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Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

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Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#51

Post by shudza »

JonChesterfield wrote: post #45
shudza wrote: post #19

Let me tell you a little secret... You don't need to be a developer to be an entrepreneur, you are not in advantage to other non-dev entrepreneurs, and you are most probably worse entrepreneur than others. The better entrepreneurs are the ones with sales, marketing and growth hacking skills, the ones who "fake it till they make it", etc. If you are all that, you are probably a not-so-good dev anyway. If you wanna be…

Raising significant funds based on neither prototype nor personal record sounds impossible. How would one do so?

I know it does, but people still do it. I guess small budget for bootstraping, no-code, angel investors, and who knows what else, whatever it takes. Don't get me wrong, being a dev certainly helps, but you will probably still need one of those things. The competition is very high in this world.

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#52

Post by Mochila »

Hi pcauthorn, I would recommend to read some of paul graham's work "Do thing's that don't scale", as well as begin reading/watching some great information on entrepreneur published on yCombinator youtube channel. The best way to meet someone who has problem that needs to be solved is to get experience in that field and interact with people who are currently working in that area. For example, if you are interested in working in applications for food service, try working in bars/restaurants around your area and find out what the pain-points are for these restaurants.

In regards with meeting someone currently I am participating in yCombinator StartUpSchool program, where they allow you to meet other founders/hackers with similar skills and goals.

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#53

Post by NCC1701DEngage »

Mochila wrote: post #52

Hi pcauthorn, I would recommend to read some of paul graham's work "Do thing's that don't scale", as well as begin reading/watching some great information on entrepreneur published on yCombinator youtube channel. The best way to meet someone who has problem that needs to be solved is to get experience in that field and interact with people who are currently working in that area. For example, if you are interested in…

>as well as begin reading/watching some great information on entrepreneur published on yCombinator youtube channel.

You ever hear of Slidebean?

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4bq21IPPbpu0Qrsl7LW0sw

I found their channel through the list of similar channel suggestions for Y Combinator here:

https://channelgalaxy.com/id%3DUCcefcZRL2oaA_uBNeo5UOWg/

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#54

Post by pdimitar »

bombcar wrote: post #11
bluehatbrit wrote: post #7

People have problems, go and meet people. Pick an industry you think you might be interested in exploring and then start attending their meetups and events. Speak to people, ask them what their problems are. A great place to start is finding industries where most people you meet describe themselves as "not technical" or "bad with technology", they're often massively underserved. You'll know you've hit gold when you s…

This is huge - get away from the tech industry and you'll find various amounts of problems to be solved, and if you can generalize it enough, you can get something successful. Here's one I thought of and haven't found a solution for yet - a cheap "vendor portal" where vendors can submit invoices. Everything that exists apparently is enterprise and tens of thousands of dollars; which is out of reach of individuals and…

What do you mean by "vendors submit invoices", exactly? Not sure I see the value.

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#55

Post by readonthegoapp »

you can always just look for complaints -- online or in real life -- people complaining about whatever represents 'problems' that you might be interested in solving.

i read a lot of anarchist stuff many moons ago and it seems to instill a pretty strong sense of -- "well this thing is bleeped up, and someone should fix it, hey maybe we should fix it, hey if i can't find anyone to help maybe i should just fix it" mentality.

now, it's never _worked_ for me in terms of - i've never had a successful business - but i have no shortage of the bazillion things i'm trying to fix -- problems that need solving, imo.

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