Unleashing 200 Developer-First Business Ideas - Join The Journey?
Hey there, Indie Hackers community!
We hate bullshit too, so we'll tell you what we're "selling" right here and now. We opened a YouTube channel where we give our developer-first ideas, for free. Why should you care? Stick around, and we'll break it down ;)
We, in the context of this article, are Agam (right) & Tom (left) – two developers who hopped the fence over to the dark side 🦇 and ventured into the intriguing world of business, sales & marketing.
During the last four years we've been relentlessly discussing business ideas in our internal WhatsApp chats. To this date, we've accumulated over 200 ideas and counting, adding more every single day.
Tom and I have been software developers for a long time. We have experience in creating online businesses, working and investing in startups (including one that sold for $500 million and another of similar value, more on the way), and even in government. These experiences have given us a unique understanding of how the business world operates and gave us many ideas to explore.
Our story began during a 13-hour flight I (Agam) had. Flights get my brain working for some reason. As I scrolled through our chat history, something struck me. I was filtering out ideas for my next endeavor, hoping to strike gold this time. Then, like a lightning bolt, it came to me.
Tom and I are idea machines, but we aren’t getting nearly enough of these ideas out there.
It felt like a sudden revelation: all those posts from developers and techies looking for their next big idea for a product, for marketing, for pricing strategies, for any of the 1,000 things you have to do when starting out a new business.
We talk about ideas for these topics all the time and dissect the business-sy side of things often and with ease, but a significant portion of developers seem to struggle with this. Furthermore, their only source of guidance seems to be the mediocre "gurus" peddling get-rich-quick nonsense.
It all clicked – Tom and I have an obligation to share our ideas with the world. Sounds big and fancy, right?
Not yet. A main question lingered: what if we want to turn one of these ideas into reality? Giving them out sounds like shooting ourselves in the foot. It took a second, but the conclusion was clear – we adore brainstorming, but executing all of these ideas is impossible. So the next best thing is to help our fellow people out.
No reason to let good ideas go to waste.
Fast-forward to today, and we've just hit over 100 subscribers on our YouTube channel! 🎉 We know it’s not a lot, just remember this post a year or two from now. We’ll get there :)
The kicker? We haven't even started marketing yet. We wanted to make sure we're genuinely enjoying this journey, maintaining a consistent rhythm, and connecting with our viewers.
Now, we're ready to spread the word. We've crafted over 19 videos discussing everything from pricing strategies to marketing ideas and R&D tricks. We've got you covered.
Here's the exciting part – most of those videos have very few views. Translation? You have virtually zero competition to execute on these ideas.
If you’re looking for a project to pick up, drop some info about yourself and your skillset in the comment, and we’ll personally hand-match a video for you.
Excited to see who picks up the glove 🧤[At the end of the day], It’s all up for grabs.
Wow, can't believe you're letting all of this up for grabs (pun intended). Love what you're doing, subscribed!
lol @stefansavevski we felt weird about it in the start too. But then I told Agam - what the F do we have to lose? Some imaginary money left on the floor?
If you don't pick it up, was it even there on the floor to begin with? :)
"Absolutely! Sometimes in life, you have to take a leap of faith and try new things. If you don't take the chance, you'll never know what could have been. So, let's go for it and see where it takes us!"
Love the enthusiasm @Joswood! :)
Thanks mate! I have to confess that it also helps us focus on our current projects, by giving these ideas out - we hope you steal them well ;)
Love that you've recognized you do not have time to build those ideas and are willing to share them with the public!!
Let's build a web that will unite all of your ideas into one pager where every idea will be categorized and linked to the YT videos 🚀
Let's connect on LinkedIn and talk more :))
https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktorgavrilovic/
Great idea! That would be awesome, let's!
This is awesome, great work! Now the challenge for me will be committing to one :)
Really is much easier when there's two of you, can tell you from experience:) I'm sure there's plenty of talented people here who would love to connect!
