How far will you go to live this lifestyle? — Geoff Young on going for broke

The other day, I came across an old post from Geoff Young (@gty) talking about quitting his job and going for broke on his product. I reached out to him to hear how it went. Turns out, not so well. But he learned a thing or two about mental health, frugality, and moving quickly. Here's what he had to say. 👇

The go-for-broke strategy doesn't always work

Geoff: I was working on an ask-an-expert app called Talktree and it was taking a lot more time than I anticipated. So I quit my job.

The goal was to get enough traffic to prove viability. This was in April, 2021. I had $7,000 and two months of rent were already paid for. After two months, I planned on living in a tent for the rest of the summer while building and validating.

Whoa, that's pretty… in-tents… hah. 😎 But I digress. He figured this would give him about 6 months of runway. Most folks opt for at least a year, so this is pretty gutsy. A true go-for-broke decision.

Geoff: But the go-for-broke strategy didn’t work for me. It increased my anxiety which affected my productivity.

After 2 months, a bike shop I had worked at previously reached out and I got a job 2 days per week. At the same time, I got a place to live that was really inexpensive, so I was only without a place to live for a week. I kept working on Talktree for another 4 months, but then I suspended the project indefinitely. I was just always making changes. I was too feature-focused.

Regaining his mental health

A common thread I find when talking to indie hackers is the toll it can take on their mental health. Geoff had a rough go of it too.

Geoff: It was a lot of pressure, and I didn't handle it well. I was seeing traffic on the site, but people weren’t using it. I definitely felt a weight on my shoulders and would feel manic/depressive at times.

And then there was the burnout.

Geoff: I would start coding at 8:00, eat at my desk, and by 2:00 I felt pretty drained. So from 2:00 - 6:00, I'd work out, do chores, look at Tiktok, Reddit, or Youtube. And then, I'd code for a couple more hours in the evening. While I was unemployed, I tried to do this 7 days a week, but would get burnt out weekly. So when I got the part-time job, my schedule looked like that 5 days a week, with 2 days at the bike shop.

My mental health definitely improved at that point. I wasn’t worried about going broke and allowed myself to socialize and recreate more.

I try to be present as much as possible, and it's easy to ruminate when staying inside my house all day. Doing sports, beyond just working out, really helps with being present.

Trying again. And again.

Through it all, he never lost his appetite for indie hacking. He's still at it.

Geoff: After Talktree, I transitioned to a habit tracker app for myself. While working on it, I was getting a ton of targeted ads for habit tracker apps and the market saturation really turned me away from trying to market it. Then I dabbled with a Twitter competitor, but figured it'd be too much work.

I recently made a Geoguessr knockoff for mountain biking — trailguesser.com, but I met some resistance with it being a web app since iPhones remove exif data when uploading images to web. And I just started on 80kbimages.com, a site where you convert large image files to ~80kbs using a focus/blur effect. But haven’t even finished the landing page.
He's doing things differently this time:
Geoff: I'm moving faster this time. For example, my 80kb-images app is meant to convert large file sizes to small ones using a focus/blur effect. I’m working on a landing page and will charge to do this image manipulation. If anyone bites, I’ll pay a freelancer to photoshop the image, and think about coding it later.

The importance of building a brand

Building in public and building a brand aren't necessary for indie hackers, per se, but they certainly help. That's been a big learning for Geoff.

Geoff: I was surprised by the importance of Twitter. If you have an audience, you can go through the process of creating a business much faster, you get user feedback faster, etc. I’ve seen indie hackers post consistently on Twitter, #buildinpublic, and gain an audience. Cool to see.

I tried to do that for a bit, but it didn't work. Lack of effort. I made that post on indie hackers, and some reddit posts as well as tweets. It seems Twitter is the way to go with that kind of content, but I’ve always struggled with using Twitter — the content seems very inauthentic. I like using Tiktok, but don’t post enough.

​​I’m trying to brand myself a bit more so I’ve been spending my time recently on a portfolio page. If I can position myself as an expert, I can get more publicity which can open more doors.

Being frugal in life as a business strategy

I know frugal indie hackers, but Geoff takes it to another level in the name of his products.

Geoff: My frugality has helped me. I’m in a position where I have little financial responsibility. And I've set myself up so that my income and expenses are both about $1700 a month.

I don’t own a car, my rent is $650/month all-included. I have no debt. My healthcare is $11/month. I almost never eat out. And I’m on my dad’s phone plan 😇.

I try to use all the money I make to fund my business, which really ends up being 90% groceries and rent. For example, I desperately need a new pair of jeans, but that’s like a day of working for myself, so I'm holding off.

Parting words of wisdom

Geoff: Sometimes things work, sometimes they don’t, don’t know till you try. While Talktree didn’t pan out, the changes that resulted from quitting my job were for the better.

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