Left my six-figure job to go indie full time
Hi folks. I have been lurking for a while here and today I felt like introducing myself.
I'm Alex. Greek living in London for 7 years. I recently left my six-figure software engineer job in order to figure out how to make a living building products on my own.
I enjoy the full spectrum of building products (from user research to ideation to design and development). As most big corporations tend to favor specialists, I realised that focusing solely on software engineering could not keep me happy for long. The money and perks were fantastic but after the honeymoon period was over, I found myself unhappy with the 9 to 5. Plus, I love software, and I code and design a lot in my spare time. Not being able to share any of this work publicly, as a lot of big corporations prevent you from doing so, turned out to feel way too limiting for me.
In reality, I am in this for more than just making a living off building products. Even though that sounds like a nice goal to have, I left my job and took this step so that I can meet other people that have done this or walked (or walking) similar paths. I placed a personal bet on myself that all the resources I needed to do this were available (either online or not). The fact that so many people out there are running their businesses is a living proof that my dream lifestyle is not too far fetched after all. Because of this, I decided to give myself enough time to pursue this. I have enough savings for about 5 years maintaining my current lifestyle. If I haven't managed this after all this time, I will accept 'defeat' and move on. I am imagining though that until then I will have learnt so many things and met so many incredible people, that it will all be worth it. There is no profitable side project or anything. The only income I have currently is some investments (ETFs).
The funny thing is before leaving my job I had no idea that such communities like indie hackers existed. I remember first stumbling across this website after researching for ideas to build.
PS: Most of my carreer has been Android development and I worked for a couple of years as a Product Designer (focusing on UX and my MSc is in HCI). I have been one of the founding members of the Greek Android Developers community and was the host of Design Lab in London, which is a meet-up for designers. Super happy to help folks with any of similar topics.
Pleased to be here,
Welcome ...
Welcome Alex!
It's great to own your time and be your own boss. lacking a 9-to-5 structure, you'll find out that you'll need to manage yourself. Some people end up being a lot less productive than when they were working full time, beware!
Read past posts of people going full time and their lessons. Try to find some subject you love that is lacking a good app/SaaS. It'd be great if the app scratches an itch you have and you will use it on a daily basis.
Read a thousand fans, think about some solution which people pay $10 or $20 per month and once you reach a thousand users you'll be making a living.
https://medium.com/@jeroenrs/one-thousand-true-fans-all-you-need-to-know-about-marketing-in-a-single-article-fdc3c4cef186
Most people around here are able to create solutions but don't know how to sell/marketing them and end up with a product with no users after months or even years of effort. Try to avoid those pitfalls (building in public, MVP, advertising budget).
Cheers @mauricio 👍
Any chance you could have kept your day job and started building things on the side? Just to ensure an income.
Alex, thank you for your post. Congratulations! This must be exciting feeling. From my perspective self-discipline and time management are the worst enemies of working with such "open canvas". The sooner one defines their goals and objectives with concrete milestones the better. Keep us updated on your progress and if you ever need someone to bounce off some ideas in person for quick feedback or collaborate you can hit me up via my contact info. I'm working on Android apps as well. Keep us updated on your progress!
Appreciate it @Productivity_Hacker. Thanks 🙏