Absolutely! I’m actively looking for a like-minded co-founder.
This is super awesome! I think one of the most common questions that "first time indies" face is "What should I work on?". For many it's not easy to come up with an idea, (not to mention 200 of them 😉) and the questions and doubts rise before even getting to implementation.
Your channel is inspiring to take action, and also shows what are some validation steps anyone can take when they have their own idea. Love it! 💜
Thank you!
Yes that was the base premise we started with Up for Grabs. If we help create more confidence before starting we did our job.
Recently though we wanted to put for emphasis on concepts (not just specific ideas)so even if you already made the jump and have a business running you might get something helpful for your business from the episodes themselves.
Best of luck my friend! Thanks again.
Subscribed 👍
Bro! Thank you so much. What can we do help with your news bot? Just let us know here or on Twitter (TomGranot) and we'll be happy to help!
Hi, create content, subscribed!
Software Developer currently working 9-5 what would be a good side project to get started?
Starting a side project as a software developer is an excellent way to enhance your skills, explore new technologies, and potentially create something valuable. Here are a few side project ideas to consider:
Personal Website or Portfolio: Build a personal website or portfolio to showcase your skills, projects, and resume. This can help you establish an online presence and make it easier for potential employers or clients to find you.
Mobile App: Develop a mobile app for a specific purpose or niche. It could be a to-do list app, a fitness tracker, a language learning app, or something related to your interests.
Open Source Contribution: Contribute to open source projects that align with your interests or expertise. This not only helps you improve your coding skills but also builds your reputation in the developer community.
E-commerce Store: Create an e-commerce website or platform for selling products. You can start small by selling handcrafted goods or digital products.
Game Development: If you're interested in game development, start working on a simple game. You can experiment with game engines like Unity or Godot.
Blog or Content Management System: Build a blogging platform or content management system (CMS). It's a valuable project that can be expanded over time.
Automation Tools: Develop automation tools or scripts to streamline repetitive tasks. For example, you could create a tool to automate data entry or report generation.
IoT Project: Explore the Internet of Things (IoT) by building a project that connects physical devices to the internet. This could be a smart home system or a weather station.
Machine Learning or Data Analysis: Dive into machine learning or data analysis by working on a project related to your domain. You could build a recommendation system, a sentiment analysis tool, or a data visualization project.
Community or Social Network: Create a niche social network or a community platform centered around a specific interest or hobby.
Educational Content: Develop educational content or courses on a topic you're knowledgeable about. This could be in the form of articles, videos, or interactive tutorials.
Utilities or Productivity Apps: Build tools or apps that help users become more productive. This could include task managers, note-taking apps, or project management tools.
When choosing a side project, consider your interests, goals, and the skills you want to acquire or improve. Start with a small, manageable project, and gradually expand it as you gain confidence and experience. Side projects not only provide a creative outlet but can also lead to new opportunities in your career
I was very very very tempted to respond with my own ChatGPT comeback, but then I actually read what was written here and it's actually a decent enumeration of the land!
Sometimes you just need to have everything written down in front of you so you can make a decision, and that's exactly what we tried to do.
BTW, I do this often - use ChatGPT to "break open" from some pattern I have in mind and see what it will generate for me. It helps "latch" on to the next step on the way when I'm in a bit of a rut.
Great question @pc11000. Do share a little bit of your software background so I can tailor the right video for you, but a couple of my faves for your situation are:
EDITING WITH ONE MORE
Totally forgot Sniper Links. I have no idea why we didn't build it ourselves, @agam. Probably my fault for being too lazy 🤦♂️
@t0mgs thanks for your feedback and the recommendations, I will check them out for sure! My main stack is java and angular. But i also have little experience in react and iOS. Working as a Fullstack dev now for 6 years.
Amazing! I think the first one will be more of a fit for you. Keep us posted on your progress @pc11000!
