Should I Partner Up When I have the Feeling to Not Make Any Progress?

Hey Philipp - I can totally relate to this feeling.

Firstly, I think you've answered your own question: sounds like you need to prioritize getting an MVP in front of potential users - even if it isn't fully functional yet.

Partners / Co-founders are a difficult thing - you have to get it right, else it could destroy what you're working on. With that in mind, I don't think you should be seeking partnership under pressure to gain traction (at least not yet - if you have paying customers, and need to scale, then that's different)

My recommendation would be to find someone who's in the same boat, and strike up an "accountability partnership".
Practically for me, I meet with a fellow indie hacker once every 2 weeks, and we give each other feedback on our products / talk about progress / what our goals are for the next 2 weeks. It's great for motivation, and there are no strings attached.

Perhaps try that first before diving into the deep end with partnerships etc.

Hi Philipp! Maybe I'm a little biased because I really hate chatbots, every time I enter to a website (especially a small/medium company) and I try to chat with them and I got a reply from a bot I simply leave the website, for me putting a chatbot between you and your customers, especially when you are starting out and you have to be personal and do things that don't scale, doesn't make any sense at all.

My startup is starting to grow a lot lately, but I have intercom open all day and try to always reply in less than 5 minutes and being personal, and most of my paid customers are there because they know there is a real person behind the scenes.

Despite this, lately, I see a lot of people starting chatbots companies, and I don't really see anyone doing money with this.

On the other side, I see projects that are doing A TON of money, and nobody is competing with them, some quick examples: auth0 (identity management, 1 billion valuation), distil networks (bot mitigation), luminati (intelligent proxies), these are companies that are making so much money that they don't know what to do with it, and nobody is competing with them, really.

If I would have more time, I would see what are the companies that are really doing a ton of money and have almost no competition and focus my efforts on those markets, instead of doing something that everyone is doing and almost nobody is making money.

Are you really making no progress?

Is the product getting better (less issues, easier onboarding, etc.)?
If the product is open-source, are the number of stars on GitHub increasing?
Have you a better sense of who is interested in the product? Where do they hang out?

It can be a lonely road. Taking a partner, especially when you are in the slow part of the curve, can create more headaches, conflicts and ultimately kill the project before it has time to find its cruise speed. Taking a partner when all the indicators show that potential is there and you need hands to dial the phone (outbound Sales is key early on), then it is worth taking the risk.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” - The goal is always to be faster to the inflection point and add people when early signs of growth are showing up.

If you could put some milestones or an update about where you are at now, what you have tried, what you are working towards, etc... I think that could go a long ways in helping provide background for some helpful responses.

Another path would be to try to find someone on this platform that has seen some success and reach out to them personally with this background information and ask for some advice.

Good Luck!

Are you still loving the idea of making this a great product or is just now more of an EGO and self-pride to make it work or blow?

Hey Philipp! As pointed out in other comments, I have the feeling (maybe wrong) that the chatbot area is already saturated with Intercom, Drift and all these. For Drift they even have a free tier.

I don't know much about all these services but what is the value addition that you're bringing in comparison to them? And also, what types of businesses are you targeting so far?

It may sound stupid but for something like this, maybe the most efficient would be to target the people that Intercom don't care about: the restaurants, florists, bakers, artists or hairdressers. Small businesses that don't follow technology, don't even care and would be grateful to get a custom tailored support to help them improving their communication.