Thanks to this community, I’m launching an app as a non-technical solo founder

Hi all,

I’m launching a creator discovery app that I’ve been working on for over a year and it wouldn’t have been possible without the people here.

I am a writer and a filmmaker and a loudmouth but what I’m not is a coder. In that respect, I’m nothing like many of you on here, who at least have the technical ability to make something. I can’t code but I did want to build something I’d been thinking about. We think there's an audience that is fed up with the greyness of the world and is hungry to discover new things, new idols, new subcultures.

Joining Indie Hackers and seeing so many people who wanted to work on side projects / start to generate enough income so they no longer have to slave away at a job they hate, that was inspiring. It's a bit punk rock. There used to be more of this spirit in my world. Like all the people who were inspired after Robert Rodriguez made a film for $7,000 and then began making anthology movies with Quentin Tarantino. But these communities don’t exist as much anymore, probably because it’s now so difficult to make a living doing anything pleasurable.

But indie hacking still has some of that energy. The certainty of possibility. As Jay once counselled Bleek, the time is coming - you’re one hit away.

Making a MVP

With no technical skills, I concentrated on the product and how I wanted the software to feel. I tried working backwards to build the set of requirements and I hired a designer to make a basic layout and a couple of devs from Upwork to build it. (I posted before about how I build as a non-technical solo founder here.)

This wasn’t easy. The MVP was web-only so hard to get people to come back. I paid once for the design so everytime I wanted to make a change, I had to do it myself; I would "Inspect the Element" and move things around until it sorta, kinda looked right but not really. Then I would spend hours trying to get the devs to understand what it was I wanted to make changes with a series of simple sentences. It wasn’t ideal. But it was shitty. But it's a MVP. The important thing is that we were up and running. And I was enjoying bringing something to life.

We somehow managed to get 1,000 people to try it and give feedback in that time, which gave me a list of things we could try to get it to work. This community and the newsletter also gave me things to think about and techniques to try, alternative approaches, apps that were working. I loved the stories of people who were ecstatic making $1,000 MRR - or $1 MRR! All of you motivated me.

Most importantly, I think, while the MVP was fun for me, it showed I was serious to others. It communicated to people my intent and commitment. I started to speaking to coders and found a co-founder who got me and got this world. So despite all expectations, I’m not a solo founder anymore. My co-founder is a multiple-time startup founder. We started off working together slowly for 6 months and then transitioned to a real honest-to-god Delaware C-Corp a few weeks back. Working as a solo indie hacker opened that door.

Launching

Our app Indie World is like a weirder, DIY bedroom cousin of all the apps on your phone. Or the 21st century version of Public Access TV. Or maybe Etsy for the performing arts.... I'm still trying to figure out how to describe it.

We pool together a curated selection of independent creators from the major platforms into one place. We help you discover and follow creators. We’re beginning with creators in the arts. There are so many people if the same do-it-yourself mentality as Indie Hackers, only they're making great films or crafting jokes or woodworking rather than writing software. If you’re looking for an alternative to the monoculture of corporate media, you might like it.

The first people who get access to the iOS app are subscribed to our spin-off newsletter, NO DAY JOB.

In the meantime, thanks again for being around. I’m not on Twitter but I’ll answer any questions in the comments or you can get in touch directly.