First Time Indie Hacker, Hungry for Practical Advice
Last year, I gradually started thinking in becoming my own boss. A few times in 2019 became disillusioned by the current state of managers in my industry.
In December, I travelled to UK for a final interview at a games company, and did not get the job. That was the last thing that caused me to take on seriously the idea of starting my own company. I thought to myself "Screw this, I am done working for someone else."
Between last Christmas and second week of January, I was able to identify to features that would address a, huge, largely unsolved/ignored problem, in customer service / outsourcing industry.
I used to worked fee call centers at different roles, from frontline representative, to data analyst / business process analyst, to Quality Analyst, and Team Manager, so I recognized this expertise as an asset, which I can take to really understanding the core business and problems that need a better strategy to overcome them. I also have a good network of people in that business I can reach out to for validation.
So I am at the stage where, I still keep my job because I do not have any sort of savings account big enough to focus on wrapping up the first MVP or proof of concept.
I have also actively looked at different job opportunities that would potentially allow me to earn a living while getting a bit more time for me and this project I am working on.
During one of my recent interviews at Dell EMC I discussed my business idea, and later yesterday to a former colleague of mine. I realize that my idea for this business I want to create, or problem I want to solve is not necessarily new to others, and I am afraid that if I don't move quickly enough (in the next three months), someone, especially if a large tech company start a project like this.
I am also pretty alone, in the sence I don't know anyone close to me with similar objectives or working towards building a business.
Pretty much my support system has been my family which are overseas, my loving wife, and Indie Hackers podcast.
Do you have any advice regarding ehat should be my number one priority?
In light of recent events, I have learnt the power of following through good advice other people give, so pretty much I am very likely to follow through any genuine advice I can get from here.
I have formally been a software developer for over three years.
Worrying about someone else building your product is a non-issue. Software is not a zero-sum game.
If someone else has NOT built something similar to your product, that should be a red flag.
Some huge companies that have competitors:
Uber --> Lyft
DoorDash --> Favor --> UberEats
AirBnB --> Vrbo
I would not worry at all about someone building your idea.
You should be worried about finding your first customer.
Thanks. That actually puts my mind somewhat at ease about having competition.
Hi Andrew, I would suggest that you use your network to find a potential customer that wants this problem solved, then offer to develop an initial solution at cost or discounted rate for them. Feel free to reach out (c@christianpretorius.com) if you want to soundboard your ideas.
I tried this, few weeks ago. First time I brought up casual conversation l, second time around I presented a 7 page product description, outlining the scope, features, MVPs, timeframes, and cost.
I was expecting for this person to follow up but never did.
I have decided to build a prototype before following up again, but that is still in progress.l and will likely take me about 3 more weeks of working on it on the side. My idea of a prototype is build the core proof of concept technical solutions and an initial concept for the UI excluding the ability to scale, and/or bill.
My network is entirely in a different country, and so it is not possible to meet in person at the moment.
Should I follow up with this people in my network first or how to I go about deliberately creating a network?
Your first priority is to get a client who's interested in your product (validating your idea).
Your prospects wants to know:
You have to be able to answer these questions. If you can't, you have to do whatever you can to work with a potential client to figure this out.
#1 priority is to get your first interested prospect (someone with a problem, and money to solve it).
This comment was deleted 6 years ago
It is common advise to have a prototype as a tool to present / sell my idea of a product.
A prototype might mean a few different things to sone people. For some a PowerPoint presentation for other an actual clickable UI. Personally I have been worki g on the latter aproach while also working on the core technical proof of concepts.
For a SaaS application, how fast means as soon as possible. Do you have any pointers to which prototype if any I should probably be focusing doing?