Building is easy, selling is hard

My co-founder and I built, launched, and had our first organic sales in a 1 month time frame. It is a big accomplishment for us. We were able to build quick and got some sales (from people other than my mom)! There is truly no better feeling.

We knew this idea was not the next big thing (it is actually very far from it). We thought it was a fun engineering challenge that could give us both some good indie hacking experience. And, we knew people who said they would buy the product once it was launched. Easy Peasy right? No!

I am not claiming to be an expert, just sharing our experience thus far :)

Building with a Partner

I always have tried to take things on solo because I am a proficient coder and I have a decent understanding of marketing. The problem is, I lose motivation quickly or get distracted easily. Having a partner to split the workload with is amazing! And, it subconsciously keeps me on track because the last thing I want to do is let him down.

If you are the ADHD type like myself - you NEED a partner.

Building is easy tbh...

Probably the biggest takeaway from this project so far has been the paradigm shift it has caused in my way of thinking about business/startups. Rather than thinking about things in terms of solving technical problems, the real challenge lies in figuring out how to sell what you have built.

What I have found through this project (like oh so many have said before me) is that the technical side of things don’t really matter.... all that matters is "Can you sell it?". No-code, low-code, real code, serverless code, etc - who cares? Does the product work and will people buy it? Honestly, any IH can probably build whatever they want if they try hard enough and ask the right people. But, not everyone can sell.

It flips the way I think of ideas on its head. Now I think like: customers first, product second. Is this thing going to be easyish to sell? If not, probably not the best idea to chase.

Social media is a grind

Trying to get organic reach through social media is a mind-numbing grind (but I kind of enjoy it tbh - I am a glutton for punishment). I spend at least 4 hours a day grinding out our Insta, Tik Tok, Reddit, Fishbowl, etc. It's not challenging work like writing code, but it is a time consuming task that you don't realize unless you try if first hand.

Cut out the noise

To have the best focus possible, I have had to remove all distractions. Twitter thread bois, (personal) Tik Tok doom scrolling, the news, Youtube, etc. Being in the IH world, it is easy to get sucked into reading about tips, tricks, and how-to's for business. Instead, I have to focus on building in my own way and selling.

TLDR:

1. Find yourself a partner
2. Building is easy, selling is hard
3. Social Media is not as easy as it seems
4. Remove distractions