31–40 of 102 posts
And then drop it and just start working.
There is a large swath of self-branded Indie Hackers who cling to books, blogs, conferences etc. but are too paralyzed by all the advice and input to actually do the one thing they need to: get customers.
Disclaimer: I run my own SaaS and visit Indiehacker meetups and stuff. I’m not a nay sayer, just stay skeptical.
The SaaS Build section focuses on building with a team, but other sections don't make assumptions about team vs one-person business setup.
Lots of specifics which certain other books lack. The book is not 100% finished.
Your life will be more challenging if you start a SAAS business. It will not be easier. The only people in SAAS I know with an easy life poured their life into their company and things came good. Investors are starting to see SAAS as a 10yr investment, to give you a sense of time. Ironically those I know who have done well are some of the busiest people I know. I guess they are driven and love their work.
I think what you are describing is working part time. Maybe this is a valid option if you want to have more time doing your own thing?
The startup world likes the approach of make a plan and work backwards which is what you are currently doing. I would just suggest you re-frame your expectations. Read Peter Thiel's books but talk to the average SAAS Joe as well as we are not all SAAS rock stars :-)
I'm stuck on your opening statement rather than your question. I did the 40hr week and now do what you aspire to do. Your life will be more challenging if you start a SAAS business. It will not be easier. The only people in SAAS I know with an easy life poured their life into their company and things came good. Investors are starting to see SAAS as a 10yr investment, to give you a sense of time. Ironically those I kn…
I'm stuck on your opening statement rather than your question. I did the 40hr week and now do what you aspire to do. Your life will be more challenging if you start a SAAS business. It will not be easier. The only people in SAAS I know with an easy life poured their life into their company and things came good. Investors are starting to see SAAS as a 10yr investment, to give you a sense of time. Ironically those I kn…
How does it feel knowing you are going to die and get buried and probably never accomplish that goal? Because it’s time for you to open yourself to that grim reality.
A one man SaaS will take a lot more of your time than your 40 hour a week job. Do you plan to have a wife and kid(s)? Those will also take more of your time. Your time is going to get eaten up between your one man SaaS, your family, maintaining yourself (food, sleep, exercise). After all those things have been attended to, then maybe you will have some time to spend on things you actually enjoy.
Be straight with what you want man and don’t beat around the bush. Do you want a SaaS business, or do you just want a way to make great money with as little effort as possible so you can trade work time for fun time doing whatever you want?
Because there is plenty of advice that can be given for the latter, and none of it involves SaaS. The first step to living a life of productive leisure is to admit that you simply want a life of leisure, and go straight for it. Don’t come up with indirect paths like building a SaaS that you think will sound more acceptable or noble to the rest of society or your parents.
But if you’re hellbent on a SaaS because you just want a SaaS, good luck to you. Hopefully building a SaaS is how you want to spend the majority of your time.
It's a paradox that in order to obtain more free time you'll likely have to spend years handing over hour upon hour to your business.
If you pull it off, however, the business will give you back that time with freedom as interest.
I don't have a book to recommend but this guy's comments are usually gold: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jasonkester. He offers good advice and seems to live the life that you aspire to. Note the ten years of work though:
> The entire goal of building a business, in my mind, is to get the point where you can lounge on a beach or travel the world and not need to actively engage in anything except the pursuit of happiness. I personally averaged out at a little less than four hours of work per week in 2017, running the sort of low maintenance, feature complete, Software-as-a-Service business that the author spends a paragraph explaining is not in fact a "serious company".
> But look at the product and you'll see craftsmanship. Ten years of work, in fact as of roughly today. But never at the author's pace. Always at mine. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. That's the great thing about building a business. You can do it any way you like.
Fellow aspiring solo founder here! Here are a few books/resources I've found helpful: --- The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick This book stresses the idea of starting with customer interviews before you build anything and how to ask questions of prospective customers to get meaningful information when people's bias is to just tell you, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," even though they'd never pay money for it. I spen…
This was invaluable to me when getting started with my SaaS.