Questions to Ask Yourself Before
Starting
The biggest tragedy for any founder isn't failure. It's becoming trapped inside a business that you don't actually like.
If you could build any type of business you want, why would you build one that makes you miserable?
Ideally you wouldn't, but it happens surprisingly often. I've interviewed 500 successful founders, and many of them can't wait to quit so they can start over and "do it right this time."
It doesn't have to be this way.
What do you want for your life?
We all want different things. Many of us want to be rich. Some want fame. Others want more time, creative freedom, or the ability to work from anywhere on any schedule. It's not hard to see how a business could provide these things.
But what about more exotic desires — can a business help with those?
What if you want to hang out with your favorite celebrities? Or travel and be guaranteed to meet new friends all over the world? Or regularly eat at all the best restaurants? Or have tons of people read your writing and ideas? Or befriend successful and inspiring people from a particular field? Or get fit and stay that way?
I know people whose businesses have enabled them to do all of these things. In fact, I'm a prime example — I literally have to talk to interesting people every week, because I started an interview-based podcast.
No matter what you want in life, starting a business is a powerful way to help you get it. But you have to know what you want first.
Getting to Know Yourself
The easiest way to figure out what you want your business to do for you is to start asking and answering questions about yourself.
This should be your first step as a founder. Before you come up with an idea, before you find a partner, before you do anything, take the time to examine who you are.
I've typed up a list of questions below. You don't need to use this exact list. It's just here to give you a rough idea of what I'm talking about:
- What kinds of things have I enjoyed working on in the past?
- What kinds of work have driven me insane in the past?
- What am I passionate about?
- When was the last time I was so excited I could barely contain myself?
- What about the last time I got really angry about something?
- Am I usually happier working alone or with other people?
- How much free time do I want to have in my life?
- What do I absolutely love telling other people about?
- What have I spent the most time in life learning about?
- What do I believe that most people don't?
- How much money do I want to make?
- What kinds of people would I like to meet and interact with?
- What am I particularly good at?
- What am I bad at?
- What kinds of praise and accolades have I gotten in the past?
- What is it that people say about me that makes me feel the best?
- When am I good at motivating myself, and when do I need others to hold me accountable?
- What do I never get bored of doing, even when it gets hard?
- What gives me energy?
- What stresses me out?
- What kinds of errors and mistakes have I tended to make in the past?
- What do I want to learn about or get better at?
- Who do I respect?
- Whose life am I jealous of?
- What do I wish I was forced to do on a regular basis?
- What kinds of people, if any, would I want working alongside me? Any specific individuals?
- What aspects of my life do I want to keep intact no matter what?
- In an ideal world, what kind of life would I want to live, and what kind of person would I be?
- What would I like to change about the world around me?
- What parts of running a business scare or worry me? What parts excite me?
Sure, it's a lot of questions. But any business you start might last for years or even a lifetime, so it's crazy not to spend an hour or two upfront thinking about the kind of person you've proven to be.
And be honest! Don't self-sabotage by lying to yourself about any of these questions. Later on when you're coming up with a business idea, you'll be much better equipped to evaluate whether it will make you happy (and tweak it accordingly) if you have accurate answers to these questions.
A Working Example
Before I started Indie Hackers, I knew I wanted something…
- that I could create quickly (because I was running out of my savings),
- that was simple to explain to my friends and family members (because I'd be lonely if I couldn't talk about it),
- that would encourage me to meet fascinating people (because I'm a big believer in surrounding yourself with your role models),
- and that wouldn't require too much coding (since my biggest weakness historically had been spending too much time coding).
Having a list like this made it easy for me to throw away some of the other ideas I was considering and focus on what seems to have been the right one.
In fact, having this list helped me come up with the right idea in the first place. We often worry that constraints will limit our choices, but more often than not they simply serve as prompts to boost our creativity.
Your business can help you accomplish anything you want in life, so remember to aim high. But more importantly, just taking the time to aim at all can work wonders.
