Two Months on Indie Hackers...Here's what I have learned.

I have been on Indie Hackers just a little over 2 months now. I joined IH to be part of a community of like minded builders who want to create new things. I also want to share my learnings as I build Startup Sanctuary and help as many others as possible.

The community here is amazing. Genuinely great people who are action takers and focused on helping one another succeed.

The comments are thoughtful; and healthy criticism is usually offered with alternative ways of solving a problem.

Here are some of the things I have learned over my first 2 months here:

1. Start Building Community from Day 1

So many times I created projects in the past without community or an initial customer base. I didn't have anyone to get feedback from or validate my idea with.

It doesn't matter what kind of product or service you are creating, building a community from day 1 will allow you to gather feedback and start iterating and refining your product or service almost immediately.

Learning by doing and sharing your insights along the way is certainly the best strategy when building community starting out. Keep doing this consistently each week and the compounding effects over time pay off.

2. Provide Value to Others

When trying to build leverage and community, the best thing you can do is provide value up front.
I have tried to do this by posting consistently here over the past 2 months.

A couple of key examples:

• In May, I created a course to help people kickstart their startup and I gave it away for free.

• Last week, I reviewed over 50 MVP’s from Indie Hackers and created a personalized feedback video for each project.

3. Validate Your Ideas

Start validating your ideas with people who are actually experiencing the problem you are trying to solve for. Get feedback by leveraging customer interviews.

Your own personal "product market fit" can't be realized until you begin to refine your exact value proposition. I believe the best way to do this is to begin taking action by creating your own Minimum Viable Product, providing value to others about what you know and continue to iterate from there.

4. Don't Underestimate Content Strategy

Don’t underestimate the power content strategy plays as part of building your business. The sooner you can start sharing and posting content, the quicker you will be able to refine what suits your brand voice and the best type of content to share. Think of it as a long term strategy, but don’t underestimate the role it plays in kickstarting the growth of your personal brand organically.

Here’s to the future

There has never been a better opportunity to create an online business and leverage the power of the internet to productize your knowledge and skills.

There are more ways than ever to capitalize on creativity and the ability to make a living off creative skills has trickled all the way down to individuals at scale.

As new tools, platforms and marketplaces emerge, I think Indie Hackers is going to be a great place to learn, build and grow together.

If you want to follow along, you can check out more of what is going on at Startup Sanctuary.