Why I Made What I Made

Taking the weekend to gear up to build a new website. It's for my google sheets tutorials: Better Sheets.

I'm taking a couple days to ponder. I'm taking time to consider the near future.

While I consider the near future I also am reviewing the near past.

Today, I checked my Indiehackers profile and it turns out I joined Indiehackers 3 years ago. But not until this year did I feel like an independent hacker/coder/programmer.

Not until I’ve accomplished making code from scratch did I feel like a member of a club that I do, in fact, want to be a part of.

For the first 34 years of my life (the life before Indiehackers) I lived with one mantra. A line I got from Woody Allen. And he got from Groucho Marx:

“ I’d never join a club that would allow a person like me to become a member.” - Woody Allen.

Before this year, 2021, I made projects - Set up sites -Created Businesses - Hacked together solutions.

But never did I sell code. As some might put it I didn't convert coffee into code.

Never was I able to sell a subscription as a service. SaaS, one of the most powerful business models of our generation, was completely off limits to my abilities.

Never did I ever have the ability to say “I made that through and through” without caveats.

Oh yeah, I used carrd and Algolia and a template. Duct taped this and this and that and a smidge of this other thing.

Of course, I understand this is a part of web development. We are always creating, even coding, with other people’s code. Other people’s frameworks.

But the solutions I used prior, always felt like shortcuts and always seemed “hacked together” instead of “built”. Totally a personal point of view about myself here. Not regaling against no-code. At least, Not in this essay.

I Learned To Code

In 2021 that changed. I learned to code.

And more importantly. I wrote code. I coded.

My First Code Sold

I made OnlySheets in January. Launched it on Product Hunt February 1st, 2021.

Here’s why I made OnlySheets.

In the process of selling google sheets on Gumroad, I found that every single sheet I sold access to I had to share to “anyone with this link”. That didn’t seem secure.

It always felt a bit too open. For something that I wanted to sell and continue to sell, I didn’t want the security of it to decrease with each and every sale. That seems completely opposite of what anyone wants.

Better Sheets keeps getting better every single time there’s a new member. But for a single sheet to get less secure, that just seemed dumb.

Hasn’t someone done this before? I always think that. I google for it. I seek suggestions from others. But in this case there might be a github repo, or a blog post about a google script. There’s nothing for sale that I can just use right away. So I made it.

Yes it’s a bit convoluted and would of course be better if I focused some more on it but it works. And it’s working at scale. Meaning every time someone buys it, they can use it within minutes without my interjection. Without consulting me. I don’t have to add them to a database.

It’s my first script, the first code, that’s been sold.

Wow!

More Code Sold

And then I made more. A lot more.
I’ve coded the script for Better Letters. Again in Google Script.
I’ve coded up sweet scripts for many sheets I give away to Better Sheets members at BetterSheets.co and wish more people to see.

I just ran a workshop over the past 3 weeks that allowed me to write code in google script for others. Created half a dozen awesome sheets for others to sell. And inside is pure magic.
At least at this point code in google sheets feels like magic.

I made a short 30 minute video on how to get started writing code in Google Sheets. Which is available here: Learn Google Script.

My First SaaS

Coupon Maker came about because I was already making 5,000 coupon codes per product for 10 products. I got it done but I had to use curl commands and terminal and sign up on Gumroad as an Application.

When I tried to relate this to a few other people it was very very difficult to explain. Step by excruciating step. It wasn’t impossible to explain, just very hard.

But also if I showed a video, showed the steps, there were troubles along the way. And I thought, “there could be a better way” So I made an app: Coupon Maker that does the steps I was saying but all in a few clicks. Register and click, Gumroad authorize, 1 click. Add Products, 1 click. Make 5,000 coupons, 1 click. Altogether it’s possible now without any technical knowledge for a Gumroad Creator to make 100 or 1,000 or 5,000 coupons.

And you could be thinking “this might only be good for Black Friday” which is coming up very very soon. And yes that was a forcing function for me to build this app. BUT I’ve created templates of coupons that go far beyond a single holiday. And I’ve already determined a roadmap that extends far beyond any single day. Coupon Maker could become a standard of a Gumroad Creator’s tech presence.

Excited to work on Coupon Maker more. But first... gotta go build a website.

Building a new version of Better Sheets starting in 1 minute.