I'm Sergio, I founded Makerlog and Cowork. Ask me anything!

Hi!

1. Makerlog MRR is over $200 at this point. Nothing massive unlike other stories in here, but it's a community :P I don't have growth stats on hand, but may be able to give them to you in an hour or two.

2. Expansion plans are in the works! We wish for Makerlog to become a community where everyone is welcome, regardless of their background.

3. No plans yet! I want ML to be completely self funded and community oriented. I don't want to cater to investor interests. Cowork is another story though.

4. Do not understand this question 😄 sorry. Did you mean features?

5. Currently looking for volunteers! I started searching a few days ago. :))

6. Depends, only if the buyer agrees to a good stewardship of it. I want to keep the community feel.

Probably the frontend code! Then again, it was my learning project for React - so it's a little messy. I want to fork it and move to NextJS.

I don't know! I think honesty. Just be honest to people and be yourself. That's the best advice. Be genuine in your interactions and always provide value.

19 years old.

My average schedule is actually very irregular. I pick what I want to work on daily. I work much like my Makerlog profile - very asynchronous and sometimes completely wrecked! Sometimes I spend too much time on projects and miss out on school, sometimes the other way.

I went to where they were! Makers Kitchen was my first traction community. Everyone there kinda wanted a WIP alternative, and I reached out.

Find your audience and market there. :)

That's something I don't do much that I wish I did. I'm working hopefully to get some events here going!

I didn't really use a particular marketing strategy. If I'm honest, I still have no idea what I'm doing. 🤣

Just be yourself, showcase your product to your niche, and if it fills a need for them you'll validate quickly.

I do early user testing and launch quick, even if it's not done. Don't launch unusable stuff, but just enough to display your value proposition!

Very important! I'm quite the security and privacy advocate. I always make sure my projects are safe and secure. I argue it's important for every maker to take the security of their data seriously.

I'm actually not a one man team anymore! Alina, a designer from Berlin, is now part of the team. I just usually use Figma to mock up then write in plain HTML. There's no formal creative process - just all spontaneous ideas that turn out okay. Alina gives oversight and user experience help when designing too.

1. I am an autodidact! I learned to code by myself over the years. It all started when I had a small site on Webs.com years ago, then slowly wanted to add more functionality. The learning started there.

2. My favorite toolchain is Django REST Framework, React, and Django Channels. It allows me to ship cutting-edge features at an unparalleled speed. I am used to the stack so it's super easy to think and reason in it.

3. I never really had that fear, only launch fear. I started building things and sharing them with friends since a very early age. I'd say around 5th or 6th grade.

4. Cowork was started out of the need to have private Makerlog-like spaces where teams can coordinate their tasks and set a general direction. We did a lot of market research and planning before the initial beta launch to figure out the scope of possible clients.

My definition of entrepreneurial spirit is just wanting to leave a mark on the world - creating products that help improve people's lives.

I have the drive to make things that improve people's lives, but I don't want to toot my own horn much! 😄 It's just a feeling you get. I think everyone in the indie hacker movement is like this - we just want to live our lives to the fullest and maybe impact some others along the way.

I'm here! 🤣

It isn't August 21 yet... check back then?

1. I am unemployed and a student. Makerlog covers my bills right now, although I don't really touch the money it generates often.

2. Sure!

3. N/a 😄

4. Solutions to my own problems. In makerlog's case, I honestly saw WIP and thought it was too expensive. Then I made my own.

5. I do my own marketing although Alina Sava does Twitter and outreach alongside me.

6. That's a gripe I have with myself. I start things too often and don't finish them.

7. I make my own designs, although Alina Sava is now part of Makerlog's team - she's a German designer.

8. I would definitely make it myself. I don't have the resources to outsource, and I can make it myself - why would I? 😄

I can't provide any details yet! Although in a nutshell: i hope to make Makerlog the main place to keep track of product and maker achievements.

In terms of why - well, because direction is always important. I try to identify new frontiers and go head on. I see this as an untouched space that has a lot of potential.

🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

There isn't going to be any standard among big companies. The decision to allow people to work remotely will always be a case by case situation depending on the decision maker and their views and management style. When Marissa Mayer took over as CEO of Yahoo, the first thing she did was eliminate remote working across the entire company because it's more productive. Some jobs are better for remote than others but for something with super high salaries like developers, i think most employers are okay with allowing people to work remotely a day or two per week.

I think remote work is heading to a very interesting direction. It's certainly the next "gold rush", due to its cost effectivity compared to assisting offices and hiring.

It's certainly the future of work although there's a lot of kinks to work out. There's certainly a lack of fluidity when doing work remotely rather than live.

Big companies will certainly embrace it - I just don't think the ecosystem is mature enough for that.

Haha, brb writing a book. 🤣 Jkjk

1. I think my most important habit is to reflect a lot on what I want from my startups and life. I try to not stand still on my beliefs and think forward about direction, things we can do, etc. It can be a blessing and a curse though.

2. The habits? Hm. I wouldn't call it a habit, just general discipline and enthusiasm. Love what you do, love what you make, love what you solve.

3. My preferred way of learning is by doing. I can only learn well if I get my hands dirty. It's also more fun!

I've tried learning programming languages by reading books. It didn't go well. On contrast, making say a react app teaches me more than 20 books will.

4. I actually need to read more. I am ashamed that I have a Kindle and don't use it that often! I have a huge reading list that I haven't gone through.

5. See #2

6. I think the most important lesson is to build things that solve problems for you. Oh, and don't do 12startups/1yr challenges. They're bad.

7. I think we're both very different and respectable communities. WIP is WIP, Makerlog is Makerlog. I feel Makerlog is friendlier and more inclusive, but it's all subjective. The "clone wars" are now over considering Makerlog branched out into it's own thing.

8. Instant feedback and motivation. It's great to have someone telling you what you're doing is shit - right when you're making it. It makes you think more rather than blindly follow a vision. This is especially important for us solo founders- we don't have a cofounder to bounce ideas with.

9. I think Basile Samel's 200WaD writings are the best resources in community building out there. He's built a community from scratch and documented it along the way.

I haven't read many books on it to be honest. I just learned along the way. I like to think about community building as "just bring people together in a comfortable space where they can freely share their interests".

10. I think Pieter Levels' talk on building sustainable startups is required watching for every indie hacker out there. It's the foundations of making successful indie businesses.

11. I don't have anything, sorry 🤣

12. #9

13. I think networking is important, but it's overrated.

14. Online collaboration is harder, but that's what we're trying to solve at Cowork. Local collaboration does transmit feelings much easier and it's easier to bounce genuine ideas.

15. Online communities are much more far reaching! Sorry my hands are getting a little tired 🤣 I'll expand on this later. Edits here!

My best advice is to truly love what you're doing, because you'll be advocating and getting people together for years. As long as you're passionate, you'll build an amazing community.