I'm Bootstrapping a Journey to $100k ARR

Hello Indie Hackers,

Today I roll up my sleeves to embark on a new journey.

It all began a few years ago when I was fascinated by this community. People showed it’s possible to make a business without VC funding and live on their terms. Since then I’ve tried to make several products while jumping back and forth with client projects. Turns out making things is fun, especially when it solves my problem.

But lately, I got a wake-up call.

I took a step back and questioned. What do you want out of this? Are you happy with where you are right now? It needs some time for me to finally realize that I’m not in the place where I want to be. A few products that I made generated a handful of money, some others went nowhere, and the rest got a thumbs-up from people that want to support my journey. Conversely, I want to have a business that I’m passionately working on every day and generates sustainable revenue for living. Some things need to change!

Some people say that failure teaches success, and even necessary to have so. It’s impossible to have all the answers upfront, and even more impossible to dream overnight and think that tomorrow success will knock on the door. Luckily I already collect some learnings from my failures, and I hope I’ll be in a better place to make the new business work in the future. So here are some things that I want to do differently to pave my path to $100k ARR.

Solve boring problems

“I very frequently get the question: 'What's going to change in the next 10 years?' And that is a very interesting question; it's a very common one. I almost never get the question: 'What's not going to change in the next 10 years?' And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two” ― Jeff Bezos

That quote never leaves my head since I read it.

People need to eat, even wondering what to eat for lunch every day. That’s why we found so many restaurants around, right? Who doesn’t love coffee? Well, I rarely drink coffee until recently. Oops… But… That’s why we got Starbucks and local coffee shops around, right? So if we zoom out far enough, we’ll see that those problems are not new, and the solutions—in a form of businesses—are varied. Yet, they all exist and could live sustainably.

Back then I always made products to scratch my itch. While it’s true that you’re the expert on the problem, not all of those problems are valuable to be solved. Thus, unvalued problems equal nobody wants to pay for a solution. Going forward, I think it’s better to find what valuable problems people currently have in a space that I’m interested in. Something that people wouldn’t deny that they have and valuable enough for them to pay to have a solution.

Be an open startup

Sharing revenue metrics is unquestionably scary for me. I prefer to hide in my blanket rather than do so. It’s like sharing your honest life on Instagram without doing your best to make it pop. It sounds stressful, really.., and I can’t imagine how to navigate my life and work through it. Is that dramatic enough?

Probably that’s too hyperbolic, but seriously though…

Recently I read a good newsletter from Sahil Bloom about the correlation between performance and stress. It summed up perfectly how I function at work. Here’s a helpful chart to understand it.

It’s obvious to see where I could perform at the most optimal level. When life is all good, I don’t have any reasons to work hard or make something happen. All good.., thus.., let’s enjoy it ever after. It usually lasts until the next day, when the bill knocks on the door and I’ll say, “OMG, what am I doing here?” But if I happen to have a very stressful life―usually with something I can’t control ―then it’s also hard to push the boulder uphill because all of my energy is absorbed to zero pretty quickly.

I think being an open startup is a good dose of stress.

I need a good amount of energy to ship something, but I also need to make myself accountable to do the things that I need to do. It’s a sweet spot of the indie hacker's existence to limit the amount of analysis paralysis and overthinking. And it forces me to execute what I’ve planned because a ton of people are watching.

Also, it’s a bonus because I’m a visual guy. I should see what’s going on with the business directly in front of my eyes rather than thinking about all the variables inside my head. I believe it will serve me well.

Play the long game

There’s no overnight success, we all know it.

I was a ship-fast team and I still hold the statement. But often it’s too overvalued and slowly becomes a religious way to run a product team. Looking back, I almost burn out frequently because of it. Then I realize building a startup is often longer than you think. Sometimes it could be a long, slow, and ramp of death. Hence, a proper mental model is required here.

Now I value consistency more than intensity.

I didn’t say that intensity is not needed at all. A healthy amount of intensity is good to push through. But sometimes life doesn’t run according to our plan, and it’s easy to get beaten by it. Therefore, always staying on track and doing whatever it takes at the moment are the things that move the needle, even though it seems you run in a circle or moving slowly.

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” ― Martin Luther King Jr

So instead of worrying about speed too much, I’ll focus on moving my feet one step at a time. In the long run, the result will show itself.

But bonus if I could have a scooter to move faster ;)

What’s next

As I’m embarking on this new journey, the possibilities are endless. But one thing is for sure, I should be making solutions to problems, not working on fancy ideas that people don’t need at all. And as Parkinson’s law said, I should put constraints and time limits on the project. Otherwise, the work will expand over time and I’ll never launch the thing to the masses.

That said, I expect to launch a new product next month!

Last but not least, I don’t know where I would end up on this journey. But life is only once, so I’ll surely regret it if I don’t take this chance to put my all into the right work ethic. I hope I could reach success in a year or two, but above everything else, I’ll make sure I enjoy the journey. And here’s a good quote to sum it up.

"Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth." ― Rumi

Alright, back to the grindstone.