Suggesting for my first online startup?
Hello Indie Hackers,
I have been doing software development as a freelancer/small business owner for about 1 to 2 years now and am finally starting my own project. Additionally I studied international management and took lots of courses on entrepreneurship.
This project started when I meet a pilot on the airport train about a month ago and he told me about an issue he keep seeing crew member complain about. So we decided to go for coffee and talk about it. We talk for a while and we hit it off and I really liked his idea.
Its a very niche issue that only affects airplane crew members, more over thanks to the new open API's it seems like the problem is pretty easy to solve.
The issue: Pilots have a hard time exchanging duties and are currently handling this with huge WhatsApp groups where the messages get lost in the noise.
So we are building a MVP web app to make this easer and more convenient.
If it wasn't for my co-founder I would never be able to do this because:
- I would never have known this is an issue
- Testing the idea I would require spending a fortune on adds but this way we can push it to the final consumer directly though their what's app groups.
Basically we are now building a wireframe and plan to get a UI/UX designer to turn it into a prototype, then I would build it and he would promote it.
Do you have any suggestions for my first attempt at indie hacker?
We plan to be ready to launch a functioning MVP in February/March which should be still missing some features. That's 4 months
When is my product ready to launch and start trying to get consumers?
Is that a good idea or do I need to weight until all sections are finished?
I plan to launch where the main feature's are finished but lots of sections will just say in development.
When can I start charging?
I am planning on making most features free but the core feature cost some small amount as a monthly subscription. But I first I would like to just make it all fee and get the user to see the value of the features and maybe then still give them a month free trial.
I think most of your questions can be answered by your customers, the pilots.
Keep talking to them and figure out what features you should prioritize over others. For me, four months to get to an MVP sounds like a little much. It should only be an MVP. However, I don't have a good view of what exactly you are planning on building.
See if you can get 100 pilots to sign-up for the beta/early access.
Tip; have a look at the book "the minimal entrepreneur." This book will give you some advice on how to approach launching/charging.