Indie Bites

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Short, bite-sized conversations with indie hackers that have started small, profitable and bootstrapped businesses. You'll learn how they come up with ideas, what they do to validate, find those first customers and make a sustainable income.

James McKinven


    • Jun 2, 2025 LATEST EPISODE
    • monthly NEW EPISODES
    • 15m AVG DURATION
    • 130 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Indie Bites

    Why you should build a sweaty startup instead of an indie SaaS - Flo Schirmer

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 2, 2025 16:40


    Today I'm talking with Flo Schirmer about "sweaty startups", a term for old-fashioned, low-risk businesses that are often service based and unsexy. I'm talking window cleaning, car washing, self-storage, house moving and more. We're going to discuss if you can do this as a side hustle, if you should do this over a regular software business, and what you need to do to get started with some ideas along the way.Timestamps00:00 Intro01:38 What is a sweaty startup?03:18 From window cleaning to home security04:37 How to start a sweaty startup06:41 Growth for a sweaty startup07:26 Sweaty startup vs software - what is best for indie hackers?08:45 Injecting a tech edge into old fashioned businesses11:34 Examples of successful sweaty startup brands13:58 Two free sweaty startup ideas15:57 RecommendationsRecommendationsBook - $100m LeadsPodcast - My First MillionIndie Hacker - Alex HormoziMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CourseSponsor - EmailOctopus

    How Tally grew to $150k MRR in 5 years - Marie Martens

    Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2025 17:24


    Marie Martens is the co-founder of Tally, a form builder she started with her partner Filip, now used by half a million people and are over $150k MRR. Marie was on the pod 3 years ago when they'd scaled to 16,000 users and $8k MRR in 1 year. In that episode we discussed the origin story, getting their first 100 users and how they'd grown so quickly. Today, we're going to be finding out how they've built such a robust business over the past 3 years and 15x'd their revenue.Listen to Marie's first episode:https://indiebites.com/43Timestamps00:00 Intro02:09 From small lifestyle business to larger sustainable business04:50 Retaining the fun in the business06:02 Struggles in hiring a remote team07:32 Building an in-person team in Belgium vs remote08:17 Running a startup as a parent10:06 How Tally has grown to $150k MRR13:07 The pros and cons of building in public15:08 Growing the product while keeping it simple15:49 The future of Tally16:43 RecommendationsRecommendationsBook - First Round CapitalPodcast - Lenny's PodcastIndie Hacker - Olly MeakingsMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CourseSponsor - EmailOctopus

    Why the Marketoonist is the dream indie business - Tom Fishburne

    Play Episode Listen Later May 1, 2025 16:38


    Tom Fishburne is the founder of Marketoonist, a bootstrapped marketing cartoon business he started in 2010. He started drawing and sharing cartoons in 2002, and it took him 8 years to make the leap, despite having a successful career in marketing. 15 years later, Tom is still going strong, with the business making money from cartoon licensing, speaking gigs, brand deals, his book and more.Listen to the extended version of the show here: https://indiebites.com/membership/Timestamps00:00 - Intro01:23 - Moving to Czech Republic out of college02:16 - From Czech Republic to MBA03:19 - Starting cartooning04:03 - Tom's first client04:37 - Imposter syndrome05:20 - Pricing too low06:01 - Making the leap to full time07:08 - The terrifying moment of taking the leap08:08 - How Tom executed on his plan as a full time cartoonist?09:20 - Marketoonist revenue breakdown10:45 - Why Tom still does client work12:45 - Dealing with sh*tty clients13:55- Dealing with AI and competition15:55 - RecommendationsRecommendationsBook - Orbiting the Giant HairballPodcast - Fly On The WallIndie Hacker - David HieattMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CourseSponsor - EmailOctopus

    Why Jack Ellis acquired Fathom Analytics from his co-founder

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2025 14:10


    Jack Ellis is the co-founder of Fathom Analytics, a simple, privacy focused analytics tool launched in 2019. I last spoke to Jack on the podcast in 2021, where he talked about the inception and growth of Fathom, taking on a massive incumbent and why Jack loves working with a co-founder. In December 2024, Jack acquired his co-founder's share in the business, making him the sole owner (i think). Today, we're going to talk about why he made this unique move and what's next for Fathom.Timestamps00:00 Intro01:20 Jack finds out about EmailOctopus02:34 Why Jack acquired Fathom05:03 How can Jack afford this?05:28 Why did they not get an external buyer?07:17 Back to being a solo founder08:19 Innovating the the crowded analytics space11:09 Fathom's marketing and growth in 202512:34 How is Jack having fun?13:14 RecommendationsRecommendationsBook - Dopamine NationPodcast - Huberman LabIndie Hacker - Ruben GamezMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    Typeshare's $34k MRR bootstrapped journey - Sam Shore

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2025 15:10


    Sam Shore is the co-founder of Typeshare, a writing platform made to create and publish text across the internet. Typeshare has made over $1m in revenue since it was started in 2021, with over 80,000 user, currently $34k MRR I'm speaking to Sam to find out how he started Typeshare as the first of 12 startups he was planning to build, and what made this stick.00:00 Intro01:10 Sam's entrepreneurial background02:03 Failed past projects03:31 12 startups in 12 months04:16 The idea for Typeshare05:38 Getting traction with Typeshare06:50 Getting to $15k MRR in 1 year with infuential partnerships09:52 How is Sam making sure he has fun with the business12:18 How to get better at writing online14:09 RecommendationsRecommendationsBook - Poor Charlie's AlmanackPodcast - ReworkIndie Hacker - Dmytro KrasunMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    How Justin Duke is building Buttondown into the perfect bootstrapped business

