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Can a group of random indie hackers build a profitable side hustle together?

XOXO.vc is in week 4 of its first ever group and30 other IHers are in week 1!

It's been awesome to watch the members progress and grow. This accountability group thing works...

... but today I want to ask a different question.

Most of us here have an idea, and need help building / growing it.

What if the inverse was possible? What if 5-10 IHers could come together to form a co-op.

How this would work:

  • 5-10 people come together with different skill sets. (some devs, some product folks, perhaps salespeople)
  • we share equity equally
  • We go through a rigorous idea vetting process
  • We go through a rigorous customer interview process to validate the idea
  • We build it
  • We launch it
  • We grow it.

This is weird, and unusual, but this is essentially a co-op. It's not all that different from a venture studio or a search lab.

I ran engineering for a venture studio for a few years and love this spin on the concept.

Would you be interesting in joining me?

  1. 3

    The idea is super cool. I am wondering how this would be moderated. I very much like the idea of swarm intelligence but that road can be quite bumpy. Especially when certain personality types get together. How to sort ourselves out?

    1. 1

      Great question.

      There's two ways I think are low hanging fruit to try:

      1. benevolent dictator - like how businesses usually are run (film, music)
      2. Democracy - vote. vote people in. Vote people out.

      Probably worth it to try both.

      And unlike the xoxo.vc group's I think I'd just do one group of 5 - 10 people and not take on more than one group until we settle on some structure and prove out the model.

      1. 1

        I see. Why should you then be the dictator and not me? Or why not the other way around? :)

        1. 1

          Could be you. Should be performance based or voted on.

  2. 2

    First, I'd like in, I'm especially interested in worker-coop model.

    Secondly, how about an agency, that also builds it's own SaaS apps.

    Think of a full-dev shop from design, to video, to graphic design, programming, mobile apps, marketing, hosting, and growth consulting.

    Everyone gains shares based on hours put in, and receive bonuses for projects they lead.

    Say we have a pitch session every 6 -12 weeks and we decide to try two SaaS ideas and have a team of 5 on each. Everyone working gets shares in both SaaS, the person who pitched the idea gets 1.5x shares for hours they put in on development.

    Pay structure is just flat share in profits based on credits earned.

    1. 1

      I'm open to the agency thing. But here's why I think that could be distracting:

      If you wanted to do a product studio and didn't raise money, you could go the agency route to pay developers each month and use excess time to build products on the side. The most common outcome of this situation is that you actually dont get excess time, and now you just have an agency

      With this, we don't have the "overhead" of salaries, so why not just go directly to building the SAAS apps since the dev shop was only a means to that end anyways.

      Also just sent you an invite for the slack channel!

  3. 2

    I am part of the first cohort and have found participation helpful.
    The daily standups and weekly meeting force you to be more structured and help refine your message by actively sharing with others and getting feedback.

    1. 1

      thanks @apsion appreciate the love!

  4. 1

    Hey Andrew @andrewpierno, I love this and similar to various thoughts that have been going through my head for a long time. I see the thread dies off 6 months ago - is there anything alive at the moment?

    1. 2

      I still love this idea too. This was my second attempt and it failed for the 2nd time, but it did turn into https://xoxo.capital

  5. 1

    this seems interesting if you're still looking for co-op partners.

    1. 1

      Bunch of people said they were interested but nobody showed up. So now the few that shadowed up are forming a group to buy small saas companies!

      1. 1

        oh that sounds interesting too! Are you still including people or a closed group?

        1. 1

          We have a core group of 3 people so far. I think over time we'll add more people in.

          I'm doing it all under https://xoxo.vc if you'd like to follow along!

  6. 1

    Great idea Andrew, I'm interested too. Built/run two 7 figure businesses. I'm a product / entrepreneur type.

    1. 1

      awesome! Feel free to join us on slack. There's 10 of us currently. https://join.slack.com/share/zt-gxcr6cys-2DaQXL8Hf2hekc_TgCjNVQ

      1. 1

        Tried to join the slack group but looks like the invite was cancelled?

        1. 1

          Somehow it was trying to make it a shared channel with whatever company email you signed up with. can you just email me. <> . sorry for the runaround!

  7. 1

    I’m extremely interested in worker co-op models. My dream business is actually a VC or angel syndicate that would invest in co-ops, because currently it’s not terribly easy to get investment for them. But I do like the idea of combining a venture studio and a co-op. I would say though, that it’s probably not best to start with 5-10 coop members. Probably best to start with just 2-3 really dedicated people as core members and hire other indie hackers as contractors who can join the co-op after a certain number of months.

