An insight is a thought that I wouldn’t think without external input. Therefore looking for external inputs is crucial to gain new insights.
Here are lessons I’ve collected from successful indie hackers:
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Organic traffic from Pinterest works better than you’d expect
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Find a niche, define a niche—it’s hard to pinpoint but essential
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Start working on something, release a prototype after 2-6 weeks. Don’t invest months or years in something without users.
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Focus on SEO and social media, classic marketing is dead
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You don’t need to read more books, interviews or whatever
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The subscription model helps you to stay afloat—people will pay for a product they use every day (and thus, derive value from every day). If your product is not used every day, but only once per month or so, expect way lower revenue.
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Do a subset of the competitor features but do it really well. Remember the Innovator’s Dilemma. Worse is better for new products, because competitors over time add so many features that they become bloated, and so a newer entrant can create a basic version that doesn’t have all the features, but it has the top 1 or 2 or even 3 features that most customers want, for a lower price. This usually will win out and the cycle continues.
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Have a lot of patience
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Don’t focus on the revenue
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Don’t try to build a new hype machine (like Angry Birds)
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Get into an existing successful category/product
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Very important to understand the customer and genuinely try to make a product that is better than the competition, you should love your product
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Automate everything as you are a sole person
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Don’t spend too much time on analytics, SEO and other optimizations—it might take two years before you see traction
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Get to ramen profitability first—less stress
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Focus on sales, not tech
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Don’t expect explosive growth, expect linear growth (lookup slow SaaS ramp of death for what to expect)
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Paid ads are a waste of money (have to have a fire before pouring fuel)
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When thinking about pricing and charging money remember about the support, no such thing as no support
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Anxiety eats at you
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Cash flow must include everything, don’t underestimate it:
- business expenses, e.g. hardware, infrastructure, software, tools and services
- personal expenses, e.g. investments, savings, shelter, food
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Keep the app as simple as possible, beyond simple. So simple so that even Steve Jobs would say it’s too simple.
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Don’t reinvent the marketing, see what worked for others and use it. Simplify and simplify.
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Talk to customers, friends and family. Don’t just write code. Be social.