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My solopreneur story

news.tonydinh.com

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Re: My solopreneur story

#651

Post by [deleted] »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #644
nico wrote: post #613

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point you are either just trolling or being a hypocrite There isn’t a single organization that doesn’t do marketing one way or another (just putting a sign outside a restaurant is marketing, maybe you also consider that to be tricking people and playing games?) Pretty sure that without marketing you would either not have a job or not get paid So you are actually fine with marketing making you money, just as l…

I obviously do not include things like putting a sign outside a restaurant or sponsoring an FSAE team in the same category as being shallow and silly in linkedin or shipping predatory ads to phones. You obviously cannot see the distinction, so why bother replying ? Pretty sure that without marketing you would either not have a job or not get paid Oh and, the work I'm doing (aerospace engineering) does not require pre…

[deleted]

Re: My solopreneur story

#652

Post by abareplace »

xhfloz wrote: post #621
skwee357 wrote: post #465

I’m very happy for Tony, it’s a great achievement indeed. Having said that, as an aspiring solopreneur myself, this article misses a very big part. Engineers like to talk about how they build products, but we rarely talk about how to market them. I quit my job 5 months ago, launched my first SaaS 3 months ago, and got zero users. I then started to tweet, write in LinkedIn, and focus on my newsletter. But I barely get…

Left my job in 2020 to do the same. Nowhere near as profitable as OP, but now make enough to cover rent + basic expenses in New York. Crucially: I didn't want to do hypeman social media content that (a) sold the dream of solopreneur as a marketing tactic, or (b) added excessive noise into the ether. I'm not saying Tony did either -- I haven't followed along -- but certainly a lot of people do. I can't fully blame the…

Thank you. Unfortunately, my experience is the same: it's hard to promote a software project on today's Internet without investing a lot of money or spending 4 hours/day on social media like the original poster did. There are many interesting projects like yours that remain invisible to their potential users.

Re: My solopreneur story

#653

Post by eruci »

skwee357 wrote: post #465

I’m very happy for Tony, it’s a great achievement indeed. Having said that, as an aspiring solopreneur myself, this article misses a very big part. Engineers like to talk about how they build products, but we rarely talk about how to market them. I quit my job 5 months ago, launched my first SaaS 3 months ago, and got zero users. I then started to tweet, write in LinkedIn, and focus on my newsletter. But I barely get…

Marketing is a tax you pay when you are not good enough.

Re: My solopreneur story

#654

Post by grvdrm »

tspike wrote: post #647
grvdrm wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this something that we can facilitate through IH or elsewhere? I am on the other side - not good enough of a dev but plenty of experience on the biz side.

Let me know if you're interested in brainstorming. I've got extensive dev experience across the stack and can slog my way through marketing/sales but it wears on me quickly and I'm not great at it. I've got some time off coming up and will be looking to pick up a side project or two.

Could be fun! Email: crcbos at g mail

Re: My solopreneur story

#655

Post by rickydroll »

skwee357 wrote: post #604
kjksf wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> launched my first SaaS 3 months ago, and got zero users I couldn't find a link to your SaaS from your website. Maybe you should put a giant button linking to the SaaS, put it in your Twitter bio, pin a tweet to it, your HN bio and every other place that you can think of. Assuming that's something you want to promote more than all the other things on your website.

Thanks for the suggestion. This particular one was classified as failed, I don't intent to work on it. I'm focusing on another one, which is close to be released as private alpha. This one, I'll try to pin everywhere.

even if it's private alpha, you should probably release it to a friendly hostile audience or feedback. Once against it is beta, you can release it to the world at large because well that's what a lot of SAAS companies do. Once you get some revenue, then you can make it better. Otherwise, if you don't get the feedback you need on how to make the product better and live in your own head, you might find yourself polishing turd. if I want to see someone who's done that, all I need is a mirror.

