If I were to start all over again
Hello friend,
It’s been one year since I officially went full-time indie making.
No side projects, no freelancing work, just indie making.
Keep reading:
TL;DR
- Amazing experience. I learned so much.
- Didn’t make any money yet.
- Changing the approach: 1-2 good products instead of 10 bad products.
- Start right away building a personal branding and a social media presence.
- Focus on a few distribution channels. Republish the content on other platforms.
- What’s next 👀
Would I do it all over again?
The short answer is yes. 100%.
I want to use the cliche “it changed my life”. Of course, it did, because I was woking as a freelancer, and changed the path.
Trying to figure out my journey, I found out that one of my core values is freedom: not being reckless, but rather having the ability to work on what brings me joy, and to do what I want in general.
Indie making allowed me to do exactly this: to be free to experiment and learn.
Short answer: yes. Long answer: yes as well.
Let’s talk about money
I didn’t make almost any money yet.
I have to say, though, I have 2 big supporters: one is my wife. She gives me food, so that I can keep building 😂
The other big supporter is my good friend Eddie Jaoude. He was first who bought LunaFinder while in pre-order.
But realistically, the app didn’t make any money yet.
Am I disappointed? Not at all. Every successful indie maker said that it takes at least 2-3 years to be successful in this niche.
It takes time, and I’m ok with that.
What I would do differently
Initially, I thought the “12 startups in 12 months” challenge was fun, and I should give it a try.
I wrote a post about the reasons behind this challenge:
https://razvanmuntian.com/blog/the-reason-behind-my-12-startups
It helped me be consistent, and experiment a lot.
But if I were to start all over again, I would build one good product instead of 10.
See, as a freelancer, I was building products for my clients. My last freelancing collaboration was a great experience: I had so much flexibility, I could add my own input, use what tech stack I wanted, and experiment a lot. I learned how to build decent products.
The skill I didn’t sharpen at all is marketing. So even though I knew I had to learn marketing, in reality I spent too much time building and not distributing the product.
This is what I would do differently: I would pick 2, max 3 products and work on them:
- one product I can sell
- one open source project
- maybe one fun project where I experiment different things
Having a social media presence - my big win for 2025 🎉
I was terrified about posting online, but I’m so glad I started creating content.
Depending on your goals, I think having a personal branding and a social media presence is important. We keep talking about AI taking our jobs.
One way you can be different, authentic and personal is by putting yourself out there. Write a blog, send a weekly newsletter, post on LinkedIn. Whatever makes sense for you.
I have to say I still don’t fully understand how social media works. Some posts perform better than others.
But I know that with perseverance, you can definitely find your way and change your career.
So start posting today!
So? What’s next? 🤔
My plan for next year is to start creating long-form content on YouTube.
YouTube is great for discoverability. Also having a YouTube channel means you’re much more serious and dedicated.
Regarding the other platforms, I’ll be more focused and narrow down to just a few.
Probably I’ll republish some posts to keep the accounts active, but my main focus is X (Twitter), Substack, LinkedIn and YouTube.
From the building standpoint, I’ll keep working on two projects mainly: Luna Finder and Tech Terms.
2026 will be exciting! 🤩
In conclusion
Thank you for reading my post. I hope you were inspired!
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter for more posts like this: razvanmuntian.com
🌎 Find me online - X (Twitter) / LinkedIn
🌙 Luna Finder - Simple, privacy-first photo explorer: lunafinder.com
🧑🏫 Tech Terms Explained Simply: techterms.io
See you soon!
