You're not a startup.
That's it. That's the tweet.
Traditional startups (that take funding) fail a high percentage of the time. But you ( the Indie Hacker ) are working hard to make something sustainable that will support your lifestyle. It doesn't have to "change the world" or have 1M users to do that.
It's so easy to forget that being small and solo is not only ok, but preferable to a lot of us for a reason. In a lot of cases, autonomy is one of our main motivational drivers to become soloprenuers.
What drives you to be an Indie Hacker?
The allure of making a high income that can be made mostly-passive from time to time so I can enjoy life on my own terms.
Besides, no job offers such a high "freedom" index (when, where, what, with whom) compared to a successful SaaS app.