I gave up indie hacking for 2 years. Then I got laid off twice in 6 months.
I gave up on Indie Hacking for 2 years. Now I do it full time.
Indie hacking became a drag, honestly. I was barely keeping up with my day job, spending time with my wife and kids and I barely had two seconds to myself before it was time to bang out some code and work on product-market-fit.
My kickstarter failed, I lost the passion for writing on IH and I started to let my network wither away. I finally became resigned that I would just be a 9-to-5'er for at least a long time, maybe my whole life.
Two or three years later, I had been laid off 3 times and thrown into a job market where 150 applications landed me 1.5 interviews and, after 2 months, no offers. Needless to say, things changed. Now, GrabbrApp, my new cyber security startup, has 140 users and I'm chasing enterprise clients down to serve as my first MRR.
What happened?
I will be brutally honest with myself before I put any blame on former employers. I was not ready to start a startup a couple years ago. It had much less to do with my age than it did my experience and motivations: I was not a good developer, knew nothing about business and was primarily motivated by "I want out of these jobs" instead of "I want to build something amazing that will change the information security industry."
The KickStarter for my previous iteration SketchyReq should have failed. It wasn't ready. Neither was I, the founder. Now I am, in no small part because I have to be.
GrabbrApp is, frankly, a much more fleshed out and intelligent iteration on SketchyReq. It has a similar idea, but the technical infrastructure is far more coherent, the idea has been validated and, frankly, I'm a much more intelligent founder than I was back then. I'm glad I started to build SketchyReq, but I'm even more glad that GrabbrApp started from scratch rather than trying to force SketchyReq into something it was never going to be.
I got tossed into the rough seas of the job market via layoffs 3 times since the last time I wrote on IH. The cyber security job market blew up just like a lot of the rest of the tech space did. After layoff number 3, I took it as a sign from God, fate or your divine force of choice to give GrabbrApp a shot.
I had been doing the silent nights-and-weekends approach off and on for a year or two, but I knew months before getting laid off for the last time that it was an idea I needed to pursue full time. I had planned on sitting in that job for a while to build out some savings, but the job market had other plans and my contract was ended prematurely with zero warning whatsoever from my manager or superiors. One day I was doing nights and weekends for my startup and working full time as a security engineer, the next day my Slack access was cut and my boss had ghosted.
It sucked.
I looked for jobs for a while, determined to find something that would serve as a means to the ultimate end of working on GrabbrApp full time. Rejection letter followed rejection letter. I had one interview for a job (that ended up ghosting) and another interview for a position that I found out did not exist (who also ended up ghosting) after over 150 applications.
I was despondent. Then I was mad. Now I'm still mad, but moreso motivated.
Now I'm working on GrabbrApp full time. I launched about 2 weeks ago and went from 0 users to 140 users in a very short period of time. I'm working on expanding my customer base with amazing use case stories and moving enterprise customers over to a priced enterprise tier.
The last 2 months have been the hardest in my recent memory. They've also been the most rewarding. No meetings, no nonsense projects, just me talking to customers and building something that I truly believe will change the space.
Now it's simply time to execute and put GrabbrApp on the pedestal it deserved all along.
AI is Coming to Fuzen in January! 🚀
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After 19,314 lines of code, i'm shutting down my project
Need feedback for my product.
40 open-source gems to replace your SaaS subscriptions 🔥 🚀
Congrats on launching a product and getting 140 users in such a short amount of time! Perhaps now that you have some validation, with a few bucks into a designer and copywriter it will skyrocket!
Wow, very inspiring story. It reads like I am halfway through the same journey.
I tried to make a product a business for 2 years, mostly because I hated the job I had at the time. It didn't work mainly because our dev skills weren't good enough yet and we were too slow. We also tried to do everything we didn't know back then by ourselves: design, frontend, PPC ads with no clue about anything...I then landed a job I liked but it doesn't scratch the entrepreneural itch and I'm sometimes harsh to myself for not doing what I really want to do.
Perhaps, despite the tough times, the lay offs were the best thing to happen to you.
I truly wish you the best,
Miguel
Congrats on the launch! I'm also in the security field and love infrastructure hunting.
This is a super cool idea, especially the ability to pull down payloads via proxy. At a previous role my team was always told never to directly "touch" adversary infra, but at the same time never let us spin up our own proxy VPS so we were left without a lot of context - I could definitely see this solving similar use cases for lots of SOC teams.
I'm currently working on a side project that deals with domain analysis, mostly for my own edification/portfolio with no plans to monetize but it's refreshing and inspiring to see an indie hacker building in this space. Maybe one day I'll try and join in.
Good luck and congrats again on the launch!
