“Start by talking with others.” – Xavier Coiffard, indie hacker

1. How and when did you make your first dollar online?

I made my first dollar back in 2010, I coded small objects in SecondLife, and people paid me for that! It was play money and tiny amounts, but I could convert it into dollars.

In this metaverse, it was pretty easy to prototype objects, but you needed code to make them move or interact. And a few people knew code. That’s how I started my developer career 🙂

2. How long does it take between the idea and this first dollar?

The first product I made was in 2020. I left a startup that I co-founded and started a “6 products in 6 months” challenge.

My first product was a list of 400+ places to post your startup. I launched it in less than a month and made a few thousand dollars with it.

3. What best actionable advice would you give to someone who wants to start TODAY?

Start by talking with others!

You don’t need to build anything. Just try to talk to people that could be your customers.
We always want to build because that’s the easy part. When you’re just starting, you need to focus on building as little as possible.

4. What resources would you recommend to a beginner?

There are many books and resources out there. My advice would be to stop reading and start doing.

If you really want to read something, I’d recommend “The Mom Test.” It’s a small book, but everything is in there! It will teach you how to conduct user interviews the right way.

5. Who would you recommend to follow?

• @tdinh_me: he made a few successful products and built everything publicly. This guy seems to have the recipe to make it works!
• @dvassallo: He’s the one that invented the concept of “small bets” (making several small products instead of a big one). Reading Daniel just changed my life!

You can also follow me on Twitter. I share my journey as an Indie Hacker and tips about building startups & marketing.

About Xavier