Dan is a web developer & designer by trade. For over 10 years he’s been working as a freelance consultant in various industries including fintech, telco, architecture, medical, digital signage, real-estate, hydrology (and more) industries to name a few.
This year he decided to embark on a journey to build his own startups as an indie maker.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
That’s quite an interesting question. It made me reflect on the past few months & made me realize most of my days tend to go into unexpected directions.
I usually start with a coffee in the morning and I open up my Notes.app (native Mac).
On Mondays and Fridays, I’ll have the coffee while we do the “Morning Maker Show” with Sandra.
I then proceed to write a TODO list for that day. Usually 3-5 bullet points.
In some cases, I write the TODO in the previous workday. I get the ideas out of my head and close down the laptop. I recommend this approach to be able to detach yourself at the end of a work day.
Afterwards, I’d either: fire up my text editor, Figma or jump into marketing tasks.
Most days would be in the text editor as the thing that gets me excited the most is programming. Some days are just design, others are just marketing. I try to have a healthy mix.
However, most days have unforeseen activities sprinkled.
It’s common to have conversations with customers, or fellow indie makers. Some days I need to do support and gather feedback too.
That being said, I try to have an overarching “theme” each day so I can focus for a number of hours on that continuously. I find I’m most productive when I do that.
I’m not a big fan of changing contexts, but that is a reality of being a maker. You’ll have to wear a number of hats each day.
How do you bring ideas to life?
If you asked me this question a year ago, I’d say I jump into making a design and MVP. After a year of bringing ideas to life, this has changed completely.
When I have a good idea, I share it — typically on 𝕏 (formerly Twitter) and perhaps even include a payment link. I ask people: “Would you pay for this?”. And so an idea becomes reality as soon as people become so excited that they are willing to “bet” money on it.
If that goes well, I’d make a website, put a decent amount of effort in the copy and add the ability to pre-order. In parallel, I’d build a PoC and talk, talk, talk. Show what it can do and how. A short screen recoding usually works very well.
Finally, if I’m optimistic at the end of that, I dive deep into building. Depending on the product, I’d spend 2-4 weeks getting an initial version out. As soon as I have something I’d try to reach out to a few customers or fellow indie makers and watch them use it.
It’s crucial in the early stages. And so the idea is now a product.
What’s one trend that excites you?
I’d like to come up with an original answer here, but I’ll have to say what everybody is saying today: AI. Specifically, AI as an invisible helper that enhances the software that we know and love. I use it daily and I truly believe this is an innovation comparable to the inception of the web. The pace of innovation in the space is incredible and contrary to other trends like blockchain it has immediate commercial applications and these days an ecosystem of apps built on top of it.
It’s truly remarkable to see it unfold. I think it will commoditize many industries, including software development, and will usher a new generation of generalist workers that can be more productive then we ever were. Much like indie hacking itself.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
Also a question that made me reflect. I post on 𝕏 every day. I have been for the entire year. Most of my posts are about my products, so this forces me to work on them in order to share updates. It’s a roll-your-own accountability system. Each person could set slightly different rules, but for me doing something daily helps me be productive.
Mind you, it’s a love and hate relationship. Some days this is very hard and even harder when I go on a holiday. Those times I’d wish I could not do it, but I know if I want I’ll lose moment and have a hard time getting back into it. With a bit of planning I usually find a way to relax on a holiday but still have something to post. Worst case — I can share a few funny holiday stories.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Start building your own products now and do not stop. Give it a few years and focus on marketing & talking to your users. I promise, it will work out in the end if you keep doing it for long enough.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.
There is no such thing as luck if you want to make it as a small startup / indie maker. It’s just hard work: years of stubbornly building, talking to customers and not giving up.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Call your parents. Life gets in the way and by the time you know it they are old and you do not have much in common. It’s a sad realization that probably most people spend 95% of their total time with their parents in their childhood, and only 5% throughout their adult life. There’s a lot of wisdom to absorb and I tend to think because of this disconnect we tend to forget / reinvent solutions to problems that have already been solved well by older generations.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
I go out for a run and try to talk about it with my friends. Just talking about it usually makes the problem looks smaller. If that doesn’t work, taking the day off and doing something relaxing tends to be of great help. The next day everything seems manageable again.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
A good strategy to grow my business that I use without exception is: show don’t tell. That goes throughout — copy, marketing, the product itself. As soon as I started to replace generic artwork with demos, I found people were more keen to talk about it, give feedback and try out the product. That ultimately helped increase conversion, which is crucial for a solo builder that has limited budgets for advertising etc.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
I tend to get passionate about everything I build. Earlier in my career I was the founder of a startup that I had hoped would become huge (it still exists today and doing alright). However, the “passion” got the best of me and I demanded too much of myself and my cofounders. I became demotivated & burnt out and I had to pull out.
The main takeaway is: you are not your product. But also, building business can get very stressful and it’s hard to find likeminded people that keep their cool under pressure. That is also a self-reflection, I think I could work on that.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I’ve been working in fintech for the past few years. One of the ideas I never got to try is to optimize trading based on AI sentiment analysis and now even perhaps GPT Vision for chart analysis and AI web search. I believe the first one to find one or more niches where this works well will make a great deal of money.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
This has to be Figma. Specifically, the part were you can use it as a canvas for any idea. Most of my projects begin as rudimentary boxes & arrows in Figma.
It’s a great way to nurture creativity & extract thoughts from your head.
I find that when I use it the idea tends to evolve and 8 out of 10 times becomes at least a prototype.
What is the best $100 you recently spent?
I bought ScreenStudio, a screen recording software that allows you to zoom in to different parts of the screen in post. It looks great and it’s so easy to use.
I don’t know of a better way do show off a product without spending a) a fortune and b) many days of editing in overly complicated software such as Adobe After Effects.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?
I listen to quite a few podcasts. Most of them are tech-related, but the one that I enjoy the most has to be 99% Invisible by Roman Mars. It always takes me by surprise and I find myself learning so much from it.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I’m a big fan of The Last Of Us games, so when the series came out this year it felt like Christmas morning. I was glued to my screen for days until I saw it all. In my opinion, very tastefully done.
Why? I think I’m attracted to this idea of a future dystopian civilisation that rises from the ashes of a destroyed earth. Last of Us is somewhat credible in the way the explain a fungus outbreak and in the light of the pandemic it seemed quite plausible. For the same reason I like the Fallout franchise — series should come in 2024 and I’m quite excited about it!
Key learnings:
- When talking about your products: be yourself. Don’t write content that you think others want to see — write your own raw, unaltered thoughts.
- Be part of the community. Help likeminded people without asking for anything back or having expectations.
- Launch something today, even if it’s not ready. You’ll gain invaluable momentum, iterate quicker and ultimately validate your idea before you invest large amount of resources into it.