🧭 The TenK Manifesto — Why Indie Founders Need a Movement, Not Another App
Every week, I see indie devs ask the same questions:
“How do I find my first users?”
“When should I start charging?”
“What should I build next?”
And every week, I see the same outcome:
They overthink. Overbuild. Burn out.
Then another side project joins the graveyard.
I’ve been there more times than I want to admit.
That’s why I created Indie10k — a place where indie founders can practice reaching $10k MRR through daily, small, repeatable reps.
But recently, I realized something deeper:
An app isn’t enough.
We don’t just need another tool.
We need a shared set of principles — the indie equivalent of the Agile Manifesto.
🧩 What Is the TenK Manifesto?
It’s a declaration for indie founders who believe success isn’t a lucky launch or viral tweet — it’s the compounding result of consistent reps.
We are uncovering better ways of reaching $10k MRR as indie founders by showing up daily, compounding small wins, and helping others do the same.
Through this work, we have come to value:
- Consistent practice over perfect strategy
- Small, shippable reps over grand unstarted plans
- Momentum through streaks over bursts of unsustainable effort
- Direct customer conversations over secondhand advice
- Evidence from action over assumptions from theory
- Sharing progress openly over building alone in silence
While there’s value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
💡 Why It Matters
The indie world has become noisy.
Everyone talks about frameworks, funnels, hacks, and AI shortcuts.
But nobody’s teaching the fundamentals —
how to build momentum, how to stay consistent, how to learn from action instead of theory.
Just like Agile reshaped software development,
we need a new movement to reshape how indie founders build.
The TenK Manifesto is that foundation — a call to stop overthinking, start practicing, and measure success not by followers or features, but by the streaks of daily progress we show up for.
🚀 Join the Movement
I drafted this manifesto in Tongariro, New Zealand — in the rain, looking at snow and volcano peaks — and signed it as the first believer.
Now, I’m sharing it with the community that understands it best: devs who build things that matter.
✍️ Sign the Manifesto: https://indie10k.com/manifesto
👋 Author: Ju Lin, Founder of Indie10k
© 2025 — This declaration may be freely copied in full with this notice.
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