I have been meaning to learn more about IndieHackers and their success/failure stories.
If you are interested in sharing your experience, things you learn along the way, please comment "Interested" & I’ll reach out to you.
I am planning to collect & share these stories on Twitter, make blog posts, that ideally should help you gain social capital.
Startup #1: outdoor clothing and equipment in the days before Kickstarter. Initially failed because my biz partner sent me a text "things have come up so I'm too busy to keep working on this but I'd like to hold on to my 50%".
Startup #1.1: tried to go into outdoor clothing and equipment on my own, built product but retailers wanted a full product line and known brand before they'd carry product. Banks wouldn't lend without safe collateral.
Startup #2: online risk management tools. Failed through my inability to be agile. I didn't want to release a product with bugs so kept rewriting it. I put it on hold and gave up because I got pissed with myself.
Startup #3: one-stop-shop for small and medium business marketing needs. We'll provide a "menu of services" and you can pick and choose. Maybe when you're starting up you just need a logo, biz cards, or just a website. Then the service offering can grow with you as your business grows resulting in a consistent brand and economies of scale. Failed when I learned that my co-founder web designer was using hosting login credentials to read customer email inboxes. He was proud that he used it to undercut a competing bid for SEO and said he'd do it again. So I left.
Startup #4: Lakebed. I've built data storage/access/analysis for insurance companies and volunteered on government open data. I see a lot of commonalities in those experiences and I believe I can quickly and easily solve a repeating problem.
Happy to chat if I can help.
Thanks for sharing your learnings Simon!
Persistence is the key. Congrats on Lakebed!
I'll collect project website link/twitter details from your profile. I'll DM you when/if I need more info.