Thanks so much for that, I realized I never really answered to these questions, and now that I have done that, I have the feeling a know my self better =)
I had this "revelation" moment when you finally realize who you want to be, and what you want to do, and I'm definitely down for the Indie Hacker lifestyle :p
I think it's easier said than done. And you can ask all these questions, but reality, life and change happens.
I've succeeded at a business that I do love, but I don't necessarily want (anymore). Is that different from a business I don't like?
I would often ask myself these types of questions. Sometimes I think I'd want things, then something happens (life, eh?) that changes my mind. Or the world changes dramatically within 5 years and all of a sudden what I thought I wanted is definitely not I want now. The person I am now is most definitely not the person I was 5 or 10 years ago. And most definitely nowhere near who I was 12 years ago when I lay the seeds of what I was doing.
I think in my case, the business grew out of the things that I loved doing but it has outgrown me.
It has morphed into something that I believe is the best for the business to be sustained, but not necessarily the best for what I want out of life. And for me, I'm ok with that (kinda, for now), but it doesn't make it easy. I no longer want the responsibility, but it feels wrong to shape it into what I want.
And yes, I know businesses can be sold, but people like to think that that is an easy process.
Yep, it's only natural to grow and change as a person over time. Very few of us want the same things forever. And sometimes as founders we're faced with a choice of continuing to do what we love vs letting our babies outgrow us because it's right for the business. But unlike real babies, we don't have to feel too bad about selling them or handing them over to other people to run ;-)
In your case, I'm selfishly pretty happy that things changed and you eventually moved on to help run Indie Hackers!
One thing that sticks in my mind is that people often have views that they express and feel strong about and sometimes other people take them too seriously, or become blinded by them.
I feel it's important to have a broad view of the options and feel that whatever option you take at that point in your life is the right one at the right time, even if it doesn't quite go to plan.
This article is a masterclass in turning dreams into reality! 🌟 It’s fascinating to see how deeply understanding yourself can shape a business that aligns with your passions—whether it's rubbing elbows with celebrities or savoring gourmet meals. For those of us in the appliance repair field, this introspection can be just as powerful. Imagine designing a repair business that not only solves problems but also fuels your personal goals and interests. From connecting with other industry experts to creating a brand that excites you daily, this guide is a blueprint for building a business that truly fits you. 🚀🔧✨
Good post but I'd add a disclaimer, only ask those question if you already started ventures before. If you haven't just start AND finish something. Even the worst idea you have. Otherwise you will asking yourself questions forever, loosing time and will never work on anything.
Yes, working on the wrong idea might be bad but not working on any idea while just reading and asking questions is worse.
If you're someone who spends forever reading advice and never starting, the best advice is always stop reading and start. 👍
One of my mottos in life is: "Just do f* something".
So may of my people have all these idea, but that is just it, Ideas
Also, when I build something, these same people have so many criticism.
But ....
This is a powerful reminder that entrepreneurship is not just about financial success, but also about finding fulfillment and happiness in what you do. The fulfillment gets us going when others quit.
This is such a good comment.
Great article, It really highlights the importance of aligning a business with personal values. How often do founders revisit these introspective questions as their businesses grow and change?
"You’re building your first house for your enemy, your second one for your friend and your third one for yourself"
The same applies for startups I think.
I may be an outlier, but if I'd started with all those questions, I still wouldn't have chosen anything! Instead, I'd have spent years examining potential businesses (and myself) against that list and at most have written a book (or series) in my journals that nobody else would ever read.
At least for me, a tighter loop between analysis and actually doing things is much better than a massive list to run every business idea against.
Right, I don't think one needs to be overly systematic about it, or expect to get a perfect score, or anything that limiting. A bias toward action is important for a founder, which means avoiding analysis paralysis.
For those who struggle with getting started, I suppose all the advice on the Internet is moot and should instead say, "Just start something already!"
But for the remaining pool of founders who start things but struggle to succeed, I think they generally could afford to be more thoughtful.
Success is the product of both high-quality decisions and actions, not just one or the other. And it's an exercise for the reader to figure out which area they need the most help with, if either.
