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Explainer video is now live!

Just pushed a new version of the site live, with a video of me explaining my intentions :)

https://www.mojosaas.com

Note: there's no product yet, this is just a statement of intent! The product is launching next month.

I learned a lot from building 7 startups in 7 months so I want to apply some of the more fundamental lessons learned to this new venture. The top 3 are:

  1. Be fully open with revenue / usage metrics. There are a few reasons for this, but I think most important is that it adds some accountability. Previously when my metrics were private, it was easy to shrug off questions about growth, stick my head in the sand and mumble something about finding product-market fit. Now that everything is open, I have nothing to hide behind and no excuses to make!

  2. Have a clear goal. When I was doing the previous startup challenge, the goal was simply to ship. I think that's a good starting point, but at some point you have to call time and ask yourself what this is all in aid of. For me, I want to build something into a sustainable business - so I'm setting a revenue target.

  3. Go niche. I think the scope went too broad in my last startup attempt (https://www.yongfook.com/talkshow-pivot.html) and I was getting into a sort of larger startup territory where the problem was somewhat undefined and new. I don't think this is good territory for an indiehacker (ok ok... I'm captain obvious) so I need to realign myself to more niche problems. Ideally, ones that people already know they have, and are looking for a solution. Again, it sounds really obvious... but for some reason I got a bit carried away so it's good to step back and say "I should be working on solving smaller, clearer problems".

  1. 1

    This is interesting! I wouldn't mind trying this myself... How are you showing the stripe revenue on the site?

    1. 1

      if you open your javascript console you'll see that I actually show you how it's done:

      https://imgur.com/a/qX4S9vL

  2. 1

    When will you be telling us about your first SaaS?

    1. 2

      October 1st launching the first product :)

  3. 1

    Wow all the best! You must be having lots of savings to take you through the journey.Do you have plans to sale off other products that you made during the challenge

  4. 1

    Interesting stuff. You mentioned going niche, while also mentioning Justin. What are your thoughts on his latest line of thinking around going too niche (https://justinjackson.ca/beach)?

    1. 1

      IMO as an solo dev you won't have much success at either end of the spectrum. You aren't going to be the next facebook, in the same way that you probably won't make money selling ice cream in the winter.

      What I'm saying is, I think it's better as a solo dev to work on solving smaller, well-defined problems that people already know they have.

  5. 0

    Are you working solo or with a team like a developer or designer or marketer? Just curious.

    1. 1

      solo, hence me being on indiehackers :)

  6. 1

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