DeploySolo - How I earned $300 in 24H from one Hacker News post

Project: https://deploysolo.com/
HN Post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39816827

After months of early mornings alongside my full time job, I finally completed my project DeploySolo. I'm pleased to report acquiring 6 sales in 24H at $50, and am excited to capitalize on the product market founder fit I've found.

Even more valuable and less tangible than money, I received positive direct feedback from those who joined the discord community, saying they are pleased with the purchase and excited to learn from the code. That's the part that felt the best.

I'd like to share some lessons I've learned with this community of indie hackers, because its one of the first places I went to get inspired on my entrepreneurial journey. Feel free to ask questions.

It can be extremely hard to think of products or services worth investing your time into building. From what I've found, patience is the most important aspect. I've been caught in the trap of trying to create a service business that didn't excite me, just to make money as quick as possible. I got burnt out almost immediately.

What I've found is that a great way to find a problem worth solving is to experience the problem yourself, and then solve it. If you feel discomfort thinking about a problem, then that's an opportunity for you to hop in and alleviate that discomfort. Its pretty likely others feel that discomfort too, and will pay to have it removed.

The discomfort I found was trying to build web apps with Golang. If you want to add user authentication, the /r/Golang communities average answer is "do it yourself" or "use a dedicated auth microservice".

Then I found Pocketbase. Pocketbase solves many problems such as authentication, Database, File Storage, and Admin interface out of the box.

But if you want to create a whole web app (especially without front end frameworks), there aren't many complete reference implementations.

I simply solved this problem, by creating an example but complete SaaS boilerplate that demonstrates how to use this modern software to succeed as an indie hacker, without getting overwhelmed by complexity.

It wasn't until I learned patience to not anxiously rush towards the easiest way to make money. With patience, you can calmly observe an information stream through Twitter or whatever your information diet is, and wait until you see something that speaks to you, before you invest the time in.

I felt this discomfort myself, and that was my best compass to indicate that others felt it as well.

Some other thoughts:

• Showing up every/most days is a must. I worked from 5AM-7AM every day before my full time job. It isn't easy, but it's also far from impossible if you're truly dedicated to this process.
• Reading (and fully absorbing) Naval's "How To Get Rich Without Getting Lucky" is a must. Having these ideas in the back of your head while going through life is a great way to prime yourself to see and capitalize on an opportunity.
  These are just some rough ideas, I hope they help in some way.