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 7, 2025 17:17


    Justin Duke is the founder of Buttondown, a simple email tool he launched in 2017. Justin was last on the podcast 2 years ago when he'd hit $15k MRR and just left his role at Stripe to focus on Buttondown. I was struck by Justin's well thought through approach to building. He makes calculated risks and shares a lot of his learnings on his blog, Applied Cartography (which is an essential read for any indie hackers).This episode I catch up with Justin to hear how he's grown the team to 8 people and his approach to building a company he loves. This is a cut down version of an hour long catch up I had with Justin available on the Indie Bites membership which is available at indiebites.com/membership, where we discuss his personal blog, how he structures his time as a new parent and we go deeper into hiring high agency unicorns.Timestamps00:00 - Intro01:58 - Buttondown growth03:40 - How to build a company you don't hate07:16 - Marketing and positioning Buttondown11:17 - Buttondown's unique home page approach13:45 - Building a business you enjoy15:32 - RecommendationsMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    How to sell your indie business - Josh Peleg

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 22, 2025 15:10


    Today I'm not actually joined by an indie hacker, but by someone who can help a lot of indies out there. Josh Peleg is the Head of Biz Dev and Mergers and Acquisitions at BlueThrone. Essentially, he knows all about how to sell a business from the buyer's side.In this episode we're going to learn from Josh exactly what you need to know about selling your indie product. How you find an acquirer, what does the process look like and how you can get a deal over the line.I've spoken to some indie hackers who have gone through exits, such as Rob Walling, Ramy Khuffash, Tibo Louis Lucas and more, but not so much from the other side. Let's find out what it takes.Timestamps00:00 Intro00:56 What is BlueThrone02:13 How to find a potential acquirer04:41 How to set up your business to be sold06:33 Acquirer red flags08:31 Acquirer green flags10:04 The type of exits and what to choose13:48 RecommendationsReccosBook - The Master and The MargaritaPodcast - 20VCMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    Arvid Kahl on building a profitable SaaS (Podscan), calm funding and juggling a media business

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 15, 2025 16:44


    Arvid Kahl is returning to the podcast for the third time. In 2019, he'd just sold Feedback Panda for a life changing amount of money and then wrote the book Zero to Sold. In 2023, he was in full-on creator mode with The Bootstrapped Founder and had just released The Embedded Entrepreneur. Now, he's still producing the content but is also spending time on his SaaS Podscan, which is an extremely ambitious tool that transcribes every podcast and let's you track mentions of your brand.Timestamps00:00 Intro01:27 Arvid's life as a SaaS founder02:48 Are people still building in public03:54 No longer being a solo founder05:24 Raising from Calm Fund09:17 Keeping The Bootstrapped Founder running12:10 Wins for 202413:36 Parting advice15:08 RecommendationsRecommendationsBook - A Court of Thorns and RosesPodcast - The Economics of Everyday ThingsIndie Hacker - Tyler TringasMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    High Signal founder on the state of indie hacking and building in public in 2025 - Pete Codes

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2025 14:18


    Recently I've been reviewing my catalogue of previous guests and have been intrigued to see where they are now, so expect to see a few more returning guests over the next few weeks.Today is a chap who was last on the podcast 3 years ago, and is still ever present in the indie community. Pete Codes is writes the High Signal newsletter, sharing all the best indie hacking news every week. He's making his main living through Ghostwriting for Twitter, Bluesky and LinkedIn, but he's still launching new projects and keeping his previous projects live.Timestamps00:00 Intro01:25 How Pete stays up to date with indie hacking news03:21 Twitter, Bluesky or LinkedIn04:36 Is building in public dead?07:30 Who is still building in public09:40 Big news stories of 2024 / who has been successful12:06 Pete's plan for his newsletter, High Signal12:48 Recommendations

    How Podsqueeze grew to $16k MRR in 18 months - Tiago Ferreira

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2024 15:39


    Tiago Ferreira is the co-founder of Podsqueeze, an AI podcast tool that helps automate your podcast content. The tool, that helps you create show notes, newsletters, social posts and more, is currently doing $16k MRR and growing. You might also know Tiago from his podcast Wannabe Entrepreneur, where he's interviewed impressive founders including Pieter Levels.Timestamps00:00 - Intro120 - Tiago Ferreira01:06 - Tiago's background02:25 - Lessons from failures03:40 - Starting Podsqueeze - solving your own problem05:53 - How Podsqueeze had a successful launch06:40 - How to have a successful launch08:10 - Growth tactics for Podsqueeze - SEO13:03 - Future plans and exit14:28 - RecommendationsRecommendationsBook: SaaS Playbook by Rob WallingPodcast: Startups for the Rest of UsIndie Hacker: Elston BarettoMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    How Buy Me A Coffee grew to millions of users - Jijo Sunny

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 23, 2024 16:41


    Today I'm joined by Jijo Sunny, who is the co-founder of Buy Me A Coffee, one of the most popular donation and membership platforms on the internet. They've processed 10's of millions for creators and have built a 26 strong team. Since founding Buy Me A Coffee, Jijo has dabbled in all sorts of projects, including a stint in YC with a podcasting app. Now though, Jijo is back building a new product, Voicenotes, a voice driven AI note taking app.

    How focusing on customer happiness led to success for KnowledgeOwl - Marybeth Alexander

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2024 16:10


    Marybeth Alexander is the founder and Chief Executive Owl of KnowledgeOwl, a bootstrapped knowledge base software founded in 2015. Started as an idea within SurveyGizmo, where Marybeth was working at the time, the company has since flourished into a small, profitable, sustainable business ultimately being built to improve the lives of the founders, employees and customers. In this episode we talk about how Marybeth bought the company from her previous employers, how they grew through reviews and why more indie hackers should put customer happiness front and centre.Timestamps00:00 - Intro01:26 Founding story of KnowledgeOwl (prev Help Gizmo)06:54 Marketing and Growth08:58 How to have happy customers10:54 KnowledgeOwl's appraoch to product development13:35 How important is the KnowledgeOwl brand15:07 RecommendationsRecommendationsBook: Buy Back Your Time by Dan MartellPodcast: Startup to LastIndie Hacker/Entrepreneur: Ari Weinzweig - The Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Being a Better LeaderMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    Ranking #1 in Google with Lorem Ipsum and making a career out of scientific SEO - Kyle Roof

