IHS can work but most indie hackers miss an important success factor. Whether you're building a micro-SaaS or or mobile app, the fact remains: you're starting a

IHS can work but most indie hackers miss an important success factor. Whether you're building a micro-SaaS or or mobile app, the fact remains: you're starting a business. And I think most indie hackers under estimate just how difficult that is to do. Most indie hackers think in terms of 'features' and 'tech' when they should be thinking about differentiating, aligning with buyer behavior, marketing, and business models--a host of skills that indie-hackers can't run from, and unfortunately, rarely possess. Understandably so! If you're the most brilliant hacker (as you put it), your technical skills aren't enough to build a lasting, profitable business. To survive and eventually thrive as a business owner, you must learn how to carve out a segment of the market, you need a product and marketing strategy to defend your position, and you need to be an operator who can make things happen with a limited budget. For better or worse, your future competitors are a second-order problem.