Are you in it for the money?

Unless you're into running charities (and even then, if you want to do real good), money is NEVER the byproduct. It's the fundamental lifeblood of your activities. You can't deliver anything if your bank account is 0.
Personal wealth? Well it's hard to think about other people's problems when you can't put food on the table.
That being said,when I built Uclusion I genuinely did want to replace stupid meetings with better workflows and give people their life back.

I've been indie for 10 years (running the same web app) and have recently started something new.

The biggest reason is financial because there are two major changes happening to my existing business's market next year, so I'd like to diversify my income streams to de-risk.

But there are so many possible businesses I could go into, so I came up with a set of values to help me chose what's best for me holistically (which ultimately turned out to be a programming screencasts company focused on indie-hackers)

Here are the values:

1. Good chance of at least $10k/month profit
2. Build career capital and name recognition (to open up future doors)
3. Give me an excuse to learn more about my passion, coding
4. Give me an impetus to improve my ability with story-telling and modern communication media (video, social media)
5. Feel proud about my contribution to society
6. Help people

Makers say they aren't in it for the money.
Journalists say we don't care about the clicks.

Both statements are false.

Yes, I would say I'm definitely in this for the money. With money will come freedom and a better life for me, which cannot be ignored. But I also understand that all this will happen only if I make someone else's life better first - by making a product that delivers exceptional value to them. So basically one drives the other.

YES

I think it's an interesting question.

My personal belief is money has, after a threshold, a diminutive return. You need this threshold to be happy, but after that it doesn't make you so happy.

I don't believe that somebody can sustain its motivation for years (decade? a lifetime?) just for the sack of money (above the threshold). I tried, and the product was so boring I had no will whatsoever to develop it.

The other reason somebody would go into building a business is freedom. What I believe is freedom is never really achieved. If you don't obey to a boss, you'll obey to customers. It can be even more complicated because customer feedback is not easy to get and interpret.

To me, you need to try, see if you like what you're doing, and if you don't (having more days down than up), try something else. I'm not personally very fulfilled in working for startups as a developer for example, but if I find a good company who has an interesting purpose, why not? If I build a product I'm passionate about, why not?

I think we simply shouldn't exclude any options and keep our mind open.

I have tried it both ways.
I tried to make money first by copying and improving other products. It didn't work. I didn't bother to understand the market well enough.
Then I tried to make a good product without figuring out how to sell it. I think I made some good things but I had no plan to monetize it. By the time I figured out how to do that, I had to start over again because monetization isn't just a switch you flip on if you haven't charted a path towards that.
So there's no binary THIS or THAT answer here.

Your post poses a provocative question but it's just agitating people here and that's really not the overall tone I got from this community. Take that back to facebook groups please.

Quite honestly, who isn't? Even if you start off with something just for the love of it or to help others, it's gonna get to a point where you need to maintain and sustain.

For me it's freedom, independence, and having something that helps people that I can be proud of.

I've already have a "good enough" salary amd live comfortably.

The way this question is posed makes it sound like an either or. It is often the case that an IHer wants both!

I would be content if I provided this product to people and didn't lose my shirt.

It's very important to have the mentality of "I want to create something with value".
Since (I think) it's easier to make money if you don't have this constrain. For example if you know how to exploit people's psychology with marketing tricks.

still having money in the equation is very important. not just to keep your business running but it's also the best way I know to validate the value you are providing, is your product worth X amount of money, would people pay for it?

I think that's a really fair question and there's no reason to expect any 'hate' for this.

In my opinion, it's really important to find a good balance:
The intention should be good and it should earn you money. That money can be used to strengthen your efforts even more. And like some people already pointed out - you need food on the table.

I try to strike a balance with Snap Search. It's really small if I compare it to most other IH products on here, but I want to try do to go some good while I make money too. I recently decided to commit to planting trees with some of the profit made. Don't really think it's enough - but it's a start. I've spoken about it in detail here.