Starting my indie journey (need your advices)
Hey everyone! I'm John, a 34-year-old starting my indie hacking journey. I want to share with you an idea i want to try (please comment i need your advices).
The idea is to create a tool that connects custom software seekers and developers for free.
Here's how it works: The custom software seekers can post their software needs, and developers can browse and discuss those ideas. Eventually, the developers will build the software for the seekers. They can either provide it for free (great for beginner devs looking to build their portfolios) or sell it to the seekers and others.
This way, developers get innovative ideas, and seekers receive the software they need. But how can I monetize this? I haven't figured that out yet, but I'm considering building premium advanced tools for expressing and discussing requirements, such as a collaborative user story map.
The first step I will take is to build an MVP, where:
- Seekers can connect using Google Auth and post their software needs.
- Developers can browse the list of software ideas.
- Monitor and see what unfolds.
Next week i will share a user story map of this MVP.
#IndieHacking #SoftwareDevelopment"
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Sounds like you're creating a marketplace, and marketplaces are very hard to get going (aka chicken and the egg problem). Just want to make sure you're aware that you're starting the indie game in "super hard mode." But if you insist on marching on, then good luck!
Thank you for your comment.
yes i know it is some kind of a marketplace, and i had some bad experience with marketplace :(. but the other goal of this project is to build and refine a stack that is optimized for learning and feedback (monitor, logs, user journey mapping, things that i had never done before) that i will use for other projects and eventually i will open source a lot of it.
Those all sound like great goals!
Thanks
A potential idea for monetization is to do what fiver/upwork does. Allow seekers to hire interested devs and take a cut of the fees.
Thank you
An issue i see here, people seeking for development have complex needs. That means you cannot onboard anyone one the fly, it needs several weeks or even months to be able to code.
Even when starting a greenfield project, requirements could be huge and difficult to understand.
And then you have open questions regarding security, privacy, company secrets etc.
Maybe you could get some traction in the indie space, but i dunno if they would pay a lot.
Anyways good luck on your journey 💪
Hi and thank you for your reply.
People seeking a custom software should post their pain points after that they will discuss with devs solution that can be found to solve those pain points. i didnt figure out how the discussions would work how notifications would work and a lot of things. i will start pretty simple with "hey you are seeking for a custom software to slove your pain points post it here, devs around the world would see it and maybe some college student or pro will slove your pain points for free".
if i get some traction i will invest time thinking the other problems. maybe it will evolve to become a marketplace or something else like katas for devs or ...
Very nice! Great
I'm just starting out my journey as well (but without an idea), so don't have much advice, but followed on twitter and excited to witness your journey and see how things unfold. All the best!
Thank you