Building my own startup, freelancing on the side to cover bills - looking for advice

The productized freelance model (fixed scope, fixed price, short timeline) is the right approach for staying sane while building your own startup. Hourly work expands to fill whatever time you let it.

For finding first MVP clients specifically:

1. IH Partner Up group — people actively post there looking for technical co-founders or dev help. Filter for posts with recent activity and 'technical co-founder' or 'MVP developer' in the description.
2. Twitter/X indie hacker circles — non-technical founders looking for dev help are very public about it. Search for 'looking for developer' or 'need MVP built' in the indie hacker community hashtags.
3. Referrals from your existing network — if you've worked at any startup, the founders and employees there know other founders. One email to 5 people often generates the first client.

Positioning tip: 'I build SaaS MVPs for non-technical founders in 10-14 days' is very clear and specific. Lead with that in your IH profile bio. Specific timelines build trust because they signal you've done it before.

IH is a good channel for this but it's a slow burn — you'll get more traction from being helpful in threads over time than from a single post.

I like that you're thinking fixed scope + short timelines instead of hourly. That already makes positioning easier.

One thing to be careful with: pricing structure.

Most devs calculate fixed-price as:

estimated hours × hourly rate.

For MVP builds with non-technical founders, that usually ignores:

– communication overhead
– scope clarification
– negotiation pressure
– uncertainty risk

That’s where underpricing happens.

I’d strongly recommend explicitly structuring:

• admin/communication buffer
• risk buffer
• negotiation room
• clear profit margin

On the client side:

Indie Hackers can work, but usually not through service posts.

What works better:
– thoughtful comments on build posts
– DMing founders who are stuck
– offering very specific outcomes (e.g. “I can ship X in 12 days”)

Curious how you're currently thinking about pricing those 10–14 day MVPs?

I totally get this balance struggle. One thing that helped me was using freelance projects as a way to validate my startup ideas - if you can solve similar problems for clients, it often reveals insights about what people actually need vs what you think they need. Plus client work can sometimes lead to your first startup users if they see value in what you're building. The key is being strategic about which freelance projects you take so they feed into your startup learning rather than just being a distraction.

To add to what others have already said here, you can also utilize LinkedIn, as it's a more business-focused space, where you might find your target audience. You have to network with people and search for those who have the pain point that you're trying to solve. Good luck!

Ruben's approach is the blueprint here. Identify the gap, build a simple MVP, test with customers, then scale.

Key insight: In crowded markets, you don't need a better product—you need a better go-to-market strategy.

I'm testing this with 3 vertical products:

• TradeFlow AI (options trading niche)
• LeadSieve AI (agency niche)
• EmailFlow AI (e-commerce niche)

Instead of building one general product for everyone (harder to differentiate), I'm picking narrow verticals where I can own the narrative.

Ruben did this perfectly with e-signatures—instead of competing with DocuSign, he found an underserved market and owned it.

My question for the community: When you're building in a crowded space, are you focusing more on:
A) Product differentiation (features others don't have)
B) Go-to-market differentiation (channels, positioning, audience)

I'm betting on B. What's your experience?

Great case study. This is how you actually win.

This is such a fascinating and honest post, the way you’ve balanced building your own product with steady, productized freelancing feels so grounded and practical. Fixing scope and timelines is smart, and I love how you’re thinking about real founder problems rather than just chasing hours.
A couple of places that have worked for others beyond Indie Hackers are founder-focused spaces like Twitter/X threads, Reddit communities (r/startups, r/SaaS), and niche Slack/Discord groups where non-technical founders hang out. Keep going , this approach both funds your runway and keeps you close to real pain points, which is a huge advantage.

Fixed scope + fixed price for MVPs is the right model—hourly work doesn't scale and clients hate uncertainty. A few thoughts:
Where to find first clients:
Indie Hackers is decent for visibility but most people here are builders, not buyers. Your actual clients are non-technical founders who have an idea and budget but can't execute. They hang out in:

Twitter/X (follow VCs and angels, their replies are full of early founders)
Niche Slack/Discord communities for specific industries (fintech founders, healthtech, etc.)
Reddit: r/startups, r/SaaS, r/Entrepreneur
Local founder meetups and pitch nights—non-technical founders show up looking for technical partners

I think the best place to get clients would be linkedin, and go to business meet ups in your area.

If you are working on your product it does not have to be 100%, just launch it and allow users to use it and provide you with feedback so you can tweet and improve on it.

