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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.

#71

Post by tekkk »

Contrary to some other HNers, my opinion is that you clearly lacked a social network that would have given you momentum and clear goals. You worked alone, you did not build the product for one specific client and you did not succeed in building relationships with potential clients.

Sure, social anxiety might be part of the reason. But I think the biggest contributor to your lack of success was that you did not have a team around you to build the product. With a team, I'm sure you would have found it much more acceptable to cold email people and just feel no shame basically promoting the product.

But that's one part of the whole picture. Sometimes, I guess, you just have to admit that people don't want to buy your product. Maybe it's because you don't know how to market it or maybe it just doesn't provide that much value.

I wish José best of luck to future endeavors and I recommend getting to know other start-up oriented people. Possibly salespersons. To start your next project. Don't get discouraged, that's my advice. With the right people in your team, I'm positive you can succeed.

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

#72

Post by Waterluvian »

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…

When I was 13 I had a paper route. It was almost all modern except three or four households that still used the collection model. The paper company would take their subscriptions out of my pay and send me to collect and keep it and any tips. I decided it was easier to just take the pay cut than knock on those doors.

The whole concept still makes me intensely anxious and I would sooner quit a job than begin dealing with customers directly.

But I'm hella good at my job and I'm quite comfortable not being that kind of person. As you said it's not for everyone.

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

#73

Post by axetheone »

blaisio wrote: post #38

> I had around $12K in savings. Enough to cover a year of expenses and a bit more. I stopped spending money on almost everything. Yeah, that sucks. I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I think one thing for the community to take away is you need to be in a good position financially before you can start a startup - unless you can get funding. Especially for indiehackers who don't usually take outside investment, $12k i…

No doubt about this, when I reached that part of the article I was startled with that relatively low amount of savings and the courage on starting a venture like that... It can not be understated on how having enough money saved up really helps not only enduring periods with no money but also a much lower anxiety associated with that (you need to be in a good mental shape in order to do things after all).

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

#74

Post by thothamon »

cortesoft wrote: post #63
bawolff wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be harsh, but that seems even worse. If you can't handle failures and set backs, you even more so should not be in the start up business because those things are definitely going to happen, a lot, if you are running any sort of business. Its the same as if you are terrified of heights, being a professional mountain climber is a very bad plan. You either need to get over it somehow quickly or choose a different…

I am confused by this sort of comment pointing out that he was not cut out for the life of an independent developer... well, yeah, that is what his essay is saying - that he is not cut out to be an independent developer. He thought he was, did it for a year, and realized he was not cut out for it. I don't understand this comment and the other similar ones acting like they are somehow adding insight... yes, he couldn'…

To the extent he is speaking only for himself and not making any kind of larger point, I'm not sure why it's on the front page of Hacker News.

To the extent he's making a point such as "I gained nothing from this experience" or that he's asking for advice or thoughts, I think some of the thoughts -- such as working toward your strengths rather than through your weaknesses -- are interesting.

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

#75

Post by tmpz22 »

itake wrote: post #70
blaisio wrote: post #38

> I had around $12K in savings. Enough to cover a year of expenses and a bit more. I stopped spending money on almost everything. Yeah, that sucks. I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I think one thing for the community to take away is you need to be in a good position financially before you can start a startup - unless you can get funding. Especially for indiehackers who don't usually take outside investment, $12k i…

I don’t see that takeaway at all. He didn’t fail because of lack of money. His life is not worse due to spending his savings. He still has a highly valuable skill set and can easily replace that with 1-3 years of working at a company. If he has $500k, spent $20k living cheaply for a year, I’d bet he would be in a similar position that he is in now and choose to re-enter the workforce after a year of failure.

> He still has a highly valuable skill set and can easily replace that with 1-3 years of working at a company

1-3 years of work is not a casual expense.

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

#76

Post by AussieWog93 »

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…

>Firstly, your issue doesn't seem to be anything other than social anxiety

I guarantee you it's more than that. If you create a product that actually solves people's problems, people will make the effort to reach out to you. I know this from experience - I have poor social skills but a good business sense, and would regularly make sales even when I was overwhelmed and avoiding contact with the outside world for weeks at a time.

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

#77

Post by wongarsu »

tpxl wrote: post #39
tomc1985 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but I don't know anyone I would trust with that kind of thing Honestly the safest option seems to be relocating to a third-world country where the labor and the cost of living is cheap, so that said money can be stretched out over a few years. Or waiting til that pile of money gets a bit larger and living off ramen for a while

>relocating to a third-world country There is a large part of Europe (and I'm sure the US) where the standard of living is decent and you can easily get by on <15k€/year.

Even in a lot of Germany you can live on less than 15k€/year, just not very comfortably. In Eastern Europe a frugal person can probably live on a lot less.

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

#78

Post by Invictus0 »

itake wrote: post #70
blaisio wrote: post #38

> I had around $12K in savings. Enough to cover a year of expenses and a bit more. I stopped spending money on almost everything. Yeah, that sucks. I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I think one thing for the community to take away is you need to be in a good position financially before you can start a startup - unless you can get funding. Especially for indiehackers who don't usually take outside investment, $12k i…

I don’t see that takeaway at all. He didn’t fail because of lack of money. His life is not worse due to spending his savings. He still has a highly valuable skill set and can easily replace that with 1-3 years of working at a company. If he has $500k, spent $20k living cheaply for a year, I’d bet he would be in a similar position that he is in now and choose to re-enter the workforce after a year of failure.

I think if he had started with more savings, he would have been less bitter about the failure. He still would have been able to take his girlfriend out for dinner.

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

#79

Post by elmo2you »

radicalriddler wrote: post #18
crispyporkbites wrote: post #13

This is the side project in question: http://nomadmail.io/

His landing page has a number of grammar issues. > nomadmail is made for normal people: writers, authors, content creators. People who want to write newsletters to another people. If he wanted to have another shot, that's an easy problem to solve to get the ball rolling. Run your copy through a service like "Grammarly" or hemingway, and get it fixed.

Without any intention to sound overly harsh, I sincerely doubt that better grammar could make the project a success.

For me this is one of those (typical) examples, of a rather (too) generic tool, solving a problem that is already being successfully solved by a number of other (free) tools.

AFAIK, tools like these can sometimes still succeed, if you pick a very specific/narrow niche market and focus all your marketing on that market, and offer special(ized) features for that particular market.

But as a generic tool, or one that tries to "do it all" for too wide a market, I don't think I've ever seen that succeed (commercially). At least not from this position, being a new kid on the block and competing with already established tools doing the same. Just not enough of an edge over the alternatives, I think.

I do feel sincerely sorry for the creator, if he believed this would work out for him. But I (also sincerely) believe it just never had much of a (realistic) chance from the start. I can't make it sound any nicer than that.

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