@t0mgs I dont fully understand the google sheets as a cms idea. Is it about buildng an api or an UI on top of Google Sheets? I thought google sheets already offers an api? So its more about building a kind of an UI Builder where the user can create the ui using your elements and connecting them to the google sheet api?
Do you know Webflow? It's kind of like the CMS system there. You can think about it as a headless CMS over google sheets that is frontend-agnostic. So:
Hope that makes it more understandable - we'll be happy to have you on the cast to discuss this idea in more depth!
so the idea is building an ui builder with google sheets as a backend? that seems to be a lot of react/next not not just a little bit :)
Subbed! Thank you for sharing your ideas :D
Thank you! Anyone you liked in particular? Are you looking to build something new?
Fantastic, thanks so much to put all this together
Thanks for your support man. Can we somehow help you out in your own endeavors?
PS. We eagerly waited to post here, but it takes time to record/edit/release these YouTube videos. We're glad you see value in it like we do :)
I think the Developer-first business ideas prioritize creating products and services that cater to the needs and preferences of software developers, making their work more efficient, productive, and enjoyable. Its a different criteria about business idea's
I think that what we mean by developer-first idea is actually the other way around: not things that APPLY to software developers, but things that can be EASILY MADE by software developers. This relates to the tech, the product, the marketing... things we believe that any software developer can pick up easily but might seem more complicated to the outside world.
The term, by the way, is a source for a little bit of contention between Agam & myself. I was in Developer Relations for a long while, and whenever dev-first, devX or any of these terms get thrown around I get a little bit tingly around the ears lol
Great post!
Thank you man! :)
Here are some strategy that I use to get ideas and execute them that you guys can share with your followers. I have created this idea after trying things around for 2 3 years and this work the best for me. This idea work the best if you have day jobs and want to start side business.
So first lets see the rules to follow in order this strategy to work
The Rules :
Failure is inevitable. You will fail to find a good idea at first. The process is to iterate on first idea until it worked out.
Speed is the most important thing. You want to fail fast and reach your destination fast. We have day jobs and cannot afford to spend a lot of time on side business, so what ever we are doing we need to do it fast. To understand how important speed is check this out : When Building MVP, Speed is the Focus
For starting, you don't need product you need validation. If you need to build product for validation then build it, else a google form, blog posts, excel will do the jobs.
Build on weekends and marketing on weekdays. Whatever you are building you need to make sure it is completed within weekend. More than that is not encouraged because you need focus more on validating the product.
So lets go to the steps to follow:
The steps :
Go to reddit and find a subreddit that most related to you. The one that you understand the most.
From that checkout the posts with highest engagement, more comment more like dislike etc.
Check out what the posts is talking about and what the comment is talking about from this you will understand what people are concern about and what they care about.
Now come out with an idea that can help you to be in the conversation, a product, tshirt or anything that can be related to the things people in the posts talking about.
Now you have a business idea and who you are going to target and which subreddit you want to target.
Now go to creativeblogtopic.com. Here you can insert the business that you want to build and then the target customer and then it will automate google trend analysis for you and give you the best keywords and topics to write for the business.
Time to validate your idea go back to the subreddit now posts something about related to the topic and keywords and see the engagement growing.
If it get people attention then now reply people in the comment asking if there interested to try your upcoming product.
Iterate. Remember speed is very important. You need to move fast. All the tools above will help you move fast.
Here are my simple step on how to get idea, validate and build fast and quick, Work best if you have day jobs. Just keep doing it again and again until something worked out.
If you want in detail about the how to find idea on reddit check this out Struggling for Idea? Here’s How to Extract Ideas from Reddit
Dig the value share - thanks @aquidor223!
I have a similar process. When I was younger, I talked to a bunch of people on reddit and then recorded podcasts on what I learned, thinking it would be a good way to find business ideas:
https://soundcloud.com/realindustryrealtalk
This is the #1 thing that helped me understand how large the opportunity space really is. There is software... everywhere. And if you're a software person who can also do a little bit of business? My, my, my.
