Danny Ruiz

From PM'ing Facebook Groups @Meta, to #indiehacker building a product that tells people whether or not it’s a good day to fish. Quite the switch 🤣 Well I really enjoy fishing. So I built fishnotify.com. All good fishermen know that a crucial factor to success is knowing the best conditions to fish (the “when”). Problem is, there are SO many different factors to consider, and it takes time to research and keep up with the dynamic conditions. You have to: 1. Know / learn what the best conditions are 2. Go search the web for upcoming weather / tide info 3. Decipher all the various factors, charts, info 4. Figure out whether or not it’s a good day to fish 5. Repeat for multiple days to compare and see when to hit the water Not much fun 😅 I built fishnotify.com to make this process faster, simpler, and more fun. In 5 seconds you can see what are the best days and times to fish, and get alerted when great days are in the forecast. It’s not perfect (and only works rn for coastal locations), but hey this is a v0 lol. Will continue to #buildinpublic . Open to ideas and feedback, even if you’re not a fisherman 🎣

@ItsWillMorts "Don't quit" is hard to place, because it's sometimes subjective. If your hearts not in it and/or you suck (lack of skills), then yeah quit like right now lol But if you're actually sharp, got the skillz already, and enjoy it, I'd bet on that horse to figure things out haha

@foliofed Interesting points. Was considering a brand account for one of my apps, but thought it would be extra work so put it as a lower priority on my to-do... Will reconsider after this!

Should you make a brand account for your SaaS here on X? Typical advice for indie makers is no, that you'll get more support from others on your personal account, and can use your growing audience to amplify future product launches under one roof. But I disagree. Yes, you should still focus on your personal brand as there are huge advantages, AND having a brand account opens up 2 big possibilities. #1 People are more likely to recommend your product if they can tag it vs finding the URL #2 The brand profile page becomes a high-converting landing page, if you RT shoutouts from customers and new product updates from your personal account It doesn't have to be more work, either. If you look at @gummy_search and @thehiveindex you'll see I don't really post original content there, but it's nice to have a feed dedicated to that particular product. Through very minimal effort you end up building up a decent following over time. Plus, if you're anything like me, you get a little kick out of liking/RT-ing your own content from another account (or maybe multiple?) 😁

@theharrybeadle What a great read Harry... I have SO MANY parallels with you. I quit my job working in big tech because for the past 5 years, I've wondered "is this it?" while making more and more money every year... I thought I was crazy for not "loving" work & money like some of my peers did

@jimkroft Love this; you don’t always have to work… I go through insane periods of productivity, and then relax for a few days working 75% less

My productivity doubled after an entrepreneur said to me: “Manage your energy, Jim, not your time”. It gave me the gift of realising that energy is your prime resource. So many people burn out. Why? Because they can’t let it go. Take a nap. Put your feet up. Remember the breath.

@SpencePatterson For me, it’s also just more fun. I’m havin a great time, and wake up actually excited about the day rather than waking up drained from the corporate job

Founders need to know their "why". It could be they: - Don't want to work for someone else. -Want financial freedom -Want quality time with the family -Want to travel the world The correct answer is ALL OF THE ABOVE. You're doing this to live life on your terms!

@cuhmunitybuildr @Meta You already know man! Have some videos in the works about this too

@Z32danny @Meta Catch anything yet ?

From PM'ing Facebook Groups @Meta, to #indiehacker building a product that tells people whether or not it’s a good day to fish. Quite the switch 🤣 Well I really enjoy fishing. So I built fishnotify.com. All good fishermen know that a crucial factor to success is knowing the best conditions to fish (the “when”). Problem is, there are SO many different factors to consider, and it takes time to research and keep up with the dynamic conditions. You have to: 1. Know / learn what the best conditions are 2. Go search the web for upcoming weather / tide info 3. Decipher all the various factors, charts, info 4. Figure out whether or not it’s a good day to fish 5. Repeat for multiple days to compare and see when to hit the water Not much fun 😅 I built fishnotify.com to make this process faster, simpler, and more fun. In 5 seconds you can see what are the best days and times to fish, and get alerted when great days are in the forecast. It’s not perfect (and only works rn for coastal locations), but hey this is a v0 lol. Will continue to #buildinpublic . Open to ideas and feedback, even if you’re not a fisherman 🎣

@nicoschriever Hey at least the Slope of Enlightenment is on the horizon! Keep it up, and good luck on the next step 😎

Time to get real: I fell of the Mount Stupid 🙈 I was kind of expecting this to happen, because I read a lot about biases and the Dunning Kruger Effect (see below). 🤓 I started learning how to code in January this year, so I am a beginner (know nothing). 🚀 Then, I felt like everything is possible and (feel free to laugh) that this is easier than I thought. ChatGPT didn't help, because it told me that all my ideas for apps, businesses etc. are possible. Although that's true, it doesn't mean that they will be easy. No big deal. I'm not looking for an easy path. Still, I should have noticed that I'm on the peak of Mount Stupid when ChatGPT told me after many many questions about web dev, that it would recommend that I go back to some web dev fundamentals before diving in deeper. 😂 Ouch. Roasted by a bot. I learned a lot, but I realized a need to learn much more in order to build a good app and understand how it works. Nevertheless, I am more commited than ever to bring Cattabu to life. I will just take more time to learn more and take less shortcuts.

