Are we really 'indie' Davids? or are we still feeding the big-tech Goliaths?
I've only been on IH for a few weeks and love it - I've found my tribe. But something is bugging me.
People here love to rail against investors and declare their true independence from them. In my mind that is a very complex issue as there are a lot of different types of investors, many of which (a growing number) also have an indie mindset and would work well alongside IH'ers.
But when it comes to places to promote ourselves, people trip over each other to declare how perfect Twitter is and we must use it as the number one place to grow. Sorry, where is the independent spirit of being a true David?
Then last week I posted about my QR code idea for making website logins easier. Granted, it's quite possibly not a great idea, but it was the type of responses I got which really depressed me. In summary, "oh Google already do that so why would you bother competing".
If we are truly indie-pendent then surely that goes for all area of our startup venture world, not just this single focus of "oh we mustn't take money from investors".
Well how about "we mustn't feed the big-tech Goliaths" either!?
Isn't it about time we found new independent ways to grow our ventures. And saw the fact that FAANG already have areas covered as a reason why we want to have a go - to build new indie versions and truly democratise.
As Courtland Allen says:
So take investment or not. Challenge Google or not. Use Twitter or not. It's your choice. It's only the
boss-lessangle that seems to be common here. But when someone says "Google already does that" or "Twitter is (can be) great" they are not wrong. Question is how you respond.Hey @rab i know exactly how i am responding - pushing on with my qr code idea and vowing to not use twitter in any hacks this year 😎
I was just trying to stir some kind of inner reflection on the startup/creator world’s heavy reliance on the likes of twitter. I guess the reading of the room is showing it isn’t really that important for most people. Which is cool, but just a bit surprising.
Talk to customers before making anything more than a proof-of-concept! Other IH's can only act as a proxy to the world of your target customers. So, pinches of salt needed everywhere.
Totally david, goes without saying.
But I think i’ve worded this all badly because it isn’t about me or my experiences. I was trying to get a big picture discussion going on how we all perhaps rely on twitter too much or are slightly held back by Faang’s dominance.
I did the QR code login thing a few years ago, abandoned it because fitting it into the existing market is going to be tough. Folks are happy to use FAANG social login but not an unknown. Best of luck.
Depends on what your mindset is. A good amount of the time, you will be helping those “tech giants”. But if you let that control you, you’ll be defeated.
Most of the folks are not familiar with the hacker culture, the start of the open-source and how some people thanklessly fought for the future we take for granted. Even I wasn't aware of it, until last year, even though I have contributed to many open source projects.
That being said, everyone has their opinions and they live through their perspective of life. And that's ok. I always rely on the market to decide, if something is worth doing or not. I understand everything needs to be economically incentivised for an actual future. But when it's not, if it's a matter of principle some people stand up & provide something while bearing all the costs of maintenance.
Many are not familiar with the importance of data, because their "civic" sense hasn't adapted to the threat of over-reach of govts and corporations. Sucks, but it's the ugly truth. Those who are aware, prefer to host their critical data themselves. If you don't think along these lines, are you really the hacker you think in your head you are? The deeper you get to these communities, the more free & open-spirit things exist, so its pretty hard to market them. They all do it for the principles & for the fun of it.
Some people just want to have a little more freedom than what they currently have, and that makes up for the lion share of the indiehacker space, and honestly it's ok. What else can we do? They will take their own journey and may be discover how the fabric of society is.
So it comes down to - You do you.
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Sure, i get the 2nd bucket. But surely that kind of person, by the very nature of wanting to be an independent king/queen, would question why their entire growth (or a big portion of it) relies on a single mammoth player like twitter.
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Ain't bracing yourself against this "oh Google already do that so why would you bother competing" the sweetest part?
Sorry, might be a language thing but i don’t understand this?
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Thanks Anil. What is hard for me is what feels like a lack of desire to disrupt the marketing+growth game.
“Hey i am an independent thinker and my own boss ... but my marketing plan will always use twitter”. Hhmmm 😎