Do you remember when the idea hit you?

The idea for Divjoy came to me while working on a side-project. Previously I had pushing out lots of startup ideas, so had built up a nice library of UI and logic. I was able to repurpose much of that UI and logic I'd written for past ideas and get this project out super quickly. Like two days instead of the weeks. That led me to thinking.. why isn't their a tool that enables me to quickly generate a codebase with everything I need and nothing I don't!? Themes just give you the UI. Boilerplates are often way over-engineered. I just want to be able to assemble a bunch of UI blocks and then get the minimal client and server-side logic I need to make it work. And thus Divjoy was born 🚀

It changed over time. I started something to help me through college, did not work out, used what I built to help create what I was passionate about, video-games, did not work out, needed a job, used everything I worked on over 10 years to solve my job search problem and that stuck ever since.

For me, I was riding in a cab across Manhattan, somewhere around 50th Street. Like lots of New Yorkers (lived there till earlier this year) I'd got myself in the habit of saying "perfect" when I meant "okay" or "that's fine." For some reason this annoyed the hell out of me.

Anyway, the idea came in the form of a phrase: "a button in my pocket I can press to punish myself when I say perfect." The thought being that such a thing would help me break the habit of saying perfect. I personally respond better to sticks than carrots.

I realized too that 1) the "button" should be an app on my phone and 2) I should call it "Penance" (the name has stuck).

Not that any of this was some bold revelation. But it's funny that this one thought has directed so much of my effort since.

Working as a demand generation director, I hired my 5th or 6th SEO agency and thought to myself, "there's got to be a better way". Over the course of several years I kind of refined the offering, came up with a name, and so on and slowly Ercule has taken its current shape :)

Yep. I was asked to give a training on software engineering on a day far into the future. I worried that the one who asked would forget to cancel the reserved time slot. That was the moment that I thought: Why not create a SaaS that reminds people to confirm or cancel a promised „thing“? And that was the idea for yesbutnotforlong.com

Yes I was checking a weather site with tons of ads and realized a weather extension would be like a weather app for my computer, so I decided to build one.

I do. I had the exact date actually.

Idea Oct 3 2012 - https://www.indiehackers.com/product/pushup-hero/had-the-idea-for-a-pushup-app--MKG5pzwIvCJgd3q-eeD

App live in the store July 17th 2018 - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pushup-hero/id1410662331

It happened literally as I created an IndieHackers account and read through the "Start Here" articles and advice. Loving the immediate welcoming and supportive atmosphere, I thought, "This is lovely. I want to provide this level of community for others."

It was amidst the pandemic- I was in the third semester of my masters in robotics when it all happened. I was in Barcelona at the time, and I had to leave in a matter of days as the situation was worsening. As I was in isolation, going through online classes, I couldn't really focus on it, as it all felt bleak compared to everything that was happening in the world. I kept feeling this urge that now is the time to disrupt, to change, to create culture, because the economical and mental effects of this period of time are opening a little gate towards humanity 2.0. I was very quickly drawn towards matters of communication, as I started understanding that one big trend is converting the world into distributed systems. I didn't have the time to work on it then, but I started working on the idea right after I graduated in the summer. I pivoted a couple of times from initial idea to what it is today, after listening to so many people speak up their minds about isolation and remote-ness- I am now working on creating accessible, wearable and screen free mini AR projectors in order to enable active, human and genuine remote interactions, be it cocktail classes in AR, playing board games, brainstorming, or whatever else you can imagine.

Yes! The exact format for my latest offering, DevRel CMS, came to me after I had a coaching call with a developer from my home office. After I sent them a recap email, it hit me: instead of creating an online course, why not create a 1:1 coaching program instead? This happened about five weeks ago. I tabled the original idea for months, but the vision became clear only after I started doing coaching calls!

If it has not changed, despite a lot of thinking, research and engineering, it must be the perfect idea.

For me, I have a document in standard Apple Notes app where I write every idea down. They come into my head randomly, but I have a rule: no matter how simple / stupid / unreal the idea is, I write it down. Just start doing it, and you'll notice that you also have this - ideas appear in your head very often. You just need to not block them.

Not at all. For me it blurred itself into existence over the course of 3 months or so.