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Persisting as a solo founder

vishnu.tech

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Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#61

Post by wolco »

jahbrewski wrote: post #46
superasn wrote: post #10

Being a solo founder myself here are a few tips I would like to add: 1. Solo founders are most often devs, which means they focus 90% of their energy on dev and what little remains on marketing. Unfortunately this is a easy trap to fall into and you should invest equal if not more time doing/learning SEO, content marketing (which you've done here very successfully btw) and building an audience. 2. Making a product wi…

While I agree with the sentiment of #1, I would argue that sales are more important than marketing at this stage. You can spin your wheels “learning SEO” and “creating content” with very little tangible results. In the beginning, sales + product are just about all that matter.

Sales without marketing isn't the best strategy, it literally turns you into a one man[selling machine where everything is based on your time. Marketing develops channels of customers.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#62

Post by vishnumohandas »

huzaif wrote: post #55

Solo Founder. I have done Meditation, gratitude journals and focused transitions. It all helps. However, for me the activity that helps the most is hard workouts early in the morning. Once I get going, I am fighting against gravity and fatigue. I am no longer thinking about my past, future or even the day. Just focused on the moment. I am in a similar boat as you OP. I am very happy on a daily basis, building the pro…

> hard workouts early in the morning

This is interesting, thanks for sharing, I’ll try this out.

All the best to you too. It’s good to know that you’re happy. I hope everything works out the way you want them to.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#63

Post by wolco »

tenaciousDaniel wrote: post #52
graeme wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people don’t do technical SEO right. It sounds like you’re asking about whether there is something other than technical SEO and links to do right? Not really. If you write good content, with relevant keywords, and people link to it, that is good SEO. Not clear what distinction you’re trying to draw. There may be some scammy stuff with short term results, but you’re always one step away from an algo change or…

There's gotta be like a github repo somewhere that lays out the actual technical aspects of SEO, without any of the bullshit. Anyone know of a project like that?

It would change based on google rollouts. A forum would have more upto date information.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#64

Post by lonesword »

I see that you worked for a FAANG - how much of your motivation for building ente.io came from an insider view of how corporations leverage user data? In other words, did your stint at a FAANG fuel your desire for a privacy friendly photos alternative?

P.S: Native Malayalam speaker here - love the name "ente.io". Nannayi varatte :)

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#66

Post by osrec »

I set up Bx (https://usebx.com) a solo founder/dev in 2017, after a fairly good career in finance (got to MD-level at a bulge bracket bank front office in ~7 years, but was extremely unfulfilled despite the decent money).

First few months were tough (no money, no customers), but things suddenly clicked towards the end of 2018 and we got a fair few users. I even managed to sell to a few corporate clients, which really bumped up the revenue. The version from 2017 still serves as the core product today (with a few tweaks for our corporate clients). Three years on, after receiving lots of feedback from our users, we're getting ready to launch Bx 2.0 in the next few months. I can honestly say, nothing has been more enjoyable than working on Bx, despite the ups and downs.

I don't think I would have stuck it out for so long if I had a co-founder, as I've generally not found many people I can work with for a prolonged period of time. I think the most freeing thing about being a solo founder, is that you can own your mistakes without having to be answerable to anyone.

To be honest, even in my finance job, I operated as a bit of a lone wolf on the desk, so working solo just happens to suit me. I admit I am not the best team player, but I am a good at delegating, dependable and back myself to get difficult stuff done. I think those things are really important when you have no one else to rely on or blame as a solo founder.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#67

Post by searchableguy »

vishnumohandas wrote: post #15
senojretep356 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with most of this although I think if you do privacy well there is a core of people willing to pay so yes your market is much smaller but still potentially valuable. My issue really is with taking 7 months to build and not shipping anything. I see the authors comment that he's not a fan of ship fast and apologise later but surely you can put a beta out there even if it's just for feedback from the indie hacke…

> taking 7 months to build and not shipping anything So I spent the first couple of months chasing an on-premise alternative to photo storage[1]. Then I realized that the product was difficult to sell, and required a substantial investment of capital so I pivoted to an E2EE alternative on the cloud. I also spent a non-trivial amount of time trying to raise investment, which I regret at this point. > how long are you…

That looks interesting. Have you tried posting it to privacy groups?

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#68

Post by xgenecloud »

rattray wrote: post #17

Bit of a side note, but the author mentioned https://GitHub.audio , which I'm quite enjoying. However, that site says it plays "string plucks" which I'm not sure I can hear, or at least discern from "bell dings". Is it working properly?

https://GitHub.audio was fun

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#69

Post by halfmatthalfcat »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #38
halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #25

Also a solo founder here. The comment about going from dev to marketer is huge. I'm in that phase now and it's pretty daunting. I've spent so much time obsessing about the product and now that I finally have something...how do I get people to use it? I just started brainstorming ideas and it's actually fun to start diving into something I haven't had to think about before. Yes, daunting but so is everything about bei…

I think marketing it becomes a lot easier if you build with it in mind. If you know what you're building will excite your target demographic, it's super easy to market.

Easy in theory, however difficult in execution.

I'm D2C, so social media strategy, brand building and generally getting enough volume to convert in order to sustain the product without a huge ad budget is very tedious. Very much the long game to get people interested (probably over the course of years unless you go viral and have good network effects).

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#70

Post by langitbiru »

sahillavingia wrote: post #65

Solo founder of Gumroad here. Highly recommended. It forced me to learn a lot more about every aspect of building a business than I would have otherwise. I'm also a fan of investing in solo founders: https://shl.vc

Ah, Sahil, I remember your tweet: if you can build and sell, the world is your oyster. :)

I'm also a solo founder. I'm happy that you have sympathy to solo founders. Maybe I'll apply to your VC later.

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