You know what might be really useful (but also more work)? It would be we if could see you or others with similar workflows go through this process! That would fill in a lot of the inevitable assumptions / differences between how we imagine this process vs what's in your mind while writing it out.
The way I approach each of those bullet points is at least a couple of pages of journaling, then quite a bit of time going through the responses that are contradictory or mutually exclusive or dependent upon each other. Clearly your way of going through such lists of broad, personal questions doesn't lead to fractal rabbit holes, like mine does, but it's not easy to imagine what the process is like.
Also, do you have a 80/20 version or your list?
Thanks Courtland! I'm asking these questions to myself right now :)
In my case, I realised I was stuck in this advice loop of launch fast, speak to people, validate, validate, take your developer hat off, etc. On all the projects I was working on I was ending up burnt from all these processes that apparently I was not enjoying that much.
Yes, I would like to have a product of my own with a healthy business model, but you should filter the advice you get from other founders through your lifestyle and character filter.
I like to build stuff, period. I have a 100% remote part-time job that brings cash in, so I'm just gonna enjoy the building process and I'll know that eventually, I will make money out of it. Until then, I'm going to enjoy life, travel and build software. 👨💻
These are definitely pretty good questions, definitely help me feel like i've made some sort of progress towards my goals, especially the question "When am I good at motivating myself, and when do I need others to hold me accountable?" never really thought about it like that. I've always thought to myself I needed a partner / support system, but never took to the time to think about what I motivate myself to do completely on my own.
Ohy boy, this stuck out to me too. I know some days I'm super motivated and others not. But I haven't really thought about why, except the obvious, great night of sleep vs poor, but of course there are other reasons. I have given zero thought on what to do when I need others to hold me accountable. Food for thought...
Nice article. First one I have read so far on Indie Hackers. Keep up the good work.
Ngl, "Whose life am I jealous of?" this is powerfull, for me
What's the answer for you?
Love this. Reminds me of the What, Why, and How questions.
However, still have something that bothers me. I've come to realize that the hard things I run away from are sometimes the things I need to sort out. Been trying out different ways to go about it. For instance, I'm learning a bit of front end design but I have been running away (with so much vigor) from anything business mgt related.
Dunno but I think it's important for me to have experience in this. Any suggestions?
I do the same. I think most people do. I explicitly remind myself on a regular basis to check and see if there are any scary-but-important things that I'm avoiding out of pure fear, laziness, or competence. Often the answer is yes, and that's fine. The most important thing is to diagnose it when it's happening and correct for it.
A great read!
Many successful SaaS products have emerged from solving a personal problem.
Knowing yourself and your personal struggles is a much better way to start than endlessly brainstorming ideas that could eventually become the "next great SaaS product"
Glad to be here reading this <3
This posts some questions that make you think. I feel even though I am not 100% convinced my idea will be best business, that in the pursuit of my own thing, I will learn far more than just what I can learn in my 9-5.
That's ture.
Thanks, Courtland,
I'm starting the indie journey. Have no idea what to do but I really want to do it! Your article helped me take the first step!
The number one questions you need to ask yourself are:
2 years of server expenses is a little too much. I have my current job and already saved more than six months. I think it is safer to start indie hacking while keeping the current job
It's up to you, of course, but I have learned from many projects that server expenses can tank you. It shouldn't be that much. Our server expenses now are about $100/month. So 2 years of expenses is $2400. Starting out, server expenses can be free, or even $25/month.
You can certainly start with just 6 months, but you should be aiming to increase it every month to 2 years. And ultimately, 2 years of general operating expenses, to include salaries. If you want to be a bit more risky, maybe 1 year.
I think it was Bill Gates (or one of those guys) who always ensured he had 1 year of FULL expenses in the bank, so that he could always be his staff even if times got rough.
Bottom line: yes, start indie hacking, but don't assume your project will succeed. Better to assume it will fail, so that you are prepared for the project taking longer to find its wings. I hope your project is one of the few that just takes off, but the odds are, it won't. It will take lots of time and effort to get it to where it needs to be. Most importantly, I'm talking about ensuring the servers stay up after you already have customers/users. Who cares if it goes offline with no users. But if it goes offline as a moderate success with active users and you end up disappointing people because you couldn't pay for the servers, that's an issue.
