Here are a few of my thoughts…
What are some things you should *NOT* do as an indie hacker?
Here are a few of my thoughts…
E.g. advice that works for a high-growth VC-funded startup might be disastrous to your indie business.
You'll end up overvaluing and over-protecting your pet ideas. Or worse, you'll never come up with an idea at all, because you'll assume that it needs to be something completely new.
Talk to customers about what you're doing from day #1. Figure out where they hang online and learn from their conversations. Try to get a strong sense of what they'll think about your product before you waste months building it.
Going from 1M to 2M users requires a bulletproof strategy, considerable knowledge, and a healthy dose of luck. Going from 1 to 2 users requires… a conversation.
Many of the strategies that work at scale are often deadly to early-stage companies.
More from Makers
1/ I wanted to show you some sneak peek this week, but instead we DEPLOYED TO PRODUCTION 🔥😄
If you’re a creator, get an invite here 👉 https://t.co/D8H6g8TL9o
Week 2 highlights: our first ever podcast 🎙, meeting @Jason 🦄, shipping @BREWdotcom alpha 🚢 & laptop stickers!
2/ First off, thanks for the mind-blowing response last week (120k+ views 😲 omgwtfasdasd!)… absolutely pushed us to get the product out there.
also, there’s something magical about watching people try a buggy product and fixing it on the go 🤓
3/ Thanks @JasonDemant for inviting us to grab some behind the scenes at @LAUNCH.
As a huge fan and avid listener of the @TWistartups show🎙, it was great watching @Jason do his thing live!
4/ 🎙@domainnamewire invited us to chat about acquiring https://t.co/GOQJ7L2faV domain and that was officially our first podcast ever. Check it out here: https://t.co/eusVCOlUSb.
You nailed it your first time, Maddy! 🍻 Thanks for having us on the show, Andrew.
5/ Great news: Brew partnered with @Tipalti to enable payouts for creators everywhere (unlike @kickstarter which only support 26 countries).
Platforms like Twitch use Tipalti to payout instantly and via multiple methods like Check, PayPal, local bank transfer, etc.
If you’re a creator, get an invite here 👉 https://t.co/D8H6g8TL9o
Week 2 highlights: our first ever podcast 🎙, meeting @Jason 🦄, shipping @BREWdotcom alpha 🚢 & laptop stickers!
2/ First off, thanks for the mind-blowing response last week (120k+ views 😲 omgwtfasdasd!)… absolutely pushed us to get the product out there.
also, there’s something magical about watching people try a buggy product and fixing it on the go 🤓
1/ \U0001f44b Excited to share what we\u2019ve been building at https://t.co/GOQJ7LjQ2t + we are going to tweetstorm our progress every week!
— Jijo Sunny (@JijoSunny) November 6, 2018
Week 1 highlights: getting shortlisted for YC W2019\U0001f91e, acquiring a premium domain\U0001f4b0, meeting Substack's @hamishmckenzie and Stripe CEO @patrickc \U0001f929
3/ Thanks @JasonDemant for inviting us to grab some behind the scenes at @LAUNCH.
As a huge fan and avid listener of the @TWistartups show🎙, it was great watching @Jason do his thing live!
4/ 🎙@domainnamewire invited us to chat about acquiring https://t.co/GOQJ7L2faV domain and that was officially our first podcast ever. Check it out here: https://t.co/eusVCOlUSb.
You nailed it your first time, Maddy! 🍻 Thanks for having us on the show, Andrew.
5/ Great news: Brew partnered with @Tipalti to enable payouts for creators everywhere (unlike @kickstarter which only support 26 countries).
Platforms like Twitch use Tipalti to payout instantly and via multiple methods like Check, PayPal, local bank transfer, etc.
And here they are...
THE WINNERS OF THE 24 HOUR STARTUP CHALLENGE
Remember, this money is just fun. If you launched a product (or even attempted a launch) - you did something worth MUCH more than $1,000.
#24hrstartup
The winners 👇
#10
Lattes For Change - Skip a latte and save a life.
https://t.co/M75RAirZzs
@frantzfries built a platform where you can see how skipping your morning latte could do for the world.
A great product for a great cause.
Congrats Chris on winning $250!
#9
Instaland - Create amazing landing pages for your followers.
https://t.co/5KkveJTAsy
A team project! @bpmct and @BaileyPumfleet built a tool for social media influencers to create simple "swipe up" landing pages for followers.
Really impressive for 24 hours. Congrats!
