What Ski Lessons Taught Me About Building SaaS

It’s a rainy spring day in Tongariro, New Zealand. The sky’s gray. Snow melts into slush. The volcano peaks are half hidden behind clouds.

At the beginner slope, a ski coach is teaching a group of kids — Level 1. They don’t really ski yet. They just learn how to move with the skis. Slide down a few meters. Stop. Go back up. Do it again.

The weather is miserable. The snow is wet. Everyone’s cold. But by the end of the morning, all those kids learned their first lessons — not from reading a manual, but from doing it, badly, again and again.

❄️ Meanwhile, back in the indie world…

It’s cruel that nobody teaches us how to build a SaaS. There’s no coach at the beginner slope.

We read books — close the book — still miles away from $10k MRR. We read success stories — imagine one day we’ll reach that — close the tab — needle not moved half an inch. We build features no one asked for. We chase validation that never comes. And our side projects slide, one by one, into the graveyard.

Not because we’re lazy. But because we never learned the fundamentals.

⛷️ The end of “build and hope”

Watching those kids on the slope hit me: We need something similar — a practice ground for indie founders. A place to fall, slide, and get up — with principles that keep us pointed downhill.

That’s why I built Indie10k, an app that helps indie founders reach $10k MRR by showing up daily, compounding small wins, and learning through reps.

But the app alone isn’t enough. We need to seed the principles — the mindset behind it. A shared foundation. A movement.

📜 The TenK Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of reaching $10k MRR as indie founders by showing up daily, compounding small wins, and helping others do the same.

Through this work we’ve come to value:

Consistent practice* over perfect strategy*

Small, shippable reps* over grand unstarted plans*

Momentum through streaks* over bursts of unsustainable effort*

Direct customer conversations* over secondhand advice*

Evidence from action* over assumptions from theory*

Sharing progress openly* over building alone in silence*

While there’s value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Author:* Ju Lin, Founder of Indie10k © 2025 — This declaration may be freely copied in full with this notice.*

I drafted this during my trip to Tongariro — in the spring rain, surrounded by snow and silence — and put my name down as the first signatory by the fireplace.

Now I’m sharing it with the world.

Not as another framework. But as a declaration that indie success isn’t magic — it’s reps.

✍️ If you are serious about growing your SaaS, here is my shout out: Sign the Manifesto: https://indie10k.com/manifesto