You are the one who has to pay all expenses until you have enough paying users to break even. It is probably going to take a lot longer than you think to break even.
Thanks for the insight information
thank you
Such an inspiring read! This post really hits the nail on the head - understanding oneself before starting a business is truly the foundation of success. I couldn't agree more with the idea that being trapped in a business that doesn't align with your passions can be the biggest tragedy for any founder. The set of introspective questions provided here is a fantastic guide to self-discovery, helping us pinpoint what truly drives us and what we want to achieve in life. Building a business that aligns with our interests and goals is the key to finding fulfillment and happiness in our entrepreneurial journey. Thank you for sharing this insightful piece of advice!
Powerful questions to ask to one's self that help with self-awareness, knowing where your strengths and weaknesses are will save a lot of time and effort
Thank you for putting this together.
I'm a fresh graduate. Totally fresh. Recently there are two things that inspire me so much to start following my dream at the moment is the video from Gary Vee: "WHAT TO DO AFTER COLLEGE". To every folk who is in the same situation like me, you should what the video. The another thing is definitely common in the indie hack community, MAKE BOOK from Pieter Levels. I can't explain how grateful I am to have a senior sharing his story in and out which helps me to redefine my thought of doing startup so much.
But lesson should come with action, I am working on my side project right now and I plan to mimic the way Peter did a few years ago, 1 project a month. This sounds crazy but I hope "Tomorrow, the sky is bright".
I just joined right now!
So excited to be around passionate people 🥳!
Going through all of these questions today
It's so hard to be honest with yourself
This list of questions can help with the decision once you have already shortlisted a few ideas and finding it hard to choose one.
Amazing post, indeed! I'll be answering the questions above and hopefully come up with a new business idea. Thank you very much for sharing this amazing post!
Really nicely written Courtland. Thank you.
I think one thing that's been uber valuable for me is this deep balanced understanding:
on one hand
on the other hand
Hope you have an awesome day! ✌️
Great article. But I didnt find anywhere where it talks about solving a problem that people are having. Y Combinator teaches that you first start by identifying a problem and then go ahead to provide a solution.
This article seems to be about passion and what you like. You may have passion for something but people won't want it and thus nobody pays for it. And you might identity a problem that might not be your passion.
So which is it? A problem or a passion?
Problem that aligns with your passion. I like to write and I do that a lot. I spend time on writing communities, platforms and forums. That way I know more about the problems that I have interest in.
I needed this :). Thank you, hopefully, I will launch something here soon :) and something I love!. I think being honest and answering those questions kind of narrows down things as you said.
Getting to know yourself is a huge aspect that I didn't really think of for thegoodstartup.com's audience until reading this! Finding what you care about is such a crucial step in finding how you can make the biggest impact on the planet...will be thinking about this more!
Inspiring, thanks Allen!
Although one might ask himself all these questions, sometimes circumstances take you to embark on a business that maybe doesn't align with all of your answers. Ideally, we'd be able to start a business that aligns with all of them and that's the objetive. There's the 'happy path' and then there's all the other paths. The most important thing here is to be honest with yourself and what you're aiming for.
Would be interesting to have this kind of content in a more discussion-like format on a podcast maybe? Wait a minute... YOU don't have your own episode on the podcast, do you @csallen?
it is good it should help me out of figures out my start up
Thanks for the advice, I am going to use this to try to turn all my project into SaaSs
Thanks for share, I'm starting with my team on an Edtech product. There are countless questions always being asked. Sometimes I wonder, should I continue or not?
Well Thanks for writing this, I will refer to this again and again , I've saved these set of questions in another file..
One thing also intersting arised.. I'm more passionate towards learning than the specific field , does anyone resonate with that? does learning as a Passion count?
Time to do the deep think! Thanks for sharing.
Very well written! I like it :)
Great article, It will help me rethink my self.