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 14, 2024 14:51


    Kyle Roof is the co-founder of High Voltage SEO, PageOptimizer Pro and Internet Marketing Gold. An agency, software and course business respectively which all focus on mastering SEO. I've spoken at length on the podcast before about how SEO can be such an effective tool for indie hackers to use, so Kyle is the perfect guest to talk to today.Timestamps00:00 Intro02:58 How Kyle learned SEO04:31 Being Scientific with SEO05:47 Why you should try paid ads07:17 Ranking top of Google with Lorem Ipsum10:15 Where do people start with SEO12:13 Encouraging word of mouth growth13:56 RecommendationsMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    Finding success with a QR code app after selling his previous indie business - Ramy Khuffash

    Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2024 16:21


    Ramy Khuffash is the founder of Hovercode, a QR code generator he's working on full time. Previously, Ramy founded Page Flows, a library of inspiration videos for product designers that he sold last November.Timestamps00:00 Intro00:56 Email Octopus Sponsor02:30 Page Flows Acquisition05:03 What did Ramy buy after he sold his company05:56 Starting Hovercode08:05 Finding new business ideas09:32 Growth for Hovercode11:22 Working with a horizontal product12:20 The perfect indie business14:48 Ramy's futureRecommendationsBook: The Mom TestPodcast: Hidden BrainIndie Hacker: Laura Roeder, Amar GhoseMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    From Tweet Hunter's 8 figure exit, to starting all over again - Tibo Louis-Lucas

    Play Episode Listen Later May 16, 2024 17:19


    Tibo Louis-Lucas is a serial founder, most well known for starting Tweet Hunter and Taplio in 2021, before selling the company in 2022 for 8 figures. Since then, Tibo has gone on to acquire an AI video creation tool, Typeframes, which he spun Revid.ai recently. He actually announced after recording this that he has left Tweethunter and is back to focusing on his early stage products, which we touch on in this episode. He's also started a newsletter with over 50k subscribers and has over 115k Twitter followers. Tibo is a bit of a legend in the indie maker sphere right now.Tibo and I covered so much ground in this episode I couldn't fit it all in, so the the full 40 minute conversation available on the Indie Bites membership for $60 a year. Head to indiebites.com/membership to get access.Timestamps:00:00 - Intro01:46 - Why failing is important for indie hackers03:30 - 1 product every 2 weeks05:16 - From $3 to $20k MRR with influencer partnership06:41 - Selling Tweet Hunter to Lempire08:40 - What did Tibo buy with his money10:34 - Acquiring Typeframe16:16 - RecommendationsRecommendationsBook: It Doesn't Have to be Crazy at WorkPodcast: AcquiredIndie Hacker: Marc Louvion; Damon ChenMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    Building a $200k MRR bootstrapped maid software for a price sensitive niche - Amar Ghose, ZenMaid

    Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2024 16:50


    Amar Ghose is the founder of ZenMaid, a Maid Service software that has just hit $200k MRR. Amar is a seasoned bootstrapped entrepreneur, having started ZenMaid back in 2013. Amar's story shows the power of sticking with something through the hard times, and having an unsexy niche (aka not selling to other indie hackers) can lead to a phenomenal indie business.Timestamps00:00 Intro02:53 Scaling in the first 2 years04:38 Growing an indie business in a price sensitive niche06:54 Travelling while indie hacking08:12 Losing 40% of revenue in 6 months13:23 Hustle Porn - Should indie hackers work harder?15:38 RecommendationsReccosBook: The Fish That Ate The Whale by Rich CohenPodcast: exitfive by Dave GerhardtIndie Hacker: Jesse HanleyMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    Building WP Minute, a 5-figure side project without a huge audience - Matt Medeiros, WP Minute

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2024 16:28


    Matt Medeiros is the founder of WP Minute, a weekly podcast highlighting WordPress news in less than 5 minutes. He's a podcasting expert, having previously worked as Director of Podcasting success at Castos and now hosts & produces Breakdown, a podcast by Gravity forms. This episode talks about how you can make a sustainable 5-figure side project, with a niche audience while working a full time job and increasing your opportunities as you do it.Timestamps00:00 Intro01:32 From the family car business to digital agency with his dad03:35 Becoming a Wordpress Expert and Starting Matt Report04:45 Using podcasting as a networking tool05:56 From Matt Report to WP Minute08:08 Monetizing WP Minute09:36 Making money from a small audience10:58 Having a profitable side project alongside a full time job12:08 Does Matt want to sell WP Minute?14:48 RecommendationsRecommendationsPodcast about Books: Six Pixels of SeparationPodcast: Podcasting 2.0Indie Hacker: Carl HancockMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    Building a $700k ARR newsletter - Manu Cinca, Stacked Marketer

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 10, 2024 16:12


    Manu Cinca is the founder of Stacked Marketer, a daily marketing newsletter he bootstrapped to $700k. In 2023, he acquired 2 newsletters to bring the subscriber count to 100k and raised a small 250k funding round to help boost growth.

    Bootstrapping the 100DaysOfNoCode learning platform - Max Haining

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 3, 2024 15:45


    Max Haining is the founder of 100DaysofNoCode and 100DaysofAI, which are bootcamps designed to help non-techies gain tech skills. Max wanted to be an entrepreneur from a young age and started 100DaysofNoCode as a challenge for himself to learn NoCode tools during covid, but as more people joined in, he realised he could bootstrap the challenge into a learning platform which he's now working on full time.Follow Max:TwitterTimestamps00:00 - Intro01:28 - Max early life03:31 - University student inspired by Zuck04:59 - Discovering indie hacking06:13 - Starting 100DaysofNoCode09:45 - Turning 100DaysofNoCode from a challenge to a business13:39 - What marketing tactics has Max used15:09 - RecommendationsRecommendationsBook - Get Together Podcast - My First MillionIndie Hacker - Marc LouvionMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    Bouncing back from losing 70% revenue - Max Serrano, IGotAnOffer

