30
7 Comments

I didn't go full-time indie hacking 🙄

I promised myself to keep showing up here and sharing stuff, so here I am. 😇

When I decided to step down from leading the community at Indie Hackers my plan was just to go in and focus on some of my own Rosieland things.

I had a community building cohort course coming up and thought that would keep me busy whilst also being able to chip away on my overall Rosieland community building efforts.

What ended up happening was me taking my first real job in so many years.

I wrote a Twitter thread about the experience. 👇

Honestly though, whilst it all happened fairly quickly, I had big dilemmas about whether it was the right thing for me.

"I'm an indie hacker, I shouldn't go and work for someone else."

"It's a VC backed company, what am I even thinking going down this path?"

"It's not the indie way, what will people think of me?"

I debated over the job for a couple weeks or so, going back and forth and having various discussions with the founders.

Whilst this came after making my decisions, the Part Time Creator Manifesto from @swyx helped me feel better about my decision.

I feel there is a lot of pressure for indie hackers to succeed as full time creators. When in reality we can mix and match things up these days: find work we enjoy doing and continue creating on the side.

I feel this is even more achievable these days as more and more companies realize that to hire the best people they need to accept they'll have side gigs and interests.

In the end, I said yes because:

  • The founders and the team behind Orbit think deeply about community building
  • My role is as much about community building as it is about education, much of what I was planning to do anyways
  • There's lots of potential to grow, not just personally, or as a team, but to also have a meaningful impact on the world of communities
  • They are side gig friendly - my Rosieland efforts continue alongside my job
  • And to be frank, none of the work I do these days is about the money. I make enough money from still owning Ministry of Testing, Rosieland and other things to live comfortably.
  • Yet the money will help me get to complete financial freedom quicker.

And it is this last point that I think about a lot these days.

Indie hacking these days, to me, is more about reaching financial freedom. And there are many paths to get there.

  1. 2

    Yes! The whole employee v. indie maker v. entrepreneur v. I-don't-know-what thing is exaggerated at a level of religion.
    The ultimate goal of indie makers is to live life on their own terms. And you can live life on your own terms whether you are an employee, a maker, or an entrepreneur, as long as the circumstances fit your desired lifestyle.

    1. 1

      Thank you so much, this was the message I was waiting for. I even didn't realize it until I read this. You made my day with these few lines.

  2. 1

    Hey Rosie, Can you give us a playbook how to start Orbit and build community with SMB customers 2-20 employees? I know it is easier with tech folks. But SMB is mostly TECH compromised, or to some degree.

  3. 1

    Love the breakdown, Rosie!

  4. 1

    Hi @rosiesherry,
    Good to hear from you.
    In my personal opinion, the bravest thing wasn't your decision, but sharing the process with us. I like here this kind of stories much more than the pure success ones. All the bests to you on your journey.

  5. 1

    As someone who has just started his first internship at a company and is working on multiple side projects, I am always thinking about taking this path.

    While the long-term goal is to get financial freedom by working on my own terms, I think primary mindset should not be to hate your job entirely & focus only on making profits through your projects.

    This is where the Part time creator manifesto by @swyx really resonates.

  6. 3

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 47 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 27 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments How I Launched FrontendEase 13 comments