Building a business as an indie hacker isn't about launching the next unicorn—it's about creating something meaningful that serves real people while sustaining your life and values. The indie-hacker-playbook skill pack gives you Claude-powered guidance through every critical stage of this journey, from validating your first idea to growing sustainably.
Most business advice is either too theoretical or too complex. This playbook is different—it's built on the proven philosophy of The Minimalist Entrepreneur by Sahil Lavingia, distilled into practical, actionable Claude skills. Each skill focuses on one specific challenge you'll face, with no fluff and no wasted time.
Key insight: You don't need to build everything at once. Start manual, processize what works, then productize only what customers prove they value.
1. Validate Your Idea — Before writing a single line of code, learn how to validate your business idea through selling, not building. Ask the right questions to determine if people will actually pay for your solution.
2. Build Your MVP — Discover the minimalist approach to building: do it manually first, document your process, then automate only what's proven to work. Ship in a weekend, not months.
3. Set the Right Price — Understand the "zero price effect" and why charging something—even $1—is essential. Learn cost-based vs. value-based pricing models and how to set prices that make you profitable from customer #1.
4. Find Your First Customers — Skip the launch hype and focus on selling one-by-one. Learn the concentric circles of sales: start with friends and family, move to your community, then reach strangers through personalized outreach.
5. Define Your Company Values — Create values that are more than generic slogans. Learn how to craft values that guide behavior when no one is watching, attract the right people, and repel the wrong ones.
6. Find Your Community — Start with communities you already belong to rather than trying to invent something new. Identify where your ideal customers gather and what problems they complain about most.
7. Grow Sustainably — Focus on profitability as your superpower. Learn cost-cutting rules like paying yourself less initially, hiring software before humans, and avoiding expensive offices until you're truly sustainable.
8. Create Your Marketing Plan — Build marketing that starts with free, authentic content—not expensive ads. Progress through the three levels of content: educate, inspire, and entertain.
9. Review Decisions Minimally — Apply the minimalist entrepreneur lens to any business decision. Ask: Does this serve my community? Is this the simplest approach? Does this bring me closer to profitability?
This skill pack is completely free and open source under MIT license. Install it in seconds:
/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/clickaround/marketplace
/plugin install indie-hacker-playbook@clickaroundOnce installed, simply type commands like /validate-idea, /mvp, or /pricing to get immediate, context-aware guidance from Claude.