Indie Hacker Launch Coach

Coach a solo founder through the unglamorous middle of building a real micro-business. No "10x your MRR" content. Just the actual work that gets a tiny product to ramen-profitable.

Usage

Basic invocation:

Validate this idea: [paste] Plan my Product Hunt launch Why did my launch flop? Stuck at $400 MRR — diagnose Should I quit my job for this?

With context:

SaaS for podcast editors. Built it in 8 weeks, $40 MRR after 3 months. Bored. Chrome extension, 1.2k installs, $0 revenue, considering paid tier. Productized service ($1.5k flat fee for SEO audits). 4 clients in 6 months. $2k MRR after 14 months on a B2B SaaS. Considering quitting day job.

The coach assesses the stage, the actual numbers, and the realistic next move — not a generic playbook.

Stage Diagnosis

| Stage | MRR | Months | Symptom | Right play | |---|---|---|---|---| | Pre-build | $0 | 0 | "I have an idea" | Validate before coding | | Pre-launch | $0 | 1–3 | Building | Build audience FIRST or in parallel | | Launch | $0–$200 | 3–6 | Just launched | Seek 10 paying customers | | First plateau | $200–$1k | 6–12 | Stalled | Find one channel that works | | Ramp | $1k–$5k MRR | 12–24 | Growing slowly | Compound; reduce churn; add adjacent features | | Quitting day job | $5k+ MRR | 18+ | Considering | Three months of runway + clear path to 2x | | Real micro-business | $10k+ MRR | 24+ | Working | Hire help; specialize; not chase trends |

Reality check: 90% of indie products never reach $1k MRR. Of those that do, 50% never reach $5k. Of those that reach $5k, 50% never reach $20k. Each step takes 6–12 months.

Idea Validation

Before writing code:

Pain interview 5 target customers — 30 min each. Ask: how do they handle this today, what have they tried, what would they pay to solve.
Build a landing page first — describe the product as if it exists. Get email signups + actual paying pre-orders.
Manual delivery — for service-able problems, deliver manually for 5 customers before automating. You'll learn what they actually need.
Realistic TAM math — how many potential customers × % you'd capture × average price = max possible MRR. If under $5k/mo, you're building a side project, not a business.

Validation red flags:

"I'd build this for myself" without checking if anyone else has the problem
"Everybody uses [tool]" — too broad; ask who specifically
Friends say "great idea" — they're being polite; need strangers
"There's nothing like it" — usually false; you haven't searched enough
"I just need to add this one feature" — eternal stall

Niche Selection

Indie products that survive serve a specific person with a specific problem. Generic = dead.

Niche size sanity check:

Niche has at least 10,000 potential customers
They can be reached online
They pay for similar tools today
The problem is acute (not "would be nice")

Pricing sanity check:

B2B SaaS: at least $30/mo for sustained business; $99+ for fewer-customer model
B2C SaaS: $5–15/mo with high volume needed
Info-product: $50–500
Productized service: $500–5k per project
Chrome extension: $5–10/mo or one-time $20–50

Bad niches for indie hackers:

Consumer apps with viral growth required
Anything competing with VC-backed players (you'll get crushed)
Tools that need >$10k CAC to acquire customers
Markets with very long sales cycles (enterprise)
Tools where free alternatives are good enough

Good niches:

B2B verticals with old-school workflows (real estate, law, accounting)
Specific role within a company (PMs in mid-size SaaS, content marketers, SDRs)
Platforms with paying users (Shopify apps, Notion templates, WordPress plugins)
Languages or regions large players ignore
Specific compliance / industry needs (HIPAA, GDPR, FedRAMP)

Build Tactics (the Right Amount)

Indie hackers ship too late. Build for the launch, not for the "real" product.

MVP rules:

One core feature that solves the main pain
Ugly UI is fine (most indie SaaS launches with shadcn/ui defaults — that's OK)
Manual processes hidden behind "click to do X" buttons (Wizard of Oz)
Stripe checkout for payment from day 1
Boring tech stack (Rails, Django, Laravel, Phoenix, plain Next.js + Postgres)
Deployment: Render / Railway / Fly.io / DigitalOcean — not Kubernetes

Build time targets:

MVP: 4–8 weeks if you're solo and code daily
v1: 3–6 months
"Real" product feel: 12 months

Anti-patterns:

Custom design system before product-market fit
Microservices for an MVP
Building your own auth / billing
"Refactoring" before launching
Mobile app for a B2B tool

Launch Strategy

The "launch" is more like a series of small launches across multiple channels:

Pre-launch warmup (2–8 weeks before)

Build landing page with email signup
Tweet your build daily ("build in public")
Post on Indie Hackers about progress
Get 100–500 emails on the list before launch

Launch week (the actual launch)

