I've been reading about inspiring founder stories for years, wondering how people did it. I'd read posts on Hacker News, Indie Hackers, and other forums like Reddit without ever sharing or posting myself. In fact, I wouldn't even leave comments. I was what I'm guessing many Redditors are: a lurker.
But a couple of weeks ago that changed. I launched my product Key Values, something I built all on my own, and got it to the top of Hacker News and Product Hunt, netting almost 30,000 pageviews in a few days.
There is a lot to say about what comes after that initial traffic spike (the post-launch trough of sorrow as they call it), but I want talk about what came before it.
In my first-ever article, I discuss the six major barriers that I had to break through in order to go from lurking to launching.
Below, I summarize the one that seems to block most lurkers, aspiring founders, and product-launch hopefuls:
Stop trying to come up with a genius idea.
I spent years learning to code, working up the confidence to become a founder, and saving up money so that I could try and start a business. However, I was missing something pretty important. I didn't have an idea!
Even as a web developer, I didn't see the world as a sea of problems that could be solved with technology. Idea generation was a muscle I'd never worked out before. To "get stronger", I gave myself homework to write down ideas every day, no matter how bad they were. In addition to writing down ideas, I also got in the habit of validating ideas to see if they were any good. Unfortunately, I ruled out all of mine because I'd find out that someone else had already thought of it before.
Then I had an incredibly important eureka moment listening to Laura Roeder on the Indie Hackers podcast (@29:45).
Do not rule out ideas that there are already solutions for.
It's one of the most recurring lessons on Indie Hackers, but it still took me a long time to understand it. If you look around on IH, you'll find Wes Bos, Nathan Barry, Todd Garland, and many other successful entrepreneurs talk about the advantages of tackling a problem that already has solutions.
I didn't need a genius, never-before-done idea. In fact, I didn't even want one.
When I told people about my idea Key Values, a product that helps engineers find jobs, everyone would name competitors. There are behemoths like Monster.com, LinkedIn, and Indeed, and at least a hundred more in the space. Dozens focus specifically on engineering recruiting and hiring. Previously, I would've given up on the idea immediately, but this time I didn't rule it out. Even in this crowded market, I still couldn't find an engineering team that shared my values.
I went further in validating my idea, making sure it was something I really wanted to work on.
Am I personally familiar with the problem I'm solving? Very. I literally spent the last couple of years working as an engineer, experiencing the pains of finding jobs myself.
Do I know if customers will pay? Yes! And this is part of the brilliance of not ruling out ideas that there are already solutions for. There are many competitors already making money from companies wanting to recruit, hire, and retain engineers.
Do I know of any effective channels to reach my target audience? Tons. As an engineer myself, I know that engineers hang out on Twitter, bootcamp alum mailing lists, Hacker News, and Reddit.
Will I enjoy working on this every day for the next 2 years? I love meeting new people, talking about company culture, helping people find happiness and fulfillment, and learning about organizational psychology. I get to call this work?!
Is this a winner-take-all market? No way, Jose. It's a big pie and I only need a little slice. Nobody else has to lose in order for me to win.
If things go well, can I easily scale? Yes, I can automate the process of onboarding teams to my website by having them write their own profiles. It shouldn't require much, if any, extra money or manpower on my part.
Can I still walk away with a win even if my idea fails? Absolutely. I will learn so much talking to different engineering teams and building a product from scratch. More importantly, I can build an audience through Key Values and can take that with me even if the idea itself flops. Worst case scenario, I'm already researching which teams I'll apply to if this doesn't work out.
For anyone that isn't an idea person (🙋) coming up with an idea is a massive barrier. I admittedly still suck at it. But you'll immediately be better at it once you stop ruling out your non-genius ideas.
Idea generation/validation was a major barrier to break through, but certainly not the only one. If you're interested in reading about the other parts of my journey, here's my full story. I'm also happy to answer questions if you want to reach out! Lastly, to all of you lurkers out there, I get it! I really do. Just trust that slow progress is better than progress and believe that you too can go from lurking to launching if you want to. ✊
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