Seeing this brings me back to reality after watching viral clips of Pieter Levels appearance on Lex Fridman's podcast where he talks about a few small AI wrapping websites that are making him a lot of money per month. Most of his success is attributed to the fact that he is developing in public with an audience looking to try out his products and he admits this himself in the episode. EDIT: of course if you enjoy the process of building in public then I say absolutely go for it!
Really like your content, I'm also doing an software startup with a partner, the app basically is like the idea of sharing your luggage space with the customer who wants to buy some stuff in the country where you travelled. And the app is about 90% completed and got tested by about 10 to 20 people. The business stuff is really the tough one, which for me I'm a self-taught software engineer who can do not only mobile, web, or backend stuff all by myself, but got no idea how should the app should get advertised.
I think you missed the point. Indie hacking isn't about avoiding focus; it's about validating your idea as quickly as possible. Indie hackers also understand that distribution is what truly matters, which is why consciously and and unconsciously they #buildinpublic. I believe it's going mainstream right now for two main reasons: 1. It's challenging to secure funding, so bootstrapping is often the best route. 2. AI is making it much easier to develop applications, and it will only get easier. This means that solopreneurs will have more opportunities to solve untapped problems that are too niche for startups to tackle.
I know the idea is to validate ideas quickly, but a lot of devs come to it from a place of “oh loads of things built, I will surely make money” but that’s not the case. A lot of them don’t build in public as much as they should, and lack that distribution.
Also, I think timing also matters. They were amongst the first to unlock the gem. Now that it’s the in thing to do, that means everyone rushes into it and then the space gets really saturated. Even after that, the developer has to be really good at marketing and that right there is the hard part of indie hacking, marketing.
@@EricHrahselideas can come at any time and anywhere about anything. More than likely most ideas you will have someone else will have too or will have already executed on it if it’s an idea with minimal barrier to entry. If you get it and you think it’s worth it, just go for it and see how it plays out. However, if you get successful with that, then you will see a lot of people try to copy your idea too and more competitors come in and you have to have a really good offering to keep being better than them all .
I definitely fell for the four hour work week indie hacking type mindset. But I realize like if I had 100 badly coded SaaS websites, I'm going to need to maintain all of those, which to me sounds more exhausting than a 9-5.
I fully agree but I think you missed highlighting something important; the more attempts you have the higher your chances of success are, but the goal shouldn't be developing as many products as possible, it should be to get to a point where you can get feedback as fast as reasonably possible and iterating as frequently as possible until an iteration gets positive feedback.
Yes yes- i potentially didn’t highlight that as much as id like. But I agree with this- if you can find product market fit through iterations, that’s super powerful. A lot of devs want to build too many different things thiugh
>one of my favourite software guy channels tells me to give up but i choose not to give up tbh I'm not making extremely small painkiller products but fully fledged "solutions" to stuff I'd like an app for, stuff I'd use on a daily basis, so I get who you're talking to Love these videos. Can't wait to see you in a +1M views podcast and say "haha I followed this guy for years he deserves it :)"
I appreciate the support. I dont necessarily believe you should give up, though I know my opinions can sound harsh. Unfortunately though, I think it’s a different perspective not enough developers get about indie hacking.
How do you know which things to focus on? As you said you also dabble around different things before focusing on agency business. For someone who doesn't know what to focus on yet, would you recommend more experimentation first?
@@julianabraham1007 yes and the more tickets you buy, the higher your chances 😃 the thing about making your own SaaS is, the price of a ticket is very cheap, just whether you want to put the effort in
It's not about the money, it's about the freedom you get when you do indie hacking. To be honest, I care only about having time to go the gym and sleep my 12 hours a day. Only work for 3 hours per day.
I totally agree on the fact that developing the product is not the most crucial part. It is finding product market fit (very difficult especially without an audience!) and then indeed finding a way to make people know you exist (the marketing part). I think 99%,9% of Saas ideas die on one of these two hills. I know because I made the mistake thinking developing was the main thing and then everything would take off without problems. I lost 8 months of time and income because of this naive perspective on things.
none of this matters if you do understand the science and mental outlook of product market fit; dissecting ICP’s activity flows and TAM opportunity is a skill more than what most realize. no different from the perfect shooting form for a basketball player. it matters.
All valid points. It’s impressive how you’ve managed to cram in so many experiences since high school. I'm curious how you got in touch with Ikea and managed to do a colab (saw it on your website)?
Seeing this brings me back to reality after watching viral clips of Pieter Levels appearance on Lex Fridman's podcast where he talks about a few small AI wrapping websites that are making him a lot of money per month. Most of his success is attributed to the fact that he is developing in public with an audience looking to try out his products and he admits this himself in the episode. EDIT: of course if you enjoy the process of building in public then I say absolutely go for it!
Exactly.
They sell to their audience and get exposure that way.
Their products are pretty average or bad in many cases.
yes, true
Really like your content, I'm also doing an software startup with a partner, the app basically is like the idea of sharing your luggage space with the customer who wants to buy some stuff in the country where you travelled. And the app is about 90% completed and got tested by about 10 to 20 people. The business stuff is really the tough one, which for me I'm a self-taught software engineer who can do not only mobile, web, or backend stuff all by myself, but got no idea how should the app should get advertised.