At the same time use your product website as a business tool from where you can earn an income.

You would have to freelance and build on your website at the same time this way you can create two incomes at once.

I did the same thing you were doing 7 years ago- freelancing on fiverr and other sites and working on creating my blog Startupily. I just revamped my website and now focusing on AI based tools.

Keep going, never give up and believe in your abilities. It will be tough, people will tell you to quit but ignore them.

Milan, your approach is spot-on—productized services are a smart way to balance income while keeping energy for your own startup. Here are some actionable strategies that have worked well:

For finding MVP clients:

1. Start with warm networks first - Before cold outreach, reach out to former colleagues, friends who know founders, or people in your LinkedIn network. A warm intro converts 10x better than cold outreach.

2. Be where non-technical founders are - Beyond Indie Hackers (which is great!), try:

   • r/SaaS and r/startups on Reddit (post value first, then mention your service)
   • Twitter/X by engaging with founders talking about MVPs
   • Product Hunt's "Ship" section where people are launching early ideas
   • NoCode/LowCode communities (many realize they need custom dev)

3. Create a simple case study or spec work - Even if it's a side project, document your process of building an MVP in 10-14 days. This tangible proof is worth more than any pitch.

4. The "Implementation Partner" angle - Position yourself as someone who helps founders validate faster, not just a dev-for-hire. This reframes the conversation from cost to opportunity cost of delayed validation.

One tactical tip: Offer a free 30-min "MVP scoping call" where you help founders break down their idea into a realistic 10-14 day scope. Some will hire you, but even if they don't, you're building relationships and understanding real problems (which helps your own startup too).

The fact that you're keeping timelines short and scope fixed shows you understand founder psychology. That's your biggest advantage. Good luck! 🚀

Hey Milan....focus on where non-technical founders hang out: Indie Hackers, Product Hunt, Twitter, and startup Slack/Discord groups. Early clients come from direct outreach with clear, fixed-scope offers or helping someone you already know. Keep projects short and high-impact it builds trust and referrals fast.

I am exactly in the same situation. I am creating a SaaS product. Lack of money, finding a full time job is difficult this times.

So, I created a platform to find some short term freelance jobs. It is scanning related subreddits to find people who are struggling to create an MVP. So I can answer them quickly when they ask a related question.

The fixed-scope approach is smart for your sanity and your clients - hourly billing creates weird incentives on both sides.

For finding first clients, the "be helpful first" approach actually works but it's slower than people want. I've found the best leads come from places where founders are already stuck mid-project: Twitter threads where someone's complaining about their dev, communities like this where people are asking for help shipping, even Discord servers for no-code tools (where users inevitably need custom work).

The 10-14 day timeline is appealing but make sure you're pricing the scope conversations properly - that discovery work can eat into your margins fast if you're not careful.

One thing that worked for me early on: pick a very specific niche (like "I help Notion power users get custom integrations built") rather than "I build MVPs". Sounds counterintuitive but it makes you memorable and referrable.

E moj Milane, ja bi ti bolje savjetovao da imaš full-time posao a ovaj startup da radiš sa strane. Velika je vjerojatnost da startup neće uspjet, to je jednostavno tako. Bolje da imaš sigurne prihode novca pa da možeš normalno živjet, a ovo startup sa strane lagano raditi.
Velika je vjerojatnost da ćeš za par mjeseci odustati ili naći nešto novo ili bolje

A što se tiče klijenata. To moraš tražiti tamo gdje se tvoji klijenti okupljaju. Koliko sam skužio ti želiš pomoći drugim ljudima koji pokreću startup? Ovdje ih ima hrpa, Reddit isto, ovdje možda https://thehiveindex.com

I feel like you want to solve real problems for people and it's cool that you are thinking about solving problems first. If you check my profile you'd see an opensource tool I built that uses AI to analyze real pain points of users based on stackexchange data. You can compare your features and and ideas with the validated saas idea and the metrics/sources that were used to validate them.
below is an example of a validated saas idea with indepth analysis;

https://roipad.com/product_trends/trends/idea-detail.php?id=288&slug=navigating-ethical-dilemmas-in-leadership-and-policy-disagreement

Hi there, your post resonates because I also enjoy creating products but basically hate per-hour work. As far as I can see, the process of getting your first clients is very straightforward: you post and comment on Reddit, and they come. I'm now working part-time as an AI trainer (still hate it lol). You can find this type of work here https://aitrainer.jobs
Good luck with finding clients!