Reflections from an unsuccessful indie hacker in 2023: failure, hope, and YC

As the year draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on my indie hacker journey so far. I’m sharing mine from this year, in the hopes that it will resonate with others and highlight that we're all in different parts of the journey.

It started with a goal

I’ve been thinking about starting a side business for a long time. I’m getting older, having kids is on the horizon, and soon I may not have all the free time I have now. I set goals every year, and this year wanted to take the business goal seriously. Here was my goal, verbatim how I wrote it.

Goal: Tinker and start a business

1. Measure: test at least 1 idea (find place where customers congregate, talk to 10 of them, try landing page + marketing)
2. Measure: learn to make a web app (ex. Go through Node book or similar iOS etc.).
3. Measure: I’ve started building something (Github repo, AI tinkering etc., 10 blog posts with views)

Re-learning to code (thanks ChatGPT)

I’ve been working as a product manager for years. I have a technical background and education but hadn’t coded in 7+ years. So, I didn’t even know that I could figure it out. I didn’t know that I’d be able to figure out hosting, deployment, all that jazz.

Early in the year, I started going through tutorial books. At some point I realized ChatGPT could code for me and teach me, so I immediately dropped the books and went that route. It wasn’t easy, but WAY easier with ChatGPT. Fast forward to the end of the year and I’m a semi-competent React/node JS developer. Learning is way easier with a goal in mind.

Building a product

I picked an idea based off of my experience and desire to mess around with ChatGPT APIs. I figured everyone was building blog writers, but I could focus on the niche of UX writing/copy. My prior job was focused on building tools for this. In retrospect, this was fun, but I didn't validate the idea enough.

I had such a strong desire to re-learn to code and build something, that I focused on that part rather than talking to customers and thinking about product market fit, marketing, distribution, or community. It’s like I had to prove to myself that I could execute on it before focusing on the other parts.

By the end of the summer, it was almost ready.

Launching, sort of

Once it was in MVP status, I deployed it (stringbot.ai). I realized I didn’t have a launch or distribution plan, so I went to google ads. They’ve largely been unsuccessful. ~40 people have signed up, but none have really engaged with the product the way I’d hoped.

I also started talking to potential customers (Ex-colleague writers). It was clear they didn’t really see a need for this themselves, but suggested maybe others who didn’t like to write may use it.

I also saw competitors popping up, and OpenAI announcing the GPT store, which could do something very similar (I even made a GPT for it). I lost hope that this is an important enough problem for people.

Indie Hacker peer group

Near the time I deployed, I saw Indie Hackers starting up a peer group program, so I applied and joined.

It’s been a good experience so far (no, IH didn’t ask me to post this). It’s been a great place to get honest feedback and meet others on different journeys. It’s made me feel more connected to the IH community, and hopefully more likely to continue. It wasn't their intention, but talking to the IH group made me take a moment to reflect and hit pause on stringbot.

Taking a break, applying to Y Combinator

After a little break, I had a cool idea. I’m not ready to share it yet, but I figured it was one that I’d want some help on – so I applied to YC with it, very late. I didn’t get in, but in the rejection was told that it was a top idea:

“We do have some good news, though - of the late applications we read this batch, yours was one of the strongest, and we would have preferred to interview if only we had capacity. We encourage all late apps to reapply for the next batch, but we want to particularly encourage you.”

While I know this is no guarantee, it does help with idea validation. I’ll probably apply again. I know this isn't very "Indie Hacker"-y, but if nothing else it gives me some validation going into 2024.

Lessons learned and the path forward

In 2023, I’m proud of:

• Re-learning and gaining confidence coding.
• Finding an indie hacker community.
• Applying to YC.
• Reaching my goals.

I learned:

• To never make a complete product without talking to customers or trying a low-code/non-scalable MVP first, without a really good reason. This is advice repeated over and over again in the community. It’s so important to internalize this.
• To get more comfortable sharing on the internet. I’ve never been one to post/comment, but that needs to change. Feedback and support from folks on the internet is invaluable.
• Life needs balance. This year, I was sometimes so obsessed with building that I let some other things slide out of place (wasn’t as present with friends/family, skipped hobbies that I love). This isn’t sustainable for me. I need to find a more balanced path, even if its just a state of mind.
• Think big on goals! I hit my goals, which means I wasn't thinking big enough.

What was your biggest takeaway in 2023?

I’m still noodling on my 2024 goals but will share those soon. If you want to follow my journey, follow me on twitter/x (which I plan to actually start using in 2024, link to account) - I'm happy to follow back.