Is being "indie" limiting?
jasonleow • 27 May 2023 •
Is being associated as an “indie hacker/maker/dev” limiting?
Are there any limiters and limiting beliefs to being one that holds you back from getting the results you want?
Mike here started a great conversation about it:
Just a feeling here, but, I bet if you remove the “indie” label/identity, you’d 10x your revenue. 🔥 – @CSMikeCardona
And Dominic laid out a few which were hit the nail on the spot:
Burning passion for developing product, but not distributing it.
Small set of „approved“ growth channels (SEO, Twitter), long list of ones you would not use (Cold Mails, Partnerships, Lead Magnets)
Only MRR / digital goods is „good money“
Accepting when growth is slow (as opposed to solving it)
Everything needs to be polished
Everything needs to be shared
Everything needs to be celebrated
VC is the devil
Looking through the list, I’m thankful that many on that aren’t huge problems for me by now, like the first one. I mean, I still have a burning passion for building yes. Give me building, any day. But I’m no longer opposed to doing it. Marketing was hard to unlearn and learn but it wasn’t due to being indie, but more a learned reflex from growing up seeing slimey sales tactics. Don’t seem to have problems doing marketing now. Still need to work on that impatience for results though.
But going back to the original question: Is being “indie” really limiting? I think some of those limiting beliefs aren’t just confined to indie hackers. It’s common for creators, entrepreneurs. We all got our own limiting beliefs, indie or not… We all come with our own sets of biases and beliefs, many which can help or hinder… or both! Depending on context. The ability to work hard is both a boon and a bane. Hard work is good when you’re working on the right opportunity, bad when you’re digging on the wrong spot.
I’m not sure “indie” was limiting for me, even though I’m aware I had to unlearn many limiting beliefs conditioned through the years. It’s just a convenient label to signal I’m part of a community, to connect with others here. In fact, been doing this way of working before “indie hacker” was even a thing! Back then we were just "self employed’, “freelancer”. The names change, but the beliefs we carry don’t.
As Paul G says, keeping your identity small is the way.
Anytime you over-identified with something, that virtue just became a vice.
Comments
@lukehollis I think people find it fun to pick on them because they’re so capitalist haha, and many indies are probably rebels in a way. But agree with you, that they have something to teach for anyone trying to learn how to run a business. I read AJ’s (Carrd founder) nuanced experience with VCs setting up his hybrid VC-bootstrap arrangement and it was enlightening.
I feel this post and have wondered it too. I wonder if the indie movement is merging with just general bootstrapping, so it will become less of an identity.
I feel like it’s important to learn business and our unique place in business history, and there’s tons to be learned from people that build specifically non-tech products. But based on the size of most early digital products right now, the most useful information for me has generally come from indies building digital products.
I think the VC-is-the-devil part is the most changed in recent years, but I’ve never raised money. I try to learn as much as I’m able from people that are VCs and email them pretty frequently. In the past, people like Jim Clark would get scammed out of much of their equity by VCs, but supposedly this has changed (but the people that have told me this have all been VCs).
If anyone’s trying to learn business though, I doubt they’d stop at just indie resources–that seems pretty cultlike? Do you see people drinking the indie koolaid and building worse products for it? I don’t know of any because it’s so hard to get started anyway, anything helps.