I think you missed the point. Indie hacking isn't about avoiding focus; it's about validating your idea as quickly as possible. Indie hackers also understand that distribution is what truly matters, which is why consciously and and unconsciously they #buildinpublic.
I believe it's going mainstream right now for two main reasons:
1. It's challenging to secure funding, so bootstrapping is often the best route.
2. AI is making it much easier to develop applications, and it will only get easier. This means that solopreneurs will have more opportunities to solve untapped problems that are too niche for startups to tackle.
I know the idea is to validate ideas quickly, but a lot of devs come to it from a place of “oh loads of things built, I will surely make money” but that’s not the case. A lot of them don’t build in public as much as they should, and lack that distribution.
Love the videos man! I came to the same conclusion when I discovered Marc Lou. No hate against any of the "winners" but they lack transparency.
yes, exactly
Also, I think timing also matters. They were amongst the first to unlock the gem. Now that it’s the in thing to do, that means everyone rushes into it and then the space gets really saturated. Even after that, the developer has to be really good at marketing and that right there is the hard part of indie hacking, marketing.
But how do we become the first takers?. We have to have the idea first than other people. How do we find that idea
@@EricHrahselideas can come at any time and anywhere about anything. More than likely most ideas you will have someone else will have too or will have already executed on it if it’s an idea with minimal barrier to entry. If you get it and you think it’s worth it, just go for it and see how it plays out. However, if you get successful with that, then you will see a lot of people try to copy your idea too and more competitors come in and you have to have a really good offering to keep being better than them all .
@@weiSane thanks for this. I am just lost where the idea will come from. I hear that we have to seek to solve a problems
I definitely fell for the four hour work week indie hacking type mindset. But I realize like if I had 100 badly coded SaaS websites, I'm going to need to maintain all of those, which to me sounds more exhausting than a 9-5.
You could sell it.
I feel like this guy reads in my mind
I fully agree but I think you missed highlighting something important; the more attempts you have the higher your chances of success are, but the goal shouldn't be developing as many products as possible, it should be to get to a point where you can get feedback as fast as reasonably possible and iterating as frequently as possible until an iteration gets positive feedback.
Yes yes- i potentially didn’t highlight that as much as id like. But I agree with this- if you can find product market fit through iterations, that’s super powerful. A lot of devs want to build too many different things thiugh
>one of my favourite software guy channels tells me to give up
but i choose not to give up
tbh I'm not making extremely small painkiller products but fully fledged "solutions" to stuff I'd like an app for, stuff I'd use on a daily basis, so I get who you're talking to
Love these videos. Can't wait to see you in a +1M views podcast and say "haha I followed this guy for years he deserves it :)"
I appreciate the support. I dont necessarily believe you should give up, though I know my opinions can sound harsh. Unfortunately though, I think it’s a different perspective not enough developers get about indie hacking.
How do you know which things to focus on?
As you said you also dabble around different things before focusing on agency business. For someone who doesn't know what to focus on yet, would you recommend more experimentation first?
Explore an try things brother.
Same question here
We only see the success stories but the success rate in reality is really low, isn't it the same as playing a lottery?
only the ones that play get to win; keep grovelling
@@julianabraham1007 yes and the more tickets you buy, the higher your chances 😃
the thing about making your own SaaS is, the price of a ticket is very cheap, just whether you want to put the effort in
Yes exactly, that’s the point of the video
It's not about the money, it's about the freedom you get when you do indie hacking. To be honest, I care only about having time to go the gym and sleep my 12 hours a day. Only work for 3 hours per day.
But you have some good points about indie hacking, distribution is important.
Here's your mandatory comment for the RUclips Algorithm. Keep up the good work👍.
thank you
Love that honesty 😊
I totally agree on the fact that developing the product is not the most crucial part. It is finding product market fit (very difficult especially without an audience!) and then indeed finding a way to make people know you exist (the marketing part). I think 99%,9% of Saas ideas die on one of these two hills. I know because I made the mistake thinking developing was the main thing and then everything would take off without problems. I lost 8 months of time and income because of this naive perspective on things.
Distribution < market research.
Agree 👍🏽 100%
This.
I think following the indie hacking 20+ apps is just a distraction.
Why not focus on 1 product, and 100x that instead of dividing focus.
Because no one knows which “App” will return 100x. That’s why VCs fund many startups, even they are not sure which one will work.
good points.
none of this matters if you do understand the science and mental outlook of product market fit; dissecting ICP’s activity flows and TAM opportunity is a skill more than what most realize. no different from the perfect shooting form for a basketball player. it matters.
All valid points. It’s impressive how you’ve managed to cram in so many experiences since high school. I'm curious how you got in touch with Ikea and managed to do a colab (saw it on your website)?
It was actually through another organisation, I didn't get in touch w them directly
Great content
🎉
Are you going to attend any meetup here is Lisbon? I would like to meet you
The woman in the red dress, lacking focus with multiple projects, your Skool community. Well, I think you follow Hormozi, right? 👀
Yes hahaha
@@joao__nm Subscribed to your Skool community, btw 👀
Can you do more videos on saas and micro saas businesses
Go on startup school?