Indie Interviews
Can you tell us more about yourself and what led you to become an indie maker
Since secondary school, I started learning the basics of web development out of curiosity. It feels exciting to make something from lines of code
I grew up in Vietnam, lived in the UK, Australia, worked with web agencies, and startups. Though, I have moved back to Vietnam, and now working independently full time.
Beside coding, I like to travel a bit, and photography. Below is a photo taken in a morning at my hometown (more on instagram)
Day-to-day app development and workflow
My day is flexible. Though, I’ll try to focus on customer support and meetings early on. Then spend the rest of the day focusing on development. I spend 3 days a week after work exercising. Which rotate between weightlifting, skipping rope, and walking (~5km)
How did you come up with the idea?
Currently, I'm building GasbyAI - an AI personal assistant. The idea came when ChatGPT trending started. I got curious, started to play with OpenAI APIs and was amazed by what AI can do.
Originally, Gasby was meant to be a browser extension, but the webstore approval process was taking too long. While waiting, I decided to launch it as a website and shared it in a few groups. It gained traction, got user feedback, and that's been my focus since.
How do you launch and market your app?
For indie apps, I'd start with the core feature, share it on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Hacker News, etc., and see how people respond to it. Once there's interest, I’ll try to engage with users, asking for feedback to build the product roadmap.
At the later stage of the product, I haven’t found any smooth method. Though I’d try different marketing channels—like influencer marketing, related site ads, affiliates, partnerships, or long-term strategies like blogging and building freebies tools.
Do you have any interesting lessons learned or tips for other indie makers?
Early on, I waited too long to kill a product that was not suitable for me. Suitable means either it’s not a good idea, or is not suitable for myself or my circumstances. I realized the right products should be easy to sell early on, and have people ask for features
Another thing that surprises me is when the product started to get traction, adding higher pricing (for business and enterprise users) has a good chance it’ll work. And those tiers are attractive for affiliates/partners.
The last one is to keep testing things. Either pricing, features, channels. You’ll be surprised
Things I would have done differently
For Gasby, I’d try to set a clear scope at the beginning. When listening to users requests, many of them are out of scope. I keep building out. GasbyAI now has quite a lot of features and apps, which make the codebase harder to manage.
Are there any other products that you are particularly proud of?
Last year, I wrote GetStartedEbook.com - a 20 pages ebook that talks about choosing ideas, framework to use, pricing, where to launch and validate ideas. It’d be helpful for someone who is just starting out as an indie. The book helped a few friends to get their first sales, and user feedback.
Besides, I sometimes build new apps to stretch the muscle, out of curiosity, or to solve a personal need. Those apps are available at the gums
Are there any indie makers or creators whose work you admire and follow closely?
There are quite many people I admire. If I have to pick one, that’d be Mike Andreuzza. I don’t think he has a design background, but in the past 2 years, he's kept building Tailwinds templates and improving his design skills. Love his designs.
Another one would be Khoa Pham. Maybe 2 years ago, even though I’ve built multiple apps beside the main one (I think anyone who loves building will do the same), I never really published it. Seeing Khoa apps portfolio inspire me to publish it
Thanks for reading til the end. Hope you enjoy the interview as much as we did.
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