41–50 of 76 posts
> More than anything though, I'm so thankful I had the courage, and privilege, to take a swing at this.
I'm glad the author acknowledged that privilege. As someone not from a terribly privileged background, this sort of article usually just makes my blood boil.
> I finally started generating enough consistent revenue to pay myself a meager salary. After five long years, I now make $1k/month. > More than anything though, I'm so thankful I had the courage, and privilege, to take a swing at this. I'm glad the author acknowledged that privilege. As someone not from a terribly privileged background, this sort of article usually just makes my blood boil.
Most people would rather live a more normal middle class life and work for the man instead. To each his own, but don't act like it's not a choice available to practically 100% of HN readers.
Last year I've dedicated 100% of my time to building. This year I'm spending half of my time marketing. I'm struggling with this new arrangement. Marketing makes me uncomfortable. I haven't made meaningful progress on marketing yet but it's the right move as long I am consistent.
> I finally started generating enough consistent revenue to pay myself a meager salary. After five long years, I now make $1k/month. > More than anything though, I'm so thankful I had the courage, and privilege, to take a swing at this. I'm glad the author acknowledged that privilege. As someone not from a terribly privileged background, this sort of article usually just makes my blood boil.
It doesn't take extreme privilege to quit your job and indie hack for 5 years. It takes $60k in savings and extreme frugality (or the equivalent of the cheapest amount you can live on for 5 years in your country). $60k of savings can easily be saved in a year with a junior dev job in the USA, or 2 years in Europe as long as you have the frugality. Of course, you do sacrifice having a family, living in an expensive ar…
An idea for a traffic source is a gimmick. i.e. something you build that brings people to your site.
The best example I've seen is https://blockchain.info now called blockchain.com/explorer.
They had a site that gave a web based view of bitcoin addresses, balances and transactions.
This gained a huge amount of traffic in the early days of Crypto (2012).
Then the rest of the products, i.e. wallet and exchanges came later and sit on top of that traffic.
So my advice to myself. Traffic first, then build a product.
If the product fails at least you learned something and still have the traffic.
> I finally started generating enough consistent revenue to pay myself a meager salary. After five long years, I now make $1k/month. > More than anything though, I'm so thankful I had the courage, and privilege, to take a swing at this. I'm glad the author acknowledged that privilege. As someone not from a terribly privileged background, this sort of article usually just makes my blood boil.
It doesn't take extreme privilege to quit your job and indie hack for 5 years. It takes $60k in savings and extreme frugality (or the equivalent of the cheapest amount you can live on for 5 years in your country). $60k of savings can easily be saved in a year with a junior dev job in the USA, or 2 years in Europe as long as you have the frugality. Of course, you do sacrifice having a family, living in an expensive ar…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I must be out of touch, I didn't know it was an established phrase to mean that. Thanks.
Not actually sure which came first, this site or the term, but indiehackers.com [0] is one of the main internet communities built around this. [0] https://www.indiehackers.com/
> I finally started generating enough consistent revenue to pay myself a meager salary. After five long years, I now make $1k/month. > More than anything though, I'm so thankful I had the courage, and privilege, to take a swing at this. I'm glad the author acknowledged that privilege. As someone not from a terribly privileged background, this sort of article usually just makes my blood boil.
It doesn't take extreme privilege to quit your job and indie hack for 5 years. It takes $60k in savings and extreme frugality (or the equivalent of the cheapest amount you can live on for 5 years in your country). $60k of savings can easily be saved in a year with a junior dev job in the USA, or 2 years in Europe as long as you have the frugality. Of course, you do sacrifice having a family, living in an expensive ar…
I think it's easier to take a traffic source and build a product around that, than to build a product and then find traffic. An idea for a traffic source is a gimmick. i.e. something you build that brings people to your site. The best example I've seen is https://blockchain.info now called blockchain.com/explorer. They had a site that gave a web based view of bitcoin addresses, balances and transactions. This gained…
An indie hacker is an individual who builds and launches a business or product independently, without the support of a large organization or team.
Most 'indie hackers' i've met are working on some app, or SAAS that they see a need for in the market. They strive and toil, for a grand vision; And there is beauty in that, but....
More 'Indie Hackers' should find fulfillment in starting an agency. The risk is honestly zero, and although harder to scale it may bear the same fucundity of any 'Killer App'. Even if you don't have the connections, Upwork is a fantastic way to get your initial clients.
When people quit their software job to be an indy hacker, what they really want is the freedom to code in the direction they choose. Although dealing with clients may seem like 'having a boss', the ability to pick your clients wisely is the first skill you learn.
I quit my job working in tech and now i run a solo tech consultancy. You get your initial clients to pay for the infrastructure and as long as you stick in your lane, you can utilize all your tooling for the next client and charge a bit more in hourly rate. It soon becomes a self-fulfilling cycle.