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My solopreneur story

news.tonydinh.com

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Re: My solopreneur story

#361

Post by report-to-trees »

allenu wrote: post #264

As a fellow indie hacker (I quit my job 18 months ago to build and sell my own apps), I am super jealous. I don't have the success of this guy (only getting close to $1k/mo these days), but I can understand the success. This guy knows how to market and ship product. I've seen him pop up a few times on indiehackers.com and social media. His "brand" is super simple to understand, which helps gain followers. He knows ma…

I think the initial reaction of many (myself included) is pretty negative just based on the niche these products fall into. Something about a Twitter Influencer selling various products to other Twitter Influencers to manage their own business hyping is a bit off putting.

After some reflection I don't think this is better or worse than any other niche you might market towards.

Re: My solopreneur story

#362

Post by hbien »

smokel wrote: post #358
hbien wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> at the end of the day, we're trying to exchange useful products for money > If you're just trying to make money, then you shouldn't call yourself a hacker. I hate gatekeeping like this. For anyone who needs to hear it: you don't need to be a starving artist. You are not a sell-out for wanting to exchange useful products for money. You can call yourself a hacker.

Or perhaps the advice was well-intended, because the term "hacker" has a negative connotation for most people?

Ty for the benefit of the doubt and seeing the best in others :)

Re: My solopreneur story

#364

Post by [deleted] »

smokel wrote: post #358
hbien wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> at the end of the day, we're trying to exchange useful products for money > If you're just trying to make money, then you shouldn't call yourself a hacker. I hate gatekeeping like this. For anyone who needs to hear it: you don't need to be a starving artist. You are not a sell-out for wanting to exchange useful products for money. You can call yourself a hacker.

Or perhaps the advice was well-intended, because the term "hacker" has a negative connotation for most people?

[deleted]

Re: My solopreneur story

#365

Post by dooraven »

williamtrask wrote: post #250
dooraven wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also this is just lol > The great entrepreneurs of our world are hardly motivated by money Yeah come on like Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, Gates, Hoffman etc aren't motivated by money lol. For a forum created by an accelerator, it is weirdly anti-success.

Fwiw I don’t think those are “the great entrepreneurs”. They’re rich and famous, yes, but “THE great entrepreneurs”?. I’d prefer Tesla, Jobs, and even JCR Licklider over them.

are you confusing inventors and entrepreneurs? Cause no way you'd consider Tesla a great entrepreneur, he died penniless and JCR Licklider same thing - great inventor and innovator yeah. Great Entrepreneur no.

Of the 3 you listed only Jobs qualifies.

Re: My solopreneur story

#366

Post by allenu »

report-to-trees wrote: post #361
allenu wrote: post #264

As a fellow indie hacker (I quit my job 18 months ago to build and sell my own apps), I am super jealous. I don't have the success of this guy (only getting close to $1k/mo these days), but I can understand the success. This guy knows how to market and ship product. I've seen him pop up a few times on indiehackers.com and social media. His "brand" is super simple to understand, which helps gain followers. He knows ma…

I think the initial reaction of many (myself included) is pretty negative just based on the niche these products fall into. Something about a Twitter Influencer selling various products to other Twitter Influencers to manage their own business hyping is a bit off putting. After some reflection I don't think this is better or worse than any other niche you might market towards.

That's fair. My initial reaction on just seeing the headline was "Oh, I wonder what indie dev-focused tool this guy made." It's definitely a cliche now to see someone going into the solo SaaS business and then pivoting to being an influencer or someone selling "tools" to help other solopreneurs.

Re: My solopreneur story

#367

Post by dooraven »

rpastuszak wrote: post #318
dooraven wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also this is just lol > The great entrepreneurs of our world are hardly motivated by money Yeah come on like Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, Gates, Hoffman etc aren't motivated by money lol. For a forum created by an accelerator, it is weirdly anti-success.

FWIW, none of those people are whom I’d consider great entrepreneurs.

please name some then

Re: My solopreneur story

#368

Post by redbell »

“People are rewarded in public for what they practice for years in private.” — Tony Robbins

Whenever I heard about a success story, especially, when the hero is an indie hacker, the above quote hits my brain.

I would assume that nobody here would disagree that zero to $45K/mo in 2 years is a jaw-dropping number but once you read the full story with all behind-the-scenes challenges, blood, sweet and tears you quickly realize that this is a lot of work multiplied by some coefficient of uncertainty.

I’ve discovered and been following Tony for about a year now on Twitter and on IndieHackers and must say I was inspired by him.

If ONLY he posted this on HN himself and was here for an AMA

Best of luck..

Re: My solopreneur story

#369

Post by arthurofbabylon »

slig wrote: post #211
brunojppb wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I make my money doing literally whatever I want… Classic take from somebody that most probably could spend their entire time just fiddling with ideas, with zero worries about money. Everything else was taken care of. Not everyone has this luxury pal. The author is plain, simple sharing his story. Can you replicate his success? Who knows. But I respect him for sharing this candid blog post documenting his steps.

I'd love to read more about how the GP can live this lifestyle, maybe they can share and we all can learn and replicate their journey on how to make money doing literally whatever we want whist doing a lot of interesting hobbies.

Here are some of the principles I like to apply -> https://minimal.app/design

Generally my formula is about cultivating a healthy value set, becoming increasingly clear minded, and trying to do things that are worthwhile. I know that's vague, but those are the abstract principles that work in different circumstances. I've led many different lives within my life – rock climbing full time, building software – and those are the guiding themes that have most consistently offered the greatest results.

(Write to me directly if you'd like me to flush out in more concrete detail, including how money and service factor in, how to avoid traps, what I currently struggle with, etc.)

Re: My solopreneur story

#370

Post by imiric »

shrimpx wrote: post #231
didip wrote: post #122

I am surprised people reduced this article as just another pet rock. Dude's journey has some interesting nuggets. He knows how to time box himself and build the smallest MVP that will actually make money. And his journey is not an overnight success either, it took him years to build everything including his social presence. Compare that to a W-2 job where you just have to show up 9am-5pm. HN is showing its overly cri…

I think the guy’s aesthetic just turns people off here. He seems intensely invested in how to make virality happen in any way possible, and building simplistic stuff that’s not advancing the state of tech. People here want to see technical contributions and organic success. It’s kind of ironic since this is a forum made by a VC company, but I doubt the Tony guy could get into YC with his ideas, despite his 70k follow…

What was eye opening to me about his story is that it doesn't take a "disruptive" product to achieve _moderate_ amounts of success. And I do stress _moderate_, since the traditional VC formula popularized by YC is that companies are meant to grow infinitely YoY, making all shareholders rich far beyond their needs, and if there's no growth, then investors aren't happy. That's a skewed hypercapitalist perspective that continues to concentrate wealth among the wealthy, and, among many other issues, corrupts the product development into pleasing the investors rather than the customers.

Instead, a single person today can create a moderate amount of income that allows them to live free from financial concerns, by building small and useful products that are not revolutionary in any way, but help many people regardless. This is a far more sustainable and fairer way of achieving "success" than the VC formula, so this Tony guy probably doesn't care about YC.

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