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2024 15:37


    Max Serrano is the founder of IGotAnOffer, a bootstrapped coaching platform focused on helping people get jobs and progress their career. Initially starting out in consulting, Max started IGotAnOffer on the side, creating digital products to help people land consulting jobs, but pivoted to coaching after they lost 70% of their revenue in the tech hiring freeze, having to lay off the majority of his staff. Now, with a profit first mentality, they are on a growth trajectory again.Timestamps00:00 - Intro03:16 - What indie hackers can learn from management consulting04:42 - The idea for IGotAnOffer06:23 - Slicing pie method of splitting equity07:39 - From side project to full time08:29 - Fixing a revenue plateau10:49 - Losing 70% of revenue12:46 - Getting back to profitiability13:49 - Pay yourself14:46 - RecommendationsRecommendationsBook - Profit FirstPodcast - Startups for the Rest of UsIndie Hacker - Pete CodesMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    Building and monetizing an audience as a software engineer - Randall Kanna Franson

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 24, 2024 16:58


    Today I'm joined by Randall Kanna Franson. Randall is a senior software engineer who has written 3 books, including one published by O'Reilly and a self published one which made over $70k. She also created a course called Hack the Tech interview which made $20k in the first 24 hours and $50k in the first month. All of this has been through Randall's efforts to share her learnings from almost a decade being a software engineer and growing her twitter audience to over 50,000 followers. She's also dabbled in SaaS products, notably launching and growing CodeTutor which she sold after the birth of her first child.Timestamps00:00 Intro01:43 Randall's background03:33 Coding bootcamp to senior software engineer05:05 Getting a book published with O'Reilly06:37 Going hard on side projects in 202008:01 Audience building and writing another book10:04 Randall's course11:42 Randalls advice to early stage entreprenuers13:13 Why Randall hasn't started a successful SaaS15:47 RecommendationsRecommendationsBook - The DipPodcast - Software SocialIndie Hacker - Kyle GawleyMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    Can you really scale a No Code SaaS? - Kieran Ball, NoCodeLife

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 11, 2024 16:45


    Kieran Ball is the founder of NoCodeLife, a selection of case studies of those making successful businesses using NoCode. Kieran also has courses on how to become a NoCode SaaS founder, specifically using the Bubble platform. I wanted to get Kieran on the pod to discuss and challenge the NoCode movement and if you can actually create a scalable product using the tools available, or if NoCode serves a different purpose.Timestamps00:00 108 - Kieran Ball02:07 Failing to learn how to code03:05 How Kieran discovered no code04:28 Are no code apps hacky?05:52 Who has been successful building no code tools?06:57 No code for MVPs or for actual startups09:28 Keiran's own blog, No Code Life10:19 Improving your marketing skillset12:49 Kieran's future with no code15:48 RecommendationsRecommendationsBook - The SaaS playbookPodcast - The Bootstrapped FounderIndie Hacker - Hazel Lim @byhazelimMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - EmailOctopus

    B2C vs B2B SaaS as an indie hacker - Val Sopi, Blogstatic

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 3, 2024 17:00


    Today I'm joined by Val Sopi, the founder of Blogstatic, a lightweight blogging platform built to take on the likes of Ghost. Currently Val is sitting around $1k a month, but with a low-priced annual plans approach, he's relying on new sign ups and plan upgrades instead of recurring subscriptions. So he's at a crossroads of needing to pour fuel on the fire to grow his low-cost blogging platform, or attempt to build a B2B SaaS, which he believes is a much more sustainable option for an indie founder. Val has been hardened by business successes and failures, so I love his pragmatic approach to the decisions he's making.Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:39 Val's background - web design shop to failed SaaS 04:10 Learning to code and starting Claritask 04:53 Selling Claritask 05:52 Launching Blogstatic 06:42 Taking a loan to bet on himself 07:40 The crossroads of stagnating growth 08:39 Being a low cost alternative in a competitive market 12:30 Why Val won't take VC 14:06 Why Val is trying B2B instead of B2C 15:45 Recommendations Recommendations Book: The Inner Game of Tennis Podcast: Startups for the Rest of Us Indie Hacker: Joe Ashville My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    How VEED bootstrapped to $7m ARR - Sabba Keynejad, VEED.io (2020)

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 27, 2023 14:23


    Today I'm revisiting one of my favourite episodes, from 2020, with Sabba Keynejad, co-founder and CEO of VEED.io, an online video editing platform. When I interviewed Sabba, VEED were at around $2m ARR, fully bootstrapped. Since this interview, they've gone on to bootstrap to about $7m ARR before raising a whopping $35m series A from Sequoia. And when I first met Sabba, years before this interview, VEED was just a small product that wasn't generating any revenue. This episode is special to me because I've followed VEED's journey from the start and it's been inspiring to see. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 02:46 VEED origins 03:24 Differentiation 03:58 Picking a market 04:48 Hiring and learning new skills 06:16 Inflection points in growth 07:07 Quitting your job 07:45 Why you should find a cofounder 08:41 Getting the first users 09:47 Free vs paid 11:16 Growth tactics 12:04 Advice to other founders 13:01 Recommendations Recommendations Favourite indie hacker is Josh Pigford Best book for indie hackers; Traction Favourite podcast; How I Built This My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Lemon Squeezy CTO on why he still makes side projects - Gilbert Pellegrom

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 20, 2023 16:12 Transcription Available


