We’re excited to announce part of this evolution - a new initiative called IndyHall Labs. It is meant to be a gathering place for all of these collaborations - a support network, a growth utility, and even a project promotion platform.
The IndyHall Labs project is still being felt out, but has been in motion for about 3 weeks now, in it’s first “sprint”. Without getting into too many details about the moving parts of the program, you can think of it like a yCombinator/DreamIT/Techstars, but on a smaller scale and pointed directly at indies.
But, why?
We have talked at length about this topic, so let me break it down for you. Some concepts we identified:
- The crew of people that work at IndyHall are smart. They’re best of breed at whatever it is that they do.
- The crew of people that work at IndyHall work hard. The majority of IndyHall-ers are acting as service providers of some sort, and rely on client-driven income to pay their bills. Everything they have, including their IndyHall memberships, are powered by client work.
- It’s become a recurring theme that everyone wishes they had some form of passive income - something that isn’t so reliant on obtaining and holding on to clients. When you’ve got smart people distracted by where their next paycheck is coming from, they often are unable to work on the thing they are most passionate about. Pure talent is lost to the monthly expense.
- It’s hard to create something that generates passive income without finding outside investment, or starving yourself or defaulting on bills until the passive revenue stream picks up. Something needed to bridge that gap, or at least be there to help make the move from client-driven work to passion projects a little easier.
That’s where the idea for Labs came in. We’re talking small-stakes investment in high-potential, quickly executable ideas. “Scratch-an-itch” ideas. Do one thing and do it really, really well kind of ideas. We’re talking 4-8 weeks per project. We’re talking majority stakes + cash investment in the project for the entire production team, delegated by the project lead. We’re talking organic team formation. We’re talking peer mentorship and advisory. We’re talking a community of support and word of mouth marketing. All of the good stuff that you’ve seen produce things like MultiFirefox, iSepta, RipIt, and a slew of other concepts for projects and events.
We’re talking about incubating an individual, forming a team around an idea, and helping that person work towards having a viable product generating passive income. Incubation with a focus on community, and not on business services. Incubation with a focus on helping indies grow themselves just as much as it is focused on growing a project.
The best part is, the idea is infinitely repeatable. Those that have been freed from client work then become the mentors and steak-holders they relied on when they first started. More and more people are moved from that which pays their bills to that which drives their passions - and oh, it pays their bills.
