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I've launched 37 products in 5 years and not doing that again

indiehackers.com

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Re: I've launched 37 products in 5 years and not doing that again

#81

Post by ozim »

Invictus0 wrote: post #2

The indie hacker community builds worthless, visionless widgets and then fails to market them. Could you imagine Steve jobs talking about building 37 products in 5 years? Instead, talk to a customer. Build something that solves just one person's problem really well. Grow from there.

Steve Jobs comparison is not great. You don’t have to be Jobs or have grand vision to make decent product that will make you money.

„indie hacker community builds worthless, visionless widgets „ - I totally agree with this sentence. Those 37 „products” feel like huge waste of time even ones he sold.

Re: I've launched 37 products in 5 years and not doing that again

#82

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

"After launching 37 different products over the last few years, I've had one go viral and almost all the others struggle to get any traction at all."

Imagine if these "products" were subject to the laws of product liability in the United States like real products sold there.

Why do software developers call websites or apps "products". Why not just call them "websites", "apps" or just "software".

For example,

"After creating 37 different websites and apps over the last few years, I've had one go viral and almost all the others struggle to get any traction at all."

Is "products" more descriptive. Is it some sort of signalling. Do developers want there software to be treated like tangible products.

Re: I've launched 37 products in 5 years and not doing that again

#83

Post by satvikpendem »

nzach wrote: post #75
satvikpendem wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are putting too much effort in your product, your focus should be on finding the right market fit for your idea How is this not excellent advice? There are lots of stories of founders building first (sometimes for years, even), then finding out that there is no market for it (as it seems you have done). The people evaluating your product might have even just read your post and concluded that there's no market,…

> How is this not excellent advice? I do understand that in order to create something popular you need to create something good but you also need to properly communicate what you do. And proper communication is as hard as creating something good. So, I do know you need to "find an audience", and that is why I've posted it in a few places. Having said all that, reading these comments made me feel somewhat demoralized…

When you built your app, whom did you build it for? Presumably you built it for a specific customer segment in mind, so did you try searching for them on Google or elsewhere?

Or did you build it for no one? That is why you're struggling to get users, because if you actually had built it for a specific persona, then you'd know exactly where to find them. You're not actually doing anything different to the author of the OP, just building something and hoping people will come [0], which is one of the worst lies founders tell themselves.

> But I don't want to create a business right now

That's fine, you don't have to make money from your products, but my point fundamentally doesn't change, either you're building for yourself, in which case it's a hobby, or you're building for someone else, in which case you need to know who these people are before you build. Sounds like you fell into the exact same trap the person on IH warned you about, so if you don't want to feel demoralized in the future, you need to change your mindset, from building to understanding users' issues.

[0] https://samuelmullen.com/articles/startup-fallacies-if-you-b...

Re: I've launched 37 products in 5 years and not doing that again

#84

Post by satvikpendem »

bob1029 wrote: post #72

37 is one of those numbers that keeps popping up in certain places. Whenever I see it in a headline, I go in feeling like I'm about to be bullshitted by the author.

You might be interested in this video by Veritasium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6iQrh2TK98

Re: I've launched 37 products in 5 years and not doing that again

#85

Post by askafriend »

Invictus0 wrote: post #77
BizarroLand wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He would have started a group of people and got them to each do that, and then connected with the winners of the hundreds or thousands of attempts and then taken credit for it.

Jobs literally did get a group of people together and did not do that. He built a company where all the products contributed to the vision of personal computing; either personal computers or personal computer accessories.

The thing people seem to forget about Jobs is that he really was that good, that obsessive/dedicated and that visionary. It's that simple.

His process resulted in some of the most transformative products humanity has ever known.

Re: I've launched 37 products in 5 years and not doing that again

#86

Post by karel-3d »

weitendorf wrote: post #36
n4r9 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've looked at several and they're mostly aimed at helping to market software. It feels kind of meta. Perhaps this is a particularly tough niche?

This is one of the interesting things I’ve noticed about the indiehacker community and software ecosystem, it’s mostly software built for and marketed to other indiehackers. At one level it makes complete sense to build software that solves problems you understand, and then market it to the people with the same set of problems. That’s what the “well known” indie hackers did. But if the ecosystem is all just people tr…

now you're getting it

Re: I've launched 37 products in 5 years and not doing that again

#87

Post by nikolayasdf123 »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #82

"After launching 37 different products over the last few years, I've had one go viral and almost all the others struggle to get any traction at all." Imagine if these "products" were subject to the laws of product liability in the United States like real products sold there. Why do software developers call websites or apps "products". Why not just call them "websites", "apps" or just "software". For example, "After c…

agree. if those websites were like "Google" that literally indexes whole internet, or "New York Times" which is 175 years old, or "Bloomberg" which is biggest financial data provider — then those can be called products. website is just a surface to provide some real value, backed by really good design and execution, marketing and operations.

what we see instead is a myriad of half-backed, useless, un-maintained, poorly-executed, poorly-operated, poorly-designed solutions to non-existent problems, like shooting a gun into the sky and hoping it will land on a target.

Re: I've launched 37 products in 5 years and not doing that again

#88

Post by nikolayasdf123 »

farceSpherule wrote: post #18

Everyone is trying to "copy" Pieter Levels "success" which as of now is "brand effect." The guy started his thing over a decade ago and people look at it now and think they can replicate it. The stuff the guy codes is garbage and what he does is far from solving any problems. And, I do not believe his revenue numbers. At all. But people on the Internet see some shit posted, believe it, and then compare themselves to…

same. his websites are indeed garbage.

Re: I've launched 37 products in 5 years and not doing that again

#89

Post by nikolayasdf123 »

jf22 wrote: post #37
farceSpherule wrote: post #18

Everyone is trying to "copy" Pieter Levels "success" which as of now is "brand effect." The guy started his thing over a decade ago and people look at it now and think they can replicate it. The stuff the guy codes is garbage and what he does is far from solving any problems. And, I do not believe his revenue numbers. At all. But people on the Internet see some shit posted, believe it, and then compare themselves to…

How are you defining garbage?

like his flying simulator.

Re: I've launched 37 products in 5 years and not doing that again

#90

Post by nikolayasdf123 »

jf22 wrote: post #37
farceSpherule wrote: post #18

Everyone is trying to "copy" Pieter Levels "success" which as of now is "brand effect." The guy started his thing over a decade ago and people look at it now and think they can replicate it. The stuff the guy codes is garbage and what he does is far from solving any problems. And, I do not believe his revenue numbers. At all. But people on the Internet see some shit posted, believe it, and then compare themselves to…

How are you defining garbage?

single file 30,000 of PHP code.
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