Why every founder should write
I used to HATE writing.
Never been a fan.
Getting a C- in my Grade 12 English class (my lowest mark heading into University) probably scarred me for life, and cemented my conviction to never touch writing again.
But just like the time I thought when Software Engineering was ALL about programming up some kick-ass code while downing caffeine multiple times throughout the day (p.s. it's not), I thought I had this 'Indie Hacker Engineer Founder' thing figured out as I jumped in.
I design and build some rad products, some early users sign up, I find a co-founder willing to do the marketing side, and life is all good ✨
But... after numerous failed projects with 0 email signups, each averaging a lifespan of ~2 weeks 😬, I knew I had to change my strategy.
✍️ I started writing in public about what I'm building.
Every single day.
And here's what happened in the last 30 days:
I connected with other founders
I chose Twitter as my main platform and started sharing about the projects I was building. What worked, what didn't, how I f*cked up, EVERYTHING.
The numbers show it all for the month of December:
Founders are drawn to other founders. We want each other to succeed, and that's especially true for the Indie Hackers community ❤️. Being part of an online community is SO powerful. You keep each other accountable, feed off momentum, and get useful feedback.
An easy 10X productivity hack 😁
I discovered early users
Any traffic is good traffic in my books, so I started looking for other avenues to post longer forms of content.
I've been a part of Indie Hackers and Reddit (as a lurker 😆) for a while now, so I figured I should start there, once a week.
The weekly spikes in ViralViews traffic says it all:
Wait... This sh*t really works! It was a eureka moment for me. The traffic and user signups gave me the motivation to keep going and eventually lead up to landing our first paid users 🥰
I started... to enjoy writing?
Showing up every day to write has been a test of consistency 💪
When I started to see the results of my efforts, I found myself looking forward to stepping up to the plate every day! It's easy to keep going when you're seeing results early.
But let's face it.
Writing is a skill, and most of the time, we're gonna suck. I cringe at the posts I wrote like a WEEK ago, AND it's time-consuming as hell (this post alone took me ~2 hours on Christmas) 🎅🏻
So how and why do we keep going, when we're unsure of the results?
In the end, I believe writing's a non-negotiable skill for entrepreneurs because:
- Communicating effectively with both users and the team,
- Having a strong brand vision and voice,
- Showing personality,
are all crucial aspects of a good leader, and building a great company.
And I'm willing to do whatever it takes to succeed!
Thanks for sticking with me to the end.
This post was a long one.
Hope you learned a thing or two about me, and why I think every founder should write.
You can catch me on Twitter and building ViralViews 😎
