Hacker Residency: Day #5

Heyyyy 👋🏻

Ok, this was a very special day, almost a day off 😅. I feel a bit guilty for not working enough, even though I know I shouldn't.

This morning, I arrived at the villa around 9:30 AM, after my usual walk. I'm taking this opportunity to promote Cheese And Friends, my favorite bar in Nantes, whose T-shirt I'm wearing today 😎. If you stop by and I'm not there (which is pretty rare), say hi to Chris and Flo for me 👋🏻!

Once I arrived, I spent two good hours:

• Answering emails following the PH launch
• Responding to tweets and DMs
• Answering LinkedIn messages
• Fixing the most urgent bugs on Uneed Community

I decided to write a dedicated article about the Product Hunt launch separate from this Hacker Residency series, I'll post it tomorrow 😊. Same thing for the article about Uneed Community's future: I decided to make a separate post, which will be posted on Uneed's blog.

Anyway! Then we went to pick up rental bikes with Fai and Minh-Phuc to go for a ride!! A storm is expected in Vietnam in the coming days, so we wanted to enjoy it a bit before the weather gets too bad.

We went to Monkey Mountain, and guess what we found there: monkeys!!

It was really fun, and I'm going to try to find a road bike (this one was a regular bike with flat handlebars) to rent for the rest of the month 👀.

Then we went to return the bikes, and it was already the end of the day.

We went back to eat at the villa, and I went straight back to the hotel to answer some emails, work a bit, and….

I ordered another meal, via room service 😂. Well yeah, I did quite a bit of cycling after all…

Powerbrain, by Lilian

Before wrapping up this post, I'd like to start something new: before the end of the month, I'm going to try to tell you about all the projects of the indie hackers present at the Hacker Residency.

The very first one, I tried it yesterday: it's a Discord community around mental health, and more specifically around ADHD, created and managed by Lilian! You can join it if you want, it's open to everyone 😊.

Lilian has also built 2 products: Unstuck, an OCD treatment companion, and Brainpower, “The apple health for your brain”. Pretty cool, right??

I joined her Discord yesterday to do what is calles a "focus session". I had no idea what to expect!

The session was scheduled in advance; it was something like 4 PM for us. Lilian asked me if I was okay with turning on my camera. I logged into Discord, clicked a button, and find myself chatting with one of the most comprehensive Discord bots I've ever seen, asking me about my goals for the session, what level of motivation/energy I'm have, etc.

Then I joined a video call with Lilian and two other people from her community: I understand that we're going to work together for 30 minutes!

Nice concept 👀. I was right in the middle of the Uneed Community launch, so my goals were simple: respond to everyone! I have to admit I was already in the flow, hyper-focused, with one thing to do: I'd be curious to try a focus session again at a more "normal" time for me, when I have 15 things to do and chances of getting scattered.

To tell you how focused I was: right in the middle of the session, a whole group of people came into the villa talking quite loudly. I didn't have to put on my headphones, and I was able to stay focused. That probably wouldn't have happened on a regular day 😅.

Once the session ended, the bot guided us to ask how it went. We're then free to share it publicly in the server channels, or not :).

I think creating a community around your niche is an excellent idea. It provides qualified leads, helps build authority, and helps you know your target audience even better.

I can't wait to see what direction Lilian takes during the hacker residency! If you have ideas, suggestions, or anything else, don't hesitate to contact her on X!

That's all for today 😊. See you tomorrow for the usual post, as well as a debrief on this:

👋🏻

Thomas