    Gilbert Pellegrom, is co-founder and CTO of Lemon Squeezy, a platform for selling software and digital products online. Previously Gilbert created the Nivo Slider all in 2010, which grew to millions of users before selling it. He then went on to work with Orman Clark at ThemeZilla and Dunked, who he's teamed up with again to build Lemon Squeezy. What's interesting about Gilbert is that despite being the CTO of a rapidly scaling startup, he's still making and shipping side projects, which we'll talk about more on this episode.If you want to hear more about Lemon Squeezy, I actually co-host their podcast called Make Lemonade, where I speak with their CEO JR Farr about the behind the scenes of building a bootstrapped company making millions.Sign up to the Indie Bites membership for $60 a year to access the full conversation with Gilbert.Timestamps 00:00 Intro 03:57 Working with Orman Clark at Themezilla and Dunked 06:11 Delicious Brains 06:40 Starting Lemon Squeezy 07:52 Why Gilbert makes side projects 10:36 Should you charge money for your side projects 12:58 Selling side projects 14:59 Recommendations Recommendations Book - Atomic Habits Podcast - Yo! Indie Hacker - Marcel Pociot My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Scaling and exiting a $65k MRR with meal planning app - Jeffrey Bunn, Mealime & Clearful

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2023 17:14


    Today I'm joined by Jeffrey Bunn, who is the co-founder of Clearful, a digital journal app he built with his wife, Maria. Previously they co-founded Mealime, a meal planning app which grew to a whopping $65k MRR before they exited in 2018. In this episode we cover the story of founding both apps, how they utilised the app stores for growth and why they started a B2C app in a crowded market.Timestamps00:00 Intro01:30 Starting Mealime07:07 Pivot to mobile and reducing prices08:36 Mealime Growth09:46 Private Equity Exit10:38 Life post-exit and learning to code12:24 Starting Clearful13:31 Clearful growth through the app store14:50 Runway and futureRecommendations Book - Range by David Epstein Podcast - Conversations with Tyler Indie Hacker - Maria Golikova, Sebastian Röhl My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    The slow and steady path to growth - Michael Christofides

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2023 16:55


    Today I'm joined by Michael Christofides, who is the founder of PgMustard, a product which helps people speed up Postgres queries. Michael started out working for a Devtools company as a product manager and went on to run customer success at London based unicorn, GoCardless. Now, Michael might not be as well known and successful as other popular indie hackers, but he works on his own terms and has been committed to his project for years.In this episode I want to unpack why Michael stays committed to his product despite slow growth, his unique approach to the indie lifestyle and where he wants to go in future.Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 02:18 - Michael's early career 03:09 - The PGMustard idea 04:28 - Building for a market rather than scratching your own itch 06:23 - Launching PGMustard 08:15 - Going full time on PGMustard 09:47 - Leaving well paid jobs at $0 MRR 11:28 - Intentional slow growth 15:43 - Recommendations Recommendations Book - Small Giants Podcast - Panic Podcast Indie Hacker - Michael Koper My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Arvid Kahl on side projects, hobbies and making money as a founder

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2023 17:06


    Arvid Kahl runs The Bootstrapped Founder, a podcast, newsletter and educational resource to help founders grow successful bootstrapped businesses. He's also written two books, Zero to Sold and The Embedded Entreprenuer. Arvid is a returning guest, having previously been on the show almost 3 years ago, to talk about his exit from FeedbackPanda, which he grew to $55k MRR with his partner, Danielle.In this episode we talk about life as a creator and solopreneur, how Arvid is scratching his SaaS itch and how people can leave their jobs to work on their side projects.

    Quitting his job and taking a £20k loan to go full time indie - Harvey Carpenter, Growform

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 22, 2023 15:49


    Harvey Carpenter is the founder of Growform, a form builder which is now around 7K MRR. It's a mixture of enterprise and some other clients, and he's tackling a product in a market that is extremely competitive and crowded, but he's trying to carve out his own little slice of that market.Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:21 Harvey's life before Growform 01:35 Side projects as a 17 yr old 04:10 Getting a law degree 05:04 The idea for Growform 06:42 Benefits of picking a niche 09:12 Growth tactics 10:06 Quitting his job and taking a loan 13:16 Future goals 13:48 Taking recreation seriously Recommendations Book: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together Podcast: Diary of a CEO Indie Hacker: Jack Bridger My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    How to get to ramen profitability - Charlie Ward, Ramen Club

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 15, 2023 15:49


    Today is a special episode, because it marks 100 episodes of Indie Bites. And to mark the occasion, I'm bringing back my guest from episode 1, Charlie Ward, founder of Ramen Club to talk about how he's grown to community into the core of the London indie scene while scaling to £7k MRR in the process. Charlie has also been a long time supporter of the show, having sponsored well over 30 episodes and taking a bet on me early on.Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:40 - The impact Ramen Club has on other founders 03:08 - Rebranding to Ramen Club 04:56 - Advice for community building 06:27 - Advice to founders on ideas and growth 11:10 - Why you should be doing user research 14:35 - Recommendations Recommendations Book: $100m Offers Podcast: Lex Fridman Indie Hacker: Elston Baretto Other links Get Together book Continuous Discovery Habits book Rosieland Charlie's Twitter Ramen Club Podcast My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Bootstrapping EmailOctopus to $3m+ ARR - Jonathan Bull & Tom Evans

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 8, 2023 17:11


    Today I'm joined by Tom Evans and Jonathan Bull from EmailOctopus, an email platform who have bootstrapped to over $3m ARR since they were founded in 2014. They've been battling in a crowded and competitive market, with some huge funded companies to contend with, but they've made it work in an indie way. In this episode we talk about how they lost 99% of their users overnight, why they've chosen to compete on price rather than in a niche and their reasoning behind staying bootstrapped for so long.Get the extended episode here: https://indiebites.com/membership 00:00 Intro 01:24 EmailOctopus Background 02:57 How long did EmailOctopus take to build? 03:09 Launching for free 05:45 Tom joining EmailOctopus 07:11 Growth 07:48 Building in a crowded market 08:55 Differentiating on price 11:30 Raising vs bootstrapping 12:58 Changing goals as a bootstrapper 15:07 Fulfilling the side project urge Recommendations Book: ReWork, Four Thousand Weeks Podcast: The Rest is Politics, Indie Bites Indie Hacker: Pieter Levels, Jeffrey Bunn Guest Links Jonathan's Twitter Tom's Twitter Blog post about their growth My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Building a financial engine for your indie business - Justin Jackson

