What are some things you should *NOT* do as an indie hacker?

I was recently on @ProductHunt Radio (https://t.co/IuSMrZTaYG) where @Abadesi asked me this question about all sorts of challenges that founders face.

Here are a few of my thoughts…
@ProductHunt @Abadesi Don't blindly follow advice without considering the context in which the advice was given (from who, to who, when, for what) and adapting it to fit your personal situation.

E.g. advice that works for a high-growth VC-funded startup might be disastrous to your indie business.
@ProductHunt @Abadesi (This applies to any and all advice in life, btw, not just advice for how to start and run a company. It's almost never a good time to turn off your brain and blindly follow what others are saying.)
@ProductHunt @Abadesi Don't equate being a founder with being an inventor. It's an analogy that can easily go too far.

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.
@ProductHunt @Abadesi There are many thousands of businesses that solve more-or-less the same old problems, but in unique ways, or for a unique segment of customers, etc. You're probably better off picking a very straightforward problem to solve, and then getting innovative with your solution.
@ProductHunt @Abadesi Don't wait to start learning from your customers.

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.
@ProductHunt @Abadesi Don't try to be too clever when finding your first users.

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.
@ProductHunt @Abadesi More broadly, don't copy founders or companies who are way further ahead than you are. If you're going to copy them, copy what they did in the early days, not what they're doing now.

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.

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1

From today, we will memorize the names of 27 Nakshatras in Vedic Jyotish to never forget in life.

I will write 4 names. Repeat them in SAME sequence twice in morning, noon, evening. Each day, revise new names + recall all previously learnt names.

Pls RT if you are in.

2

Today's Nakshatras are:-

1. Ashwini - अश्विनी

2. Bharani - भरणी

3. Krittika - कृत्तिका

4. Rohini - रोहिणी

Ashwini - अश्विनी is the FIRST Nakshatra.

Repeat these names TWICE now, tomorrow morning, noon and evening. Like this tweet if you have revised 8 times as told.

3

Today's Nakshatras are:-

5. Mrigashira - मृगशिरा

6. Ardra - आर्द्रा

7. Punarvasu - पुनर्वसु

8. Pushya - पुष्य

First recall previously learnt Nakshatras twice. Then recite these TWICE now, tomorrow morning, noon & evening in SAME order. Like this tweet only after doing so.

4

Today's Nakshatras are:-

9. Ashlesha - अश्लेषा

10. Magha - मघा

11. Purvaphalguni - पूर्वाफाल्गुनी

12. Uttaraphalguni - उत्तराफाल्गुनी

Purva means that comes before (P se Purva, P se pehele), and Uttara comes later.

Read next tweet too.

5

Purva, Uttara prefixes come in other Nakshatras too. Purva= pehele wala. Remember.

First recall previously learnt 8 Nakshatras twice. Then recite those in Tweet #4 TWICE now, tomorrow morning, noon & evening in SAME order. Like this tweet if you have read Tweets #4 & 5, both.
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!!! 🤘🤠🤘
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.