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12 Comments

Office Hours with Lynne Tye (and Courtland!)

Hi Indie Hackers!

My name is Lynne, and I'm the founder of Key Values, which I've bootstrapped to a $400k ARR run rate. I was also the guest on IH Podcast episode #086.

This Sunday I'll be hosting an #office-hours session where I'll get to talk to a few of you from the comments about whatever it is you're working on. I'd be most happy to share my knowledge around learning to code, getting into YC, doing sales as a founder, effective networking, and how to quit things you don't love! 🤗

P.S. I'm pretty sure @csallen will be making an appearance since... I'll be working from his apartment... 😜

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    woah... that merge tag / placeholder for email is sneaky dope. (unless I share an email with everyone) props @csallen

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    Not an application for office hours... a simple declaration of fandom. Your podcast episode resonated with me (as a fellow code bootcamp-er) — thanks for sharing your story Lynne : )

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      ❤️ aww thanks!!! bummed you won't be joining us today, but we'll send you good vibes anyway!

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    What an awesome idea! I'd love to hear everyone's stories. I don't have an idea, but I'm trying! I'm really looking to figure out ways to do "problem" research more effectively. I've cycled through a few different ideas ranging from a variety of industries, but struggling to find something that solves a real need.

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    I'm working on a directory (in some ways similar to KeyValues) for camps. I'm curious to dig more into Lynne's journey of learning to code, and to talk about at what point someone has the critical mass of skills to make a run at something like KeyValues (i.e. how much backend do you need to know). I'm also curious about the process of getting engineers to look at/use a site like Key Values...how did she market not just to companies, but to engineers? What were the specific growth channels she used to get engineers to use the app?

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    Hey Lynne! I'm a really big fan of everything you've done and I've been following your journey for a while and trying to learn by observing you. My heart almost stopped when I saw this chance to do office hours with you.

    My product is partially inspired by KeyValues, and is called Interview Insider. I work with tech companies to create/publish interview guides for their software engineering interviews, and the goal is to make the engineering interview process more transparent. You can see the site here: https://interviewinsider.io

    I see lots of parallels between what I'm doing and KeyValues so I think that you would be well equipped to give me some useful advice here.

    Right now I'm in the "reaching out to companies" stage, and some companies have responded, and I'm working with them but it's a long, slow process (which I saw was similar for you in your story).

    I haven't thought too much about the business model and who to charge yet, because just getting companies to complete their interview guide seems like more than enough work, but would love to hear your thoughts on that as well.

    I want to discuss how to effectively reach out to companies, how to follow up and get people to finish their guides without being completely annoying, what kind of business model I should go for (charging companies? or getting sponsors? or something else?), and if I should even be thinking about the business model this early.

    Thanks again!

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    I am working on https://letterfromyou.com. Handwritten letter service with handmade paper and wax sealed finish. I would love to know how to get B2B clients. I live in a small town, and my network is limited. I would love to know more about doing sales as bootstrapped founder.

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    Hi Lynne - Thanks for offering this.

    I am building Makers Part List a platform that help creators and influencers make more money on each piece of content they produce. I have questions for you around networking to find a cofounder/early employees and getting into YC.

    https://www.makerspartlist.com

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    Thank you for offering your time, @lynnetye! I'm working on a tool to help teams share knowledge painlessly and am hustling to grow my weekly active user count.

    So far I've gotten users through my network and through cold (individualized) outreach from twitter/quora. I'd love to hear your advice about effective sales at this early stage.

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    @lynnetye

    Your podcast episode was one of my favorites! It was awesome listening to old friends who have come so far together. Especially hearing about courtland coding it up during parties in college 😂. Awesome.

    Although I haven’t used Key Values (since I’m not interested in working for anyone else), I’m a big fan of your “quit things you don’t love” mantra.

    Would love to hear more about how you got the courage to quit your job as a researcher and (since you’re a developer) see what you think about my project!

  10. 2

    mattersource.com, where nonprofits can collab with their communities at large. I'd be happy to hear any thoughts and feedback whatsoever, since it's pre-launch.

  11. 1

    Hello! My cofounder and I are working on a retail company that prints open source code onto t-shirts and other items to raise money for open source software foundations. We've been pretty thrashy on who our audience/customer is so it would be helpful to get some outside ears/eyes. Thank you!

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    This comment was deleted 5 years ago.

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    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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