Books for Indie Hackers
I recently went full-time on my side project, but before that, I read dozens of great books for startup founders and indie hackers.
Reading too much is a bit of a trap for me. It tends to lead me into analysis paralysis, but some books have truly inspired me to take action and get started. Here are the 5 I recommend to fellow indie hackers:
1. The $100 Startup
Chris Guillebeau's quick, actionable read was one of the first books that inspired me to just try making money from a side hustle. Before this, I was convinced that you had to start something truly momentous in order for it to be worth doing, but as Guillebeau explains, the power is just getting started.
2. Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days
The book is a collection of interviews with founders of Paypal, Hotmail, Apple, and other giants of our era. It’s interesting to see where they got the ideas that eventually made them household names and how they recovered from various difficulties along the way.
3. The Innovator's Dilemma
I love books that ride the line between business and philosophy like this. The Innovator's Dilemma explains why big companies don't take risks like small ones, and how startup founders can exploit emerging technology to enter established markets.
4. The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
This was one of the first entrepreneurship books I ever read, way back in college. Compared with the dry books I read in my business classes, this was a breath of fresh air. It really encapsulates the scrappy bootstrapper mentality that I survive on today.
5. The 1-Page Marketing Plan
Most indie hackers stumble on marketing. That's why I created the side project marketing checklist a few years ago, which was admittedly inspired by this book. The thing is, no single marketing channel works for every new company. You have to just get out there and try things to figure out what attracts customers and what you enjoy doing.
My biggest encouragement is to just get started doing something today. I never would have been able to go full time on Draft.dev without the confidence that came from years of side hustling and making during my off hours.
Hope this helps some of you who feel stuck!
Oh, and a book I really enjoyed and am in the process of re-reading is: Start Small, Stay Small - A Developers Guide to Starting a Startup.
I second this, it is a very nice book putting things in perspective and focus on reality.
Another good one, although some of the specifics are a little dated now. Rob's podcast and other resources are great though.
The Mom test by Rob Fitzpatrick is also a good one!
Yes! I can't believe I forgot that one. I always recommend it to people in the ideation phase.
If someone is interested here are my notes about it
Running Lean by Ash Maurya
Haven't read this yet either, but I'm adding it to my list.
Was a game changer in my journey
I would recommend Anything you Want by Derek Sivers, very interesting read.
Haven't read this one yet, thanks for the rec!
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I've become very cautious lately IF or WHAT I read, because the more I read the less I build. The last book I've finished is "start small, stay small". (https://startupbook.net/).
The links in the book are pretty much all outdated but the content is timeless, still valuable and useful.
I have read the $100 Start up its such a nice book- Action packed. I am working on my reading culture slowly by slowly then hoping that one day i will gain the courage to go full time.
Among the great recommendations made in this thread, I can recommend my book Start With A Side-Project, where I share the journey of coming up with an idea for a small side project, bootstrapping it by building lean and growing organically until 3 months later selling the project.
Thanks for the list!
Nice to see lots of marketing ideas in one place, some I've seen before and forgotten about, some new to me.
I know successful marketing approaches differ from product to product, but did anything in particular from the list work really well for you?
For my current business, the best channels have been referrals - some direct, some through Linkedin.
That said, I'm investing pretty heavily in content marketing as well because of the nature of the business. I'm also still experimenting with cold outreach and having a little luck on Twitter.
The advantage I have is that each client is worth $2k+ per month, so I only need a couple of new ones per month to see significant growth. That's the beauty of a productized service.