So what’s actually the difference between a startuper and an indie hacker? 🤔
So what’s actually the difference between a startuper and an indie hacker? 🤔
I consider myself an indie hacker. I’m all the things the definition of an indie hacker says.
On the other hand, I hate to be called a startuper and my product to be called a startup (although, technically, it is). For me, startups is more about the cult, the 'entrepreneurial vibe', trying to imitate how Facebook and Uber grew and all that stuff. I would rather try to steadily build a small business, figuring shit out as I go, than grab a bunch of friends (co-founders) and go on a tour from pitch battle to pitch battle trying to attract investors, "move fast and break things", and ultimately sell out. And while obviously not all startups are like that, this is the image that media perpetuate about startups, and the one that stuck with me.
Where do you draw a line?
"A temporary organization in search of a repeatable business model." This is the definition of a startup as presented by the godfather of customer development, Steve Blank.
The "temporary" bit refers to how you run experiments and quickly make adjustments to find out what works. Once you do, you start to stabilize a bit around your repeatable business model.
I actually dislike the term "Indie Hacker," as it gives the impression of slapping junk together quickly to make a quick buck. I'm not crazy about "startup" either, but only because of all the entrepreneur porn that's come out in the past several years.
I'm building a business. Call it whatever makes you feel good, but I don't have a sustainable business model yet and I'm still in the phase of experimenting and customer development. I guess that's a startup by the definition?
Interesting. I've definitely used the expression "hack something together" when I meant making something quick and half-assed. But I've never associated it with the term "indie hacker" — here I see the word "hacking" rather as in "hacking my way through".
"Entrepreneur porn" is the majority of what I read on Medium or hear from Gary Vaynerchuk. I guess some people love it, but it's not for me. With Garyvee specifically, I love, love his knowledge and what he shares in his books, but man, the over-the-top, drop-your-life-and-grind-for-30-hours-a-day stuff gets old to me.
Indie startups are independently funded/bootstrapped as opposed to raising VC.
And in the words of Paul Graham "A startup is a company designed to grow fast. Being newly founded does not in itself make a company a startup. Nor is it necessary for a startup to work on technology, or take venture funding, or have some sort of "exit." The only essential thing is growth."
Yep, pretty much same thing - I just happen to like Graham's writing :)
I would say that one of the main characteristics of a startup is to grow very quickly. In most cases, this means raising funds. In the indie hackers mentality, it seems (to me) that it is more usual to bootstrap your product and make it grow slowly by acquiring new users, testing new functionalities as they are requested etc... :)
Do we have to give importance to such terms that we have to create a line?
The way I see it. I am a maker. I make projects/products. 🙏
As of "maker", I see it as a broader term, which includes people (and mostly people) who make side-projects for fun rather than business. IMO, makers are someone who above all enjoy the process of making, hence the word. IMO it's the most suitable word for Product Hunt crowd where it's used.
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Agree about the PH part.
Just remember 99.9% of people put zero thought into the definition of the word. If you’re a digital business, you will get called a start up
Fwiw, I think the stereotypes you associate with a startup is more a consequence of VC mandate to get return in as short a time as possible than anything to do with cult and vibe. Sans funding, you'd just be a self-bootstrapped business. Steadily (read: slowly) building a business is then not a choice; you're simply constrained by time and money as a one-person team.
While some people may romanticize startup-esque entrepreneurship and get into it for that reason, the subsequent struggle is as real as an indiehacker's, if not more prone to burnouts.