I’m a programmer. What’s next for me?
Hey guys. I'm just a programmer, a good one, but just a programmer. I'm 28 years old now and want something more.
So far I tried many things related to programming like startups, freelancing, working for a company, building my own projects, learning new tech... to be honest the only thing that actually worked and got me a profit was working for a company.
You might say: "It takes time to generate revenue from something". I agree, some of my projects were doomed to fail, some took to long and still didn't move, I quit from some projects and so on.
I live in small EU country and currently I'm in a little mess. I don't know how should I move on. Should I focus on my country, should I try to go global, should I stick to programming, should I try with new markets... Having a steady job is awesome and I like it, I'm grateful for it, but I want something more, something of my own that will make me happy and generate some revenue at some point.
I'm here to get some advice from you guys. Thanks :)
If you simply want to generate a profitable business as a solo dev, I would say it is not too difficult provided you are willing to do a lot of work that is not "fun" for a dev - marketing, sales, customer support, accounting, etc...
If you are willing to embrace the possibility that 50%+ of your time will probably be devoted to something other than coding, then I think any good programmer like yourself can start making money within a few months if not weeks.
The problem, in my opinion, comes when solo devs get picky. When one only wants to work on something they are "passionate" about, wants their day-to-day to be 80% coding, wants the product to "sell itself", wants to make $X by month Y or call it quits, etc... the pool of ideas that fit that criteria dwindles. It is still possible, but it's like finding a needle in a haystack.
If you are not picky, then my recommendation is to pick a big market where being a good programmer gives you some edge. Some examples: SEO tools, Email Marketing, Online Ads, and E-Commerce tools.
If you are struggling to come up with a unique idea, then pick an idea which has been proven to make money by other people. Find its shortcomings. Reading reviews, product feedback can be a good starting point. You can also reach out to users of those products and ask what they'd improve.
Then, build a product / service which is reasonably good and marketable. After MVP, spend more than half your time on getting customers and iterating based on their feedback.
What I've described above is the high order bit. Being in a small EU country might bring some additional challenges like payment processing. Happy to help you on those things if you get something up and running.
That's very useful observation. Thank you :D
You are in good company. I was a developer myself for over 20 years. However, Bill Gates Larry Ellison (founder of Oracle), and Mark Zuckerberg were programmers too.
It is the same as being any profession. There are founders that were Veterinarians, Mechanical Engineers, Network Technicians, and more... Your profession gives you a paradigm. Use that paradigm to create something.
I work as software development team leader and Scrum Master, having previously been a senior developer and coding since 1983. At 48.5 I too can relate to the push to develop your own ideas. I have so many ideas, but as a sole developer, these can take too long and run out of steam. I am experienced in Agile development practices, but even so, 1 man teams are very demoralising.
I suppose my only suggestion is to build a web hub for your projects and encourage collaboration. That’s what I’m currently trying.
How's that working out for you?
Ask me again in 27 days 😀 my target date for releasing my hub.
Started following you to hear about it ;)
For starters, you're definitely facing a lot of the same realities any IndieHacker has. "I need my job. Freelance is reliable. A lot of ideas fail. I don't have time for everything." This is mostly universal.
Secondly, the IndieHacker community — as great as it is — can be a little grandiose in its privilege. Not everybody can quit their job and their family to devote all of their time, money, connections and resources to a project. Most people have to pull a regular paycheck, and then hope on the side. Sometimes this site can be a little tone deaf and insensitive to that reality.
My personal advice? Do what you reasonably can, and don't compare your efforts to others. Some people have time on their side. Some people have money on their side. And I hope they use it to make more time and money.
But not everybody is in the same boat.
Start small. I'd suggest tapping into a marketplace. Instead of building a standalone product, you can build an add-on for a popular platform, and publish it on a dedicated marketplace. This way you can gain users with much less or even zero marketing effort. People come there naturally looking for a solution. Some examples of marketplaces:
Another advice I can give is to find a real problem to solve. Research reddit, facebook groups, or community forums to find repeating questions with no solution.
