Nick Link

I've been running a services company for 5 years and just recently launched my first prod ready SaaS product. But that's not what this post is about. Over the last couple of months I've noticed something that I think changes how services companies will operate. Other than our new SaaS, we are making internal tools constantly. When we show them to clients, they almost always want to use them. So we just give them away. They cost us nothing to distribute. Here's why that matters: every tool we give away becomes part of how that client operates day to day. One tool is a nice freebie. Five or six tools woven into their workflows? Now you're not a vendor they call when something breaks. You're the team that runs their operation. If you're a services company, I think the new normal isn't building a piece of software and walking away. It's spinning up lightweight tools that solve painful parts of a business's workflow faster than they can even scope a project for it. They don't even always need to be prod ready. The software itself is almost disposable. The ecosystem you build around a client's operations is not.

"data is an undervalued data point" is how you know I hand write all my responses LOL

@eroblesfx Interested to hear about this one - did you ever find a solution? I have a few friends that could probably help out with the pricing strategy/unit economics/customer flow.

just hit 7.5k customers on stripe. been thinking about how to increase our conversion rate to paying subscribers. saw something about running two teams in parallel - one focused on building the future, one focused on optimizing what's live. has anyone done anything better than this?

@alexabelonix Nice! We are putting the finishing touches on our windows native app as well. I guess desktop apps are the future!

OpenAI Codex app is now on Windows. You get the full Codex app experience on Windows with a native agent sandbox and support for Windows developer environments in PowerShell.

Day 20 of building in public: Y'all... My college is hosting @ABCSharkTank auditions in March. I applied and got approved lol. Wish me luck? Any advice out there from expert pitchers?

Investors (VC) care about three things: 1. Can a notional business in your space achieve unicorn status? 2. Does your particular business have the team/technology to succeed? 3. Can you demonstrate any evidence that you are on track to succeed? Generally, be able to answer those questions as succinctly as possible and have the ability to dive deeper as needed. Also, know your numbers. Angel investors are different and tend to care more about durable/sustainable businesses that can throw off some cash regularly.

how to communicate with investors??? all I know that their % should be less and my company valuation should be big 😂😂😂

@alexabelonix What's your sales strategy? do you have an ICP? Are you going for direct sales or channel sales?

I have no fucking clue how I will handle this part with my startup Cause I don’t really know how to sell 😂 But let’s see let’s see…

@robj3d3 @luc_moetwil That’s interesting - how can you guarantee it? I like the idea of a lag, but I also like the idea that you can follow people as they continue to succeed. Is it necessarily bad if someone gains a subscriber from your audience?

@luc_moetwil It will always be lagged by a week but they will not be getting their users from the audience of this show I can guarantee

Nobody has ever made a YouTube series where they invite a vibe coder to build a startup from scratch until they make $1. So I'm doing it. My First Dollar airs this Friday.

@robj3d3 In a world where code can be produced so quickly, products are noise. The new moat is human relationships and connections!

I went into this series thinking it was going to be about the products people were building. Now I realize it's actually more about the people who are building the products. And I love that so much more.

@MPlegas @DevTenta Ooh, sounds interesting. Looking forward to the thread!

@DevTenta I'm working on further enhancing the pricing data extraction process, by adding a new vision layer. More about this in a dedicated thread.

Curious what my fellow indie devs are working on lately 👀

@JamesJames518 100 followers per day is crazy! Awesome work man, love watching your progress!

Just crossed 2,000+ followers 🚀 0 → 1,000 took me 5 months 1,000 → 1,700 took 2 weeks 1,700 → 2,000 might take only 3 days The only thing I really changed: vibe replying — leaving genuine, thoughtful, consistent replies with my Chrome extension. Huge thanks to everyone who followed, supported, and encouraged me along the way. I’ve received so many kind words, and I truly love this community. I’m going to keep the momentum going. Goal: 20K followers by the end of the year. Let’s see what happens.

@alexabelonix The world is owned by people who fail fast and keep going 😎

@RealNickLink LOL, so you're saying my talent for failing is actually me winning in disguise? Cool beans!

I started to have a fear at this evening like “what if my startup will not succeed?” Plus I can see so much men in the field and I’m a woman and sometimes I feel that they doubt me Maybe I’m just overthinking Dunno I have mood like that rn

@JamesJames518 Congrats! Big milestone, what’s your next goal?

I just crossed 1,700+ followers. 🚀🚀🚀 0 → 1,000 took me 5 months 1,000 → 1,700 took only 2 weeks What changed? Vibe Reply — making high-value engagement effortless. I started using Vibe reply I built for myself in the XJumper Chrome Extension (FREE to use): chromewebstore.google.com/detail/xjumper… – Speech-to-reply: Just talk instead of typing – Post value: See how much each post is worth instantly – Relationship insights: Find out who you should interact with – Account activity overview: Discover active accounts

@_zidkim Sales is great experience early on, do you think it contributed to your entrepreneurial drive?

My first job ever was selling Pokémon cards at the flea market when I was 10. Stopped by a convention today to sell a card. Great to see this hobby alive and kickin.

We need a SaaS tool that can tell us how good a Vibe coded app is. Could call it "Vibe Rater".

@_zidkim @robj3d3 Nothing wrong with pushups! As long as you're challenging yourself there's no wrong answer.

@RealNickLink @robj3d3 I need to get some equipment, all i do are pushups.

I have found the gym to not only be a tool for training resiliency, but also incredibly therapeutic. There is so much uncertainty in the life of a founder, but in the gym you KNOW that effort = results. You can see the changes week after week. Great post @robj3d3, I look forward to following your journey.

@oranahh I look for people already selling to my users, and figure out how to add value to them. 1 sale like that is many times more valuable than finding a single end user.

Where did you find your first users? 🤔 Looking for ideas 🙏

Not to mention the immensity of looking out into a chaotic world and trying to piece together the things that will make your business successful. It's rare to find someone truly invested in that type of work and willing to do it with you. Even most early stage co-founders/hires prefer to operate closer to employees. If you find someone like that, keep them as close as possible, it's incredibly valuable!

Nobody talks about how isolating the indie builder path actually is. You're shipping alone. Making product decisions that could define the next year of your life… and there's no one around who truly gets it. Your old friends don't understand. Your family thinks you're "just freelancing" You can't share your wins because it sounds like bragging. You can't share your losses because you'll hear "just get a real job." So you carry it all quietly. Then you open X and everyone looks like they're printing money. And you're sitting there thinking "Am I the only one barely holding it together?" You're not 🤝 If you're early-stage, confused, or just grinding solo with no real support system, my DMs are open always 🫶 And next time you have the chance to lift someone else up, do it!. There aren't many of us in this little bubble.