After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.
1–10 of 153 posts
Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.
#2I feel that I have lost a year of my life.
I had a similar feeling some 10 years ago after my first startup failed. I felt that I had wasted one year of my life and was very bitter about the failure and the personal sacrifices that came with it.
In time my thinking came around. I better understood my limits, knew my preferences, and developed some new capabilities. I was also better able to navigate startup #2 which is still going great as a bootstrapped company. My cofounder ended up on a corporate software dev team, and is also doing well.
Bottom line: things will get better. Regard this as a learning experience that helped determine a more rewarding future path (probably not doing your own startup, but that's OK, too)
Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.
#3This is a difficult post to respond to
Firstly, your issue doesn't seem to be anything other than social anxiety
If you have to 'lose sleep' after contacting someone on LinkedIn about your product, then you are just not suited to doing a startup
Secondly, there is nothing to feel bad about
Vast majority of people are not suited to starting a company or working in a small startup
Lots of good jobs in middle and large companies for you
Thirdly, the scale of stuff you are talking about is miniscule
I walked away from a Green Card to start my company
If I didn't succeed, I would have lost access to the developed world FOREVER
You are upset that your girlfriend had to stay at home one year and you couldn't take her out for dinner????
Finally, this is a Catch 22 situation. Not sure why you are submitting this or writing about your experience if the ENTIRE reason you quit was you couldn't handle doing sales and marketing and putting yourself out there
I'm reluctant to respond because people who have social anxiety can sometimes take genuine feedback and mis-interpret it
What I'm trying to say is that the extent of the risk you took is not very high
And the reason that stuff didn't work out is your social anxiety
So just make sure you don't take the wrong feedback from what life is telling you
Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.
#4I would have rather tried and failed than to have never given it ago.
Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.
#5I wish there was a better support framework in the US for people who want to quit their jobs and work on ideas. I really, really hate working for other people but the things I would like to work on instead are time-consuming and the core work is not easily farmed out.
I'm currently saving up to do just that and its like, "I could buy a house with this money" or "I could go on sabbatical with this money", or "I could bet everything on a business that may or may not succeed and potentially lose it all"
And if I do? There is nothing except going back to the tech grind, or homelessness, or another (far less lucrative) career. Unemployment won't help me (which is complete and utter BULLSHIT for the amount of money I've paid into it), and I'd be ineligible for social security due to that previous tech income hanging over my head. There are no, "sorry you failed, here's some money to get back on your feet and try again" grants
It really underscores the reality that most of these founders have rich family or friends to fall back on.
Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.
#6I feel that I have lost a year of my life. I had a similar feeling some 10 years ago after my first startup failed. I felt that I had wasted one year of my life and was very bitter about the failure and the personal sacrifices that came with it. In time my thinking came around. I better understood my limits, knew my preferences, and developed some new capabilities. I was also better able to navigate startup #2 which…
Agree with this sentiment. When you're in the moment, it may feel as if you're loosing time. But failing should be the best school you ever have. You might had to do research on X or train some aspects of your development skills etc. You always take that with you. The experience itself, is never lost.
Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.
#7[deleted]
Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.
#8From another article written by the same author, it looks like the author mainly tried to create two-sided businesses (e.g., markeplaces/social networks):
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-i-failed-6-side-projec...
This is one of the most difficult kinds of business to start. You need to attract both content creators (sellers) and content consumers (buyers). Attracting just one group is hard enough. Attracting both is just about impossible. It's even harder when you're kind of shy and sensitive to criticism.
Hats off to the author for trying the almost impossible anyway. I imagine there are some really good lessons in that experience.
Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.
#9Yeah, running a financial endeavor like a software business requires you to be 50% tireless robot and 50% narcissist cheerleader. Most people can't do that.
Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.
#10Coming up with good ideas is hard. Executing on them is hard. Marketing and selling the end product is hard. The same person being able to do all three is damn near impossible. That's why you need a co-founder.