Another good podcast to check in this regard is Careers Over Beers:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJPeS4Ugqqnb0_xdrNE0B4WQx2uup5tNQ
Agam will be upset with me because I'm dirtying up my comments with another CTA, but he is about 3,000 miles from me now so he can't do anything about it. :)
Why executing some ideas you considered as impossible?
Mainly because of time commitments and other projects we are already working on. Even outsourcing them takes time and focus - which we don't have for 99% of ideas. Did you see any idea in particular that interest you?
Very sad. I had the same "issue". A lot of ideas and stacked to realize even one. You know what I did? Created investment platform for startups. Decided to put my ideas there :-)
Care to share? Sounds interesting.
Well, I'm not a developer but someone who takes a keen interest in this topic. Looks pretty interesting.
Subscribed!
We are both developers, but we would like to think that even if you're not, but you are still technical, our episodes can be really interesting ;)
Let us know if you'd like us to improve on anything, we're here.
Let’s chat anyways;) TomGranot on Twitter.
Also curious to hear your thoughts on: https://maili.io/
Hey! I like the direction. When I create a link though, it doesn't seem to show it on incognito: https://maili.io/FSFH
What is your long term monetization strategy?
Create a pro plan where you can track analytics for the generated link, CTR, geo info, number of clicks, etc
@viktorg the immediate thing that comes up is the lack of USE CASES.
I'm dying for a use cases section. Think up 5 such situations with very niche verticals and start a mini-programmatic SEO campaign for your site.
A couple that pop to mind - contact info for highly in-demand people (journalists, creators, etc...), research papers (where you don't want the archived journal version of your article to contain your direct email) and probably a bunch more.
Create 20-30 pages of these use cases, see what converts in Google Search Console to the most impressions, then create a section in the home page for the top 3 + link to the article.
Also add to footer so it creates a "Email Link for X" situation there.
I actually have another thought about your monetization strategy, but I think we should really take it to the cast. Are you up for doing an episode where we break down the idea and how we'd take it to market?
For the use case section, we started with businesses, usually those that are posting IG stories for job applications and are adding the email either as text or as part of the image.
But then taking it further, we were thinking that it could be used across all types of platforms, for instance, post on LinkedIn to track how many people clicked on the mail, how many actually messaged you, etc.
But I get your point, definitely, it's a trial & error where we shall test different scenarios for different use cases to see which and if it actually works.
Let's do that man 💪 Let's chat on LinkedIn.
So exciting @viktorg! Hit you up on WhatsApp now :)
BTW, if anyone's down to come on the cast too just hit me up on twitter and we'l make it happen: @TomGranot
the other side of the coin on ideas is the market which is where i struggle most. i’m really looking for ideas that would generate a ton of traffic and just stick adsense on it. id imagine the right idea and domain is easier than marketing and customer support
sites similar to:
but imagine these ideas aren’t the one a dev would want to give up. would you?
i think the channel idea is cool but what would really differentiate you guys is if you could one day say “look at these viewers who turned our ideas into $X MRR”. a lot of business idea media channels out there and i can’t believe people are actually paying for ideas.
In addition yo what Agam said, I believe that what you mentioned - "look at these viewers who turned our ideas into $X MRR" - is the end game for this channel. I want to look back three years from now and say - A built this, B built that and we put some of our own time towards C eventually.
It's super cool to look retroactively and deliver value all the way back to the people that were with us from the start.
Thank you for being one of those people - we'l make it worth your time :)
This is something we think about a lot, "reverse engineering" a product from the marketing perspective (which is a big problem for developer indie hackers usually).
I might suggest not being tied to AdSense (which can be hard to grow monetization-wise).
When we talk about ideas we try to focus on more value add, when the value add is only a "quickie" it's hard to grow and monetize seriously (other than ads).
So 2 things
Yep, no one should pay for an idea. We'd love to think we also give the first steps of execution (like competitive research, gtm, pricing, tricks to win the market etc...)