I don't see many Indie Hackers with brand manifestos
I get it. We're busy. Fixing bugs, marketing, customer support, etc ...
But a company with a lil' story is always going to be more interesting than a random website.
Here's a good example from Hiut Denim.
Dead simple. Probably took a few hours to write.
But it separates them from other faceless denim companies.
Now, they've got a few employees and they sell jeans. So they went a bit artsy with it.
But for IH'ers. Just be honest. If it's just you. No shame. Hey. I'm Harry ...
Going to write mine this weekend :)
I did. not so structured though. one user said, "it's philosophy fluff. tell me who you're first."
I personally think it's more useful for the founders to remember why they started when things got tough, and not deviate too much from the original idea later on.
I think a fine line can be drawn between the two as you don’t know what the reader is going to want to read when they find the About Us.
I tried blending philosophy with a quick conversation with the reader about what we’re trying to accomplish and how the reader can be helped, here:
“Ergo Wellness Solutions is a team of workplace ergonomics and wellness experts with a passion of properly positioning people wherever they work. With the evolving office, we saw the need for ergonomic evaluation and education to evolve with it. We believe in properly and efficiently training employees on physical and mental health for their future. Whether your team is working from home, renting a workspace or in the office you've been in for 30 years, we've got you covered.”
I agree. F*** philosophy. Mine's going to start with.
Hey. I'm Harry
Not gonna pretend I'm doing something big or fancy. Just going to talk about how I used to be a web developer. Always preferred marketing. Started writing articles on the side. Grew into something bigger...
couldn't disagree more with the comment "F Philosophy".
If you want to be happy in the long term then you must understand why you are doing something.
I posted it above, but watch Simon Sinek - "Start with Why" - https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en
I am a deeply philosophical person. It's really important.
But I also get yelled a lot by my wife when she asks for some help and I would lecture her for 2 minutes first. And that's how I learned (after 10 years), philosophical discussions have their time and place.
A business website is first and foremost a place to help customers determine if they can be helped. People go to websites to find solutions, not to learn about founders' philosophy. It only comes to play when a customer is comparing the business with others. At that time, what the owner values might be a differentiator from their competitors.
When I did that, users would point it out for me, "Why did you waste my time?" Or worse, simply leave.
"A business website is first and foremost a place to help customers determine if they can be helped. "
Very true and you're landing page should be geared towards that, but this is a side page, and about us page, where by definition if the customer clicks on it they want to find out more about you and what you stand for.
Plus if you know and articulate your why well, then you can use that emotive language in your sales copy to connect with your customers.
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well said. very well rounded.
^ good points. I don't think we disagree.
I mean “F philosophy” in the context of if you run a small business no need to get deep with it.
It's usually some technical API based SaaS gig.
So if you start chatting about a “bigger purpose” it comes across as disingenuous.
Better to put yourself at the centre. And tell your story
You’d be well served to read the book Drive (forget the author). Yes money can be an important motivator, but often times it is the symptom, not the disease. You see them wanting money but money is just the physical representation of some other need (say recognition, in that others recognized the value that person made in the world). I’d posit that speaking to what the customer really wants (say recognition by a boss via a promotion or increased autonomy) will have a greater impact. Figure out what your typical customer really wants, and speak to that.
interesting. will take a look
I don't think you should speak about it, except if it's deeply related to your product.
But I would advise anybody to have some philosophy (or deeper meanings) in their life.
And if you're right and "most people driving force is money", well, I don't want to be most people. Money, as a driving force, doesn't seem to suit the world we are living in.
It's an interesting point of view, though.
Cool exercise! I took 20 minutes to write a draft for Atlist:
Core Philosophy: Bring map creation in reach for more people.
What We Do: Right now it's not easy to create custom maps. You have to comb through documentation and wrangle the Google Maps API. It's too complicated. We want to change that. We want to bring map making within reach to more people. We will do this by removing barriers to entry, simplifying the complicated and making thoughtful interfaces.
Why We Do It: More voices— not fewer. The web is a richer place when more people can create for it. There is profit and satisfaction in enabling more users to create maps. We will know we are successful when our users surprise us with new use cases.
Reiterate: We want to enable more people to create maps.
Good stuff Steve.
I love the what. The why seems like a little stretch.
Personally the profit and satisfaction angle seems more genuine than the “web is richer with maps” angle. But that's just me. There's also the anti Google route which can be strong.
Totally.
The "web is richer with more voices" might be me trying to parrot "startup voice" rather than leaning on our own voice.
I do sincerely feel satisfied building a product that's a blank canvas for a users own ideas— I'ma keep thinking on the right way to say that 👌
For years map making required too much time and expertise. The Google Maps API brought map making no closer to the layperson. Atlist finally puts the ability of custom map making in your hands.
We help you make maps. That’s it. We think more voices, and more maps, on the Internet is a good thing.
I would flip it a little bit and put the why first. You'll connect with more people.
"We believe that the web is a richer place when more people can create in their own way.
To help aid the battle for more diversity in experiences we've committed ourselves to bringing custom map creation to the masses."
Then go into the the how and what more.
I'm following Harry's template though :)
Where's yours?
I'm just like everyone else. Been busy ...
But will have one up by Sunday night.
Haha, me too...maybe.
@harrydry - I like this post. Alot.
Created an about page on my latest project and already got contacted from a user.
Great tip.
let it off. set it off. nice one!
100% agree. I think that the same way that writing a fake press release for a new product helps push your thinking about the value of what you’re building, a philosophy or company vision is critical to help you think about it and set a North Star.
Wrote mine in just an hour or so: https://www.respo.ai/respo-vision
Ha! I just now finished putting up Uclusion's today here. Does it matter to our customers? Maybe. It certainly should help people self select for using the product. It matters to me though, as it will be what I point at when if I have to tell someone no.
I spent a whole month developing mine!
https://www.partizion.io/manifesto
Not sure where I found you but I have been recommending you to everyone I know :)
Nice to see you're an IH.
Cheers, I really appreciate it!
I like this. Maybe I should have a page on https://bullish.email doing the same.
love that graphic!
i have written about it: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/personal-branding-for-indie-projects-13edb522df
I was working on this last night actually, long before I'm even close to launching anything.
This is straight out of the Simon Sinek - "Start with Why" playbook - https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en
This is a must watch if you haven't see it before. Understanding and being able to articulate why you exist in the world is a very powerful thing and will help you connect with the early adopters way more easily.
I like it. It's so true. One of the first things I look for when looking at smaller IH-type brands is for the story behind why something like this was created. I value the product more knowing the passion behind it.
We have a "vision" page on Logology. It combines a manifesto page and an "about us" section.
That's one of the pages we made in the early days of our project - more than a year ago. I guess it's because the logo market is super crowded and also very poor in terms of quality. We always wanted to show how we stand out!
(It probably needs a re-write tho, i'd be happy to have your feedback on it!)
Uclusion has our manifesto in video form front and center on the website. Should we add in written form also? Or maybe everyone should do theirs in video form? Video, text or both?
I'm a text person avoiding all the videos. Not sure how many people like me are out there but unless you have a transcription, you miss on targeting this group.
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