Fundamentals of indie hacking

“The fundamentals: Something many people know, but few people practice.” – James Clear

So what’s the fundamentals of indie hacking that many know but few practice?

After this many years, I’d venture a list:

• Talk to your customers. And no, asking your mom, or close friends don’t count - they’ll just say it’s fantastic. No, asking random strangers on social media who don’t use your product don’t count - everyone has an opinion until you ask them to open their wallets. No, putting out a survey with yes no questions don’t count - real issues are nuanced, can’t be understood well with simple yes no answers.
• Solve a problem people are willing to pay for. Some say, build painkillers not vitamins. Half correct. Some painkillers solve real problems, but people aren’t willing to pay for it (because the pain of changing platform is worse). Some products are nice-to-have vitamins, but people are willing to pay for it (like to support a creator, or to have status, or for entertainment). Think minimum viable payment, not minimum viable product.
• Do marketing. “Build and they’ll come” is surprisingly sticky despite common knowledge. This is the difference between theory and experience. If marketing was optional because of great products, Apple wouldn’t need to do marketing. But hell they do.
• SEO is a must. Even in the era of AI. Many think, I just need to go viral and it’ll start making money. Rare. And depends if your customers are even on social media. Even if it goes super viral, you still need SEO to keep it going. Customers don’t come out from nowhere.
• Intensity is great, but consistency is necessary. Yeah you could grind hard for a few months to get it to the mythical $10k MRR. But you’ll burn out after and what’s going to happen to the product after that? The long game still rules, in the end. And you’re kidding yourself that you can opt out of being consistent and still succeed.

What other fundamentals are there in indie hacking?