Indie Hackers

Lukas (@_lhermann) and Liz Hermann (@lizmhermann) talk having ambition as an indie hacker, scratching other people's itches, having kids or spouses to help run your empire, making $8k/month from a simple idea, and charting a course to $100M/yr with (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Steph Smith (@stephsmithio) talks making millions in content subscriptions, working at a16z, putting the AI genie back in the bottle, thread boys on Twitter, educational vs entertainment podcasts, and media companies that monetize aspiring entrepreneurs with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Seth Godin (@ThisIsSethsBlog) talks indie hacking, finding new business ideas, meaningful jobs vs mechanized jobs, dealing with internet trolls, his secrets to productivity, freelancing vs bootstrapping, writing 9000 blog posts in 20 years, and finding significance in a changing world with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Alex MacCaw (@maccaw) talks living on a boat, quitting his own 7-figure company, starting over with a lifestyle business, whether free will exists, crowdfunding from your own customers, and gaining a foothold in a crowded market with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Emma Lawler (@emmaryanlawler) talks whether crypto is dead, VC vs bootstrapping, getting an MBA after a successful exit, why NYC beats SF, trading sleep for work, whether capitalism leads to perverse incentives, and how she plans to disrupt the App Store with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Danny Postma (@dannypostmaa) talks his rivalry with Pieter Levels, selling his AI startup, using SEO as a moat, how to be an AI first-mover, why he?s not allowed to use ChatGPT, and passing $300k in revenue with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Lane Wagner (@wagslane) talks hitting $26k/mo in revenue, why A.I. disruption is a good thing, the ethics of addictive products, surviving after a first year of no traction, why most business writing sucks, and how to grow revenue by making your product smaller with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Rob Walling (@robwalling) talks his new playbook on SaaS, why he launched on Kickstarter, the latest startup trends, how to have a winning mindset, and whether we should build a Kickstarter for Indie Hackers with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Wes Kao (@wes_kao) talks disrupting traditional education, what it's like to raise $25M, how to stay motivated as a founder, why cohorts are the gold standard of online learning, and how to apply the science of love to product-founder fit with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Indie Hackers is no longer a part of Stripe! Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen) talk about their history at Stripe, the process of spinning out the company, and future ideas for how to generate revenue now that they're indie hackers themselves starting at $0.

KP (@thisiskp_) talks about why building in public beats mere transparency, whether AI will be the end of no-code, why he's made more money from organizing community than anything else, and how he went from a 9-to-5 job to being a founder with multiple exits with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Marc Lou (@marc_louvion) talks living in Bali with a private chef, monetizing habit trackers, first date ideas, growing on Twitter, and building over 10 products in a year to finally reach ramen profitability with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Stas Kulesh (@stas_kulesh) talks about building internal tools as a great hack, why it takes 10 years to understand a new country, the challenging secret of enterprise sales, and slowly growing a SaaS business to $40k/month with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and Ben Levy (@benmlevy) talk making it big as a content creator, choosing the right business idea, creative ways to monetize, big boy vs small boy stuff, making friends as an adult, growing a newsletter brand, and exiting for millions in under a year with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Josh Ho (@jlogic) talks raising kids, automating word-of-mouth growth, bouncing back from a previous failed business, and bootstrapping beyond $2M in annual revenue with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Yahia Bakour (@mynameisyahia) talks trading stocks, quitting a $250k/year job at Amazon to become an indie hacker, how to join an existing project as a late cofounder, marketing via SEO, being a night owl vs an early bird, and bootstrapping his revenue to $20k/month with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) talks setting a high bar for yourself, releasing products without knowing how to code, growing on social media (esp. LinkedIn), selling courses, dealing with burnout, and growing his solopreneur empire to $3M in 3 years with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Mat De Sousa (@DsMatie) talks having million-dollar ambitions as a child, learning from numerous failed startups, why Shopify apps are great for indie hackers, the proper way to find a business idea, and growing from $0 to $37k/mo in 2.5 years with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Damon Chen (@damengchen) talks failed side projects, validating your idea, charging higher prices than is comfortable, what makes for a good website testimonial, and growing a bootstrapped startup to $30k/mo with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Eric Turner (@_etdev) talks living in Japan as a foreigner and visiting Japan as a tourist, finding inspiration to start as an indie hacker, picking a lucrative market, and shares some tips growing a job board with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Laura Roeder (@lkr) talks life coaching, starting multiple successful businesses (and selling one for millions), early growth via SEO, and designing a company to align with your lifestyle with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Marko Saric (@markosaric) talks living in Brussels, things he learned working in marketing, joining an existing project as a late co-founder, succeeding on Hacker News, surviving against a behemoth competitor, and learnings from bootstrapping an open-source project to over $1.2M in annual revenue with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Kapil Kale (@kapil) talks AI-generated art, going through YC, buying out his investors to own 100% of the company, pivoting from an okay idea to a great idea, and growing a profitable business to 8-figures in annual revenue with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Tony Dinh (@tdinh_me) talks growing up in Vietnam, quitting his job working for the man, failed vs successful side projects, growing via Twitter, and managing multiple projects that add up to $18,000 in monthly revenue with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Liron Shapira (@liron) talks relationship and dating advice, building a coaching business, marketing via Facebook groups, and growing his revenue to millions of dollars with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Dashiell Bark-Huss (@DashBarkHuss) talks quitting the fashion industry, living in a van, learning to code, selling to sex workers, lucid dreaming, and growing her first-ever startup to $36k/mo with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

We're talking to Patrick Campbell, an indie founder who just sold his company for $200,000,000. That's an insane nine figure exit for a bootstrapped founder. In this episode, we talk with Patrick about his champagne problems and what indie hackers need to know today to get to where he is more quickly. 

