⏳ 3 Years. No Income.

$250k is a ton of savings! Parkinson's Law comes into play here: work expands to fill the time allotted. If you have 3 years to make money, it will probably take you 3 years to make money. I quit contracting in 2016 with about a year of runway saved, and I didn't do anything urgently until the situation got urgent and I only had 4-6 months of money left. I've interviewed some others who had similar situations.

Anyway, congrats on making money! 🥳 I think charging for Trends is smart and the right way to go. You're providing lots of value, and charging for it will force you to continue to ask, "What will get people to pay" and thus provide even more value.

Hey Riley!

Thank you for sharing this! I’ve been struggling too especially since the coronavirus came swooping in, but I hope I’ll be able to turn a profit at some point.

It’s hard to keep up the motivation when the results don’t come in as expected. Even if I have some savings, I guess it’s more about the feeling of achieving, or the lack thereof.

All the best of luck to you!

Cheers,

David from The Other Workspace

Same boat! Quite my job in March 2017. But you sure have saved a lot! I survived through with $30k so far. Now, I'm in the process of adding payment to my service finally. Quite excited. I hope we will be both successful in the future!

I like the saying; there's no real ceiling in having your own product/service, only how much you want to put effort in:)

Hey @dru_riley, thanks for sharing this. It feels like a glimpse into my own future — I really struggle with sharing things online. I used to be far more open with posting on social media, but as the years passed and privacy concerns mounted, I've basically retreated. I'm so accustomed to building in isolation, but discovering Indie Hackers was kind of a light bulb moment.

I can build the best app ever, but there's little value in launching it to an empty room.

That's what I tell myself, at least, and why I'm here now. Thanks for your transparency. Looking forward to more of it!

🙌

Hey Dru,

Congrats on the weirdly good feelings of getting your first digital product purchase.
I don't know if you've heard it but I thought the latest IH podcast episode with Sam Parr of the Hustle is super relevant and could give you great insights to implement into your startup.

https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/161-sam-parr-of-the-hustle

Oddly enough, they share a newsletter with the same name as yours 'Trends', which they charge $300 Annually and is doing $10M ARR.

Stay hard.

I just heard you on the IH podcast yesterday—it was so good, I listened to it twice. Then while I was reading Trends (also great), I got my very first newsletter signup! Good times.

Thank you for sharing.

Salute to all those who leave their jobs to pursue their hustle.
I get your updates on my twitter feed. Keep growing..

Transparency pays.

Agreed. Didn't make anything before I started being a little open about my business.

On a different note - If you have $250k, why not just invest it, actively take care of the portfolio and basically retire?

Hustle

Really like your content and email! I'm trying to aim for that $250k savings too :) one day one day!

Hey thanks for share!! . I am without job too and I hope my project will give me something , I am worry about the coronavirus situation.

Thanks for sharing Riley! You story is so inspiring for me and congratulations on your recent tractions!

Hey man, congrats! I didn't quit my job but yesterday I've made my first sale on my product launched almost two years ago and it was pretty rewarding, to be honest.

Best of lucks !

Kudos to you for having the motivation to stick through it for so long. Many businesses fail because the founder just gives up after some time without success. Just gotta stick through it.

May i ask if it took you 3 years to build Trends or did you just have to find yourself first after you quit your job?

I got so much time for you man. Congrats and respect.

You are so brave Dru! I love you being so transparent to your subscribers!

This post is very relatable. I started indie hacking around May 2016. I didn't make money until fall of 2019. It was a long journey to go from a "9-5 developer" to successfully building and launching own things, and then landing sales on those things. In retrospect it seems simple but no, it has been a marathon. I'm still not making steady income but making some, so I feel confident about my ability to do this.

There have been two major events that really facilitated things which were when I found my cofounder, and when I was fired from my 9-5 job. Especially the latter caused a massive mindset shift that has helped facilitate my indie hacking because it made me never want to go back to working for someone else. My cofounder because he has a completely different skillset and works on different things so we are able to do much more together. He is also able to check me at times if my ideas are too far out, which I appreciate very much.

I am in a similar situation..

I have a very popular web app in a domain. It never directly made enough money, its been in the market from 2+ years. I haven't spent any time on SEO or marketing etc, it somehow pickedup and brings good amount of traffic (generally its on the top 5 google search results).

