Let's be honest about being Indie Hacker
It just hit me now, more and more, that being an indie hacker is willing to build things that matter's (at least to me), but the unseen reality is most of the time building nice product doesn't matter if you cannot reach the audience.
Of course first thing a though about it when i was building kosmoschain was let's build now, for sure they will be audience for that it's a great product, but then reality is building may be the easiest part for an Indie Hacker, selling and become profitable is the most important one.
If i want my product to exist i need to have audience or at least people willing to test my product. Or better build something that your audience want and ask for it !
Ok sharing product on PH, IH, etc etc is good, can be great but still those places (that.i really enjoy be part of) are full of makers that some of them doing exactly the same thing, joining this places to learn, build and share
Anyway this is just a call for everyone starting his indiehacker journey, build something people want, build an audience so you can get what people want
good luck everyone
How do you suggest finding the right audience and determining what they want before investing time and effort into building a product? Any tips for a successful Indie Hacker journey?
I fully understand you, it's a mistake I made. I thought that making an excellent product was enough and that it would then be easy to find interested people. Which didn't happen... I think it's impossible nowadays to be successful if nobody knows you.
It took me two failed projects to realize that it is almost impossible to sell a a tech SaaS if you are a nobody. I was used to avoid social medias and build in silence. It was a huge mistake.
If you are not investing serious efforts in growing an audience asap, you are going to waste time and effort.
Too many articles from those who succeeded are very focused on the product, and explain how they obtained their first customers through their large audience (Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, etc.). You cannot replicate their success without the audience, and building it takes a long time. I started ~3 months ago on Twitter and Mastodon, barely get 200 followers combined.
It is rough, start now.
Hi Momo,
Hi everyone,
I'm new to this community: I've been following you for a month now and I'm just trying to figure out what are the steps to become an indie hacker.
I am a designer and coder and live in Zurich.
It seems pretty clear to me by now that even before you start you have to figure out how to reach a really interested audience. Finding your niche.
You have to figure out how to make them fall in love with something that doesn't exist yet.
The idea I have is that you have to create an experience even before you create the product. I believe that a good idea, followed by a good design (visual) definitely has a better chance of success than a product but poorly designed.
I realize that even those who do not have the skills to understand what is ugly and what is beautiful always perceive quality in the end. Quality often, at least at first glance, comes through the visual appearance.
I have reflected a lot on this, and more and more I realize that you have to invest a lot in the idea and precisely in the pre-prototyping of something really beautiful for your target audience.
I think this element can help.
All this happens on a daily basis in my life, and I realize that in the end my clients always need something that convinces them in terms of experience and therefore also in terms of design. I believe that things that look professional and quality help bring people closer to the various products.
Sorry, I hope all this is easy to understand with my limp English.
I am mainly a designer. Perhaps I am biased.
How heavy do you guys feel about it?
Love
PS:
Very grateful to have discovered you
Thanks for starting this conversation! It's true that being an indie hacker can be a challenging and often solitary experience. It's important to acknowledge the hard work and perseverance required to build a successful project on your own. However, it's also important to remember the unique benefits of being an indie hacker, such as having complete control over your project and being able to prioritize your own vision and values. It's important to find a balance between recognizing the difficulties and celebrating the advantages of this path. Best of luck on your indie hacking journey!
I couldn't agree more on similarities and differentiations among products. Most of the founders build something similar to the existing market, hoping for success. The keys behind the success or failure is definitely the community, the branding, the marketing.
As Chris perfectly said, there are enough examples of really terrible products who succeed, only to a strong and vibrant community!
Every journey is tough, some of us don't have the essentials to even begin with, but we are passionate, passionate to fail and eventually succeed!
Good luck on your journey, Momo.
Hey Momo,
Exactly. It's what I (and plenty of others) have been preaching for a long time.
The reality is that, with the right marketing, your product is largely irrelevant. You can have a "terrible" product and still be very successful (and build a very happy customer base) - HubSpot is a great example of this. Objectively terrible product (that the founder himself admitted) but built a cult following. It did that using the strategy I outline here - www.thebluntmethod.com.
It's difficult to accept for most indiehackers and founders in general because they tend to come from a development/product background, but accept it they must if they want to build a successful business.
Welcome to the dark side ;-)
Best
Chris