    For a successful digital co-op, check out Loomio, whose whole charter is online. I haven’t been terribly active in XOXO’s slack since I work full time, but I’ll be there at the cohort standup tomorrow! In the meantime, hit me up on Twitter @RobRoseKnows

  8. 1

    I'm a full stack and would love to be part of it. Count me in :)

    1. 1

      awesome! DM me your twitter, I'll invite you. I'm @andrewpierno

  9. 1

    I really like the idea and I am all in. I was wondering about it for a while now. I am a full-stack dev & solution architect and I usually struggle to find good sales/marketing specialists for side projects so they die halfway done. I think this group could be mutually beneficial. Drop me an email or leave me a message at https://botondveress.com/contact

    1. 1

      Awesome! Just invited you to the slack group.

  10. 1

    Wow, that's a really interesting idea. I have a background in project management, B2B Sales, growth and influencer marketing. I'm fascinated to see how this could work...count me interested!

    1. 1

      jump in! DM me your email on twitter. I'm @andrewpierno. I'll add you to the slack group.

      1. 1

        Hmm, I don't use twitter. Is there another way I could join?

  11. 1

    Full stack dev here - I'm in haha.

  12. 1

    Looks fun, i think the hardest part is to keep everyone interested in the project
    Add me in

    1. 1

      yeah but if people don't buy in to building a company then they're going to get voted out. nobody wants to carry dead weight.

      1. 1

        Yeah 👍
        email me?

        1. 1

          I invited you to the slack channel yesterday!

  13. 1

    Hi Andrew - I would be interesting in joining this. I've built and sold two SaaS companies.

    1. 1

      Letzzz gooooooo! I'll email you.

  14. 1

    We could make multiple groups that compete against each other to gauge progress. If enough people would sign up we could try multiple groups with multiple strategies such as democracy, benevolent dictator and others.

    Is there a discord or slack we can join for more information?

    1. 1

      I like the idea more of a flat management style, where benevolent dictators can lead projects, but the vision of company is propelled democratically. Say you pitch the idea for a SaaS app, or you bring in a large corporate client (if we double as an Agency /Web Shop), you should get rewarded for successes, so you become lead and get a differential bonus based on profits, but everyone is rewarded when the company grows.

      In this way everyone could theoretically (depending on motivation), become the benevolent dictator of the month.

      For example say pay is flat 1 share = 1 hour worked. If you bring in a huge client maybe you get 100 extra shares. If you pitch a SaaS that we decide to build, you might get 1.5x the shares for time put in on the project, and the ability to be project manager on the project. Whether or not it fans out, you keep those shares and they are applied to all profits (they just accrue), even if you leave company, you'd still get your profit share, though it'd be watered down by more and more people putting in hours, so your share % goes down.

      1. 1

        I totally get the 1 share = 1 hour. I think that could work for discrete tasks like programming.

        It's a little tricker for other roles. What is the value of an email in the context of sales? Could be a lot, most likely is zero.

        Say a marketer spends 10 hours just optimizing copy. Are those 10 shares worth the same as 10 dev hours? Maybe. What if the conversion rate decreased on the site after the copy changes, and those hours were wasted so to speak but we gained knowledge.

        What about an intro? Takes 2 minutes and is potentially really high value, or zero. Hard to tell until weeks (maybe months) later in the context of sales

  15. 1

    I am currently taking part in such a project https://experiencelanguage.website/

    1. 1

      as in you are a part of a co-op that built that product?

  16. 1

    Super cool. Add me in. I am full stack dev too. Twitter handle hiprakashn

  17. 1

    This is a nice idea @andrewpierno. If you haven't already, you should look into the concept of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). You can check out DAO and Aragon.

    1. 2

      You've discovered phase 2... going to start small first :)

  18. 1

    Need this in my life!! Sales engineer + web dev + freelance technical writer here, welcome to DM me on Twitter if you’re looking for sales/biz dev types 😎 @ParkerMerritt

    1. 1

      Just followed you. DM me on twitter with your email, and I'll send you a slack invite.

  19. 1

    This sounds really sweet, maybe starting a discord server with different roles might help to build teams. DM me on twitter (@og_chonky_bear) if you want to discus this further.

    1. 1

      your DMs are closed! Just followed you. im, unsurpsisingly @andrewpierno

      1. 1

        lol sorry, I opened them up now

  20. 1

    Yes! Count me in. I can help with fullstack engineering!

  21. 1

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

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