What's New: When validation doesn't make sense

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

In most cases, validation is extremely important:

• However, if you're personally invested in the existence of the product, and building isn't too time-consuming, don't validate.
• Managing business risks is crucial. Build cash reserves for emergencies, conduct risk assessments, and implement strong password tools.
• $34K MRR as a bootstrapped solo founder. Jen Yip quit her job after major burnout, then launched Lunch Money, which has grown organically.

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When Validation Doesn't Make Sense ❌

by Alexander Chen

As founders, we know that idea validation is the best first step when starting a project. Only once you have solid interest in your idea should you start working on it. This interest could be from landing page traffic, an email campaign, direct conversations, etc.

However, does validation always make sense?

Weighing the options

Validating your idea is great if:

• The product doesn't yet exist.

• You know little about the problem space.

• Your goal is to grow the product quickly.

• You want to minimize time lost.

However, we're all humans who have personal interests and passions. There are bound to be some niches that we care so deeply about that we'll build for them, regardless of whether they'll become successful. Ironically, these projects are often the ones that actually do succeed.

Here's when it makes sense not to validate:

• You're personally invested in the existence of the product.

• Building the product is not very time-consuming (less than a month).

• Building can teach you more than validating. This is usually true for technology-heavy products.

A personal example

In February, I was a little lost in my indie hacker journey. I had built two projects that were not very successful, then had taken on a freelance project for supplemental income. I finally crafted an idea that I thought had promise, only to have validation prove me wrong.

During my self-pity, I rediscovered an old interest of mine: Alternative keyboard layouts, like Dvorak and Colemak. This spark of inspiration immediately got me into coding, skipping any form of validation. In one night of inspiration-fueled frenzy, I built the prototype.

I posted the project on r/InternetIsBeautiful, and it ended up ranking number one for that day.

If you really want to build something, ignore people's advice and just do whatever drives you. When you follow your passion, unexpected things can happen!

Discuss this story.

In the News 📰

from the Growth Trends newsletter

🔎 Eight reasons your ads aren't converting.

💻 X adds one-off API access expansions to facilitate more use cases.

💲 Link to your product here. Our most affordable ad.

💵 19 years after its debut, Reddit is now a publicly traded company.

📖 TikTok's best practices guide to lead generation.

✨ How to embody "good boss energy."

Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.

Managing Business Risks 🚨

by Syed Balkhi

Managing and mitigating risks is crucial for sustainable growth and success. Here's how to implement effective strategies that support your business's resilience!

Understanding business risks

• Operational risk: Malfunctions, delays, damages, etc.

• Reputational risk: Anything that damages the reputation of your business.

• Financial risk: Anything that could impact your ability to financially sustain your business.

Dealing with risks

1. Build cash reserves for emergencies: By setting aside funds in a cash reserve, you create a financial buffer that allows you to navigate tough times without compromising essential business operations.

2. Comprehensive insurance coverage: Insurance protects businesses from a range of unexpected events, including natural disasters, accidents, theft, or professional liabilities.

3. Implement strong password tools and policies: Protecting your business from cyber threats is vital. Don’t wait to take measures to prevent security threats; be proactive. Implement tools like password managers and two-factor authentication, and educate your users on best practices for password protection.

4. Limit business liabilities: Separating personal assets from business liabilities is paramount to safeguarding your financial wellbeing. By incorporating your business, you create a legal barrier that shields your personal wealth from business-related liabilities.

5. Diversify revenue streams: To diversify revenue streams, you need to explore new markets, develop additional products or services, and expand your business.

6. Establish a dedicated risk management team: Assigning a person or team to be responsible for identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks can significantly enhance your business's risk management efforts. This person or team can monitor industry trends, conduct risk assessments, develop mitigation strategies, and stay updated on regulatory compliance.

Final thoughts

Don’t wait for disaster to strike. Be proactive and take preventative measures! Your users will appreciate the fact that you have solid contingency plans to protect them and your business.

Discuss this story.

🔥 Landing Page Hot Tips

by Rob Hope

Strengthen your landing page with these design, development, and conversion tips!

Place copy before images on mobile to ensure you are ordering your content for a seamless scrolling experience:

✅ Intro copy before main image.

✅ Feature copy before demo image.

Landing page images without context are difficult to decipher.

Subscribe to Rob's One Page Love newsletter for his favorite UI, design, and development finds.

Jen Yip Prefers B2C Over B2B ☀️

by James Fleischmann

Jen Yip focuses on passion over profit, but she's got plenty of both. Her product, Lunch Money, recently hit $34K MRR, and growth has been almost entirely organic.

The background

While in university, I worked as an intern at a seed-funded company where I was one of five on the team. That was my first exposure to the startup world.

After graduation, I spent four years at X, going from "startup employee" to "cog in the machine" at a publicly traded company. I eventually got burnt out and jaded by the corporate engineering life, and I quit to cofound a startup that went through both YC and 500 Startups. With that, I got burnt out four times faster; it took less than a year!

I took a year-and-a-half off from coding to travel the world. When I got back, I taught myself the latest and greatest technologies that had developed while I was away, and started freelancing.

After a year, I started working on a side project; this later became Lunch Money.

Set small goals

After my disastrous burnout episode, I just wanted to code something for fun, and not have to worry about monetization, marketing, growth, and all the other stuff that comes with starting a company.

So, I set small, attainable goals for myself. The first one was to build out a version of the product that would move me away from using a manual spreadsheet for tracking finances.

Once I had that done, I decided I would make it usable for other people. So, I added authentication and user account functionalities. From there, I invited my friends and my mom to use the app.

After a few weeks of positive feedback, I decided to share Lunch Money on Hacker News. It reached the front page for the entire day, and I received 1K+ signups during that time. I knew right away that I was going to quit freelancing to work on Lunch Money full-time.

Ebb and flow

My lifestyle these days is a lot more sustainable. Because I'm both bootstrapped and a solo founder, I have ultimate control over my entire work schedule. I generally create a weekly plan on Sunday night, then I make a daily decision on what to prioritize. My mental wellness, and how I'm feeling that day, both dictate how my day goes.

Organic B2C growth

For the first two years, Lunch Money grew organically, mostly through blog posts and personal tweets.

I was building in public by leveraging my love of writing to share my experiences, and tell the story of Lunch Money in real time. Articles like "My biggest mistakes with Lunch Money... so far" and "Optimization as a company of one"" gained a lot of traction on forums like Hacker News and Indie Hackers.

Paid marketing never seemed to work for us. Ads never performed well, and I didn't like how, once we stopped paying for them, all of our efforts essentially disappeared.

Affiliate marketing and paid content haven't yielded great results either, which I suspect is because we're not a big enough name.

I really enjoy working on a B2C product because I find it to be more chill than B2B. When selling to businesses, you always have to be "on," whether through some sort of support SLA, or the promise of uptime. Entire businesses may depend on your service, and that's a lot of pressure for a bootstrapped solo founder.

With B2C, I can connect more personally with our users!

Discuss this story.

The Tweetmaster's Pick 🐦

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Alexander Chen, Darko, Syed Balkhi, Rob Hope, and James Fleischmann for contributing posts. —Channing