Sahil Lavingia (@shl) and Justin Jackson (@mijustin) join Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen) for a special debate-style episode. It's four dudes talking about Elon Musk. What could go wrong?

Vincent Woo (@fulligin) sold his company for tens of millions of dollars. He joins the pod to talk to Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen) about advice for fledgling indie hackers trying to make money, the purpose of business, defining principles for one's life, and why he shouldn't have to pay Courtland for a $10,000 bet he lost.

Daniel Vassallo (@dvassallo) and Arvid Kahl (@arvidkahl) have both already made it as indie hackers. They join Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen) to discuss making money as an indie hacker, designing your life after you reach financial freedom, avoiding risk, mitigating inflation, and whether or not college is worth it.

Related episodes:

Long-time listener, first-time guest ? Courtland (@csallen) and Channing's (@ChanningAllen) mom, Eva, joins the pod to talk raising twins, buying gifts, selling computer parts, co-founder theft, an Indie Hackers quiz for moms, and why you should never retire.

I'm making some changes to the Indie Hackers Podcast. Check out this episode for a sneak peek into what's ahead. 

Julian Shapiro is back on the show today. He's been my co-host for our podcast Brains, he's an investor at Julian.capital and a writer at Julian.com. Lately, he's been super into investing. He's managed to take an overly complex thing like investing and reverse-engineer it, breaking it down into its simplest frameworks. 

My twin brother Channing (@ChanningAllen) joins the show for the first time, for a casual chat about our recent trip to Italy, the best and worst parts of getting COVID, the future of media companies and indie creators, and DALL-E 2 and the future of AI.

When Sam Eaton hears a new idea, it's all he can do to contain his excitement and dive right into the code. So when his sister told him she wanted to start a cookie delivery business, there was never any question that he'd apply his indie hacker skills to help out however he could. And to great effect ? today they're selling hundreds of thousand of dollars worth of cookies every month. In this episode, Sam and I discuss the advantages of target your local community as a niche, ways to leverage scarcity and social proof to increase sales, and how software engineers can best apply their skills to selling products in the real world.

Twenty pages into reading his first business book, Peldi Guilizzonni (@peldi) closed it for good and told himself, "This is not for me. I'm never going to start a business. It's insane." Not long after that, he rolled up his sleeves and got started building Balsamiq Mockups, which would go on to employee dozens of people, serve thousands of customers, and generate over $6M per year in revenue. Over ten years later, it's still going strong. Learn about the path Peldi took to get where he is today, why he's a legend among bootstrappers, and how he's building a business that's meant to last.

Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/085-peldi-guilizzoni-of-balsamiq

Today I'm talking to Indie Hacker Brett Williams (@brettfromdj) who has built a $1M ARR "agency of one." In this episode we talk about how he manages 50 clients as a solo designer and has 10x'd his prices in the process. 

Today I'm talking to Greg Isenburg of Late Checkout and Dru Riley of Trends.vc. In this episode, we cover a bunch of topics around media and community. I'll ask them where they get their content ideas, how they create product stickiness, how they stay productive and what new business ideas are sitting in their notes app. 

Today I'm talking to Victoria Young (@victoriahyoung) and Ravi Mehta (@ravi_mehta) about their coaching platform Scale Higher. In this episode we talk about the type of person who could benefit from a coach and how they've been inspired by platforms like Noom and TalkSpace to change the way people are able to level up their professional lives. 

Today I'm talking to Steph Smith (@stephsmithio). She runs Trends.co and recently got my attention when she posted on IH how she grew her podcast from 0 to 15k downloads/month. She took a really unique approach to launching her show, The Sh*t You Don't Learn in School, and I want to find out how she did it. 

Today I'm talking to Ben Orenstein of Tuple and Derrick Reimer of SavvyCal. I recently joined them on their podcast The Art of Product and we talked about things like long-term goal setting and hiring a team of people you actually enjoy being around. 

Today I'm talking to Shahed Khan, the co-founder of Loom and investor at Hyper. In this episode we talk about his first business failure at 16 and the many iterations Loom went through before catching on fire. 

In this episode I'm chat with Rob Walling about a wide range of topics including metal health, how to find a business idea and the relevance of bootstrapping today. 

Today I'm continuing my conversation with Pieter Levels (@levelsio). In this episode we dig into what habits make Pieter so prolific as well as his thoughts on investing, crypto, and money in general.  

Today I'm catching up with Pieter Levels after 4 years. The world has changed dramatically since we last spoke. Attitudes toward remote work and global travel are all completely different now. We'll talk about what headwinds and tailwinds these changes have meant for his projects. 

Today I'm talking to Amjad Masad (@amasad), the founder of Replit. I'm captivated by his strategy and how Replit is eating the market from the bottom up. We'll talk about that and how he's learned to love being a founder even though it didn't start out that way. 

Today I'm talking to Li Jin (@ljin18). She's here to talk about the passion economy, DAOs, and why she's so optimistic about the future of tech. 

Today I'm talking to Niya Dragova (@mediumsizecats). Her story is pretty amazing. She grew up in Bulgaria during the fall of Communism where she experienced severe poverty. Today she is championing the mission of making resources more equitable. I want to find out about Candor, her company, and how she got to where she is today. 

Today I'm talking to Sahil Lavignia (@shl) about what indie hackers can learn from his new book, The Minimalist Entrepreneur. 

Today I'm talking to Matt Wensing about the long journey he took to get to where he is today with his second company, Summit. I think Indie Hackers can get a lot out of Matt's experience and I have a lot of questions about how he was able to stay afloat for years without any revenue.