Please Stop Inventing. Instead, Start Improving!

Here's a message I want every new IndieHacker and Entrepreneur needs to hear out loud: Stop inventing!

I spent almost 10 years building innovative digital products. I'd begin with a grand picture of what the markets needed - and built it.

I put heart and soul into creating the best products. I spent nights making my code scalable to 50,000 simultaneous users; when I had none. I made important choices about databases, frameworks et al after spending hours on research.

I wrote the top-class code. Every space, tab and comment in my code was well thought. Months went by; but my ego needed more massage.

Guess what?

No one cared.

No one cared if my site's loading time was reduced by 300%.

No one cared about the javascript wizardry I had implemented.

Heck. No one even cared about my product. The product I built to make people's lives better.

I've fell flat on my face multiple times. I don't want you to repeat the mistakes I did.

Look, the market doesn't care about your innovation. You've to be really lucky to launch something people haven't seen before and make it successful.

Don't waste a decade of your life on innovating things that markets don't care about. Oh yeah, the markets are SUPER BRUTAL, baby!

Instead, start improving established things.

Remember, you are an Indie Hacker; not a world's top innovator. Your top goal should be to build something that markets accept.

Think about making the world a better place after you've built a steady MRR.

Look at the products or services that are already established and make money.

Specifically, look at the growing markets where competition is low. Such markets are hard to spot; but you'd better spend your next 2 months finding the right market (I said market, not product or idea).

Then figure out what is it that you can do better. For example, can you improve the UI/UX for an existing app? Can you make it easier?

YES YOU CAN!

Then build the simplest version of the product (MVP) and test it out in the market.

If you can find a few people willing to pay money for your product or service, you're all set. You know your path forward.

Keep in mind. The biggest innovators were not the 'first ones'.

• Google wasn't the first Internet search engine.
• Facebook wasn't the first social network.
• Tesla didn't make the world's first electric car.
• You got the point.

Don't run after innovation. Outsource it to people with money and time. You simply find some good market and launch your product in it. If the market is good, you'll find buyers. If not, you'll still save a lot of time.

I'm super proud of building CrazyEngineers. Working on it gave me the clarity I needed in life as an entrepreneur.

I'm currently building Testimonial Guru. If you want to automate testimonials on your website/app, consider becoming an early adopter.

If my post offers you some clarity, upvote it.

I welcome your questions, comments and thoughts.