Addons are actually really cool idea, I was thinking about that
Building up something alone is pretty tough. Think of all the big players, they always started with teams of two or more (yes there always is the exception, but I am making a generality here)...Apple - Jobs and Woz, FB - Zuck and Saverrin, Google - Schmidt and Brinn, Microsoft - Gates and Allen, Berkshire Hathaway - Buffett and Munger. There is something to be said about working in a team, towards a goal...this also goes with the mastermind principle 1+1=3.
Having two+ working on something also gives you sanity, one person might be better at tech, but the other with marketing. There is camaraderie, and a united goal. Do you have anyone you can work on ideas with? Its really tough to find someone, its like a marriage, so there needs to be a dating period to really get to know each other. Selfishly, I am always looking to partner up as well, but haven't found anyone too keen.
You mentioned extreme examples. All of those guys were from the USA and find themselves at the right time in the right place.
I guess there are examples of people working alone and succeeding. It's very very hard to find good partner that shares your vision, passion, will, that will stick around and be motivated.
From that point of view, it's much easier to try alone. I tried to find people and it took so much energy to find someone and to work with someone, it's unbelievable. It made more damage than good
They aren't extreme examples at all, they are just more mainstream. I can name the 20+ people that I know personally who have successfully built companies (all with more than 2 people to start), some to $100MM+, but you wouldn't resonate with them because you don't them, hence the more relatable example.
That being said, is finding someone easy? No, not at all, I literally mention that its tough to find co-founders, esp if they aren't anyone you've had a prior successful relationship with, be it, friends, family, etc.
Let me ask you this, what was the point of your OP? Was it just to vent? If you feel its easier to go at it alone, then, by all means, go for it alone.
I would disagree with you saying they are not extreme examples. You mentioned cream de la cream. It's much relatable to see "non-celebrities" founders who succeeded, somebody not from the USA who made it, someone from poor countries who had less opportunities.
Point was to share my frustration, to get other people's feedback, perspective and to hear how they handled similar situations in their career.
maybe something is getting lost in translation, I mentioned that I can share with you the 20+ people that I know that have done it already, but since you don't know them it wouldn't be relatable - hence the reason I wrote the few examples of people you may know.
That being said, are you definitively saying that no one that was not born in the USA has gone on to partner up and build successful companies? Even if there was one example wouldn't your hypothesis be invalidated? Sergey Brin comes to mind, or is Moscow and his upbringing not underprivileged enough? Or is he too much of a celebrity as well.
Why does it even matter that you NEED to have a concrete example of a rags-to-riches story of someone from an underprivileged country to make YOU succeed?
Anyways - this conversation is pretty moot. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
I'm waiting for at least 5 partners you can share and their products. :D
I'd like to learn from them and their story.
Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang, born in Taiwan
WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum born in Ukraine
Paypal cofounder Max Levchin born in Ukraine
Google cofounder Sergey Brin from the Soviet Union
SanDisk cofounder Sanjay Mehrotra from India
Awesome, I'll upvote your post and learn more about them. I feel like their families moved to the USA at some early point of their lives, but I'll read more about them.
What have you built so far? Why did your projects fail?
There are 100 reasons. Like I said some of my projects were doomed to fail, some took to long and still didn't move, I quit from some projects and so on.
Hey Dario,
As someone living in Bosnia, I can totally relate. Making money online is tough but it's even tougher when you're not living in first-world countries.
I'm a programmer too. I have a full-time job.
Since I'm not particularly creative person I make extra money by freelancing. I don't know about you, but it took me more than 2 years to reach 4-figure side-income from freelancing.
I've recently written a post on the most common mistakes new freelancers make (https://kodeblok.com/posts/mistakes-new-freelancers-make/) so it might help you out a bit.
Key to the game is patience,
Adem
So you focused on freelancing? Why?
IMO, it's way easier than creating your own product. I'd definently love create my own product someday in the future but freelancing is more steady.