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After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

indiehackers.com

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Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#21

Post by fierarul »

Yes, making money with a personal project is much harder than the pop articles make it seem.

People that stay at a job might actually just have a much more accurate assessment of chances involved and their own capabilities.

That job at Amazon? Go for it! It probably has some stock options too.

Honestly the whole idea of startups has been somehow perverted beyond belief. At least from reading the US news, startups are basically a standardised product themselves, in the same way you have building codes. For an investor the startup is a fungible sprocket that just found a different niche. This kind of... conformity seems the opposite to any true creative business making.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#22

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

blunte wrote: post #12

Not that this helps the author, but some of the most successful people failed many times before succeeding. In fact, those who fail before becoming successful seem to be better able to repeat success than those who win on the first try. There is a big element of luck in success, so multiple attempts may be necessary even if funding is available.

Steve Jobs did NeXt, which was considered a "failure."

However, NeXtOS (and NeXtStep) became MacOS, then iOS, which is the operating system for the iPhone; probably the most successful product ever made.

I empathize with the author, but it takes a lot to be an indie hacker. I am not an indie hacker. I'm a software engineer that is doing my own thing; with no thought of compensation. there's no way that I could have done that when I was younger.

I just love doing this stuff. I'm good at it, and I don't have to prove anything to anyone; which is nice.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#23

Post by icu »

There are different types of business people. Some people are fine with hardly any support. Some people can't stand to do it without support. Also, not everyone can be an entrepreneur, nor should they, just like not everyone can be an employee either. There's no shame in it, you are who you are. If anything you've gained extremely valuable insight into yourself and you were brave enough to confront who you are.

I don't want to read too much into your article, but I just wanted to add that it sounded like you were doing things on your own which can be extremely hard (or easy) depending on your personality type. Also it sounded like having a marketing/sales co-founder could have made a difference. I'm not sure where I came across the advice that a start-up needs a hipster, a hacker and a hustler, but it's a rare individual who embodies all three qualities.

My first 2 business failures were because I was inexperienced as an entrepreneur and didn't understand where my strengths and weaknesses were. My next venture was a success because I had co-founders and I could focus on my strengths.

I'm sorry things didn't turn out well and I wish you luck in your next move. Whatever you do just be the best version of yourself... whatever that is.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#24

Post by test1235 »

blunte wrote: post #12

Not that this helps the author, but some of the most successful people failed many times before succeeding. In fact, those who fail before becoming successful seem to be better able to repeat success than those who win on the first try. There is a big element of luck in success, so multiple attempts may be necessary even if funding is available.

I think it's important to note that each attempt is a gamble, and not everyone can afford to keep losing.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#25

Post by bluedino »

tomc1985 wrote: post #5

I 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…

This is an instance where it helps to have a spouse that can support you, or parents/family you can live with.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#26

Post by [deleted] »

switch11 wrote: post #3

This 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…

[deleted]

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#27

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

mbdesign wrote: post #6
ilamont wrote: post #2

I 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.

It’s also possible and common to just lose the time with no redeeming experience, learnings, perspective, etc., no matter how open-minded, self-reflecting and positive you may be. Not all experiences have meaningful lessons within them. Sometimes a large chunk of lived experience is just totally void of value.

And that’s ok too. Not everything has to be recast as value additive or enriching from some more mature or greater perspective.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#28

Post by czbond »

I believe the way for more technically minded folks to approach startups is this: I will fail, I will fail many times, I can lose a lot of time and money. I should see if people will pay me before I build it.

Startups are REALLY, REALLY hard to make a living wage on the whole in a smaller period of time when selling things by the drip (eg: SaaS, Ecomm low price points, etc). The business is an art, which is different than the skillset engineers build up over years in their domain - yet want to achieve 'break even ASAP'.

Edit: Business is a very 'social sport' - if social isn't your thing, you have to: compensate, overcome, hire out, or fail.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#29

Post by outworlder »

switch11 wrote: post #3

This 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…

> Thirdly, the scale of stuff you are talking about is miniscule

Is it ? So is the lack of empathy.

> I would have lost access to the developed world FOREVER

No you wouldn't have. You would have temporarily forfeited the ability to _live_ at _one_ rich country.

> So just make sure you don't take the wrong feedback from what life is telling you

What IS the correct feedback? Certainly not yours.

Re: After losing my savings as an indie hacker, I can't do it anymore. I quit.

#30

Post by croes »

switch11 wrote: post #3

This 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…

Ever thought that his anxieties are the result of his failing business and not how he started? And life is telling nothing. There is no guaranteed way of success. You can have all the abilities and knowledge you need and still fail miserably. Luck is a large part of every success story. Nobody has really unique capabilities.
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