Two months of building Indy Creator

6 min read building in public indy creator

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Introduction

Two months ago, I made my first commit to the GitHub repository for my side project, Indy Creator. I wanted to share a realistic reflection of what it’s like to build as a solo founder - with a full-time job and a family - and document my journey.

Whether Indy Creator lives on or not, I’ve learned a lot: about software development, time management, marketing, and what it really takes to start something from scratch. These lessons are more valuable to me than any single outcome. I’ll carry them into whatever comes next, whether that’s a future project or just growing in my career.

So without further ado, let’s dive in!

The journey to Indy Creator

At the beginning of 2025, I got hooked on the idea of vibe coding. Rather than rehashing it all here, I’ll just link to my earlier Medium posts - how I got started with microSaaS and vibe coding here, and how I ended up using Cursor here.

Since then, I’ve experimented with a handful of ideas:

Each of these helped me level up technically, but I hadn’t found a business idea that really clicked until I came across Brennan MacNeill and his project, torontocreator.com. His core idea stuck with me: local businesses are king.

Most microSaaS advice focuses on building broadly useful tools, but the hard part is always distribution. Brennan’s theory is simple: build local. It might be a smaller market, but distribution is easier, the competition is lower, and trust is higher. That clicked for me, and Indy Creator was born.

Building the business

Technical build

Indy Creator is a local marketplace that helps businesses connect with content creators and creatives. It’s built with Astro (for both the marketing site and the app), Supabase (for database and auth), and Tailwind for styling.

I started with my own Astro/Tailwind boilerplate and then used Cursor to vibe-code the application. At its core, the platform is a directory of local creators that businesses can filter and browse. When they find someone interesting, they can unlock access to that creator’s profile and contact information, building their own custom database of local talent that fits their exact needs. Access is managed through simple auth and visibility controls on the profile level.

Marketing efforts

On the marketing side, I’ve been focused on building both sides of the marketplace - creators and businesses. I started by creating an Instagram account and DMing local creators directly. I’m collecting responses through a Tally form, and I wrote a little Apps Script that pushes those responses into my Supabase database.

It’s not scalable yet, but at this stage, it doesn’t need to be. Right now, it’s all about proving the idea and building relationships.

Reflections

Indy Creator is my most ambitious business venture - not because the technical build is the hardest thing I’ve done, but because success depends on getting people to believe in the vision. I’m really proud that 10 creators have already joined the platform. Before I start reaching out to businesses, my next milestone is to onboard at least 20 so the directory feels truly valuable.

Thanks to AI tools like Cursor, building the software turned out to be the easy part. The harder part has been everything else: defining the vision, reaching out to creators, marketing on Instagram, and figuring out how to do all of that in a way that feels personal and real. None of that is easy to automate, and honestly, it probably shouldn’t be.

What really surprised me, though, is just how much of a grind outreach has been. I haven’t even announced Indy Creator on my personal socials. Every single signup so far has come from cold DMs. It’s slow, repetitive, unglamorous work - but it’s also the only way this kind of business gets built. So I’m learning to embrace the grind, even when it feels tedious.

Because this is a hyper-local project, trust matters a lot. Creators want to know that their reputations will be protected and that Indy Creator is something they can stand behind. That’s why my outreach has focused on building relationships, being transparent, and showing up in a way that feels human.

The first month brought a lot of momentum. I launched the landing page, reached out to dozens of creators, and got five signups right away. A few weeks later, I had ten. I was posting weekly on Instagram and starting to build a small following. But in month two, things slowed down - partly because of travel, partly because of the everyday busyness that comes with having a toddler.

Now, heading into month three, I’ve been thinking more about pace. I love working on Indy Creator, but with a full-time job and a family, I’m realizing that sprinting all the time just isn’t realistic. My new goal is steady progress: onboard 10 more creators, begin outreach to businesses, and find a marketing rhythm that doesn’t burn me out.

I started this year wanting to prove I could be an indie hacker - someone who builds and ships real software, solo. But beneath that desire was also the fear that I had lost my identity to being “just” a mom. I wanted to prove to myself that I still have creative capacity and can put meaningful things into the world.

There’s definitely value in doing things for yourself, but as I’ve reflected more, I’ve realized my worth doesn’t come from side projects or my day job - it comes from God and His calling for me. That calling asks me to glorify Him through the roles He’s given me: first as a wife and mother, then in my day job, and then through side projects like these.

Keeping that perspective helps me stay grounded, especially when I feel tempted to give up like I have with past projects. I’ve never been great at the last 10%. I love the spark of a new idea, but following through has always been harder, especially as life gets busier and I want to quit. This time, I want to stick with it, even if I only get to 90%, because when it’s your own project, the work is never really finished anyway.

So I’m going to keep showing up at a pace that fits my life right now and see where it leads, steady progress and a commitment to keep going.

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