Postcards from the Trough of Sorrow

Hey there, fellow traveller!

I’ve been having a lovely time in the Trough of Sorrow, including closing down my startup. The weather is… bleak. But there’s a few silver linings behind those clouds. No wait that’s lightning.

It’s been a difficult time for everyone (indie hackers especially), so I figured we could all do with some cheering up.

So I’m drawing up some concept sketches for indie hacker postcards to accompany us and other founders on our journeys, based on the startup product curve:

Startup journey

The idea is to have a postcard for each of the main stages:

Optimism Peak (yay!) 🚀
Trough of Sorrow (no!) ☠️
Productivity Plateau (p/m fit!) 😎

And potentially others - Wiggles of False Hope, Crash of Ineptitude, Valley of Despair, etc.

They would be in the style of classic vintage postcards, like these:

Imgur

I love how dynamic and cheerful they are, which fits nicely with the rollercoaster stages of our startup journey.

Concept sketches

I’ve made some very rough concept sketches:

Imgur

There's lots to play around with - layout, photo/illustration, colors etc.

You’ve got mail

There’s something special about receiving a physical postcard - it shows someone is really thinking about you (even if that someone is you!), and you can keep it as a memory.

I’m planning to make a limited batch and send them to myself and other founders and friends, to cheer us up and to have something to look back on in future when we're all in the sunny uplands of optimism (cough!). There's also the potential for a 'send a card to another founder' option, where you send one to someone you don't know (yet), like an indie hacker penpal.

I’d love to get your feedback on the idea, particularly usage (who would you send them to, and why?), design (how to improve?) and what parts of the journey are most relevant (wiggles of false hope?) - let me know in the comments!

p.s. wish you were here 🏖️