I've occasionally questioned why I'm working on my current SaaS product. Initially, it wasn't about starting a business; it was more of an escape. At the time, I was dissatisfied with my role as a frontend developer – my very first job after earning a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. What I gradually realized was that I missed the independence and creativity of personal projects. That's what spurred the creation of my current project; it began as a solution to a problem. However, as I stumbled upon videos about SaaS, my perspective shifted. I found myself inspired not just to solve a problem, but to build a business around it.
What would you do if you realized after "getting the train running" that you picked the wrong one? The question is, what to do if I just started (a year ago) and come to the conclusion that I don't want to continue? But, things are already set in motion.
Great post. These questions really made me think.
I just started my own project a few months ago, but I've never thought about these kinds of questions deeply. Because I love to create something, and I found the word 'Solopreneur'. It's a good time for me to answer your questions.
Great post!! This is what I needed at this moment.
Very good questions, I'm just starting out but want to get going. Good thing I read this :)
Hi this is really worth the read. I'm new here and having articles like this to get insights from is something I really appreciate!
Hey Allen,
I'm just starting out, and these questions have helped me figure things out.
Thank you.
New with inde hackers.......@1stComment
I'm a new hackers, i just code in silent this my first comment
#firstcomment. I'm very happy to read your post !
Before starting any endeavor, ask yourself: What's my goal? Do I have the necessary resources? What's my plan? Am I committed? Will this make me happy? Take time to reflect on these questions, and your path to success will be clearer.
Thanks Courtland for putting it all together.
After failing couple of attempts, it now all makes sense.
I read it in Mar'23 and at the time I thought "Does it even matter?".
Now I am certain that "It matters".
It's really something worth reading over and over again. Thank you very much for the author.
Great roadmap!
One resource down, more to go. I enjoyed reading this and I assessed myself based on your example.
Wow! So inspiring. Thanks for this insightful article.
The thing we spend the least time on ourselves may be to seek answers to such questions. Although I procrastinate most of the time, I always stop once in a while to think about them.
I completely agree, thanks for this insightful article! 👏
Hey Courtland, great set of questions, although slightly overwhelming :|.
Was IndieHackers the first project you started with the intention to make a living out of it?
Added your list of questions for me to go through! I like your perspective of thinking of things you enjoy doing and how you can turn that into a business model. Obviously doesn't work for everything. Taking this a step further, I know some people who love to do certain things, but would hate to turn it into something they charge for. For example, my wife loves to draw and paint, but would never want to charge someone for it.
Now that I am trying to build my first product with a friend I realized about the importance of picking the right project since the start.
At the beggining we thought about a twitter related product and even when it was something that sounds funny to do, we ended up dumping the idea because of twitter's api monthly price.
Now we have pivot to a complete different project related to an industry that both of us have been following since highschool. I definitely feel more eager to work in that idea and I feel confident that I could work in it for a longer time without feeling bored.
At the end, I think that picking the right project to do is the best for you as a founder and for your users, because your passion for the thing you do will be reflected on the product you deliver to your users.
Yes, mostly this is a right question. according my several yeas experience, I gained knowledge, i could not which is right, I will try 2-3 ideas, if someone is failed, I will get the user or customer's feeling not metioned with my product. final I could choose a right one high probability
Great questions, and i agree, having limitations actually makes you MORE creative
Two months ago, I quit my job as a robotic engineer after working in that role for five years. I made this choice because I wanted to work on my own ideas and projects. Building and selling what I create is fascinating to me - it's my dream.
The hardest part was taking the first step and accepting the reality of having no fixed or stable income. However, I've grown accustomed to and enjoy this kind of life now. My family is very supportive and encourages me.
So I hope that those with dreams, a sense of mission, and who work hard to pursue their goals can succeed.
Thank you for sharing!
I'm a professional data analyst and a part-time web designer. I quit my job as a Data analytics and BI Consultant this year to start working on my dream business.
I have 0 savings, and I'm currently in dept. I've started my blog and I do freelancing as a BI Developer and a python data science consultant. I also build websites with no code tools like carrd and webflow. I have several loans to repay, and any income I've made in the past 3 months I've invested into my blog - Dashrepo- https://dashrepo.com. I've spent money on a medium membership, a dropbox account, WordPress hosting, VPS Hosting, Grammarly, Domain names, and more.