Even tho I am not making enough money directly with this project, I get a ton of consultation work because of it.

Its popularity and once in a while payments tells me that there is gold mine waiting for me. I need to fix some bugs, rewrite some parts,.... I couldn't pull myself to work on it as of now.

Congrats @dru_riley! That's super impressive you saved up $250k! Wow! Now that's a feat in itself. How did you save up so much? I think a lot of IH would be interested in this.

@dru_riley thanks for sharing this! There is huge pressure on people to share that everything is like rainbow and they need to grow at least 10% every month, otherwise they worth nothing. Which is obviously ridiculous.
But I see your determination pays off!
Great reminder!

Wow - super interesting. I was just talking with my dad about "open" startups. The thought of sharing revenue and analytics feels a bit awkward and exposed, but I also believe the people who swear by it.

Congratulations on that $ !

It was really nice to hear a story that I can really relate to! I think it's very challenging to carry on with a project that isn't bringing in money but that's what us entrepreneurs do my friend!

Stay strong and keep pushing - you will get there. @dru_riley

Thanks for sharing. Went through something similar and it is tough to go through. Happy to chat if you ever want.

What stack did you use for your blog?

Dru, nice to see you post here too ;) Crazy that you have hung in there for so long! Your stuff is awesome, I would personally put up a paywall like someone said (at least for a good chunk of your insights). Promote it to the current free subs list too, get that $$ coming in! Thanks for sharing everything so transparently!

Appreciate this, Dru. I think honesty and transparency are a breath of fresh air compared to the smoke-and-mirrors marketing of the past 5-10 years. Wishing you success.

I have learned one thing recently. Sustainability. If you are not earning anything or a little, reduce your expenses to the absolute bare necessities and quickly, and I mean absolute bear, just to get by. Its the easiest way to make money quickly - just save.

I have been at it for about a year, blew through all my money trying to live on a lifestyle that I was living on when I was employed.

Having a lot of money to start is not necessarily a good thing. It also feels like a cushion. Progress comes with struggle.

Thanks for your transparency, very relatable.

Late to the party but I'm enjoying your content over at trends.vc.

Thinking myself about going all in but I think I can be more patient and if I do I will try to artificially limit the amount of time I will have money for to increase the pressure

Hey @dru_riley! I am a huge fan of your reports and have been tweeting about them as well :D I am on a similar phase with €35k savings and quit my job 7 weeks ago. I have a runway of 12 months and hope that I will build something until then. It's scary but really inspiring in the same time.

At this moment I don't have a solid product idea to work on but I am working on it and focus more and more on customer development. I am sure something good will come up in the next months. I am also documenting my journey weekly in my journal called "12 months to indie-hacking" (http://getrevue.co/profile/jimzarkadas), and I totally agree that transparency pays. Being transparent is not just a strategy, it's a way of living.

I wish you all the best man and if you need any design help feel free to ping me :)

Hi Dru, thanks for following me the other day. I have to say: great work with your newsletter. I really think it's amazing how you distill the content there.

Have you seen Glimpse or exploding trends? Maybe you can watch and follow them closely. The way they leverage Twitter with their threads for example is quite amazing. And how about offering not only the "light" content but instead deeper follower-up research? To monetize the initial interest of readers?

Tell me what you think and good luck!!! If you have feedback about my newsletter let me know, would be happy to hear it. Dealsflow.com is the URL.

Enjoy your weekend,
Alex

Do your project as a side hustle first and foremost. Spend time building a Community and establishing your authority and expertise.

Mailchimp was a 6 year side hustle for example.

If you really cant tear yourself away from emacs. Then get a job where you're left to your own devices for a long period of time eg. Static Security guard.

Wow - this is really fascinating, thanks for sharing! If you're open to sharing more, I'm curious: did you try to monetize any of your previous projects along the way? Or did you wait till you had traction with Trends to start monetizing?
Kudos to you, and congrats on the first (hopefully of many) sales!

Man, this must be really tough. It's nice to have had that cushion at the beginning but if things don't change, you'll likely run out of funds.

I'd suggest you add a paywall for any new insights going forward or alternate between free and members only.

I'm personally realizing now that it's really bad to work for free. I've been giving a lot out for free and I want to stop too. As an indie hacker, it's really important to make sure you get paid when you give value and you are giving a lot of value in terms of research etc for free.

When in doubt, raise the price