A big bang, for zero bucks.
And a challenge.
Hey, it’s Mac.
I have hand-crafted for you:
1 insight
1 challenge
1 tweet or quote of the week
Behind the scenes
I’ve been having more fun than ever, working on all sorts of projects, with lots of announcements coming soon.
Unless this is your first time receiving this newsletter, you can see I’m trying a new format, because, well, I never stop experimenting. Let me know in the poll at the end of this email what you think.
This past week has consisted of a lot of early mornings rebuilding macmartine.com (still a work-in-progress) using Framer. Historically I’ve despised website builders, but I must say, I’m totally loving Framer and already using it for another site.
I’ve added some new offerings related to helping bootstrappers find clarity, which can be found towards the bottom of this email.
We also launched a new website for Aware designed and built by the one-and-only Ricky.
My friends over at IndieHackers have been running a series of fun round-ups on various topics from successful bootstrappers, including yours truly.
Here are the recent ones:
💡 Ideas are cheap. Here’s how to validate them.
🗑️ Don’t waste time on the wrong idea.
🙃 Unpopular opinions (and tips) from successful indie hackers.
🖥️ Dozens of indie hackers share what their workspaces look like.
Last week I was on the iOS dev podcast (even though I don’t touch iOS 😀).
Insight
I had just finished dinner with my wife and kids.
An alert popped up on my phone that read: “I need a saasmakermac consultation”.
It was from a friend of mine who lives about an hour south of Valencia.
Within minutes I had cleared the table, stepped out on our balcony and made the call.
I was excited. I love helping others with their entrepreneurial challenges. And even more, I love knowing people feel comfortable reaching out to me for creative and strategic advice. I did my best to help him out.
The next morning I found myself lying in the middle of my living room floor for about an hour, staring at the ceiling, having one of those “What the hell am I doing?” days.
The kind of day where, as solo founders, we question it all. Not necessarily for any reason, but because these up-and-down oscillations are par for the course when we choose this path.
Finally I grabbed my phone, texted my south-of-Valencia friend, and hit send.
Thirty seconds later my phone rang. We talked for over an hour, during which I poured out my fears and insecurities about the direction of my current projects and where my focus should be.
He listened, talked some sense back into me, and helped pick my ass back up.
By the time we hung up, I was good to go. And today I’m more inspired and excited than ever about what I’m working on.
This kind of thing happens a lot between the two of us now.
We’ve come a long way since we met as strangers five weeks ago. We were on the same flight to Lisbon, Portugal, to attend MicroConf — which he’d decided to attend based on some DMs we’d exchanged about it on Twitter. We got to talking, and the rest is history.
Marcel and me running up a mountain before dawn.
To outsiders, choosing this bootstrapping/indie hacker path just doesn’t make much sense. Most people don’t understand why you’d opt to make things so hard. Why you don’t just “get a job” so you can go home at night and leave it all behind.
But the reality is, that being around others with the same energy and like-mindedness in this part of my life is invigorating and life-changing.
Having people who can truly understand why we do what we do, and understand our struggles, celebrate our victories, and support us on our crazy roller-coaster of a journey, feels like having a Swiss army knife for life and business.
They can be a friend, a mentor, a supporter. Someone to bounce ideas off of, brainstorm with, and push you to be better at everything you do. And in return you get the honor and satisfaction of being able to do the same for them.
In light of that, can you accept a challenge?
Challenge of the week
I want you to reach out to another bootstrapper/solopreneur/indie hacker, whatever the hell you want to call ‘em. Someone you’ve been wanting to meet face-to-face or anyone who appears to be on this same journey.
If you're active on Twitter or social media, that's a great place to do it. Really, any online communities are a great place to find like-minded folks.
Small Bets is one of my favorites, as is MicroConf Connect.
And if you aren’t in any communities, I highly urge you to join one, become active in it, and help out where you can. I promise you it will deliver immense benefits to you and others.
You don’t have to try to build an audience if you don’t want to.
You don’t need to build in public.
And get those terms like “networking” and all that shit out of your head.
Just go make a new friend in the indie hacker scene.
Trust me, it’s likely to be highly energizing, and — like my one-hour Ryanair flight from Valencia to Lisbon a few weeks ago — a lot more may come of it than you expect.
On that note, I’m curious:
Would you be interested in a SaaS Bootstrapper community?
A place to engage with others, share and get feedback.
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Tweet of the week
Everything is figureoutable
In case you missed it
Want to build a product, but not sure where to start?
When you’re ready, here’s how I can help
1:1 Coaching via chat: For just $49/mo you can connect with me privately in Discord and get help from me along the way, whether it’s about brainstorming ideas, figuring out if you’re on the right track, determining your next steps, going to market, or scaling.
1:1 Clarity call: Wherever you are on your bootstrapping journey, chances are, I've been there. I know the struggles and the challenges, and I'm here to help through a 1:1 clarity call.
Aware: Shhh! We just started an early Black Friday deal for 50% off annual plans. If you’re looking to step up your audience-building game on LinkedIn, this is a great time to make this investment in your audience growth.
Hear Dave of builtFM, on working with me.
Last but not least, get free product promotion: Refer this newsletter to 3 people, and I’ll mention your product in an upcoming newsletter to my 1000’s of readers.
P.S. How did you like today's newsletter?
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Have a great weekend!
Mac
P.P.S. I’m always here if you wanna reply and say hey!