Re:Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers
by hodgesrm on Wednesday July 19, 2017 @01:16PM
(#14805930)
It's worth thinking about the team in advance, especially to understand what things you do well and where you need complementary talents. Good teams also work through the problems that are inevitable in new products. There's a great speech by Ed Catmull that makes this point well. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc)
Of course this is useless advice if you are doing a one-person business. :)
Re:Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers
by kfriede on Wednesday July 19, 2017 @10:53AM
(#14804683)
On the subject of not reading advice, do you have advice on how you get the word out to your side projects? How do you "market" them?
Re:Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers
by lettergram on Wednesday July 19, 2017 @03:37PM
(#14807241)
I find a good product needs some, but minimal marketing. Customers will recommend it to friends if it's a good fit and it'll continue to grow that way, and obviously try to get some SEO. To get started, I'll regularly post on Reddit, HN, Slack, Facebook, etc. (typically providing some insightful comment, using one of my applications) and I'll get signups. One of my particular posts recently got me 50 sign ups for my website, to put it into perspective.
Those people are also my target customers though, so it makes it easy.
When "marketing" to companies, a cold call, email, or intro from a friend usually can pique their interest. Then you just need a really good demo / app. Even then, they likely wont bite; hence I'm moving away from that business and mostly to consumer apps.
Re:Things I’ve Learned from Reading IndieHackers
by tixocloud on Wednesday July 19, 2017 @11:02AM
(#14804775)
Depending on your projects, are some of your friends better fit for them than others? How about friends of friends? What I've done is make a list of channels and spend some time with each channel. However, what really worked for me was my network.
I can't stand reading about startups, advice, etc. I regularly watch my friends, people on HN or Reddit fall into the folly of discussing different strategies or trying to create the "perfect team" or "perfect business" prior to launch.
I create products regularly, and many of them make a profit (not a ton yet, but all growing). My consumer facing apps include https://easy-a.net/ or https://projectpiglet.com/ both are (clearly) boot strapped together, but I launched as soon as I had anything resembling a product. What I will caution is that I did wait to launch the products until they were stable and easy enough to use. Sure, they don't look pretty, but it works.
I think advice (blogs or otherwise) are one of the largest hurdles an entrepreneur has to over come. Starting a business isn't about other people, it's about yourself and your business. Even going through things like YC's Startup School can be a detriment, because they fixate so heavily on various components of the business. Often, you just have to tune it out and do what's right. In this case, that's building something, speaking to customers, and improving.
Ironically, I think even this article is the same rehash of the 30 other stories I've seen (assuming the quote you took is from the article, as I didn't read it).
That being said, I do see value in interaction. Which is why I post comments like these on HN or discuss an idea. It's generated tons of leads and that is much more valuable.