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Kaan Mert
Kaan Mert

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Taking the Leap: My Journey from Employee to Indie Developer

Hello everyone! 👋

My name is Kaan, a 25-year-old software engineer, and the reason you’re reading this is because I’m in the middle of building my own business. :)

This journey began earlier this year when I decided to leave my job for a number of reasons and to explore new opportunities. Initially, I planned to take a short break and jump back into the job market. But during that time, I had an “aha!” moment and realized something important:

  • I wanted more freedom – fixed hours and routines just didn’t work for me.
  • I wanted fairer rewards for my efforts.
  • Repetitive tasks had drained my sense of satisfaction.

So, instead of looking for another job, I decided to take the leap into the unknown and start building my own thing. As a frontend developer, building a web app felt like a natural starting point, but I was missing about a million skills. Backend? Marketing? Design? I barely knew anything.

Instead of taking endless courses (because let’s be honest, I’d have been stuck learning for 3 years 😅), I decided to jump in and learn as I go.

Fast forward to today – I’ve made a ton of mistakes, but I’ve also learned so much. I’m this close to launching my first web app! 🚀

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Why I’m Writing This

I want to build a small but supportive community where I can:

  • Share my mistakes (like not starting this blog 4 months ago 🫠).
  • Talk about product feedback and what I’m learning.
  • Connect with people who are also on a similar journey.

What You Can Expect Here

If you follow me, here’s what you’ll get:

  • The challenges I face and how I tackle them.
  • My wins, how I achieve them, and my failures (plus the lessons I learn along the way).
  • A behind-the-scenes look at my life as an indie developer building solo.

If you enjoy content about solo building, coding chaos, and personal growth, this is for you. If you have any feedback or ideas on how I can improve, I’d love to hear from you!

Where to Follow Me 📍

I’ll be sharing my journey across multiple platforms, so pick whichever works for you:

Medium, Quora, Reddit → I’ll post the same content across these.
🔗 Read on Medium
🔗 My Quora Profile
🔗 Follow me on Reddit

Twitter → I won’t be posting here until my product goes live (in about 2–3 weeks). For now, I’ll focus on growing on the platforms above, but Twitter will become my main focus afterward. I plan to share more frequent and detailed updates there, so feel free to follow me early!
🔗 Follow me on Twitter

Extra:
LinkedIn → I don’t plan to post here, but it’s a great place to connect!
🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn

What’s Next? A Sneak Peek at My Upcoming Product

My next post will dive deep into my first product – how I’m building it, what I’ve learned, and the challenges I’ve faced so far. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading, and feel free to say hello anytime. Let’s build something great, one step at a time! 🚀

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