreneur.
For me, the two best pieces of advice I can give from my time on Dependabot (15 months now) is:
Manage your psychology carefully. Don't get carried away with the highs - if you do it will make stomaching the lows much harder. Don't let the lows beat you up too badly. They will pass, if you keep working away at it. Find friends that are in a similar position who can remind you of that when things are tough
Your distribution has to start with sales. Not marketing. When you do sales you learn about your customer and your product - the feedback is extremely direct which is exactly what you need. Marketing can come later, but for now you need that feedback loop. No matter how much you hate it, or how cheap your product it. (I hate it but did it for Dependabot when I was literally giving the product away for free. No sale has ever been worth my time for the $$$. Every sale has been more than worth my time for the customer and product discovery).
Good luck! I'd love to know what you're building.
Thanks everyone for your priceless advices. I'm currently developing an analytics project to use at backend. A simple api service to keep analytics without front-end tracking codes (googles js tracking code for example)
Do you have any users already? If not, my advice would be to start collecting subscribers for your side project. 1. find where they are, 2. use a landing page to collect them.
Thank you for your advice, I'll start working on it.
do you have an existing product with customers or what stage are you at? how much runway do you have?
No idont. I have projects Im working on but not shipped yet. Im just at the beginning considering ih community. Im an experienced programmer (12 years)
Bold move. Whatever you do, concentrate on shipping. Ship it, ship it, ship it.
Very ballsy move 😁
They usually say don’t bite off more than you can chew. Well I say, chew fucking faster. Get sales before you run out of money.
Than again I’m not really an expert.
Congrats! Most people work on side projects while working but definitely love this quitting, fully commit approach if you are in a position to do it. (good runway, good experience to get a job if needed)
As an experienced programmer its easy to get lost in the product development. Recommend getting feedback as soon as possible.