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2023 15:48


    In this episode I have a returning guest, someone who is a keystone of the bootstrapping community, it's Justin Jackson, co-founder of Transistor, MegaMaker and more. Today we have an unstructured but very useful chat about building a financial engine for your business. This is a topic that has come up countless times in my indie journey and I think it's something that a lot of indie businesses don't address as early and seriously as they should. There a ton of actionable tips in this conversation about how to manage your finances, building a solid, profitable business and what to do when things aren't going well.Get the extended episode here: https://indiebites.com/membershipTimestamps 00:00 Intro 01:45 James shocked by tax 02:31 Profit first 06:51 Building a financial engine 09:40 Things falling apart with depression 11:00 Desperation affects creativity 11:49 How to build your financial engine Recommendations (from prev ep) Book: Life Profitability Podcast: Software Social Indie Hacker: Derek Sivers Follow Justin Twitter Blog My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Rob Walling on multiple projects, why building an audience is dumb and other SaaS wisdom

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 13, 2023 17:09


    Rob Walling is an absolute legend in the bootstrapping and indie scene. He's a veteran entrepreneur with his most notable exit being Drip in 2016. Rob also founded MicroConf, started TinySeed and is the host of the Startups for the Rest of Us podcast, which has over 680 episodes having started in 2010. It doesn't stop there for Rob, he's also written 4 books, Start Small Stay Small, Start Marketing the Day You Start Coding, The Entrepreneurs Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together and most recently, The SaaS Playbook.Get the hour long episode here: https://indiebites.com/membershipTimestamps 00:00 Intro / Sponsor 02:03 Why Rob wouldn't do SaaS again 03:43 What would an alternative reality look like for Rob 05:46 Founder retreats 07:40 Building an audience first approach is dumb for SaaS 10:29 Building a network 12:38 Portfolio of projects 15:26 Recommendations Recommendations Book: Founding Sales, Deploy Empathy Podcast: Comic Lab Indie Hacker: Ruben Gamez Follow Rob Twitter Website My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Growing an audience, making difficult decisions and launching screencasting.com - Aaron Francis

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 5, 2023 16:53


    Aaron Francis is currently an Educator at Planet Scale, but you would have seen him all around the internet doing courses, YouTube videos, podcasts and more. Notably he was a founding member of the Hammerstone team, which he's recently left, to focus his energy on doing something he loves. Most recently, Aaron has launched Screencasting.com, a course teaching you how to make better screencasts.Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:25 Aaron's Background 02:10 Learning Software Engineering through books 03:24 Audience Building 05:51 Benefits of each content medium 08:07 Making time for everything 09:27 Having a full time job 10:23 Leaving Hammerstone 12:36 Launching Screencasting.com 14:33 How has the launch gone? 15:25 Recommendations Recommendations Book - Any textbook in your field Podcast - No Plans to Merge Indie Hacker - Jordan O'Connor My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    $20k MRR with Airtable app using YouTube and SEO for growth - Andy Cloke, Data Fetcher

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 28, 2023 15:30


    Today I'm joined by a returning guest, Andy Cloke, who runs Data Fetcher. Data Fetcher is an API plugin for Airtable that he's grown to 20k MRR. In our previous episode Andy was only at around £3k MRR, so in this conversation we talk about what he's done to grow so rapidly, including investing in new marketing channels such as YouTube.Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:58 Growing to 20k MRR 04:51 Building a machine 06:01 YouTube Strategy 09:09 Launching another product 11:38 Hiring and reinvesting into the business 13:07 Future of Data Fetcher Recommendations Book: Psychology of Money Podcast: Acquired Indie Hacker: Curtis Herbert Follow AndyTwitterMy links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Making $200k a year teaching Google Sheets - Andrew Kamphey

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 21, 2023 14:48


    Today I'm joined by Andrew Kamphey, who is the founder of Better Sheets, a platform of tools and tutorials to get better at using Google Sheets, that has done well over $200k in revenue since he launched in 2020. He started out working as a tech on cruise ships, before moving to LA to work in the film industry, which is where he gained all of his Google Sheets prowess. From here he's had a meandering life journey, working while travelling South East Asia, starting and selling an influencer newsletter, writing a book about charging and even launching a SaaS. Andrew has had his finger in piece of the indie hacking pie and has now settled on being the Google Sheets guy. At least for now.Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 02:08 - Failing to go full time 04:13 - Selling Influence Weekly 06:26 - Starting BetterSheets 09:32 - Turning Better Sheets into a full time income 11:53 - Reluctancy to become the "Google Sheets Guy" 13:37 - Recommendations Recommendations Book: Lying for Money Podcast: The Deep Life Indie Hacker: Jon Yongfook, Danny Postma, James & Danielle Follow AndrewTwitterMy links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Bootstrapping Ticket Tailor to £6m ARR, selling and repurchasing the company, losing motivation and more - Jonny White

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2023 16:33


    Jonny White is the founder of Ticket Tailor, a platform for selling tickets online doing over £6m ARR and growing. Jonny founded Ticket Tailor in 2011, grew it to £2k MRR and then sold it to a company called TimeOut a short while later. After a few stagnant years at TimeOut, Jonny then bought the company back to make the lifestyle business he'd always wanted. After hitting all his goals, Jonny made the decision to build out a team and bootstrap the company to profitability and beyond. Now with a team of 20+ people, Jonny has a whole new set of challenges he's dealing with, which we dig into in this episode.Get the hour long episode here: https://indiebites.com/membershipTimestamps 00:00 Intro 01:51 - Jonny's background 02:48 - The idea for Ticket Tailor 04:39 - Getting those first few customers 05:14 - Reaching £2k MRR and considering fundraising 06:34 - Selling the company 08:00 - Buying back Ticket Tailor 09:17 - Post buy back 11:13 - Hiring a team / going beyond a lifestyle biz 12:12 - COVID 13:59 - Losing motivation post-covid 15:45 - Recommendations Recommendations Book: Donut Economics Podcast: Missing Cryptoqueen Indie Hacker: Pietro Saccamani Follow JonnyTwitterMy links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Carving a new life path with a newsletter about Workspaces - Ryan Gilbert, Workspaces