The journey of a tech found is definitely an endless roller coaster! Thanks for sharing I think we all can relate in one way or another!
🫠
Thank you for sharing your journey and the challenges you've faced in your pursuit of indie hacking. It takes courage to reflect on past experiences and acknowledge areas where you weren't fully prepared or motivated. It's inspiring to see how you've grown as a founder and learned from your previous endeavors.
The path you've traveled, including the setbacks and rejections, has shaped your determination to make GrabbrApp a success. Your resilience in the face of adversity is commendable, and it's clear that your passion for building something meaningful in the information security industry is what drives you forward.
The progress you've made in just two weeks since the launch of GrabbrApp is remarkable. Acquiring 140 users in such a short period is a testament to the value your product offers and the hard work you've put into its development. By focusing on customer interactions and refining your product, you are paving the way for even greater achievements.
Remember to celebrate your successes along the way, both big and small. The journey of entrepreneurship is filled with ups and downs, and it's important to acknowledge and appreciate the milestones you achieve. Stay motivated, stay focused, and continue to execute your vision for GrabbrApp. Your dedication and determination will undoubtedly help you reach the pedestal you believe it deserves.
Wishing you all the best in your entrepreneurial journey and the continued growth of GrabbrApp!
Congratulations, never give up! :)
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Congratulations Mitch! It sounds like you didn't exactly get a smooth road, but things are on the up! 🙌
140 users so far is fantastic!
Welcome back 👍
I've recently returned to Indiehackers too, excited to get back into the community & figure out my next project.
Inspiring post!
I looked at your website on my phone just now and it took me a little to understand what the value proposition of GrabberApp is. Maybe there is an opportunity to use the “above the fold” space on small screens better to help prospects understand the idea before they start scrolling.
I really hope this works out for you. Good luck!
All the best Mitch Edwards!
After a 2-year break, I'm back to full-time indie hacking. My journey began with juggling my day job, family, and indie hacking, but I took a break when my Kickstarter campaign failed, and my passion waned.
Fast forward, I faced three layoffs and a tough job market. That's when GrabbrApp, my cyber security startup, emerged. It now has 140 users, and I'm pursuing enterprise clients.
What changed? I wasn't ready back then. Now, GrabbrApp is smarter, with a validated idea.
Layoffs pushed me to pursue it full-time. It's been challenging but rewarding. Now, it's time to make GrabbrApp a success while balancing my passion for chickens.
First and foremost, congrats on being so resilient! These times are definitely tougher now in the job market, and with juggling your other responsibilities it's amazing that you are able to find a way to persevere. Definitely inspirational.
I too have been in and out of a couple of jobs in the past year due to contracts ending, but luckily have since found something more stable. I'm working on building up my web dev freelance business on the side while also trying to start a sustainable micro-saas, so there never seems to be enough time in the day. Stories like yours definitely give me hope.
I wish you the best!
140 users?? What a way to bounce back!
"divine force of choice" love it 😂
congrats. stay strong
Congratulations on your incredible journey, and thank you for sharing your insights with us. It's clear that the path of entrepreneurship isn't always a linear one, but filled with ups, downs, pauses, and restarts. Your story is a testament to the resilience and determination needed to build a startup.
Keep that fire of motivation burning, and remember to reflect back on this post during times of adversity. As they say, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. It sounds like you're well on your way to making a significant impact on the cyber security industry. Here's to your continued success with GrabbrApp, and to many more lessons learned and shared along the way.
Congratulations on your success!
Do you mid sharing how you promoted GrabbrApp?
Honestly, mainly word of mouth! I'm running Google Ads but because I suck at marketing and design and copywriting... yeesh... they haven't done very well at converting.
I have a network of some of the top folks in my field who have been following development from the start, so once I had something in beta, they started trying it out and then immediately started telling their network about it.
One thread on Twitter from a co-worker of one of the folks in my network got me from 30 users to 120 users in 36 hours, for example!
Wow, didn't expect this post to do as well as it did. Glad to see that my story resonated with a lot of folks!
Congratulations, If you dont mind me asking and if you havent bothered by this question. How did you come up with this idea I am a cybersecurity student but I dont know much about cybersecurity I am more interested in coding and launch a SaaS app.
Honestly this sounds cliche but GrabbrApp started as a solution to a problem that I personally had. Several others around me seemed to have the same problem, so I started coding away at it. Then I changed companies a couple times and realized that the problem was so big that every company I'd ever been at had the same problem.
That was validation enough to put more work into it. So I started work on it and this iteration basically came after I did a whole rewrite of the project using a new stack and a lot more skill.
Congratulations! :)
Congratulations, never give up! :)
Come on my friend, the road of life is never smooth, if life is hard, but we still have to keep loving it, because that's how life is!
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