Waves, Trends, and AI Slop

A friend of mine built a successful indiehacker SaaS business with >$20k revenue, on his own.

Both of us have been watching everything the absolute TORRENT of code and content that’s happening around AI, with the latest being OpenClaw.

One of the ways to deal with the onslaught is to stop following trends, focus on your own stuff, and let the rising and falling waves resolve themselves naturally.

For a few months, that’s what my friend decided to do.

But if you do that, you would be missing out on opportunities provided by these waves.

My friend, for instance, forgot that he had taken advantage of a different wave a few years back: The rise of the indie hacker ethos on X, ProductHunt, etc.

3-4 years ago was a wonderful time to start your own micro-SaaS business. You could go on X and start “building in public”, aka working on your SaaS and tweeting about it relentlessly.

This was, perhaps still is, a trend that made a lot of people financially free and has produced many X-based celebrities.

Of course, trend-chasing is not the only game in town. You can definitely niche down, work your network, or solve a hidden problem in an overlooked market.

But if you ARE starting from scratch, working purely online, it might work to catch a wave. With some luck and skill you may get a foothold on a perch that’s higher than where you are now.

So, my advice, despite the ONSLAUGHT of slop, don’t hate the waves. You can attempt to ride, you can choose not to participate, but as a rule, especially with online businesses, try to capitalize on some wave or trend, some of the time.