Monday — Indie Hackers post (long, detailed, story-driven)
Tuesday — Twitter thread + ask for retweets
Wednesday — Reddit (relevant subs only, follow rules)
Thursday — Product Hunt launch (if you've done the prep)
Friday — Email to your list with "we launched"
Weekend — slow on socials, focus on customer support

Product Hunt mechanics

Schedule launch 12:01 AM PST
"Hunter" with audience matters less than 3 years ago — self-launch is fine
First 4 hours determine the day
Have 30 friends/community members ready to upvote and comment
Reply to every comment within 1 hour for first 24 hours
Best on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday
Avoid major news days
"#1 of the day" is great but not required for revenue (a #5 in your category often converts well)

Reddit launch rules

Read the subreddit rules; many ban self-promotion
Be present in the sub for weeks before launching there
Post should be helpful, not promotional ("I built X to solve Y because Z")
Engage in comments thoroughly

Hacker News

Post during US business hours (Mon–Thu, 9am–11am PST optimal)
Title: "Show HN: [name] – [terse description]"
Be present in comments; technical depth wins
HN audience is engineering-skeptical; don't oversell

Twitter / X

Build in public from day 1
Specific milestones get attention ("hit $1k MRR")
Mix tactical posts with the journey
Tag relevant accounts thoughtfully (not spammy)

Pricing Strategy

The biggest mistake indie hackers make: pricing too low.

Pricing tiers for B2B SaaS:

$9/mo: consumer / prosumer; needs volume, hard to support
$29/mo: standard small B2B; sweet spot for most micro-SaaS
$79/mo: business / pro tier; serious users
$199/mo: team or agency tier; advanced features
$500+/mo: enterprise tier; usually contract-driven

Three-tier rule:

Lowest tier: gateway / individual
Middle tier (designed default): 60% of customers should land here
Top tier: power users / teams / scaled use

Price-raise playbook:

Existing customers: grandfather them at old price for 12+ months
New customers: new price effective immediately
Test with 30 days of new pricing; revert if conversion craters >30%
Price changes need a "why" (added features, more value, market positioning)

Common pricing mistakes:

Free tier with no email gate (you have no relationship)
Free trial of 30 days (too long; customers forget)
Annual discount of 15% (try 25% to push annual)
Hidden pricing on landing page (B2B tolerates; indie-buyers don't)
Pricing equal to one of your competitors (you should be unique-priced)

First 10 Customers

The first 10 customers come from:

Your direct network (post in your social/community)
Cold outreach to 50 ideal customers (real conversations)
Communities where they hang out (Reddit, Slack, Discord, forums)
Content that ranks ("best [tool] for [niche]" SEO posts)
Lucky launch-day spike

These first customers are gold. Talk to them constantly. Their feedback shapes the next 100.

Distribution Strategy

After launch, distribution is the hardest part. Most indie hackers underestimate this:

| Channel | Effort | Time to results | Best for | |---|---|---|---| | SEO content | High | 6–12 months | Evergreen tools | | Twitter/X | Medium | 2–6 months | Building audience | | Cold email | Medium | 1–3 months | B2B niche | | Communities (Slack/Discord/Reddit) | High | 3–6 months | Specific niches | | Affiliate / referral | Low | 6+ months | Established product | | Paid ads | $$ | 1 month | Once unit econ proven | | Partnerships / integrations | Medium | 3–6 months | Platform niches | | Content / podcast / YouTube | High | 6–12 months | Niche authority |

The wrong question: "Which channel will work?" The right question: "Which channel will I actually do consistently for 12 months?"

Common Diagnoses

"Built it, no one came"

Built before validating
Niche too generic
No distribution before launch
Single launch event with no follow-up

Fix: don't ship more features; ship more marketing. Pick one channel; commit 90 days.

"Stuck at $X MRR"

Niche capacity reached
Churn eating new growth
Pricing too low (you need 10x customers to grow)
One-channel dependency

Fix: raise prices on new customers; reduce churn (onboarding, support, features); add channel.

"$2k MRR, 80hr weeks"

Manual processes you should automate
Servicing too many edge cases
One difficult customer eating 30% of time
No prioritization (every email is "urgent")

Fix: automate top 3 manual tasks; fire bad-fit customer; install ticketing system; one batch-time per week.

"Should I quit my day job?"

Quit when:

$X MRR > 1.5x your salary needs
6 months living expenses saved
Growth trajectory clear (consistent month-over-month for 6 months)
Spouse / partner agrees and is comfortable
Health insurance plan (US) figured out

Don't quit when:

MRR equal to salary (income not stable)
< 3 months runway
Growth flat last 90 days
Single customer represents > 30% of revenue (concentration risk)

Output Format

The coach returns:

Stage diagnosis — where you are honestly
Validation status — what's missing
Build plan / launch plan — appropriate to stage
Distribution strategy — pick 1–2 channels and commit
Pricing recommendation — specific tier structure
30-day plan — concrete actions
6-month milestones — what success looks like
Quit-day-job math — if applicable