(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)
The $1K MRR mark is a major milestone for most founders:
Want to share something with over 95,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing
If you can't hit $1K MRR within a specific period of time, it may be wise to abandon the idea and pivot. Hear me out!
Most of the time, $1K is a magical number because, after hitting that goal, velocity of the revenue increases. After the $1K MRR mark, you can typically hit $2K, $5K, $10K, and so on, much easier and faster. Another reason that $1K is a good mark is because it tells you that your idea has some value, and that it makes sense to speed up the process.
Where are my numbers coming from? I did a simple analysis based on the Stripe Verified revenue from the Indie Hackers product section, with a sample size of about 30. On average, it took founders nine months to reach $1K MRR. The outliers hit it within five months.
I think this is an amazing rule of thumb when you bootstrap a new product. Here are the percentiles:
What say you? Is the one year mark the time to arrive or pivot?
Mick believes that there is no rule of thumb:
There are no rules. It may take some founders much longer to get to $1K MRR. It took me a lot longer, and now, my business is flying.
Please do not buy into generalizations like this as if they are absolute facts. Every business is different!
Martin Capodici says that data can be useful as a guide:
This is a good general point about metrics, statistics, KPIs, and OKRs. They are all good indicators, but know that they are still statistics, meaning that they represent the outcomes of lots of individual pieces of data.
For example, the average developer salary in your area being $100K might be useful information. But it doesn't mean you should either only get $100K, or that you even deserve $100K. But the information is still useful as a guide.
Jerett Patterson advises seeking people who will be honest with you:
No matter how amazing your product or service is, it won't sell itself. So many people try to tell you what you want to hear, because people will pay for inspiration and being told that it's easy to succeed. The journey as a founder is hard, which is why a huge percentage of startups fail within the first five years of business. Always look for mentors that will be transparent and completely honest with you, and not just tell you what you want to hear. That's one of the most important things outside of the data.
Christian C. sees the data as being great to know, but not a compelling reason to let your product die:
I think this is great directional information, but not a singular reason to pivot or let your product die.
Every product journey is different, and every company has different resources to put into generating monthly revenue. Maybe some people will take a year to learn how to sell, while others may have experience from previous attempts.
I think the key thing is the importance of going out and speaking to customers, not building blindly. If there is a metric for how many forms of outreach on average it takes to generate revenue, then I'd use that as a much more binary metric.
This is great information, though!
How long did it take you to hit $1K MRR? Let's chat below!
Discuss this story.
📱 Instagram's algorithm has shifted again to prioritize "original content."
📵 Facebook has released a new anti-harassment tool on its VR social platform.
🏛 A UK market suit against Apple seeks up to $935M for the company allegedly "throttling" iPhones.
💼 Spotify plans to reduce hiring by 25%.
📒 Here's a guide for startup boards in an up-and-down market.
from the Rosieland newsletter by Rosie Sherry
The future of community building relies on community discovery. This introductory guide will show you what community discovery is, and why it matters!
In the world of community, I feel that we have two big problems.
One of them is falling into the trap of creating too many things upfront. You're always working towards big launches, rather than iterating.
The other is simply not doing enough research. I see it all the time: People are excited, and want to dive straight into community tools without thinking of all the things that are needed first.
This becomes apparent when people get stuck and ask questions like:
My personal solution to this is starting any community project with community discovery.
My quick way of framing community discovery is to call it research. We're looking into things. We're trying to understand the landscape and the people around us. We want to understand their pains and challenges, and learn to read their minds.
This research needs to be very hands-on and focused. It's not static. It requires lurking, conversations, knowledge, and creativity. At the core of this, community discovery will help us understand our people better. As a result, we will be able to build better communities and products for them.
My gut says that we will see community discovery evolve as a practice over the coming years. There will be no one way to do it. We will have a toolkit of good ideas and good practices, and draw from them.
And yes, the idea of community discovery comes from product discovery, but we cannot just copy and paste ideas from product. We can be inspired, but community is special and different. We need our own ways of figuring out what truly works.
Take the time to connect and conduct research to discover:
A big part of community discovery is becoming an expert in your ecosystem. Being an ecosystem and community expert does not mean having all the answers. It's more about:
This is a super important perspective because your work in the ecosystem ends up forming your community. It matters. It's not time wasted. This is how communities are built.
Here's how to approach community discovery:
Originally published on Rosieland, this is the start of a community discovery series that I will continue evolving over time!
Have you engaged in community discovery? Share your experience!
Discuss this story, or subscribe to the Rosieland newsletter for more.
from the Marketing Examples newsletter by Harry Dry
Strip it down to the one thing your customers care about.
Go here for more short, sweet, practical marketing tips.
Subscribe to Marketing Examples for more.
by Gregor
Hi, indie hackers! I'm Gregor, and I just acquired Zite, a Carrd template directory, on the MicroAcquire marketplace. Have you considered acquiring a business to jumpstart your path as a founder? I thought I'd share a few tips that I learned from my experience!
One of my top priorities was acquiring something that was already profitable, built upon a proven model. I decided to acquire Zite because I think that Carrd will only grow from here, and its ecosystem just feels like a great place to be in.
I am not ready to share actual numbers regarding the revenue, but Zite is far from earning enough to make a living. It may take a long time to get there. So I know that, at some point, it will come down to a tradeoff between working on growth, and working on other projects.
My plan is to work on Zite full-time for the foreseeable future, though! I do have some ideas to grow it: Offering more templates, making it easier to choose templates, creating templates that are like UI Components, and creating more helpful content around launching a successful Carrd site are a few of the things that I plan to work on.
I will continue to offer custom designs; I am currently outsourcing that work.
Here are a few lessons that I learned in the acquisition process. Hope they help!
1. Know what you want:
2. Be patient:
3. Prepare your due diligence:
4. Be quick:
5. Communicate openly:
6. Seek counsel:
Good luck on your acquisition!
Discuss this story.
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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Dimi Tarasowski, Rosie Sherry, Harry Dry, and Gregor for contributing posts. —Channing