@ItsAsherRajan @audrlo I like that phrase “write world-building content.” Gets you thinking about your personal brand in a unique way. Great stuff bro get it 🚀

@ThomasSorheim @Meta Thanks Thomas! 🚀

@Z32danny @Meta Love this one. Great idea. Great looking product!

Love this approach too! It actually works to solve complex problems

The smartest people I’ve worked with at Meta had 6 things in common. They: 1. Operate from a “first principles” approach 2. Are strong problem-solvers, who love to learn 3. Have surprisingly strong listening skills 4. Ask specific, pointed questions 5. Actually tried to UNDERSTAND an idea, project, problem being discussed 6. Can get to the root of a problem insanely fast Anyone can adopt and implement these. The secret is to just pick one skill, go to the preceding one, and then learn that one first 🙂

Agreed! Re: first-principles, they essentially just strip down a problem to it's basics — they just break it down as much as possible, and then question all assumptions along the way until they can get to "unquestionable" truths or facts about the situation. From there, they just rebuild the problem and explore solutions from the ground-up (stripping then approaching from the foundations boosts understanding + creativity in problem solving)

@Z32danny Machine mindsets are the most powerful mindsets there are I do have a question tho, can you elaborate more on what a “first principles” approach looks like?

@elliscrosby lmaoo I feel your pain — this exact thing happens to me ALL the time when setting aside time to "write an article"

"I'll just write a quick blog article to take a break" 30 minutes of writing, 2 hours of changing the layout of the blog and 1 hour of trying to find an outdated dependency later the blog still isn't up, I have a headache and for some reason npm has disappeared...

@amiyoshimura_ This is awesome — lmk if you’re your friend is still open to chatting with startups! (I’m in LA)

have an incredibly talented friend who is shooting commercials for free for startups to test working with them + build his portfolio. lmk if you'd be interested in a fire commercial - must be nyc or la based.

@mityasmusin Love the clear distillation here, great points. Hard agree that you have to be out selling to your actual crowd (and most likely they’re not on X… lol)

Harsh truths to get you disillusioned before you waste your life: - Product Hunt is useless BS ego play in the indie hacker echo chambers. If you need to impress your friends, hit the gym. - Building an audience is great for your mom, not so great for your bottom line. - Selling to indie hackers means selling to a scrappy crowd that doesn't possess any capital. Fish where the fish are. - You've been fed BS about the meaning of the word "Entrepreneurship". Most rich people have no Twitter account. - Building before selling means wasting your precious life away. Might as well play video games. - If you need to tame your inner nerd, go play some Lego or write some code, the benefits are equal. If you want to make money, learn how to sell. - For your first business, do not do a startup. Choose a proven model that works for many other companies, and outcompete them with your hunger. - The way to change your life is to make $5M in a non-revolutionary business. Once there, if your ego is still unhealthy, go swing for the fences. - Most people who "made it" on X are pushing blatant lies or insane exaggerations in order to sound cool. If you had one good month, it's not "MRR". - Three attempts is nothing. Most great entrepreneurs have dozens of failures.

@nicoschriever Yeah I hit the limit all the time when I was building an app with a new framework I was learning — pretty sure ChatGPT thought I was a bad student lol

Reached the usage cap of asking ChatGPT questions for the first time. I bombarded it with questions about web dev all day, so makes sense. Do you reach your usage cap often? #buildinpublic

@SaidAitmbarek To diversify opportunity. But idk if that actually works — it’s tough to dedicate enough mental bandwidth to push multiple products forward 🤔

If it had to come down to a single factor, why did you decide to work on multiple products instead of one?🤔

@hamadamahdii @starwardshar Yeah of course man! Let’s chat

@Z32danny @starwardshar Exactly! 😊 I see you are a fellow builder, let's connect?

Poll time! Would you pay for a premium Twitter banner? If you would but ONLY with a key feature, reply with what that is👇 #buildinpublic

@SaidAitmbarek @adamc0dez That makes sense! I normally start with the human touch first, since rn I only write when I have something interesting I want to play with. But I should be writing more lol so might try starting w/ genAI first, and see where it goes

@Z32danny @adamc0dez that's a good question - I start with genAI if I lack inspiration - otherwise, human touch first🙂 what about you Danny?

There will always be a quality vs. quantity trade-off ⚖️ As of today, generative AI mostly helps with quantity. Quality is still up to us humans.. This tradeoff has a direct impact on your business conversions/sales 💸 Your goal: find a sweat spot 🫡 @adamc0dez

@icoapps yeah I've found it to be one of the better keyword difficulty analysis tools (once you get it working correctly, can be finicky with cookies 😅)

Anyone have a simple keyword research template (google sheets) they like to use? I've been building mine haphazardly so I want to get more organized #indiehackers #solopreneur #SEO #buildinpublic

@pablo_rothbart Sounds good, will keep a look out!

@Z32danny Nothing in depth. But I’ll definitely drop a thread on this in detail soon

There are no quick wins in SEO... But this will speed up your growth 1. Add 5x internal links to every page (accurate anchor text) 2. Focus on sneaky keyword placement in H1 & H2 3. Shorter URL to match keyword