From developer to entrepreneur: Learning to build an indie startup | Hacker News Reader

From developer to entrepreneur: Learning to build an indie startup

twomakers.io

192 pointsseapunk16 comments

> "My biggest fear before every launch was the reaction of the people"

Today I was looking at a project one person posted on the internet. A labor of work, probably a week. One of the few comments was "Is this real? [...] This is dumb and useless."

Imagine being that person, spending a lot of time crafting something, even just for fun, being told that. You probably won't do anything like that ever again.

The best thing as a maker is finding a welcoming community and a place where even if you fail, it's not the end of the world, tomorrow is a new day and you can make something new that will succeed.

This post is so inspiring, I joined your newsletter to follow the journey!

Is one person really going to take you out of course if you are doing something you want? In that case you have to figure out what you really want. Getting in shape people criticising gave the added fuel to succeed and storm ahead

Well, yeah.

Some people have a low self intertia. It takes very little external preasure to change their perception of them selves. They can’t just “fix” that. Many don’t even know they could “fix” it.

It’s like a parent telling a kid they suck at somthing. It has a lasting effect on the persons perception of them selves.

If you’re so afraid of rejection that you’re willing to postpone something, then a few overtly negative responses can certainly dissuade you from trying again.

The author in the article was talking about the reaction of friends, so we can’t say whether or not random internet comments would have meant something to the author, but they certainly do to some people.

I think it’s a valuable skill to be able to save your criticism for when it really matters to you, and then to deliver it in a thoughtful manner. Even if you’re anonymous on the internet. A good rule, for me, especially on the internet is to ask myself what I hope to achieve from someone reading what I post. In that context I certainly hope you’d never write “Is this real? [...] This is dumb and useless.".

I think that criticism is essential. Obviously many folks on the internet lack tact for delivering criticism in a constructive way...but developing resiliency to criticism is a necessary component of life and in particular, startup life.

If you did something dumb enough to get such negative feedback, at least you can learn something. No feedback or generic too-nice feedback is worse - no one cares!

Yup. There are two types of things in the world; things people complain about, and things people don't use. If you've gotten a complaint, that's already miles ahead of the vast majority of stuff that is never even seen!

(nb- I am not being sarcastic. I genuinely do think this.)

> The best thing as a maker is finding a welcoming community

Even better would be learning to be completely immune to harsh criticisms that are not constructive. i.e. not giving them any more emotional validity than they deserve.

Being a solopreneur myself I think the hardest part is maintaining and improving what you've built.

For makers the rush dies pretty quickly once the idea is validated (with praise, press or downloads) or invalidated (nobody cares).

Unfortunately, the journey only truly begins after that point and everything upto it really doesn't matter because even if your are on the frontpage of HN/PH it's not that big of a deal after a week.. But doing support, handling feedback, doing the boring stuff like content marketing, seo, optimizing conversions and worst of all waiting is the part that matters. The stuff that really makes your product incrementally into a business but which you can't see happen (like a flower bloom).

I think it's amazing the impact Pieter (and others) have had on solopreneurs and bootstrapped startups. He's become a reference point for what's possible when you release quickly (and publicly) and put your project front and centre in social media. Disrupting Agile by replacing weekly release procedures with several per day and broadcasting it all on Twitch. Disrupting customer interviews by talking to people directly on Twitter and getting feedback on features there and then.

Pieter's work is great because he applies everything that everyone says you should do but in the most simple and effective ways.

   France is a country where failure is a taboo. People see
   it as unwise to start anything and will try to discourage you

Actually, once you have the "fuck you" attitude, this kind of environment pushes you in the right direction...

> "Sometimes it’s easier and reassuring to avoid the reaction of others by postponing your deadline."

So true. I suffer from that.

"Indie startup" is an oxymoron

> France is a country where failure is a taboo. People see it as unwise to start anything and will try to discourage you.

Maybe part of the reason there is no "Silicon Valley" of Europe is cultural? This attitude will have a chilling effect on anything that requires risk...

This is definitely the reason. France specifically makes it very difficult to start a business, but even in other places such as Germany or the UK, it seems like any attitude towards independence is always met with discouragement.

And yet, many European countries have higher entrepreneurship rates than the US. [1]

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/10/think-w...

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