You tried and failed. There are others who dont even try and live with regret. At least you have no regrets about not trying. Take care.
I am done. I give up
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Re: I am done. I give up
#112There's a short part in Ed Catmull's book Creativity Inc. about how Steve Jobs timed the Pixar IPO after the Toy Story premiere to ride the hype wave and told Catmull to wear a dorky suit for the IPO investor tour that Catmull would never wear because it made him look like a scientist. It was important to present Catmull as a brilliant genius from the lab.
Why I am saying this? I think selling something is a lot less rational then you'd think. And some people are frankly better than others at it. It's not enough to build something, even good, if people don't connect the dots on why it's good for them, or present it in a desirable way. And a lot of things these days people don't really need at all, so it gets even more difficult selling something.
Another point that I think is important when I wear my amateur psychologist hat is, why are you doing that? Do you want to be recognized as a brilliant entrepreneur? Success? Money? Do you enjoy it for the ride? If it's that, is it really important what the outcome is?
But your advice is also good - it's important to take care of yourself. Take care!
Re: I am done. I give up
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why do "indiehackers" want attention from and create products for other "indiehackers"? They’re influencers. That’s why people want their attention. I think it kinda has the look of a cool lifestyle from the outside (to some). They’re digital nomads and they travel to cool places and meeting cool people and tweeting big graphs that go up and to the right. They disavow lots of possessions (again a nomad) while profe…
I thought digital nomads were mostly remote workers who just wanted to travel. What is an indie business?
An “indie hacker” is a solo entrepreneur who (may be a digital nomad and) builds small revenue generating projects. Typically building them in series and letting them grow passively while working on a new one. Often active on twitter sharing work in progress and success/failure stories.
A key theme for many is building lifestyle businesses that collectively provide “passive income” and financial independence. But unlike “FIRE” it’s “financial independence, casually work while enjoying life”
A common and well known person is Pieter Levels:
Re: I am done. I give up
#114> I never had a paid customer
Getting at least one paid customer shouldn't be all that hard, I feel like you've been spending too much time interacting with and marketing to "indiehackers" who are essentially influencers. Take a step back and a break from this world and maybe come at it from a different angle, go to the places your actual customers would be.
Re: I am done. I give up
#115My experience shows that in order to succeed you need: 1) someone who knows marketing in the area you are targeting (medical equipment marketing is not the same as, say, cat hairdresser marketing or dev tools marketing); 2) someone who will sell - yes, a salesman, a person who likes to talk to customers, call people and knows how to sell stuff in your target group.
I am not talking here about building all those famed sturtups created by 3 "scratch your own itch" techies in the cellar and that succeeded by pure chance or thanks to connections founders had or other factors that average indie founder cannot control.
If you are indie dev, you should not make yourself dependent on luck or accident.
Start with this: marketing guy, who knows the market, such person in two hours can invalidate your idea and give you 5 better ones.
Learn some marketing stuff by yourself (books like Start Small, Stay Small will not make you rich in a day, but will open your eyes to the way things are working, most of this is obvious once you read it, but this is psychological "I knew that all along" phenomena - although you somehow knew this, you were not using this.
Same with sales, stuff will not magically sell by itself. You can count that your product will become "viral" or something, but, again, you make yourself dependent on chance. Just have someone who will help you do the stuff, you are not that great at.
Re: I am done. I give up
#116[dead]
Re: I am done. I give up
#117You aren't alone. These influencers sell an unachievable dream that they themselves do not even live. I wish you all the best in whatever it is that you choose to do.
Which influencers?
I won't name names but I'd generalise it to people very obviously trying to sell a dream more than a product.
Re: I am done. I give up
#118It's not defeat, it is the expected outcome. Out of 20 or so of my projects two have been break-out successes and the rest (commercially) complete failures, and I'm very lucky to have two out of those 20, with very small variations in timing it would have been a big fat zero. So don't beat yourself up about it, some people win the lottery and the majority don't. There is absolutely no recipe that will work every time…
I was an engineer at a successful startup. We grew, we went bankrupt, we laid off most the company, the founders kicked in enough to keep us going and we restructured to give the remaining people larger shares. We became profitable and finally sold to another company. My payday was about $70k, which was a nice bonus, I was happy to get it. I moved on to big tech. The company withered away, the company that bought it…
You listed the less-important parts of that story. The important part was what your start-up offered, how it helps the world, and whether the product(s) and the technology went on to be used by many people/organizations or not...
Re: I am done. I give up
#119A big fact of the entrepreneur world is that it is hugely based on luck. Luck of finding the right idea, the right market, the right timing, the right connections, the right customers, the right employees, the right financing. The basic fact is that most startups and most entrepreneurial dreams fail or get consumed by another for their talent/clients. And as an entrepreneur you fight against all odds. Most will fail…
> A big fact of the entrepreneur world is that it is hugely based on luck. Luck of finding the right idea, the right market, the right timing, the right connections, the right customers, the right employees, the right financing.
This is not true!
I have seen successful business built from scratch by people who had no connections, no money and no privileged background (and no VC money). And I will say this for sure, it is lots of hard work and hustle. Luck comes to those who do these things first, it is not the other way round.
Re: I am done. I give up
#120Entrepreneurship is a rich man's game. Notice that almost all of the guys who made it big come from wealth, and had the money and the contacts to lean on to make their product a success.
I'm sorry you got caught out by the charlatans who hype up entrepreneurship and sell people lies about success.
Please don't blame yourself, this isn't your fault, you were hoodwinked by false prophets.