Last March, Andrey Azimov quit his job and gave himself one year to get to profitability as an Indie Maker. Since then, Andrey’s ‘Hardcore Year’ has been about shipping products like Encrypt My Photos, Progress Bar OSX, MacBook Alarm, Dark Mode List, and Preview Hunt — as well as getting to $1K per month in recurring revenue. 
 
Our friends at Blockstack talked to Andrey about his journey over the last year: 
 
Note: Andrey Azimov was also awarded a Product Hunt Golden Kitty Award for Maker of the Year last week! 😸🏆
 
Andrey, we love your ‘Hardcore Year’ effort. Can you tell us just more what inspired your desire to leave your job and generate recurring income?
 
I came to Bali May 2016. I met my ex-boss (Yaroslav Lazor, CEO of Railsware) at Dojo Bali, a co-working space. He offered me a job as a marketer and I worked for a year and a half in a great company with a smart people.
 
I was always passionate about making products and creating something that people would use. I dreamed to make some small side projects but couldn’t code and didn’t know how to start. Luckily I met Pieter Levels in December 2016 and he helped me to build my first app. It was a surfing web app that shows users the best time to surf (in the water — not online!).
 
The following year I launched three more apps. I did it all: the idea, the development, the marketing and sales. For me, that was more fun than working on just marketing for one product. 
 
And in March 2018, I decided to quit my job to follow my passion. I started a Hardcore Year — a one year experiment where I make apps full time and try to get $1,000 MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) to pay my bills. Back then, I felt scared and it was very risky, but I decided to listen to my gut and just did it. And it went pretty well — because now I don’t have to think about whether or not I should order juice with breakfast or not.

It looks as though you’ve been teaching yourself a lot of new skills this year. Which has been the most rewarding personally? And which has been the most helpful in accomplishing your goal of $1,000 MRR?
 
I think it was developing my “finishing muscle”. I finished all the projects I started and didn’t give up halfway.

Also, asking for advice from more experienced folks that have “skin in the game” helped a lot. 
 
On the topic of my MRR goal, EncryptMyPhotos took the #17 place in the App Mining Challenge, and made the most significant impact on my total MRR.

Among your various projects, what are some patterns you’re starting to see in terms of early indicators of success?
 
I think to start seeing some patterns, I need to have much more data (and experience). But after these nine months, I did discover some best practices that could increase a product’s chance of success. 
 
 For example:

• Solve your own problems (so you will have at least 1 user).
• Make products in existing markets. It means that the idea is already validated. Just make it niche and better at solving a small problem (again, a problem that you have personally).
• Use the product yourself, share with friends (if this product logically makes sense to them) and see if they will use it!

What advice do you have for other folks that want to create additional income or work on something they are passionate about?
 
I think another reason to solve your own problems is because it’s fun for you. You’ll use the solution. Start small and niche.
 
It’s also always good to try to charge money for your products, because I think some of the best validation for a product is if people are actually paying for it. Another way is to join the App Mining Challenge so you can focus more on making things and not think about survival. 
 
 You recently submitted one of your products to our App Mining program. Were you interested in the world of crypto and decentralized applications before that?
 
No, I was more skeptical about it. There was a big crypto boom in 2017 in Bali. There were a lot of scams as well, so I didn’t dive into this topic until recently. When I had some free time, I tried to learn about the general blockchain concept, but nothing too serious.
 
I met Pierre-Gilles here in Bali. We had a lot of in common so we became friends and started working in the same café. One day he introduced me to Blockstack App Mining. I thought it could be fun and we decided to make something small that would solve our own problems.

What are the main differences in your mind when building a decentralized application vs. others you’ve worked on, or are there any?
 
I really like the concept of a decentralized setup where things are spread out from big companies like Google, Apple or Amazon and you don’t need to put all of your data into one basket.
 
Another thing with these services is that I have to do every little thing for the app setup –from the database, error messaging, user registration, etc. With Blockstack, it was done with a couple pieces of code and just worked. It was much more comfortable and a pleasure to use!
 
In your ideal world, what do you hope EncryptMyPhotos becomes in the near future and in the long-term?
 
Right now we have some basic functionality. It’s super simple but it works. And it seems like people like it because the app hit #1 on Product Hunt. Now we are thinking about how to optimize it for mobile, because a lot of our photos are taken from our phones, and it would be good if we could upload directly from mobile.

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