I barely find any work online as a freelancer and can barely pay my bills, but I have one clear vision: to work on a product of my own. I have a huge stockpile of ideas but cannot spend time on them. I have to work on my freelance work to make at least some money to keep things going.
If my current trend continues, I would be much better off working a 5-9 Job🥲. As on of now, I can see that I'm just working to pay back my debts.
What course of action would you take if you were in my situation?
I have got savings of exactly 14 months to give me a runway to experiment and start something.
Here i would like to share another important thing that happned to me in the past - I started my previous company along with a job. But what happens is - the top paid actor always takes all the attention.
This time I purposefully took off from regular job and have stared working on my project.
During the last 1.5 years, since I had this one idea for the first time, and started to work on it,
I made myself a financial budget plan.
Now, that I am done developing, testing & debugging, I know exactly what steps I will do to market my app, once it sees daylight.
This is most crucial:
To test your idea (and the execution of it) various times,
talk to close friends or family members about it,
receive their feedback & optimise your idea.
You won't see success, unless your private conditions are stable (work, family, finance) and you not thoroughfully re-test your app & perfectionize it.
Good luck to everyone, trying to make his dreams (or ideas) come true!
Andy
Interesting read. I was (and somewhat still am) not completely convinced that it is possible for everybody to earn money with the stuff he fully loves and fulfills (or at least helps to fulfill) every dream and desire at the same time.
Of course, chances are higher if you chase something you are genuinely interested in and make use of your talents and competencies, but still at some point it seems likely that the business requires actions to be taken that are contrary to these goals.
And of course, goals, hobbies, time ressources, heck even the stuff you like to do or are interested in, can change - with positive or negative ramifications on the project you are building. In my case, the birth of our babygirl was an important event - it did not delay starting my project but, in contrary, it made me speed up my plans and get going, for a variety of reasons.
Nevertheless, what I can fully agree on is for the actual start of a project, it is important that there is enough intrinsic motivation for it and that surely depends on the factors mentioned.
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for sharing, interesting read!
Answering questions to yourself clearly helps to find your personal endeavors. But honestly, I did just start with an idea couple of years ago, spent way to many thoughts on what and how to execute.
At one point in time, i had this thought of, just the f*** do it, take your idea and execute. You need to go once through all the hurdles to understand the deeper sense of many of the questions. That's what I did, and it still feels good. Now, it's time to reflect again and ask those questions again and add new to the list.
It's a infinite loop of iterations, that's what I think is important to know upfront. There is never going to be a straight line.
For some reason, that really made sense to me. Thank you for sharing!
I know that I want to do something. I am currently working as an embedded software engineer. I took the job mainly for experience and to have a stable income until I figure out what I want to do. I definitely figured out what I don't want to do and that is being an employee. I like waking up early and doing stuff, but I hate doing it at a company. There is no specific reason, it's just something that I hate and I guess I had to try it to find out that I hate it.
I've been trying to figure out my interests and passion for some time and it is thankfully getting clearer, but I am just not sure if I have a specific passion for something. For example, a lot of people get excited about certain things like building wooden tables or something. To me, it is much more broad. What excites me is the ability to do something that I can be credited for. I get really excited when I discuss people's successful businesses and startups and that stuff. In fact, my father pointed this out the other day. He said that he can only grab my attention when he speaks about businesses whether it's his friends or just random money generating businesses/ideas.
I don't know if it makes sense to be passionate about what I just mentioned. I feel like it is too broad and that it basically means I would like to build something successful and as cliche as it sounds it's really not about the money. Don't get me wrong money is a major factor and I honestly want to make an enormous amount of money, but it's the idea of having something successful to my name is what excites me the most. In this case, I think it becomes harder to find an idea since every idea will essentially excite me and there isn't a specific idea that I feel passionate about.