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 3, 2023 15:32


    Ryan Gilbert is the creator of the Workspaces newsletter, which showcases the best workspaces in tech and beyond. He grew it to 6,000 subscribers and $2k per month with sponsors + affiliates, before being acquired by Loops (Founder Chris Frantz was on episode 61) and going on to be their first employee. In this episode we talk about how simplicity has been so important for growth of the newsletter, how he makes it appealing for guests to share and his reasoning for selling at such an early stage.Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:26 Life before Workspaces 03:37 Did you have any side projects before workspaces? 04:47 Growth of the Workspaces newsletter 06:40 How long did each edition take? 07:45 The best workspaces 08:25 Monetizing the newsletter 10:22 Selling the newsletter 13:08 Imposter syndrome 13:57 Recommendations Recommendations Book - The Creative Act by Rick Rubin Podcast - Creator Science Indie Hacker - Brett Williams

    Taking on Bit.ly bootstrapped - Tim Leland, T.LY

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2023 16:19


    Tim Leland is the founder of T.LY, a link shortener with almost half a million users that he recently quit his job to pursue full time. Tim started out building chrome extensions, including a weather extension that grew to 200k users at it's peak. He then capitalised on Google closing down their link URL shortener and tried to build his own competitor, which is where T.LY was born. Tim has gone for the high volume, low price option for his product, which often isn't recommended as a good route for Indie Hackers, but Tim has made it work. 00:00 Intro 05:15 Building a portfolio of extensions 07:45 Starting T.LY 10:06 Being the low price option 11:49 Getting users for T.LY 12:51 Quitting his job 15:13 Reccos Recommendations Book - Atomic Habits Podcast - My First Million Indie Hacker - Rob Walling

    Working towards life-changing outcomes as an indie hacker - Colleen Schnettler, HelloQuery

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 4, 2023 15:38


    In this episode I'm joined by Colleen Schnettler, which a lot of you would have heard from through her Software Social podcast she co-hosts with Michele Hansen. Colleen has been on quite the journey over the past few years, going from years of contracting to launching her first product, Simple File Upload, then getting a large contracting gig with Hammerstone, landing a separate full-time job to then quit 3 weeks later to rejoin that Hammerstone as a co-founder. Now Colleen is working on a product called HelloQuery, a reporting tool for SQL queries which has been accepted into a recent TinySeed batch.What we covered: 00:00 Intro 02:03 Why start the Software Social podcast? 02:59 Why start building products 04:04 Colleen's first product: Simple File Upload 05:07 Why they stopped the podcast 06:37 Joining Hammerstone 08:50 Being a solo founder 10:16 Hello Query 11:47 Closing down a successful product 13:50 Reccos Reccomendations Book: The Mom Test Podcast: Boostrapped Web Indie Hacker: Corey Haines Follow ColleenTwitterMy links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Gamifying products, shipping quickly and knowing when to quit - Marc Louvion

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 14, 2023 16:09


    Marc Louvion is an indie hacker with many many products. His tagline on his website is relatable for all “I was fired everywhere so I had to work for myself (even Tai Lopez fired me...)”. If you go to Marc's Indie Page you can see all his projects, including Habits Garden, Gamify List, Visualise Habit, Make Landing & more. Marc is living in Bali and on his way to $5k MRR across his projects. You might have seen Marc on Twitter with his hilarious launch videos and candid build in public updates.Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:32 Marc's indie hacker journey 03:07 Moving to Bali 03:39 Starting a glove business 05:52 Gamification 07:41 Challenges with gamification 08:29 Knowing when to quit a product 10:32 Portfolio of projects vs single focus 11:46 Marc's day to day 12:53 Building an AI product 14:00 Creative launch videos 15:14 Reccos Recommendations Book: Why We Sleep Podcast: Indie Hackers Indie Hacker: Danny Postma Follow Marc Twitter Explore Marc's products My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Is indie hacking having an identity crisis? - Dominic Monn, MentorCruise

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2023 15:47


    In this episode I'm bringing back a previous guest, Dom Monn, who is the founder of MentorCruise, which he's now working full time on with a small team. I brought Dom back on to discuss something that has been on my mind, and has come up in twitter conversations recently which Dom has been involved in.Is indie hacking having an identity crisis? Is the indie label and mentality limiting success and holding many founders back? I think it could be and so we discuss why this might be happening and what we can do about it. Jason's tweet which inspired this conversation Mike's response Dom's response Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:56 Indie hacker identity crisis 03:42 How indie hacking has changed 06:32 Why the indie label can be a limiter 08:20 Accepting slow growth instead of fixing it 10:33 Should we set bigger goals? 12:10 We still love the indie hacker community 13:50 Recommendations Recommendations Book - Sprint Podcast - This Indie Life Indie Hacker - Ramen Club Follow Dom Twitter Hire him as a mentor Personal site My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    How to find and validate your ideas - Bram Kanstein, Startup Stash / No Code MVP

    Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2023 15:58


    Today I'm joined by Bram Kanstein, who you might know from Startup Stash, which is the most upvoted product ever on Product Hunt. Bram also started the No Code MVP a course, which shows you how to launch an MVP without code. In this episode we focus a lot on how indie hackers can find ideas and launch them the right way.Timestamps 00:00 Intro 03:18 Startup Stash 05:56 No Code MVP 09:47 Finding ideas 12:22 Idea validation 15:00 Recommendations Recommendations Book - Untethered Soul by Michael Singer Podcast(s) - Joe Rogan, HIBT, MFM Indie Hacker - Danny Postma Follow BramTwitterMy links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Growing Frontend Mentor to 500k users and $30k MRR - Matt Studdert

