3 ms·

>While I wish that I had made more than just $7.5k in my first year doing indie development, I am more concerned about the lack of downloads and growth. I'm su

>While I wish that I had made more than just $7.5k in my first year doing indie development, I am more concerned about the lack of downloads and growth. I'm surprised the author sees $7.5k as a low number. $7.5k in your first year as an indie developer is great! That's 3x what I made in my first year and even slightly higher than what I made in my second.[0] I'd estimate that $7.5k in the first year puts one in ~90th percentile or higher of revenue. There's maybe survivorship and availability bias at play because you only hear about massively successful startups, but I think the vast majority of startups or solo software projects struggle to find revenue, especially with their first product. [0] https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-year-2/#how-i-made-and-spent-money https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-year-2/#how-i-made-and-spe...

jlokier 6y ago
That may be "great" for an indie, but it's a disaster for a business you're hoping to live off, unless you have reason to believe it's going to change radically. As an indie you almost certainly have no investment and are living off personal savings during that time. $7,500 won't cover essential cost of living for most people. And if it does, you're probably doing without healthcare, aren't investing in a pension or generally in your future, and are living in a shithole. If revenue is that low and there is "lack of [...] growth", even if that's the upper 90% of indies for the first year, you're probably going to end up running out of savings and desparately looking for a perm job in due course. At least, with those metrics it's advisable to have some kind of second project, part-time job or similar. EDIT: Above assumes you don't have a partner paying for your costs of living during this time. I didn't think about that.

3 ms·

>While I wish that I had made more than just $7.5k in my first year doing indie development, I am more concerned about the lack of downloads and growth. I'm su

by mtlynch 6y ago

jlokier 6y ago
That may be "great" for an indie, but it's a disaster for a business you're hoping to live off, unless you have reason to believe it's going to change radically. As an indie you almost certainly have no investment and are living off personal savings during that time. $7,500 won't cover essential cost of living for most people. And if it does, you're probably doing without healthcare, aren't investing in a pension or generally in your future, and are living in a shithole. If revenue is that low and there is "lack of [...] growth", even if that's the upper 90% of indies for the first year, you're probably going to end up running out of savings and desparately looking for a perm job in due course. At least, with those metrics it's advisable to have some kind of second project, part-time job or similar. EDIT: Above assumes you don't have a partner paying for your costs of living during this time. I didn't think about that.