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Comment by rwalling | Hacker News Reader

I have been talking + writing about this topic for about 15 years. It's a bigger topic than one could cover in a HN comment, so here are a few resources I'd recommend:

- If you're looking for free info about this, subscribe to Startups for the Rest of Us (podcast) and/or https://www.youtube.com/microconf. Both have hundreds of hours of audio/video content on starting startups, with an emphasis on being a developer.

- If you're willing to spend $10 on a Kindle book, Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup (Amazon, BN.com, etc) is the book I wrote to answer the exact question you are asking.

This journey is long, but fun. I wish you the best of luck!

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How to be independent as a developer:

1. Write a book

2. Promote it to chumps on the internet

I’m assuming this comment is sarcastic. However, Rob does a lot more than just write and sell books. He started several SaaS companies, and runs an accelerator for indie SaaS companies called TinySeed. My hunch is that book sales are a tiny fraction of his income/wealth, and he earnestly wrote it to help aspiring entrepreneurs. I’ve read the book and it’s worth reading if you’re interested in starting an indie company.

Ha! Yeah, Internet commenters are the best :-) I also took his comment as sarcasm, or just uninformed.

But you are correct, Andy, I've earned (literally) 100x more money from building/growing software companies than I have from any books I've written. The books, podcast, etc. are a hobby, not the job.

At one point you were talking about the possibility of updating Start Small Stay Small. Just curious if that's still on the table?

It is. I'm trying to wrap up the book I'm currently working on, then plan to circle back to updating SSSS next year.

I assume that comment is directly related to the very, very weird parallel world of Lamborghini-leasing fake gurus that promise to teach anyone 'how to easily make millions from dropshipping in 1 month from scratch' and such.

My immediate reaction was not so cynical since rwalling's comment came across as sincere, fake gurus tend to prey on users of less moderated online properties, and none of those gurus can boast hundreds of hours of informative content even after you pay orders of magnitude more than this for a 'course'.

Not sure if you're just joking, but: Rob founded/ran several SaaS products, many of them solo.

https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/about

The book seems to be well-received (judging by the comments on Amazon, at least).

Do you think it’s impossible to write a useful book on this subject? If you don’t think that, is there something about this particular book that makes you think the author is a swindler?

I think your comment is funny, but doesn’t really apply to this individual.

Also, I just bought this book, so I guess I’m one of those chumps :D

3.????

4. Profit!

I miss the old days of /.

Hahaha....burn!

Is your book still relevant considering it was released 12 years ago? I typically avoid youtube videos and podcasts as the signal to noise ratio is not great.

I visit tinyseed/calm fund from time to time to remind me where I want to get. Not there yet but working to it :)

Thanks for sharing (and writing) the book, Rob. From your experiences, is there a limit to earning potential as a solo developer/small startup? Are there any ways to quantify and qualify product ideas?

You just earned $9.99 from me! Don't spend it all in one place!

Many great things to consider in this thread. Many thanks to you and others that put their thoughts down.

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