“you can't really be super Indie hacker about it you can't just make the first version really crappy and put it out into the world it's got millions of followers worth of brand tied to it so it has to be good so if you usually can launch at like a five out of 10 quality you kind of need to be hitting a seven or an eight before you can even be out the door”

Creator-backed launches can't ship at indie-hacker quality

When a launch is tied to a creator's brand of millions of followers, the usual scrappy 5/10 MVP doesn't fly — the quality bar moves to a 7 or 8 before going public. Design investment up front becomes non-negotiable. The trade: less iteration speed in exchange for borrowed brand trust.