Quit my job, finished a bootcamp & launched my first product!
Brief backstory
I wrote a post on here a couple months ago about how I decided to quit my Director level job at GitHub to attend a code bootcamp and become a full time indie hacker.
For years I have tried to build products from ideas that I have had, and was always reliant on others to make it happen. They never really worked out, for the simple reason that no one ever cares about a project or idea as much as YOU do.
Motivation was always strong in the beginning and slowly but surely decreased as I struggled to make any progress on ideas.
At the end of last year, in the middle of a pandemic, I decided to flip the script and (re)learn to code so that I could take my destiny into my own hands.
I completed the bootcamp in December and decided to start working on a project that I had in mind, and had pitched to my cohort for a group project in the bootcamp.
I wanted to reinforce the things I had learnt and push myself to launch my first product as soon as possible!
I thought it would be good to get started over the Christmas holidays and work on it into the new year. The day after Christmas though, I got sick with vertigo (you thought I was going to say COVID didn't you?).
For three weeks I could hardly look at a computer screen, but eventually I felt well enough to get back to working on the project, and finished it this week.
Fast forward to today
I managed to finish the project in about 6 weeks, taking much longer than I originally hoped to. But I'm super happy with the end result.
So, what did I build?
Well, I've created a number of Twitter threads in the last year or so and I couldn't find a scheduling tool that worked for me. So I decided to build one.
It was a fun product to build and I learnt so much.
The most important lesson I was hoping to take out of it was actually finishing something I started. So many side projects start out strong and never see the light of day, and I was determined not to make that mistake again.
Even if no one ever used this tool, I was going to finish it and launch it! And so I did.
I'm soft launching this week, with a Product Hunt launch planned for next week. I'm super excited to launch and have had a couple sign ups so far, with some great feedback too!
Introducing Thread Creator
The idea is pretty simple.
You can create your Twitter threads, add an image, enable automatically numbered tweets, schedule the thread to be published later, and easily drag and drop to re-order your tweets.
I built Thread Creator because I believe there is a better way to create and schedule Twitter threads, and I really couldn't find something that worked well for me.
Thread Creator is totally free and you can create as many threads as you like. I hope you'll give it a try. 🎉
If you have any feedback or suggestions, I'd really love to hear them!
I'm on journey to build self-funded startups.
If you're interested in following along, feel free to connect with me on Twitter!
Congrats! I learned to code a very long time ago (13 years) for the same reasons. It's so frustrating when a piece of software does not work as expected and you cannot even edit the code and add a little condition or fix the spelling...
Before learning programming I remember adding just a space in the code of a website I had bought and the whole page disappeared... I had to go back to the developers to fix it because it never occurred to me that one space could break everything.
Your product seems to be useful. I use the Twitter API a lot but I've never paid attention to threads.
Absolutely true.
Its super frustrating when you have to rely on others to achieve your vision. I think no-code tools are amazing and have come a long way. I used to get by with knowing a bit of PHP and building a WordPress site, but now I have the confidence to just build whatever I want to you. It's really liberating.
Thanks for your kind words. The Twitter API was fun to work with, but somewhat prohibitive at times. If you have any tips for me I'd be all ears!!
Ha, ha, I'm not an expert in the Twitter API. My approach with APIs is to build an interface that I find easy to work with that shields me from the complexity of the API. So all I write these days is twitter.search(word), twitter.tweet(status), twitter.findFriends(), etc. That's how I program, I like to make things simple. As long as it works I don't need to check the docs anymore.
Haha, nice. I think that's the best way to do it!
Congratulations!
Thank you!
Hey man, I did the same exact thing! Haha I am going into an accelerator program in two weeks. Sooooo excited for it!
Wow, amazing @stefanoselorio! Congrats! Best of luck to you 🎉
@stefanoselorio What bootcamp/accelerator did you sign up for? I am learning but I think I need some guidance. I am in a similar position where I really want to go off and do my own thing, but personal responsibilities are keeping me where I am currently.
I am based in South Florida to go through TWO39 Labs, an accelerator for South Florida startups. I am also in school, so the decisions were made easier. We can chat more on Twitter if you want :)
I went through Le Wagon. They were great. I think they are good for beginners and I was perhaps a little more advanced at times, but I definitely would recommend them.
Thank you! I hope it goes well!