#8
SayHenlo - Chat without distractions
https://t.co/og0B7gmkW6
Built by @DaltonEdwards, it's a platform for combatting conversation overload. This product was also coded exclusively from an iPad 😲
Dalton is a beast. I'm so excited he placed in the top 10.
#7
CoderStory - Learn to code from developers across the globe!
https://t.co/86Ay6nF4AY
Built by @jesswallaceuk, the project is focused on highlighting the experience of developers and people learning to code.
I wish this existed when I learned to code! Congrats on $250!!
THE WINNERS OF THE 24 HOUR STARTUP CHALLENGE
Remember, this money is just fun. If you launched a product (or even attempted a launch) - you did something worth MUCH more than $1,000.
#24hrstartup
The winners 👇
#10
Lattes For Change - Skip a latte and save a life.
https://t.co/M75RAirZzs
@frantzfries built a platform where you can see how skipping your morning latte could do for the world.
A great product for a great cause.
Congrats Chris on winning $250!
#9
Instaland - Create amazing landing pages for your followers.
https://t.co/5KkveJTAsy
A team project! @bpmct and @BaileyPumfleet built a tool for social media influencers to create simple "swipe up" landing pages for followers.
Really impressive for 24 hours. Congrats!
#8
SayHenlo - Chat without distractions
https://t.co/og0B7gmkW6
Built by @DaltonEdwards, it's a platform for combatting conversation overload. This product was also coded exclusively from an iPad 😲
Dalton is a beast. I'm so excited he placed in the top 10.
#7
CoderStory - Learn to code from developers across the globe!
https://t.co/86Ay6nF4AY
Built by @jesswallaceuk, the project is focused on highlighting the experience of developers and people learning to code.
I wish this existed when I learned to code! Congrats on $250!!
First update to https://t.co/lDdqjtKTZL since the challenge ended – Medium links!! Go add your Medium profile now 👀📝 (thanks @diannamallen for the suggestion 😁)
Just added Telegram links to https://t.co/lDdqjtKTZL too! Now you can provide a nice easy way for people to message you :)
Less than 1 hour since I started adding stuff to https://t.co/lDdqjtKTZL again, and profile pages are now responsive!!! 🥳 Check it out -> https://t.co/fVkEL4fu0L
Accounts page is now also responsive!! 📱✨
💪 I managed to make the whole site responsive in about an hour. On my roadmap I had it down as 4-5 hours!!! 🤘🤠🤘
Just added Telegram links to https://t.co/lDdqjtKTZL too! Now you can provide a nice easy way for people to message you :)
Less than 1 hour since I started adding stuff to https://t.co/lDdqjtKTZL again, and profile pages are now responsive!!! 🥳 Check it out -> https://t.co/fVkEL4fu0L
Accounts page is now also responsive!! 📱✨
💪 I managed to make the whole site responsive in about an hour. On my roadmap I had it down as 4-5 hours!!! 🤘🤠🤘
To people who are under the impression that you can get rich quickly by working on an app, here are the stats for https://t.co/az8F12pf02
📈 ~12000 vistis
☑️ 109 transactions
💰 353€ profit (285 after tax)
I have spent 1.5 months on this app. You can make more $ in 2 days.
🤷♂️
I'm still happy that I launched a paid app bcs it involved extra work:
- backend for processing payments (+ permissions, webhooks, etc)
- integration with payment processor
- UI for license activation in Electron
- machine activation limit
- autoupdates
- mailgun emails
etc.
These things seemed super scary at first. I always thought it was way too much work and something would break. But I'm glad I persisted. So far the only problem I have is that mailgun is not delivering the license keys to certain domains like https://t.co/6Bqn0FUYXo etc. 👌
omg I just realized that me . com is an Apple domain, of course something wouldn't work with these dicks
📈 ~12000 vistis
☑️ 109 transactions
💰 353€ profit (285 after tax)
I have spent 1.5 months on this app. You can make more $ in 2 days.
🤷♂️
I'm still happy that I launched a paid app bcs it involved extra work:
- backend for processing payments (+ permissions, webhooks, etc)
- integration with payment processor
- UI for license activation in Electron
- machine activation limit
- autoupdates
- mailgun emails
etc.
These things seemed super scary at first. I always thought it was way too much work and something would break. But I'm glad I persisted. So far the only problem I have is that mailgun is not delivering the license keys to certain domains like https://t.co/6Bqn0FUYXo etc. 👌
omg I just realized that me . com is an Apple domain, of course something wouldn't work with these dicks