My vision
Staying as a solo founder
Leonel RuizThoughts2 min read
The reality of things
A lot of people, mostly entrepreneurs, dream of building the next big company, revolutionising an industry, raising millions in funding, having cool offices, being CEOs of their own company, getting super rich, wearing suits, and having hundreds or even thousands of employees.
Doesn’t sound bad, right?
The truth is, this is not at all what I want for my life. I’ve worked at companies and startups, and honestly, while building an empire may sound cool, what many people don’t see is the massive headache behind all of it.
You become a slave to your own throne. The moment you take investment, you add another layer of pressure. If everything goes wrong, you’re now left with a huge debt to investors and that’s not even the worst part.
As your team grows, so do processes and departments, and everything starts to slow down. Your company becomes heavier. If there’s an idea to improve something, it requires a meeting, decisions have to be made, approvals or rejections happen, a specific department has to implement it, then testing, and so on.
And let’s not even talk about the number of meetings, events, and daily calls you’re expected to attend. Honestly, it’s just not for me.
If the startup or company starts sinking, you’re forced to lay off employees, deal with severance, legal issues, and an endless list of new problems.
Being a solopreneur
When I first discovered the “Indie Hacking” community, I was fascinated by what many of these people were building. A lot of these developers create SaaS — Software as a Service, entirely on their own and make a lot of money from it, without investors, employees, or fancy offices.
Just them and their laptops. Some of these people are names like Pieter Levels, Marc Lou, and Danny Postma. Without funding or big teams, they manage to build incredible things. Of course, being on your own also comes with downsides.
For example, you’ll never scale your startup into a unicorn or a multi-billion-dollar “company,” but honestly, that’s not a goal I care about.
Even though I mentioned the amount of money these guys make, that’s not what truly attracts me, it’s the freedom.
No more pointless meetings to discuss project updates. No dealing with investors. No worrying about feeding hundreds of mouths, salary raises, or hiring. None of that shit. If I have an idea to improve my product, I can simply implement it and ship it to production whenever I feel like it.
My only concern is keeping my users happy. Being able to spend time with my family and friends whenever I want. Living and working from anywhere, at any time, as a digital nomad. Having plenty of time for all the things I truly love.
That’s what I want: freedom. I don’t need to be a multimillionaire to have it. I just want to make enough money to retire my parents, sustain my lifestyle, and not worry about running out of money at the end of the month. I want that peace of mind.
Lying in bed with my laptop, working on my startups in the least ergonomic way possible, probably from a condo in Vietnam. Someday, I’ll live this dream.
Summary
No employees ❌
No investors ❌
No offices ❌
No meetings ❌
Just me and my laptop ✅
Freedom ✅