Re: My solopreneur story

#656

Post by skwee357 »

rickydroll wrote: post #655
skwee357 wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the suggestion. This particular one was classified as failed, I don't intent to work on it. I'm focusing on another one, which is close to be released as private alpha. This one, I'll try to pin everywhere.

even if it's private alpha, you should probably release it to a friendly hostile audience or feedback. Once against it is beta, you can release it to the world at large because well that's what a lot of SAAS companies do. Once you get some revenue, then you can make it better. Otherwise, if you don't get the feedback you need on how to make the product better and live in your own head, you might find yourself polishi…

Yes I agree. I just need to finish a small missing functionality, and get a domain + hosting for it

Re: My solopreneur story

#657

Post by robomartin »

dakna wrote: post #623
robomartin wrote: post #602

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t have the mental capacity, and desire, to participate in such games. I have moral principles, and I believe there is more than one way to achieve my goals. And the way I chose, might be harder and longer, but more aligned with what I want. I can understand and respect that. You just need to be clear on that a successful approach likely has to be within one standard deviation from the norm for the era in orde…

> Don't waste time. Get results. Alright. Let's imagine I'm already in the boat 5km from shore, and I have one day left before I'm dropped into the ocean. What should I read, watch or listen to in order to catch up on today's approach to selling, do you have some recommendations?

> What should I read, watch or listen to in order to catch up on today's approach to selling, do you have some recommendations?

It really depends on where you are in this journey.

  Seth Godin
    Permission marketing
    Tribes: We need you to lead us
    All marketers are liars
    This is marketing
    Etc.
  
  Ries & Trout
    Positioning: The battle for your mind
    The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
    Etc.
  
  Scientific Advertising - Claude Hopkins

  https://www.foundingsales.com/
  
  The Little Red Book of Selling - Gitomer
Learning to use online channels, in my opinion, requires a lot of work. Companies like Google have useful material. Frankly, this subject is wide and deep. I got into it starting about twenty years ago.

Perhaps others can suggest books or courses/videos on best practices for online marketing and optimization that are more up to date.

I'll warn you that at some point in my journey I hated the fact that I had more business books by my bed than engineering books. It was frustrating until I reached what I call "cruise altitude" and had enough capabilities and understanding to do well.

Re: My solopreneur story

#658

Post by hnfong »

danbruc wrote: post #528
mejutoco wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is the efficient market hypothesis. If it really were 100% efficient why would anybody start a company? In reality there are pockets of inefficiency, and they are still working markets. You can see how this interpretation clashes with another dogma of economics: that the price of sth is the price that someone is willing to pay for it. I read your message as saying that this software should be cheaper (arguing work…

The efficient market hypothesis is something different, that one just says that prices reflect all available information. I was talking about competition which should ensure that there are no profits, i.e. that consumers do not pay more than the costs of production, including risk adjustment and development costs and so on, but that are mostly uneccesary details for this discussion. You can see how this interpretatio…

> including risk adjustment

Right. Are you sure you haven't switched definitions in the discussion? Did the original 90% profit margin you quoted include costs of risk (assuming it can be quantified)?

> but that are mostly uneccesary (sic) details for this discussion.

LOL

Re: My solopreneur story

#659

Post by beacham »

prakhar897 wrote: post #387

I was also interested in this. So, I scraped and crunched a lot of IndieHackers data. Things like which fields are most pursued, how many ventures succeed etc. You can read the complete report here: https://prakgupta.com/blog/real_world_stats_for_bootstrappin...

Interesting analysis. I enjoyed reading it. Seemed pretty much in line with what I would expect.

I am curious where you came up with the 30,000 guess for bootstrapped startups in the following statement:

“X (My guess is 30000 startups) start bootstrapping —-> 2868 list on IH —-> 915 making 10k$ MRR

That puts the actual percentage to be : 3.5% chance of success.”

Re: My solopreneur story

#660

Post by robomartin »

robomartin wrote: post #657
dakna wrote: post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't waste time. Get results. Alright. Let's imagine I'm already in the boat 5km from shore, and I have one day left before I'm dropped into the ocean. What should I read, watch or listen to in order to catch up on today's approach to selling, do you have some recommendations?

> What should I read, watch or listen to in order to catch up on today's approach to selling, do you have some recommendations? It really depends on where you are in this journey. Seth Godin Permission marketing Tribes: We need you to lead us All marketers are liars This is marketing Etc. Ries & Trout Positioning: The battle for your mind The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing Etc. Scientific Advertising - Claude Hopkins…

I should add this. Approximately ten years ago I took a course related to selling on Amazon. Online marketing was covered in detail. The course is no-longer available or I would recommend it. However, it did cost over $5K. Which is to say: Don't be afraid to spend money to educate yourself on sales and marketing. If you are an entrepreneur, it is well worth the money. Sure, there will be some courses here and there that aren't great. That's just the way it is. Don't give up on learning just because you didn't find the perfect vehicle the on the first attempt.
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