21 Lessons From 21 Indie Hackers

Listen Up! IH – Episode 21

Hey folks👋

This newsletter has been running for the last 20 weeks.

I have gone down some interesting rabbit holes when doing these profiles. Learnt a lot in the process.

Many of you have joined recently or midway and might not have read the initial posts.

So I thought this week was a good time to wrap up all those posts and curate some of the lessons

These are 20 lessons/advice/insight from the 20 Indie Hackers I’ve profiled so far.

And 1 lesson at the bottom from me, something I’ve seen common across all the successful solopreneurs I’ve seen.

Lets go –

1. Daniel Vassallo – the Lifestyle first entrepreneur

Only Intrinsic motivation lasts, figure out what intrinsically motivates you.
Build a portfolio of multiple bets

“Focus on many different things, diversify motivation and attention. Expose yourself to new opportunities, new good fortune.”

2. Greg Isenberg of LateCheckout

Find out in what space are you a nerd.
In the world of niches, you have a competitive advantage over big players like Facebook.
Come up with an idea around that niche and see what you can build.

“Before an idea, just think about yourself. Think about who you are and think about all the things that make you who you are and what you love to talk about.”

3. Jordan O’Connor – The “Winner” of Indie Hackers

Learn transferrable skills that you can apply in multiple businesses.
Skills like web development, SEO, Copywriting.

“If you actually take the time to learn those skills deeply and actually do them valuably, you’re going to have a prosperous future. There’s no way you can’t.”

4. Bruce Pinchbesk & Chris Sopher of WhereByUs

Spend a lot of time studying your users, learn to sift through the noise and look for signal in your research.
The more effort you take to understand the user beforehand, the less mistakes you will make in shipping the final product.

“The best thing you can do is a deep understanding of the community. Slow down, take the time to do the research, speak to people, get feedback.”

5. Li Jin of SideHustleStack

Start one level below than your current skill level.
Free up your energy and resources to actually gather feedback and gain some momentum. If you start at your peak level, you will stretch yourself too thin.

“I think we’re all on this like personal goal of product market fit, where we are the product and there is a market out there. Whatever we pursue and have a passion about, either we have to be sure that there is a market for this or we have to by ourselves create the market”

6. Evan Britton of Famous Birthdays

Focus maniacally on the customer.
It won’t be easy. So you will need a lot of passion and commitment to get through the initial years. It will take time, blood, sweat and tears.
Be prepared for that.

“Do one thing but do it well, for everything else don’t hesitate to use third-party tools. Don’t reinvent the wheel to build something that’s not part of your core product.”

7. Jay Clouse of Freelancing School

Take relentless action.
Progress compounds, even if it’s slow initially.

“Not everybody can be a breakout success, but if you expand the surface area of your luck, good things will happen.”

8. Dru Riley of Trends.vc

Build relationships and store goodwill
Don’t be in a hurry to launch on PH, take your time.

“Try to find something that you can stick with for a while. It matters, the market needs to have what you have to offer but I think that V0, version zero, never survives and you have to be willing to stick it out through pivots, through iterations. That’s hard to do if you don’t love what you’re working on.”

9. Arvid Kahl – The Embedded Entrepreneur

Your audience and the market is the hardest thing to change about your business.
Everybody should start something that they really, really care about.
If you want to impact the life of other people, and if you want to impact the value that they can create by enabling them, then you should start a business.

“Audience research to me is the most important thing in a business”

10. Sahil Lavingia of Gumroad

Enough is a decision, not an amount.
Align selfishness with selflessness, figure out what you can do creates value for the world.

“I think the most important thing is to build stuff, to start small and figure out what you want to build and honestly, a lot of people aren’t going to know what they want to build so just like build something, as small as it is. Or maybe not even build something, just ask the people that you love in the communities that you care about how you could make their life better.”

11. Tyler King of Less Annoying CRM

Humans don’t like too much choice
The cycle of bundling and unbundling is constant.
As platforms grow and add new features they become general purpose.
Opportunities emerge for unbundling them into niche products.

“There are only two ways to make money in business: One is to bundle; the other is unbundle”

12. James Traf of Super

Luck favors those who are in motion
Find ways to ride a trend
When you’re going viral, make sure to capitalize on the virality.

“You know you don’t need a business plan. You don’t need a degree in software engineering. You don’t need to quit your job. You need two things. I would say. One, a computer with an internet connection and some initiative. And with those, I think sky’s the limit.”

13. Sam Parr of The Hustle

Copywriting is the number one skill you need if you want to make money
Business is like music – there are handful of structures and best practices within them, follow them and you won’t fail.
Love what you are doing.

“Launch something tomorrow. Do it fast and don’t think about anything. Just do it.”

14. Bram Kanstein of NoCodeMVP

If you have an idea, think what is the smallest thing you can do learn the fastest about the idea.
Making it small doesn’t mean it’s less valuable!”
Timebox it – ask yourself – “How can I determine if I should pursue this idea four weeks from now?” – the answer to that question is what you will do from tomorrow for the next 4 weeks

“I truly believe that if you deliver real value and solve someone’s problem, they don’t care how you do it.”

15. Rob Fitz of The Mom Test

Nobody wants to go through the emotional toll of telling you your idea is bad.
It’s your job to figure out if it’s a good idea. All they can do is tell you about their life. That’s the only information they have access to.

“Customer conversations are like skateboarding or pottery and you should be willing to fall on your ass a few times. It’s not science or math.”

16. Ryan Hoover of Product Hunt

There will always be an opportunity to create a community around something.
pick a very specific community an audience around your passions
Build product with the community.

“Technology is part of our culture and it’s in many ways a way to express yourself. The same way that music is a way to express yourself”

17. Nathan Barry of ConvertKit

Build in Public for a mission, not for the eyeballs
Compounding takes time, give it the years it needs.
Be the guide not the hero in your customer’s journey

“It takes way longer than you think, and it’s worth it if you keep going.”

0 to 28M ARR While Building In Public

| Nathan Barry

18. David Perell – The Writing Guy

Good writers are now rewarded like never before
Find your “One Big Idea” and go deep into that.
Use stories, analogies and examples in your writing.

“Writing on the internet is one of the most under-utilized under-explored opportunities in the world right now!”

The Power of Writing Online | David Perell

19. Jon Yongfook of Bannerbear

It makes more sense to price your product higher and target fewer customers.
API products are well suited for Indie Hackers
Passion is a crucial success metric in a solo business

“If you want to go from 0 to $10K MRR you should divide your time 50:50 between coding and marketing”

20. Pieter Levels of NomadList

You don’t need a fancy tech stack for a profitable business.
There is value in curating niche information.
FB and Google serve the masses, Indie Hackers can serve the niches.

“Be less scared and just do more things!”

Final Advice

One common thread I’ve seen across all these success stories is perseverance.

You will win by staying in the game longer than your competitors.

So find ways to keep going.

Sometimes it may mean pivoting or slowing down or maybe even working on a separate product altogether.

But to get success in the long term you must do anything to keep standing there.

Hope that helps!

Thank you for reading🙏

Every week, I share the most actionable insights and inspiring tips from successful Indie Hackers FOR aspiring Indie Hackers

Ideas + Insights + Inspiration for building profitable internet businesses💪

Thanks to Seth King for editing all the posts.

Photo credit Agence Olloweb from Unsplash

Cheers,

Ayush