As a solo founder & indie hacker, I plan to have writing and sharing of my texts, as one of my core activities. Let me tell you why.
Validate your idea
Too often, founders make the mistake of assuming that people will want their product once it’s ready. The reality is that it’s very hard to build something that people want. It’s hard to even know what people want, and often when a new product is released to the public, nobody cares about it. Have a look at the newest posts on Show Hacker News for example - a majority of the posts don’t even get a single comment.
By writing about my projects on a recurring basis, I continually get feedback from others. I can measure interest for my product ideas and use that feedback to adjust accordingly. I start writing about my products early in the development, so that I minimize the risk of wasting my time creating something no one cares about.
Writing by itself is probably not enough to validate an idea, but it can be a useful way to filter out some of the worst ideas. Is it a good idea to build yet another Excel spreadsheets clone, for example? Write about it and share it online! You might have people tell you why it’s a good or a bad idea (it’s a bad idea, don’t do it ;).
Use writing to learn to sell
Use writing as a method to learn how to sell. If you want to build a successful product on your own, sooner or later you’re going to have to learn how to sell. Writing can be a soft start to that learning process. Use writing to tune your messaging and steadily take that knowledge into other mediums like real-life conversations and direct outreach.
Learn what types of content catch people’s interest and fine-tune your messaging. Analyze your previous content and understand what has worked for you, based on the feedback you’ve gotten.
Take this article for example. While I’m not selling anything now (but maybe I should ;), this article in itself is an exercise for me. It’s a way for me to improve my writing, and indirectly my sales skills.
Build your audience
If you don’t share what you're working on or what you’ve built, no one will care about it either. Writing is a great way to create content that generates interest around what you’re doing, thus improving the odds that you'll catch someone’s attention.
My goal is to build a sticky audience that frequently reads and enjoys what I write, so that someone will actually care when I release a new product. Furthermore, I hope to use writing as a way to build a network of people that I can leverage to my benefit.
The main purpose of this article, for example, is to build an audience by creating interesting quality content that people want to read.
Pick a few topics you find interesting and write about it. You might learn that others find those topics interesting too!
Write to sell
In the early days of a company, there are really just two jobs that need to be done - sales and building. Many people think that you have to build something before you can sell it, but often it’s actually better to do it the other way around. Sell first, check if there is any interest in your product idea and then if people show interest, build it.
I want to use writing as one of my main methods for doing sales. By generating high-quality content that people find interesting, I hope that I can funnel that into valuable leads for my products.
Organize your thoughts
Beyond selling, I believe an even more important benefit of writing is that it helps you organize your thoughts. Especially if you’re working on your own, writing is a way to “discuss” with yourself when you have no one else to talk to. Writing forces you to sharpen your argumentation and reason around your choices. Putting thoughts down as text can sometimes help you discover new and better approaches or find flaws in your logic.
To use this article as an example again. I have now laid out a detailed justification as to why I write. It made me discover some weaknesses in my argumentation and it helped me structure my thoughts around the topic.
If no one ends up reading my article, so be it! I gained something from this process anyways.
Just start!
Setup a blog, or something similar, and just start writing. Start by sharing your texts with people you trust, and then slowly expand your audience as you get more comfortable. Don’t worry too much about how your content will be received, you are learning and this will improve with time!
Overall, I think regardless of whether you are a co-founder, solo founder, indie hacker or something else, writing provides you with many benefits. That’s why I’m writing and why I think you should too!