That looks really good. Good logo, too!
One feature I missed in a similar tool (hypefury) is adding an image to each post on the thread. I see you added that feature, but only to the first tweet.
Also, hope it is not too much feedback, it would be cool to be able to write emojis that autocomplete after typing ':smi' (for :smile:) for instance, like in slack. It saves a lot of time, as opposed to clicking on the emoji selector.
Just my 2 cents.
Thanks, that's great feedback. I'm glad you like the logo!
My thinking is that this is a free service right now, and image storage could get expensive. I may introduce a PRO plan that allows multiple images to be attached to each tweet later on. Will definitely consider this!
I totally agree on the emojis. I think that would be a great feature!
Looks great, congrats John!
I'll definitely give it a try; publishing threads has been annoying me for a while ;-)
Thanks so much! Let me know if you are missing features or have suggestions.
I've already gotten some great feedback and I'm building a list of extra features for version 2.
If you need any help, feel free to reach out or connect on Twitter!
Congrats on launching! 🎉 Thread Creator looks awesome and I'm ready to use it right now.
The only thing I'm wondering is if it's possible to provide the same functionality without asking for the same level of permissions when auth-ing with Twitter. I understand that that may not be possible due to twitter API limitations but wanted to mention in case it was!
Thanks @abhi!
I'm afraid Twitter is pretty limited with the options you can choose for auth permissions levels (there are only three options):
We went with option 2.
If we chose option 1 then the application wouldn't actually work because we couldn't post on your behalf. Thanks for giving it a try! 🎉
I figured that was the case! No worries, I went ahead and auth'd anyways :) This will be useful!
I recommend putting on Show HN and/or Product Hunt as well if you're ready to get more people to use it (tho, fair warning about haters on HN) because I think this has front page potential!
Thanks for the feedback and for giving it a try. I promise that your data is kept private and you can FULLY delete it at anytime 🙏
I'm planning to do a Product Hunt launch next week sometime. Just wanting to do a soft launch first to get some feedback and iron out the kinks and bugs. Feel free to reach out if you have any ideas or come across bugs!
Inspirational
Thanks so much @saleheen! I appreciate the kind words!
👋If you'd like to read a more detailed backstory about my journey so far, you can check out my previous post here: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/why-i-left-a-six-figure-salary-at-github-to-go-solo-f714cd80e2
Also, here's the Twitter thread where I announced what I was going to be working on after my bootcamp: https://twitter.com/johnjoubert/status/1333168618549469186
Many of the people on this platform, including yourself, exhibit certain qualities of a visionary. If you've never read the book, check out my recommendation, though it will sound a little odd. It seems like a specific book and unrelated, but it's more applicable than what the topic seems to be and life altering.
The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell
Thanks for the book recommendation, I will definitely check that out!
Congrats John, wish you all the best.
I quit my 7 figures job at Apple (was a senior manager of applied machine learning) 3 weeks ago to work on instamentor.com and sqlpad.io, and another side project on AI.
It's been 3 weeks so far and can't feel any better!
Thank you so much! And best of luck to you too!
Congrats on this achievement, very inspirational! I'm just starting my indie hacker journey and hope to be able to post something similar some day.
I'm curious how you decided which code to learn? Assuming you knew the basics from the "re learning" statement but I'm looking to dive into it learning a new language and there are a lot of options haha.
I don't think it really matters which language you learn. No user looks at your product and asks "What did you build this with?" They only care if it solves their problem.
I learnt Ruby on Rails through at bootcamp by Le Wagon. They have great reviews and are highly product focussed. I would recommend them any day!
Haha great advice - that's so true.
Thank you!
When do you plan to start monetizing?
Who is your target customer?
I'm planning to improve the product, make sure I add value and learn as much as possible from users. I think there might be a space for a PRO plan with extra features at some point though. Target market is content creators, publishers, and writers who leverage Twitter threads as part of their marketing strategy.
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Will just pile on here - I just finished year 2 of indie hacking after leaving a 200k+ job in 2018, taught myself to code and build my own products in the process and, despite having a much thinner bank account, have zero regrets.
That's brilliant. Well done and I wish you the best of luck!
Totally agree. If you are well prepared and have made good financial decisions, its totally possible to go full time and pursue your passions. Definitely makes waking up in the morning a lot easier!