AMA - I Left Meta to start my indie hacker journey, earning $350k to $0
Nick
27 replies
2 months ago I left Meta to venture into indie hacking and it was exciting and stressful at the same time! On one hand, I lost access to a $350k salary, stocks, medical, and perks, but on the other hand, I have this new opportunity to build exciting stuff and be my own boss.
I ended up starting 3 startups and made over $56k in revenue and $9k MRR for one business, all in 2 months.
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Sqriblr
This is so impressive! What would you say would be the best steps to follow to do the same if you would be to tell someone how to achieve the same financial result?
Baked Design Studio
@hugohamelcom Be focused and learn directly from the source (customers). Understand their business and pain points before offering any service.
Be part of the community, provide value before you ask for money. This helps in building trust and shows that you value connections over money.
Each business is different, in my case I had to be close the customer before I launched my services. Also be scrappy and try to launch an MVP in a day and evolve it as you get feedback.
Limit your expenses and be open to changes as you grow 👏
Hello @mrnick_buzz ,
I’m glad you could spare some time and I’m impressed by your entrepreneurial spirit. My questions are as follows:
(1) How did you come up with the ideas for your three startups?
(2) How did you discover and communicate with your early users for the first time?
Thank You
Baked Design Studio
@dsarkar Thank you!
1. One example: I’m in the design field for the past decade, so it was a natural move for me to use that as my value added benefit when interacting with folks on Twitter. Showed value of value through free roasts and started GetBaked.design.
2. I always wanted to start my own SaaS so started researching into home services industry (bought a house recently). Got into many groups, free and paid to understand the pain points. Shared my tech and design knowledge, this resulted in lot of conversations around the business and it’s needs.
I spend a lot of time talking and interacting (async) everyday with leads and paid customers. Lot of personalized help, may not scale but helps in establishing trust 😇
@mrnick_buzz @dsarkar Love question number 2 :D
@mrnick_buzz Thank you Nick, for sharing your knowledge and expertise with me.
Hi Nick,
First of all, congratulations on taking the leap into indie hacking! It's an incredibly brave decision, and it's inspiring to see you're already making significant strides with your startups.
Having transitioned from a high-security role at Meta to the uncertain world of entrepreneurship, I'd be curious to know more about your decision-making process. What was the pivotal moment that pushed you to make this shift? And how did you prepare yourself mentally and financially for this change?
Baked Design Studio
@svitlana_palamarchuk Great question Svitlana!
- I was having the best of both worlds while working at Meta! Remote and great pay 💰
- But the over hiring and cost cutting efforts have resulted in firing 13k employees in November
- My team was not impacted and we were both grateful and stressed
- To-date, meta has fired close to 20k employees every 1-2 months, The morale was low and no work was happening
- I just didn’t want to work when my paycheque is held hostage every couple of months.
Financially, my RSU which I got from Facebook got impacted by the stock drop 🥲. I had some savings, eagerness and a necessity to do something to supplement my Meta salary.
I opened a design studio (I’m a designer) got high retainer clients, which helped venture to other businesses.
What are those 3 startups about?
Baked Design Studio
@chris_sarca for sure
Started working on a Home services saas & a local business to better understand the in & outs of how these businesses are run. Solely focusing on a set group of people before it's fully launched to a wide audience.
- $8k MRR (saas & local business combined)
Getbaked.design focusing on design as a service (small scale)
- Currently around $8k-$10k revenue in 2 months
movevirtual (evolved from my learning on starting a home services business and saas)
- Design, marketing & Growth Assistants
- $28k revenue & $9k MRR
Nack AI
@chris_sarca @mrnick_buzz Super interesting! How did you grow them?
Baked Design Studio
@chris_sarca @rawoyemi
- Closely working with the customers with personalized onboarding
- Providing value greater than what they would expect
- Being available when they need the most
- Learning from mistakes and pivoting
- Being empathetic
- All this led to a lot of word of mouth advertising
@chris_sarca Really interested in knowing too :)
Intriguing turn of events. Can you share 3 myths/stereotypes about Meta and working there?
Baked Design Studio
@uma_venugopal
All those "Day in the life at Meta" TikTok, only show the good parts (free food at 20+ restaurants, bakeries, micro kitchens, Friday nights etc).
People in my team and the others at Meta are really committed to working and producing high-quality output every day. It's not an easy journey and now with the lay off every 1-2 months, PSC cycles, promotions... it's a night mare!
You're really impressive!
It's not easy for a startup to establish itself. Do you adopt a strategy of low price and high quality to enhance competitiveness? Or do you have other ways to convince the market to use your services? Also, how many people are involved in developing and maintaining your SaaS platform services?
Wow great post, Nick
Thank you for sharing your story!
Baked Design Studio
@jack_jung You're welcome HyunGun!
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Did you start these alone ? What's the one startup you are betting the most one and why ? How did you find your very first customer ? How did you fund the bootstrap of your startups ?
Baked Design Studio
@julien_fayad All on my own! But welcomed a partner and a great friend (@Aliszu) for one of the projects (GetBaked.design) to maintain growth.
I’m betting on Movevirtual and Home services business the most as I have seen success and have made big strides in understanding customers, business needs and have worked closed with many.
My first customer was through a Facebook group I was part of, where I was learning the businesses and helping others with my tech & design knowledge. My goal was always to provide value before asking money!
All the business are bootstrapped with my savings. I actually didn’t spend more than $200, but instead spent a loot of man hours in learning before starting the businesses.
ThemAIGuys
Nice going Nick, the 9k MRR is quite impressive, onwards and up! Best of luck.
@carl_brook That's what I was thinking! Imagine that the $9k MRR feels disproportionately rewarding — especially at the tail end of working at a large company
Baked Design Studio
@carl_brook @blake_whittington It does feel "disproportionately rewarding" compared to $20k pay cheque (before taxes) every month. I feel more energized and rewarding earning $9k MRR over a paycheque!
Baked Design Studio
@carl_brook Thank you, Carl! 🚀