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Lessons from 15 Years of Indie App Development

lukaspetr.com

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Re: Lessons from 15 Years of Indie App Development

#41

Post by MarkSweep »

Lukas_Petr wrote: post #31
gyomu wrote: post #3

OP, just a heads up that none of the "Download on the App Store" links on your main website ( http://www.glimsoft.com ) resolve.

Thank you so much! I will get that fixed asap. I don't understand how the links that were officially shortened for App Store can stop working, but somehow they did. It's unfortunate that this could've been broken for a very long time now, it's just not something I would think of periodically verifying that it's still working.

One idea for catching this sort of break in the future is monitoring the source people use to acquire your app. It looks like the App Store might support tracking which website referred people to download your app:

https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/view-app-...

Re: Lessons from 15 Years of Indie App Development

#42

Post by mnahkies »

pavlov wrote: post #25
lukasb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say I grant (though I don't believe it) that a startup is also a lottery ticket. What are the factors that make an indie app a lottery ticket? That's my question. Is it just that, absent the funding gate startups have, that there's a lot of competition?

Apps as a platform are at a disadvantage. The bar for entry is roughly as low as creating a website, but for users it’s a higher bar to install an app. Yet the app doesn’t offer any intrinsic advantage in discovery or marketing over a website. (You’re not going to get any organic traffic from app stores, unless maybe if you have contacts at Apple who can get your app into their promotions — unlikely for an indie dev…

This is an interesting take, because whilst I agree, generally what I've heard from the market is "we want an app not a web app/pwa"

Whilst I'd rather not have to install to go to a sporting event or whatnot, that's the reality, and also generally what I hear businesses want.

Is my perspective just different as a techie or are businesses misreading what consumers want?

Re: Lessons from 15 Years of Indie App Development

#43

Post by auspex »

indieofone wrote: post #11

I would add this advice: 1) start by working on your apps on the side while working another job, 2) while working said job, save and invest. Over time this can provide the cushion necessary to jump to full time indie.

Just be careful of inventions assignments. If you live in the US you probably signed paperwork that says anything you invent or create is property of the company you work for.

If you signed one of these and hack on the side… successful business could be owned by your previous company.

You can always ask that they release the IP which requires the lawyers to officially sign it over to you.

Before you quit your job make sure you own it.

Re: Lessons from 15 Years of Indie App Development

#44

Post by conception »

braza wrote: post #35

Most of the success cases for Indie Hackers comes from B2C or personal apps usage. Does someone knows great public cases related with B2B? My impression is that in the B2B sales there’s a huge component in terms of being a corporation to give some sort of credibility.

I think you should incorporate regardless for b2b but I know a couple of one person corporations that deal with fund accounting tools. It’s a bit niche and the finance tools are few and far between.

Re: Lessons from 15 Years of Indie App Development

#45

Post by mtlynch »

braza wrote: post #35

Most of the success cases for Indie Hackers comes from B2C or personal apps usage. Does someone knows great public cases related with B2B? My impression is that in the B2B sales there’s a huge component in terms of being a corporation to give some sort of credibility.

My sense is the opposite. I meet and hear about many more successful B2B founders and a lot more struggling B2C founders.

If you look at who's speaking at conferences or who's appearing on podcasts to talk about their successful business, it's almost always B2B.

Look at the schedule for the last listed Microconf: all B2B.[0] Arvid Kahl's maybe the exception, as he does more B2C stuff now, but he was there presenting about his experience with his B2B SaaS.

[0] https://vault.microconf.com/watch/americas-23

Re: Lessons from 15 Years of Indie App Development

#46

Post by ukuina »

deze333 wrote: post #29

As an indie developer for the last 10 years my key learning is writing apps for “under privileged” communities. Firstly, it’s a niche. Secondly, people really value your effort and appreciate giving. This creates a nice feeling. I have created my major app, Time Nomad [1], out of pure curiosity. Don’t laugh, scientific minds… I wanted to see how astronomy and astrology coexisted for hundreds of years without all that…

Great-looking website and app. How did you decide on what becomes an IAP and what is core functionality? Why did you disable family-sharing of IAPs (or is that just an Apple quirk on iOS)?

Re: Lessons from 15 Years of Indie App Development

#47

Post by herval »

auspex wrote: post #43
indieofone wrote: post #11

I would add this advice: 1) start by working on your apps on the side while working another job, 2) while working said job, save and invest. Over time this can provide the cushion necessary to jump to full time indie.

Just be careful of inventions assignments. If you live in the US you probably signed paperwork that says anything you invent or create is property of the company you work for. If you signed one of these and hack on the side… successful business could be owned by your previous company. You can always ask that they release the IP which requires the lawyers to officially sign it over to you. Before you quit your job mak…

that's not exactly how those work (they can claim an invention if it's done during work hours, with company equipment, in the business area of operation. Might differ from state to state, but that's the gist of those contracts

Re: Lessons from 15 Years of Indie App Development

#48

Post by herval »

braza wrote: post #35

Most of the success cases for Indie Hackers comes from B2C or personal apps usage. Does someone knows great public cases related with B2B? My impression is that in the B2B sales there’s a huge component in terms of being a corporation to give some sort of credibility.

you probably hear a lot about the B2C ones because they keep blabbing about it (many of the big "indie hackers" are known to lie and pump their numbers). Most B2B businesses a) don't _need_ consumer street cred and b) don't want to attract unnecessary competition. There's tons and tons of very lucrative B2B micro-apps out there - I'd imagine way more than successful B2C.

Re: Lessons from 15 Years of Indie App Development

#49

Post by aleksiy123 »

deze333 wrote: post #29

As an indie developer for the last 10 years my key learning is writing apps for “under privileged” communities. Firstly, it’s a niche. Secondly, people really value your effort and appreciate giving. This creates a nice feeling. I have created my major app, Time Nomad [1], out of pure curiosity. Don’t laugh, scientific minds… I wanted to see how astronomy and astrology coexisted for hundreds of years without all that…

How do you find these underserved communities?

Re: Lessons from 15 Years of Indie App Development

#50

Post by jakubmazanec »

deze333 wrote: post #29

As an indie developer for the last 10 years my key learning is writing apps for “under privileged” communities. Firstly, it’s a niche. Secondly, people really value your effort and appreciate giving. This creates a nice feeling. I have created my major app, Time Nomad [1], out of pure curiosity. Don’t laugh, scientific minds… I wanted to see how astronomy and astrology coexisted for hundreds of years without all that…

App looks great, but astrology is still nonsense, with our without the new age stuff.
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