I've been building products full-time for several years now. If I could go back and give myself one piece of advice when I started, it would be this: stop trying to build something revolutionary and start building something people already pay for.
I know that sounds depressing. We all got into this because we wanted to change the world, not build another invoicing app. But here's the thing about building products for a living: your landlord doesn't accept GitHub stars as payment.
The Market Validation Trap
Most indie hackers start the same way. They spend months building something nobody has ever seen before. A revolutionary new approach to an old problem. A tool that's going to change how people work. Something that doesn't exist because it's so innovative.
You know what these projects usually have in common? Zero customers.
Meanwhile, you'll see other developers launch "boring" products and hit $5K MRR in three months. Another email tool. Another form builder. Another analytics dashboard. They're not changing the world, but they're changing their bank accounts.
Why Boring Works
Here's what took me too long to understand: if competitors exist, that's good news. It means people are already pulling out their credit cards for this type of solution. You don't have to convince anyone they need it. You don't have to educate the market. You don't have to wait for behavior change.
The market is already there. You just need to grab a small piece of it.
Think about it this way. There are probably 50 different project management tools. Notion, Asana, Monday, ClickUp, and dozens more. Yet Linear came along, built another project management tool, and raised millions. Why? Because the market for project management is massive. Even 0.1% of that market is enough to build a sustainable business.
Understanding Risk as an Indie Hacker
When you're building products solo or with a small team, you're not playing the same game as venture-backed startups. They can afford to take moonshots because they have 18 months of runway and investors who expect 9 out of 10 bets to fail.
You probably have 6 months of savings and a partner asking when this "building apps thing" is going to start paying bills.
Your biggest risk isn't that someone copies your idea. Your biggest risk is that nobody wants what you're building. And the best way to reduce that risk is to build something people are already buying from someone else.
The Math is Simple
Let's say you want to make $10K per month. That's a good living for most people. Here are your options:
Option A: Build something revolutionary that nobody's seen before
- Market size: Unknown
- Customer education needed: Massive
- Willingness to pay: Unknown
- Competition: None (red flag)
- Time to first customer: 6-12 months maybe?
Option B: Build a simpler alternative to an existing product
- Market size: Proven (just look at competitor revenues)
- Customer education needed: None
- Willingness to pay: Proven
- Competition: Yes (validation)
- Time to first customer: 1-3 months
With Option B, you need just 100 customers paying $100/month or 334 customers paying $30/month. If your competitor has 10,000 customers, you need to convince 1-3% of them to switch. That's not a moonshot. That's just execution.
How to Find These Boring Ideas
The process is embarrassingly simple:
- Go to any SaaS marketplace or directory
- Find products charging $50+ per month
- Read their reviews and complaints
- Search "[product name] alternatives" on Google
- If people are searching for alternatives, you've found your opportunity
I did this with UserJot. The feedback management market was clearly proven - companies were paying hundreds per month for these tools. But when I researched deeper, I found a gap. There was room for something different in that market. The opportunity wasn't to copy what existed, but to serve the customers who weren't quite happy with their current options.
But What About Competition?
This is where most people get stuck. "But Stripe already exists!" "But there are already 100 form builders!"
Good. That means the market is validated. Your job isn't to beat all of them. Your job is to find the gap they're not filling. Every successful product leaves gaps. Maybe they've moved upmarket and abandoned small businesses. Maybe they've become too complex for simple use cases. Maybe they're missing a workflow that a specific niche needs.
Big companies can't serve everyone perfectly. They make trade-offs. Your opportunity is in those trade-offs.
The Innovation Misconception
You don't need to invent a new category. Innovation can be:
- Better pricing model (no per-user pricing when everyone else has it)
- Better user experience (cleaner interface when competitors are bloated)
- Better support (actually answering emails when competitors use chatbots)
- Different target market (freelancers when competitors target enterprise)
- Regional focus (built for EU compliance when competitors are US-focused)
Stripe didn't invent payment processing. They just made it developer-friendly. Notion didn't invent docs and databases. They just put them in one place. Linear didn't invent project management. They just made it fast and keyboard-driven.
My Actual Results
When I switched from building "innovative" products to building in proven markets, everything changed. With my previous revolutionary ideas:
- 6 months to launch
- 0 paying customers after another 6 months
- Constant pivoting because nobody understood the value
With UserJot (entering a proven market with clear differentiation):
- 6 weeks to launch
- First paying customer in week 2
- Clear roadmap because customers tell me exactly what they need
The difference? With UserJot, I found a proven market and identified where I could differentiate. Companies already collect feedback. They already pay for these tools. I just needed to understand what gap existed and fill it.
The Reality Check
Look, I get it. Building another email tool or form builder doesn't feel sexy. You didn't learn to code to make marginal improvements to existing products. You wanted to build the future.
But here's the reality: you can't build the future if you can't pay rent. And you can't iterate your way to product-market fit if you run out of money in month 3.
Start with boring. Make money. Then use that stability and experience to build whatever moonshot you want. But don't bet your ability to do this full-time on being the one person who successfully creates a new market from nothing.
The Checklist
Before you build your next product, ask yourself:
- Are people already paying for something similar?
- Can I find complaints about existing solutions?
- Can I build a simpler/cheaper/better version for a specific group?
- Will people understand what this is without a 10-minute explanation?
- Can I point to specific companies and say "they would pay for this"?
If you answered no to any of these, you're taking on unnecessary risk.
The Practical Playbook
Here's exactly how to execute this strategy:
1. Pick Your Market
Find a category where companies spend $50-500/month. These are sweet spots, expensive enough that people pay, cheap enough that decisions happen quickly.
2. Research the Gap
Don't just copy. Find what's missing. Maybe existing tools are too complex for small teams. Maybe they're too expensive for bootstrappers. Maybe they're missing a key workflow. There's always a gap.
3. Build an MVP in 4-6 Weeks
Not 6 months. Not a year. If you can't build a sellable version in 6 weeks, the scope is too big. Cut features until you can.
4. Launch with Actual Pricing
Free trials are fine, but have real pricing from day one. You want to validate that people will pay, not just that they'll sign up.
5. Add a Feedback Board
This is crucial and most people skip it. Add a feedback board (I use UserJot for this) from day one. Let users tell you what to build next. This turns your early customers into your product roadmap.
6. Double Down on What Works
Once you get your first 10 customers, stop guessing. They'll tell you exactly what features to build, what to fix, and what to ignore.
7. Iterate Based on Feedback, Not Feelings
Your customers are already paying you. They're invested in your success. Listen to them, not your assumptions about what the market wants.
Final Thoughts
The startup media loves stories about revolutionary products that created new categories. Those stories are exciting. They're also survivorship bias in action. For every Uber, there are 10,000 "Uber for X" companies that died because the market didn't exist.
You don't need to be revolutionary to build a sustainable business. You just need to be useful to enough people who are already paying for something similar.
Find a proven market. Build something a little better, cheaper, or simpler. Get to $10K MRR. Then worry about changing the world.
Your past self will thank you when you're actually doing this full-time instead of going back to a day job after your savings run out.
Top comments (2)
have you tried though 🧐
No maybe I should 😂