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Making It as an Indie Developer
Secrets of The Fire Swamp
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“Surrender!”
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“Ah, but how will you capture us?
We know the secrets of the Fire Swamp.
We can live there quite happily for some time.”
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Gaining knowledge and building risk tolerance
can grant you access to a place
most people would consider unlivable.
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Traditional employment is
a default we sometimes accept
because the Fire Swamp seems unlivable.
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Hello!
$
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❌ 10x Developer
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❌ High-Energy, High-Output
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❌ Big Risk-Taker
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The Framework
&
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“Making It”
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Predictable
' ☔
➡ Stochastic
World World
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Knowing Your Why
Making the Transition
Managing Yourself
Finding Customers
Thinking Like a Business
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Knowing Your Why
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Schedule and location
Caring for children or elders
Building a business
Educational or personal goals
Tailoring role or tasks
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Sets a clear direction
Provides clear boundaries
Clarifies your story
Protects your motivation
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Making the Transition
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One Example Strategy
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1. Become indispensable
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2. Practice missing skills
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3. Land long-term client
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4. Propose transition
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Making the Transition
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Managing Yourself
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1. Delivering Value
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2. Improving Performance
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3. Protecting Energy & Emotions
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Work hard
Don’t complain
Ignore the pain
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Work hard
Don’t complain
Ignore the pain
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Anxiety
Loneliness
Fear or Anger
Disappointment or Depression
Exhaustion
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Managing Yourself
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Finding Customers
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Enough time in the right spots,
earning attention authentically.
Enough patience and persuasiveness
to turn attention into engagement.
Ultimately making an invitation
that leads to a buying decision.
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1. Map Your Skills to Market Needs
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• Security audits for web applications
• Fractional CTO to early-stage startups
• Application performance improvement
• Developer coaching
• Salesforce integrations
• Heroku to AWS migrations
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2. Go Where Customers Are
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• Social media
• Private communities
• Newsletters, Blogs, and Podcasts
• Meetups and Conferences
• Marketplaces
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3. Earn Attention & Build Trust
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“Permission marketing is the privilege (not the
right) of delivering anticipated, personal and
relevant messages to people who actually want to
get them.
It realizes that treating people with respect is the
best way to earn their attention. …when someone
chooses to pay attention they are actually paying
you with something precious.”
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• They don’t see it
• They don’t understand it
• They don’t care about it
• They don’t know how to respond
• They haven’t been sufficiently persuaded
If People Aren’t Responding
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4. Make the Pitch
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Leads
Prospects
Customers
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2 The Good News
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Your Pipeline
Big Co. Pipeline
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“…you only need to deliver $30/month worth of
value to 500 customers to gross $180k/year.”
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Thinking Like a Business
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First Stage
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Software Development
Bookkeeping
Accounting
Planning
Onboarding
Project Management
Sales
Taxes
Forecasting Discovery
Marketing
Customer Research
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• Build relationships
• Share what you are doing and learning
• Craft and make pitches
• Stay in touch and over-communicate
• Set expectations
• Manage time and costs
• Forecast and make projections
• Celebrate successes
• Advise and mentor
• Do your own research and discovery
• Run your own experiments
• Hire and pay for your own services
Being Proactive
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Second Stage
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“…if you understand the technical work of
a business, you understand a business
that does that technical work.”
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“How must the business work?”
Business is a system for creating
customer outcomes, resulting in profits
Starts with vision of the future, and
attempts to change present to match
Envisions the business as a whole
Entrepreneur
Technician
“What work has to be done?”
Business is a place people work creating
internal solutions, resulting in income
Starts with vision of the present, and
intends to keep future much the same
Envisions the business in parts
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Thinking Like a Business
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Beyond Making It
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Money
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Capability
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Interest
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Impact
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Watch Your Indicators
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Find Models
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The Framework
Knowing Your Why
Making the Transition
Managing Yourself
Finding Customers
Thinking Like a Business
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Takeaways
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Why Should I Care?
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Recommended Resources
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Thanks!
Jeremy Smith
@jeremysmithco
[email protected]
HYBRD
hybrd.co
IndieRails
indierails.com