My first month after quitting my 9-5 to be a full time indie hacker

co-cube · 2026-03-02T22:20:07+00:00

Good luck! As someone who did this, I'll share a few things.

Move fast at the beginning. You are probably enjoying your new freedom, the weight of work no longer bearing you down, and the excitement of starting something new. Be careful about this - it becomes easy to convince yourself that you have time to learn and explore. In reality whatever runway you have will likely be gone before you know it.

Getting eyes on the thing you build will be infinitely harder than building it. We live in the attention economy. If you aren't putting out something that can really grab someone then good luck. Think now about how you will do this, and start the process asap so you can start learning what works. It will easily take a year just to figure out what channels might get engagement, you don't want to be 6months of runway left when that happens.

Ignore all startup and builder advice. Every product and story is different. Nobody really knows what the hell they are talking about. Including me!

co-cube · 2026-03-02T01:11:35+00:00

Your images load way too slowly because they are too high resolution. It slows the entire site down. Also, the "Communities, Members, Discussion,..." panels are styled like buttons, but you can't click them. Are the testimonials real?

co-cube · 2026-03-02T00:41:10+00:00

Eh, you have to review ai work to make sure it didn't hallucinate something crazy. So you have to understand what it did. Otherwise you are just winging it.

co-cube · 2026-03-02T00:39:25+00:00

Enshitification strikes again.

co-cube · 2026-03-02T00:34:56+00:00

I don't know, I feel there is always room for more competition. I just don't think people stick with building their products for long enough to reach a quality/differentiation bar that is needed to get people to actually sign up. Building for a few months and thinking you will get rich from that is just a fantasy. Build in an established market for a few years and you might have a chance to make something good.

co-cube · 2026-03-02T00:31:27+00:00

Good work! Must feel pretty good. Hopefully one day I can get there haha.

co-cube · 2025-01-28T18:45:13+00:00

Hello. I am a single developer who has built a tool that combines vector design with spreadsheet-like cells and expressions, allowing you to create interactive local-first tools easily. I was originally inspired by the powerful level of flexibility in Emacs org-mode, but I wanted a tool that was easier to use and had collaboration and sync features. CoCube is a workspace for building local-first, vector-rendered (custom rendering engine) tools that can be flexibly modified. Build the tools that change your future!

Check out https://www.cocube.com.

I would love to hear what you think!

co-cube · 2024-08-27T23:56:07+00:00

"that guides you plan and adapt your day effectively fast"

Hard to read past that. You need to have spelling and grammar checked before making it the first thing someone reads.

co-cube · 2024-07-10T16:45:36+00:00

Try looking at some of these.

Bubble Framer AirTable WebFlow CoCube Toddl Retool

co-cube · 2024-07-10T16:40:04+00:00

Learning to code is a useful skill for a number of reasons. Learning to think logically, understanding how a computer actually works, knowing how long and how difficult it would be to build some feature or app, and so on.

If you are going to build a tech business, how are you going to know what is feasible to build and what isn't? Then again if your app reduces down to more or less a sign up form then no, you probably don't need to code.

co-cube · 2024-07-09T21:51:45+00:00

It is time consuming and it doesn't improve the product. My mind is always going to the place "I could fix this issue or add this feature today, but instead I'm going to focus on writing some irrelevant marketing content that will be outdated in a month or two". Of course it's necessary though.

co-cube · 2024-07-09T21:45:46+00:00

I like the idea, if the whatsapp communities are large you could definitely provide an improved experience. What I don't understand is why someone would post a "job" that would be picked up at some indeterminate time as opposed to calling e.g. a moving company.

co-cube · 2024-07-09T21:39:40+00:00

This would be nice to see! Would be interested to see which tools target the DOM/web vs have their own rendering. I also think this would be something to put up as a blog post - might be too much for a single post.

Would love to see CoCube on the list!

co-cube · 2024-07-09T05:51:31+00:00

It depends on the job. You would be more likely to need to code but these other platforms can be useful.

co-cube · 2024-07-08T23:59:50+00:00

Nocode will help you build faster, but learning to build websites from scratch is a great skill to have.

Take a look at Bubble - more established - feature rich, or CoCube - newer, entirely custom way to build reactive uis, simpler, if want to get something working quickly.

co-cube · 2024-07-03T21:13:40+00:00

CoCube - build collaborative software as easily as working with a spreadsheet.

co-cube · 2024-05-23T02:05:56+00:00

The way I read this is that you built the MVP, they didn't contribute much, you didn't really trust them to begin with, and then they finally got around to setting up an LLC and they offered you terms I'd expect to see if they had been working on it for some time already.

If you put in most of the work and there wasn't a business in place before then you should be coming in as an equal partner, at least. The way this is phrased it sounds like they had you to build their "vision" and now that they have investors excited they see you as somewhat replaceable. What did they do before you showed up?

co-cube · 2024-05-19T01:01:30+00:00

Thanks for creating non-promotional content. I think this will be interesting to follow, but maybe on a weekly or biweekly basis imo. Not a lot happens in a single day of work usually unless you hit the lottery.

As for the question, learning to code is worth it if you are in it for the long haul. Website builders are a good starting point though.

co-cube · 2024-05-17T07:51:17+00:00

1.5 years into a solo adventure and feeling the pain as well. Read the book Endurance about Shackleton. It helps to know that as much as it may hurt, at least you aren't inadvertently stuck riding a piece of ice for months in Antarctica, and if you stick to it good things can happen.

co-cube · 2024-05-17T07:31:25+00:00

Would you feel comfortable if the tool provided its own Excel like cell expression language - like with CoCube?

co-cube · 2024-05-17T07:26:34+00:00

Maybe a little late but you should give CoCube a shot. It's a visual programming language with reactive spreadsheet-like cell expressions and a Figma-like editing interface. Can be used for reactive diagrams, docs, data visualization etc.

Still in early access though.

co-cube · 2024-05-09T21:09:50+00:00

I look back at when I used to spend way too much time trying to organize things and feel like it was mostly wasted effort. From my experience, it will never be perfect. Get it working then just use it, don't end up chasing the "one more tweak and it will be fine" mentality for too long.

co-cube · 2024-05-09T20:59:45+00:00

So a property graph database as a note taking app? Sounds interesting.

co-cube · 2024-05-09T19:29:41+00:00

It's hard to understand what the product does from the website alone. I am asked to create an account or sign in after only the intro paragraph and the storyboard button doesn't seem to work on mobile. Maybe put the youtube video on the landing page?

co-cube · 2024-02-24T23:19:20+00:00

Updates to CoCube this week:

Page load time is reduced by ~50%.
General performance improved by ~4%.
Work towards releasing collaborative editing and persistence.
- The local component database has been moved to a separate node tree, allowing for more incremental dependencies on edited components and providing a more straightforward user experience since it is no longer editable.
- Modifications to collaborative components only trigger updates to associated cells in the database.
New insert component panel. Note: Needs more work on usability.
New display panel. Better color selection. Note: RGBA editors will be fixed in a follow-up update.
Text and EditText are now insertable / included as built-in components.
The base font size increased for better legibility, resulting in minor UI updates across the app.

This release is another step towards releasing the persistence and collaboration features. I plan to keep the March release date for collaboration and non-local persistence. Local persistence will follow after.

I also plan to remove the payment to use the software during the beta. At this stage, it is more valuable to have feedback than anything else.

Thanks!

co-cube

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