Anyways, sorry for the long post I don't know if it makes sense to anyone. It was originally meant to thank you for your comment which really resonated with me, and I just got excited and wrote what was on my mind lol.
so interesting ans a lazy gamer thank u for this
that was a interesting read turns out I am a lazy coder and gamer
I tried to answer all these questions to myself! Some were really difficult to answer - maybe because it takes a lot of courage to accept yourself.
Thank you! this is a great resource for ideas of amazing questions to ask.
I've read some of the other comments.
First, for people who have a problem getting started, this is a suggested list that you come back to and work on over time. An amazing way to view this list is a resource. You answer the questions and move on with life and start a project or a business. Then later life changes and you go through the list and ask yourself more questions.
This list can help foster personal growth for a beginning founder and can also serve to help you grow into new businesses over the years.
If you are having a problem with find the ideal thing to start on, just start the best thing you can at this time. Starting small works great as long as you continue to improve.
Second, as far as whether you start with a problem or with what you want.
It's a Venn diagram with three key elements.
The sweet spot is where all of these overlap. You find something that you enjoy, people want or need, and what you are good at.
If you are missing one of these then you can make up for it and adjust.
Y Combinator says start with the problem, but that is not the only way. The reason they say start with the problem is because in their experience it's the hardest to solve for. They see a lot of people doing start ups for ideas that they THINK people have and not actual problems.
Courtland is focusing on questions that let you know what you are good at and what you'd enjoy. That is a good strategy in today's economy because there is a market for a ton of skills out there. So if you are both good at something and enjoy it you will probably find a market for it. Or be able to pivot into a market that is profitable.
Both ways lead to the same Venn diagram, they just go about tackling the problems in a different order. And once you start something then you can adjust and improve your trajectory. It can be easier to take something and make it better rather than to start from scratch.
Wow that answered many of the questions that were floating around in my head. Thank you!
Thank you!
If you're someone who spends forever reading advice and never starting, the best advice is always stop reading and start. 👍
https://packageslab.com/
😂
really helpful questions courtland ❤️
I found indie hackers from Ali Abdaal YouTube channel which I must say at the right time because I was contemplating saying "fuck it" and start one of the ideas I have for a business.
This website and this particular article is a right step in the right direction. Thank you.
The problem is not creating something after you have discovered yourself, the problem is getting people to use that something.
Excellent article, Courtland. Thanks for questions. 🙌🙂
Hi Courtland - is it bad or good that a majority of my answers are all the same? i.e. bad that I am not thinking wide enough or good - as that is my passion that I want to drive to my vocation. Cheers Hulkster
Great exercise. I still would have started by last business after doing this exercise, I just would have probably kept is smaller for longer to enjoy it more.
This is encouraging. Bookmarked for more reading and thinking.
@csallen I'm curious, was Indie Hackers your first attempt after this exercise?
Yep, I'd never gone through an exercise like this before starting any of my previous businesses. I just started working on whatever idea seemed to be a good opportunity at the time.
Courtland, it was a bit of a shock how many times I wrote down certain things during this exercise. I've identified themes and things I care about more than I even thought I did. I have a good feeling about the road to come. Best, Taylor.
Courtland, Very interesting to reflect on these questions. As an older community member, the reality often is that when push comes to shove, if you want the business to be successful it may have started with the foundation of good intentions, but the customer's desires often pull you or push you into a new direction. Few of us have the strength to tell a potential revenue stream "no" when the fumes in the wallet are wafting away. I've been in businesses that were purely focused on the customer and the first order of business was keeping the paying customers happy while employee/owner satisfaction wasn't a KPI. So I'm not shocked that you have found a good number of the 500 entrepreneurs as being less than excited about waking up every day.
Thank you for this , I hope it will help me get a way all the confusion that I have .
its really amazing to read such text .There are a lot of powerfull and inspiring human beings on earth and you are one of them.I wish i learned about indiehackers as it lauchen but i will just get the best out of it now and develop myself and all people around me.
i want to thank you personally for shring this with us and big thanks to all those behind Indiehackers.
I am a Student in Germany, working partime , passionate about (actually more than passionate its my everything) Dance and music , Technology and Computer science , Phylosophy and the Human Being.