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2023 16:02


    Matt Studdert is the founder of Frontend Mentor, which helps people level up their front-end coding skills by building projects. They have over 500,000 users and are hovering around $30k MRR. Matt didn't start out wanting to run a SaaS, starting out playing poker, then became a personal trainer, before changing his career and learning to code when he was 28.Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:16 Playing Poker full time 02:58 Becoming a personal trainer 04:24 Learning to code with General Assembly 06:33 Front End Mentor 08:33 Building a scrappy MVP 11:29 Growth for Front End Mentor 15:03 Reccos Recommendations Book - badass make users awesome Podcast - Acquired Indie Hacker - Arvid Kahl, Valentin Wallyn Follow MattTwitterMy links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Jordan O'Connor on running a $30k MRR SaaS and doing SEO consulting on the side

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 19, 2023 17:03


    Jordan O'Connor is the founder of Closet Tools, a bootstrapped app that helps people sell more stuff on Poshmark which has been in and around the $30-40k MRR mark. He's found a lot of his growth through SEO, like many successful entrepreneurs, and now helps other founders do the same through his Rank to Sell power half hours.Listen to the full 90 minute chat with Jordan here ->Timestamps 00:00 Intro 03:29 Jordan being awful with money 04:30 Jordan's indie hacking journey 06:10 Launching and failing with different products 07:06 Choosing SaaS 08:31 Starting closet tools 11:38 Pricing for Closet Tools 12:35 Reverse stair stepping with Rank to Sell (consulting) 16:08 Reccos Recommendations Book - Deep Work Podcast - Deep Questions by Cal Newport Indie Hacker - Pat Walls Follow Jordan Twitter Personal website My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Growing a $2m p/y indie business - Josh Ho, Referral Rock

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 12, 2023 16:30


    Josh Ho is the founder and CEO of Referral Rock, a SaaS he founded in 2014 doing over $2m a year in revenue. Referral Rock helps businesses to design, launch and manage a customer referral program. Josh has had decades of experience as a founder, pouring his early entrepreneurship energy into a notes app that he ultimately couldn't monetize.Timestamps00:00 - Intro01:24 - Josh's background02:11 - Lessons from a failed startup04:16 - Failed startup to new long term bet05:41 - The idea for Referral Rock06:59 - Pricing a B2C product08:33 - Marketing advice for indie hackers12:24 - Challenges along the way14:01 - Raising15:41 - RecommendationsRecommendations Book - Extreme Entrepreneurship Podcast - Don't Say Content Indie Hacker - Monica Lent Follow Josh Twitter Josh's Substack My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Building a 6-figure creator business - Jay Clouse, Creator Science

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2023 16:31


    Jay Clouse is the founder of Creator Science, which is a membership, community, newsletter and podcast helping you become build a creator business, which he bootstrapped to over $40k a month towards the end of last year. His podcast is one of the best produced shows out there and it's on my very short list of shows that I can listen to every episode and know it's going to be killer. I think the creator business angle is interesting for indie hackers who haven't quite found a product yet and want to build something. Creating content and speaking to people in your niche, can help you find pain points and problems, while also building extra income for yourself.Timestamps 01:55 The Creative Elements podcast (now Creator Science) 04:45 How to have a point of differentiation 06:11 Building a creator business 08:23 Making $40k in one month 11:03 Multiple projects and revenue streams 13:10 How Jay spends his time 14:02 How to start out as a creator 15:19 Recommendations Recommendations Book - How to Win Friends and Influence People Podcast - Bandsplain Indie hacker / entrepreneur - Justin Moore Follow JayTwitterMy links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus

    Building a $15k MRR side project while working at Stripe - Justin Duke, Buttondown

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2023 15:12


    Justin Duke is the founder of Buttondown, a simple email newsletter tool without all the bloat. In December 2022 Buttondown was around $15k MRR. He also runs Spoonbill, which is a way to stay updated on what people change on their social profiles. At the time of recording this Justin was an engineering manager at Stripe so you'll hear references to that, but he's since left to go all in on being a founder.

    Breaking Convention: The Radical Thinking of Jack McDade and Statamic

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2023 16:25


    Jack McDade is the creator of Statamic, a content management system for Laravel. What I love about Jack is how he approaches all of his projects, including Statamic, to just be different. There is so much cookie cutter content out there and everything just ends up looking the same - but not if Jack has anything to do with it. Just take a look at his personal website, his Radical Design course and Icons and you'll see what I mean. I love it.

    From $0 to $10k MRR in 2 years - Elston Baretto, Tiiny Host (Revisited)

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 19, 2023 16:22


    Elston Baretto was last on the pod in March 2021, when he'd just grown his tool, Tiiny.host, to $600 MRR and we recorded as part of my mission to share stories of unknown indie hackers with potential. Fast forward 2 years and Tiiny Host has grown to $10k MRR and Elston has just quit his job to become a full time indie hacker.

    Making $12k p/m with Wordpress plugins - Patrick Posner

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 15, 2023 15:39


    Patrick Posner is the creator of a portfolio of Wordpress plugins which have been downloaded almost a million times collectively making him $12k p/m. Patrick went full time indie in 2020 and since then has both grown quickly and scaled back operations to build the best sort of life for him. I love these types of stories of relatively unknown indie hackers who are creating the dream life for themselves.What we covered in this episode: Building Wordpress plugins on the side of a day job Marketing for Wordpress plugins Getting 1m downloads Beating a domain reseller Finding SEO keywords to rank for Pricing yearly vs monthly Growing fast and scaling back Recommendations Book - Why We Sleep Podcast - The Bootstrapped Founder Indie Hacker - tbc Follow PatrickTwitterMy links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - AhrefsThank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring Indie Bites. Ahrefs is the most complete and valuable SEO tool on the market. Bootstrapped companies such as VEED and Transistor have used Ahrefs extensively to understand how to craft their SEO strategies, which have been such a pivotal part of their growth.If you want to get more traffic from Google on your side-project, I'd recommend first trying out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free. You'll see what keywords your pages are ranking for, understand how Google sees your content and discover what changes you need to improve your search ranking. You should also check out their YouTube channel to understand both the basics of SEO and some more advanced techniques.To try out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, head to ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools

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