Ask IH: Any B2C indie hackers out there?

I almost feel like B2C products are the "unicorns" of the indie hacker world. Nomad List, and Scott's Cheap Flights come to mind. There are these lucky few that make tons of money, but then everyone else is struggling. It seems like it's way harder to get a bootstrapped B2C business going, but if you get it going it's pretty strong.

Yup I'm doing B2C. I'm building the app I want and betting on enough other people wanting something similar (with some customer validation/discovery along the way). It was the only way I could get myself motivated to build something and finish it (p.s. I have not launched yet). My theory is that in the worst case scenario I will learn a lot and by being the B in the B2C, I will probably discover lots of B2B ideas along the way that I can pursue if this doesn't work.

Well, I'm building a b2c marketplace but worked as a design lead on many b2b projects in the London tech startup bubble. In my experience, if you're targeting b2c, you need to build a much better product (most b2b product wouldn't be competitive as b2c) and have better understanding of human/behavioral psychology. It's because the consumer has nothing else to measure the service but the interface and its messaging. In b2b however, there is a sales person next to the product, there is trust history, there is safety network etc. so you can afford to go a big buggy or early. But for exchange, connection/warm intro is everything. If you can't find or can't open the doors, it's much harder to sell anything in b2b than it would be in b2c.

Hi! I develop Mac applications mostly B2C, both are one-time paid. I really don’t like where the SaaS train is taking us, and also think people will eventually get tired of subscriptions, most SaaS will start seeing lots of churn and profitability will suffer.

There are definitely a few of us out there! And probably far fewer who are actually making a little revenue... I'm working on an iOS/Android app (about as consumer-facing as it gets).

I think a big reason b2c companies don't post here as much is that most of our users aren't Indie Hackers, especially if we are properly starting niche to begin. B2B companies posting here have the perfect opportunity to sell to small businesses that are willing to take a risk on new products.

Not to say you couldn't all use my (or someone else's) app... but it's often better to seek out those who have a burning need for it! (Facebook groups, niche blogs, etc.)

I'm doing B2B, if you mean Business 2 Band 🤘🏻 It's actually a hybrid, but leaning B2C. Most of my customers are independent musicians, but a couple small labels and podcasts use it as well. But it wasn't, like, a calculated move — I built something I wanted to use, and I'm… well, a C.

I don't think the B2B space can ever be too crowded. There will always be space for new players. Knowing this, the idea that I really felt like working on now is a B2C app, so I'm a B2C indie hackers. Consumers don't like to pay, hell I don't like to pay, but anyone that wants to use my app after I'm done must pay. I'm not doing the freemium/ads model. If you believe it's worth it, charge for it.

Yes! I am in the B2C space and I have been wondering this as well.

Mostly it seems as though indies in the B2C space are focused on e-commerce, but I am enjoying building actual apps the that target consumers.

To your points:

While I agree that, generally speaking, consumers are less likely to pay, the markets are bigger, they do less research before making smaller purchase decisions and they do make impulse buys.

I recently launched the private alpha of my b2c SaaS. Having focused on building b2b products in the past, I wanted to build something for individuals—specifically, writers. Perligo is my first real attempt at a b2c. The alpha is going well in terms of hardening the product, but we’ll see what happens when it opens to the public!

Me, got a subscription based web app where people pay monthly. Still early days so hard to tell if it will be successful but with two customers so far there is potential.

Personally so far I am refusing to create any kind of free option. In my opinion those psuedo-customers will be the overly demanding type, less likely to convert, and it will just distract from the paid offering. As a new business I want validation asap and a paying customer is the only way to get that.

Things I've found annoying so far is complaints about price when the price is extremely reasonable, although I think I am better off not having these people as customers anyway. I find it shocking that people will complain at the price of something that costs the same as a low quality cold sandwich from a supermarket. Furthermore, there seems to be a very small margin for error. The slightest issue and they'll demand their money back, probably because they feel cheated out of their hard earned cash. On the other hand B2B I imagine they are more understanding and are willing to let you fix issues as opposed to having that sense of entitlement. I theorize that this is because usually its not their money in question ( i.e your customer is paying for your product with the businesses money), and B2B products tend to make the business money in some way rather than B2C where you are just taking money away in return for some consumer good.

On the one hand, I can see how B2B looks better in a lot of ways, and why loads of people say don't do B2C. But, on the other hand at least I won't be getting a call at 3am because my SaaS is down and is costing my clients thousands of pounds in lost revenue.