I like quite all the areas of IT , but i will like to be active in Cyber Security and Software development .
if any of you can advice me or exchange some text with me from time to time i will be grateful
Thanks again
#TheFuturIsIndie
Good post - just thought I'd mention a small typo here: "before do anything" -> "before you do anything"?
A very wise man once shared with me some advice:
"That is a problem I would like to have"
If I have business I don't like, then I will fix it. Getting to that point is really difficult, and I wouldn't for one moment decide not to build that company.
"It is better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all."
A very unwise man once said...
In this case though, I think he was right.
You can't always adapt how your business works, which customers you have contact with etc to fit in with your lifestyle goals later.
Eventually, something will give. And your health, personal relationships or business will suffer because of it. It isn't worth wasting (and suffering for) years of your life.
My favourite example of this is how @bentossell iterated through lucrative versions of 'no-code products' until he found a business (model) he actually wanted to work on and that fit his lifestyle goals.
Strong agree here.
It's easy to say, "I'll just fix my company," but the more time that passes, the harder it is to make changes. Eventually you'll have lots more code, customers, revenue, employees, etc. all acting as momentum pushing in a particular direction.
The easiest time to make changes is at the start. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
While that is true, changes at the start are also the most costly investments. So you need to constantly do analysis to determine, "If we do A instead of B, will we be able to reverse the decision later with an overall net gain." Usually doing B instead of A now results in a failed company.
Everyone should focus on their non-negotiables, but that doesn't mean you get to create every aspect of a company you are happy with. Fix the most important problem first.
@louisswiss can you link to an interview or post where @bentossell talks about that strategy? Thanks!
It's actually not as hard as one might think to start a successful business. You can make mid-five figures panhandling on the street in most cities if you're strategic about it. Of course none of us want that business—it would certainly score pretty badly against the list of questions above—and so we don't start it.
From there upwards, it's just a spectrum. You have to find the minimum cutoff point for your happiness. Or do you?
I'm not so sure you have to compromise. Many of us have a scarcity mindset around ideas. We think that viable business ideas are so rare that it's worth working on things we hate just because they have a shot at working. I think this is a misconception, and that viable business ideas are actually quite straightforward to come up with, so there is no need to make that kind of tradeoff. But that's a topic for another post…
EDIT: Here's the post!
ideas are cheap
Where I'm struggling right now is to come up with a viable business idea that fits my experience, skills, and interests. It seems like most successful businesses are a natural outgrowth of what their founders 1) are good at, 2) are knowledgeable about, and 3) care about. I'm having trouble figuring out something that covers those three bases, that would also provide value to other people.
It helps to prioritize the most challenging and important constraints and deprioritize the rest.
For example, I wouldn't worry too much about skills and knowledge. You can do some combination of learning on the job and faking it until you make it there.
However, you don't have much control over the markets and the problems people find valuable enough to pay for. So that might be a good place to start.
It's hard to give you more specific advice, since I'm not sure what your skillset is, what you care about, etc. But I think @GNaylor nailed it when he said that viable business ideas are more straightforward to come up with than you might think.
One reason that's true is that the vast majority of successful business ideas are businesses that have already been done. There is a staggering number of profitable restaurants. There are dozens of analytics tools. There are countless people starting businesses to help people learn to code, or to pass coding interviews, or to help companies hire developers. Etc etc.
Also, imo people don't put enough deliberate effort into coming up with business ideas. For example, the idea for Indie Hackers was the culmination of three full days of research and brainstorming. I probably read through thousands of stories and ideas and came up with hundreds of my own in that time. But I look around at others, and they're just sitting down waiting for inspiration to strike. That's incredibly unlikely.
removes glasses
I think that particular block you describe is more common than we sometimes think (and I would identify with). What csallen and others heavily hint at is that viable business ideas (and therefore businesses) are more straightfoward to come up with than we give credit.
Summarised, are we overcomplicating the process?
If it helps, I'm more than happy to DM and go through some ideas and give feedback (from one 'stuck' person to another). Who knows, maybe we can both identify a way forward!
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