Audience comes first or last?

Rick Rubin dropping truth bombs in this reel, via @therealbrandonwilson.

I’m not making it for them. I’m making it for me. And it turns out that when you make something truly for yourself, you’re doing the best thing you possibly can for the audience… So many big movies are just not good. Because they’re not made by a person who cares about it. They’re being made by people who’s trying to make something they think someone else is going to like. That’s not how art works. That’s something else. That’s commerce.

The age old art vs commerce debate.

Which one is true for indie hackers? But that’s a question poorly framed. It’s not either/or, it’s a spectrum, isn’t it?

They say, please everyone and you please no one.

So making something truthful, something to channel your passion, your heart, your weird quirks, and people might love that realness, that authenticity.

But yet if you naval-gaze and are ignore the realities of a business, can your product realistically succeed? Ignore costs and you’ll won’t make a living off it, despite being passionate. Ignore feedback and your customers will churn, because you designed only for yourself.

What gives then?

I think, the solution blends both:

Begin with curiosity. Start with art.
Finish with profit. End with commerce.

I don’t know how Rick Rubin runs his business, but surely he has an accountant to help him with his taxes? An assistant to run the time-consuming but important admin tasks? People who do stuff so that he can focus on his so-called art?

Isn’t that how most startups start?

Passionate, inventive founder creates something brilliant. People love it. But it rough at the edges, hard to scale. Adult CEO comes in, adds processes, rules, systems, and it goes global. But at the cost of what made it great at the start.

So audience comes last, then audience comes first.

Not one nor the other alone.