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The TenK Manifesto — Why Indie Founders Need a Movement

🧭 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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