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
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
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.

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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!!! 🤘🤠🤘
I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.
I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.
In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.
So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.
Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.
Ironies of Luck https://t.co/5BPWGbAxFi
— Morgan Housel (@morganhousel) March 14, 2018
"Luck is the flip side of risk. They are mirrored cousins, driven by the same thing: You are one person in a 7 billion player game, and the accidental impact of other people\u2019s actions can be more consequential than your own."
I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.
In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.
So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.
Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.