I did it, I quit my job. I am officially an indie hacker!
Last week I quit my job and as of today, I am officially an Indie Hacker, working full-time on my project Mockoon! 🥳
For the past three years, my side-project went from being a tiny open-source project to a tool used by more than ten thousand developers every month around the world. The growth also started accelerating recently.
Going all-in is not only good for the project, but above all, it is the right choice for me and my family.
During these three years, I had a lot of ups and downs working on Mockoon. Periods of high productivity, periods of stress, complete breaks, but also one burnout.
It turns out having a side-project, even an open-source one with no customers can be daunting and stressful. It is also asking for a lot of attention. With a full-time job, the only attention I could give was during evenings and weekends. Even when I tried to avoid it at the maximum, I was still sacrificing time with my family. I told myself it was for the best until it was not anymore.
I know it won't be easy, but I am now ready to take this new and very different challenge, and most of all, reclaim my free time!
2021 is going to be exciting! 🚀
Congratulations Guillaume!
Out of curiosity, how have you been able to bring in enough money to support yourself and family? Making money with free products is always interesting to me!
Thanks @jasoncrev!
Currently Mockoon is not bringing any money, except small donations, but nowhere close to sustain us.
The plan is to offer paid services around the open-source core, which is a quite classic approach.
We have some saving, and I will be freelancing on the side, so I must admit I am not taking that much risks. The scariest for me was to get out of the traditional 9-5 employee schema... :)
Congrats! Though I'd definitely say if you've been doing the work for the last 3 years, you were already an IH... you don't have to quit your job to be an IH :)
You are right, I probably was a Indie Hacker after all. Going full time is rather taking the project to a whole new level.
Godspeed Guillaume! Can definitely relate to added stress or burden from an involving side-gig.
Thanks! Yes a side-gig is nice until it starts taking as much time as a full-time job ><
Congrats Guillaume! Having made this leap a couple times now, I know how exciting it can be.
One suggestion: Journal about how you feel today. There are difficult & stressful times ahead, especially with the added financial burden, and it's always helpful to remember why you decided to do this.
Best of luck! The community is here for you.
Thank you @ChiefRocker3! It's both exciting and scary ^^
You are right about remembering the why. It was already hard at one point, so I will try to not forget that!