Building (something?) in public

So let me know if this is the wrong group for this, but I posted recently about my current situation (https://www.indiehackers.com/post/laid-off-e44af9b4b4).

Like thousands of people in the SaaS world right now, I was laid off from my job due to the company needing to extend runway.

It's allowed me the opportunity to explore ways that I can do something on my own.

I attempted this about 5 years ago, but failed pretty miserably and took a full-time role about 3 months later.

My plan, initially, is not really to build a product per se but to parlay my skills and experience into providing services to other SaaS startups. With the cushion that gives me financially, I am going to explore how I can turn one of my many product ideas into something tangible.

To make this work, I've laid out a few requirements for myself. The following is taken in part from a doc I wrote for myself the day I was let go.

Overview

Having been laid off, I am presented with a problem: I need to figure out a way to maintain or exceed families' income level while not taking on a role I won't enjoy.

Viability

I have been the sole income generator in our family for the last 10 years and that put a lot of pressure on me to take jobs that may not have been ideal, but provided the income and health insurance we needed.

Income

Starting in September, my wife will start her first role after graduating. Though it's a relatively low salary, it's more than $0 and she will be able to provide health insurance for the family.

Whatever I do now, the income generated needs to, at the very least, allow us to maintain the level of combined income we had in my last role.

Based on my calculation, in order to make this viable, I need to bring in:

• $11,833/month
• $2,958/week
• $59/hour

Time

The last two years have been brutal. While I was able to generate a good income and do work I found exciting; I did that to the detriment of my family and physical and mental health.

I was realistically working 75+ hours per week.

There wasn't a night or weekend that I wasn't at my computer working. Nearly every waking moment (even some sleeping moments) where I wasn't focused on work.

I can't do that again.

To make this work, I need to reach my minimum viable income goal while keeping my work hours to a maximum of 40 hours per week. Ideally, less, especially if I want to use some of my time to build something.

The Plan

Freelance

Given the headwinds in the market, finding a job that equals my previous pay and that will enable me to have anything resembling a life is going to be incredibly difficult.

I plan on giving myself 2 months to prove viability via other means.

If, in that time, I can show that making $2,958 is a reasonable possibility, then double down on what I am doing.

I will work backward from this number. To start, I will seek out project-based roles with a particular focus on the HubSpot ecosystem, as I believe I have considerable experience there. This includes short-term or ongoing CRM admin, implementation, etc.

I've laid things out as follows (so far):

• HubSpot CMS implementation: migration, custom theme (based on your design), optimization, and HubDB

• User activation/PLG: identify activation and adoption metrics, set automated campaign to target PQLs and increase free user activation

• Lifecycle marketing: activate the leads in your database. Turn leads into qualified into opportunities with smart rules to communicate with the right leads at the right time.

• Content: Scale your content operations by leveraging your greatest asset - your knowledge. I will gather your insights and turn them into quality, engaging long-form content and evergreen, based on keywords that rank.

• Targeted outreach - identify your ICP, generate a list of targets and create a messaging campaign to turn cold leads into warm ones.

Packages:

• Full Fractional Marketer: 40 hours a week, month to month
• A la carte services:
  • CMS
  • Marketing ops
  • Lifecycle marketing
  • PLG in a box
  • PR outreach
  • Product Launches: product hunt campaign, email, content, PR

HubSpot Implementation: Full implementation from scratch

• importing leads from other systems
• Setting up new lead rules
• Copying existing ones

And more (too much to write out right now)

Job Search

If it is clear at that time that this will not happen, double down on the job search.

In this period, I will be doing both. However, I will be extremely diligent in considering a full-time role.

It would have to include:

• $200K+ base
• at least a full percentage equity
• A company with a sufficient runway to overcome the next year or two
• A leader or leaders that have done this before and know what they are doing
• A product and/or space that I am familiar with and passionate about
• A role I am confident that I can bring value to
• WFH or a very loose hybrid policy
• Opportunity to grow and manage a team in the very near future
• Opportunity to expand my skill set to be able to leverage in future endeavors
• Not be all-encompassing and won't require me to prioritize work over my family.

Building a Product

Past Blockers

Over the years, I have kept a running list of ideas for products to build. My biggest blockers have been:

1. Development skills: I know enough to be dangerous when it comes to HTML, CSS, and Java for building websites. But when it comes to things like React, etc., I am in the dark.
2. Time: When I was employed full-time, I didn't have any time to put towards my ideas.
3. Resources: I was never able to devote myself to these ideas because I needed income and, most importantly, health insurance from an employer due to being the sole breadwinner.

2 and 3 are no longer issues. I have at least two months and, if I make the project work idea viable, even longer. In addition, with my wife entering the workforce, her job will be the source of our health insurance.

So #1 is the thing I will have to work on. Clearly, No-Code is the lightest lift, at least from the perspective of building an MVP. I am confident that if I apply myself, I could become fluent in no-code. I've had my eye on the movement and understand the core concepts, it would be more about learning how actually to put them into practice.

Ideas

I have my eye on a few ideas for products or services. Because I have spent so much time in the HubSpot ecosystem recently, most of my ideas revolve around challenges that arise for HubSpot users.

High level, two ideas I am considering are:

• Solution to help non-developers build HubSpot CMS themes no-code without having to invest 800-$1,000 in a theme.
• Tool that turns HubSpot CRM into a full PLG CRM

That's it for now, will be checking in regularly here.