Indie Hackers

Latest Episodes:

#140 – Vital Learnings from Bootstrapping and Selling a $55k a Month Business with Arvid Kahl of FeedbackPanda Dec 16, 2019

Show notes

In the span of two years, Arvid Kahl (@arvidkahl) and his partner Danielle Simpson (@SimpsonDaniK) went from new idea, to $55k a month in revenue, to selling their business, all without hiring a single employee. In this episode Arvid and I discuss the ideal market size for indie hackers to target, the importance of building with a specific audience in mind, and the vital learnings from Arvid's past businesses that contributed to his recent success.

Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/140-arvid-kahl-of-feedbackpanda

#139 – Pursuing a Mission While Bootstrapping to Millions with John O'Nolan of Ghost Dec 13, 2019

Show notes

When John O'Nolan (@JohnONolan) set out to create Ghost, he made an unintuitive decision for a mission-driven founder: to use his skillset to tackle the *obvious* thing to work on, rather than chasing the most *interesting* thing to work on. But 8 years later, and perhaps as a direct result of that decision, Ghost finds itself in one of the most interesting places of any indie business I've had on the show: reinventing online publishing in the the midst of a crisis for journalism, and making close to $2M/year while doing it.

Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/139-john-onolan-of-ghost

#138 – Finding a Positive Feedback Loop to Profitability with Robert James Gabriel of Helperbird Dec 08, 2019

Show notes

Robert James Gabriel (@RobertJGabriel) never had it easy growing up. Before he was finally diagnosed with dyslexia at age 17, he had teachers counsel him to drop out of school and was told he would never amount to anything. But with some positive encouragement from a few helpful mentors and individuals, Robert found his way, learned to code, and became a prolific indie hacker. In this episode Robert and I discuss the psychological effects of being trapped inside both negative and positive feedback loops, his strategy for coming up with dozens of product ideas, and the story behind how he bootstrapped his app Helperbird into a six-figure business that helps others with learning disabilities like dyslexia.

Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/138-robert-james-gabriel-of-helperbird

#137 – Creating an Ecosystem for Millions by Building for Yourself with Taylor Otwell of Laravel Nov 27, 2019

Show notes

When Taylor Otwell (@taylorotwell) first sat down to create Laravel, he had no idea it would be the seed of an ecosystem that would revitalize an entire programming language. He was just building it for himself. In the years to come, his "build it for myself" strategy would continue to pay off, resulting in numerous million-dollar products such as Forge, Envoy, Spark, and Nova. In this episode Taylor and I discuss his strategy for turning his own problems into a source of product ideas; how to have extraordinary impact as a solo founder and self-described "regular guy;"and the almost-unfair benefits of building goodwill, trust, and community around your products and ideas.

Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/137-taylor-otwell-of-laravel

#136 – Happy Customers, Happy Wife (and Co-CEO), Happy Life with Dave Sims of Floify Nov 18, 2019

Show notes

Dave Sims (@floifydave) has bootstrapped two tech companies to millions of dollars in annual revenue, and with the help of his wife and co-CEO, he's running them both at the same time. With his latest business, Floify, he's proven that you don't have to know a ton about an industry to discover an opportunity and build a valuable idea… but you do have to learn, and learn rapidly. In this episode, we discuss exactly how Dave came up with his idea by keeping his eyes open to problems and opportunities in everyday life, how he built the right product by learning from his customers and even going so far as to shadow them in their places of work, and why all business is about relationships.

Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/136-dave-sims-of-floify

#135 – Quick Chat with Stefan Endress Nov 15, 2019

Show notes

Despite running a successful design agency that caters to big-name clients like FKA Twigs, Stefan Endress (@stefanendress) has known for years that he wanted to build a product of his own and be an indie hacker. In this episode, Stefan and I dig into what it's like running an agency while developing a new product on the side, how to surmount the challenge of finding customers by focusing on people like yourself, and why bringing a unique style and brand to your business may be more important than having a unique product idea.

Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/135-quick-chat-with-stefan-endress

#134 – Code vs No-Code with Ben Tossell of Makerpad and Sahil Lavingia of Gumroad Nov 11, 2019

Show notes

The no-code movement is picking up steam, with more people than ever building apps and businesses without knowing how to code themselves. Ben Tossell (@bentossell), the creator of Makerpad, is betting his business that no-code is the future of work. However, Sahil Lavingia (@shl), the founder of Gumroad, isn't so sure that code. In this episode, I hosted a lively discussion between these two thoughtful bootstrappers about code vs no-code. Which approach should a new indie hacker should take? What gaps in the market are opening up due to the changes in tooling landscape? And what does the future hold?

Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/134-ben-tossell-and-sahil-lavingia-on-code-vs-no-code

#133 – Quick Chat with Anne-Laure Le Cunff Nov 08, 2019

Show notes

Anne-Laure Le Cunff (@anthilemoon) is working at the intersection of neuroscience and entrepreneurship to produce content that inspires, educates, and sustains makers like you. In this episode, we talked about how Anne-Laure builds free products that are good for the world while monetizing related products, how she juggles multiple career paths simultaneously by maximizing overlap, and how to combine multiple interests into a single niche topic that's unique and differentiated.

Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/133-quick-chat-with-anne-laure-le-cunff

#132 – Niching Down to Find Product-Market Fit with Ryan Born of Cloud Campaign Nov 04, 2019

Show notes

When Ryan Born (@_RyanBorn) first emailed me about becoming one of Cloud Campaign's early customers, I replied with a long list of reasons why I wasn't going to use it. Two years later, he's generating over $25,000/month in revenue and growing at 32% month-over-month! In this episode, Ryan shares how he found his way to product-market fit by interviewing hundreds of people to find out who is and who isn't his ideal customer. He also discusses the advantages of picking a niche, the ins and outs of running Facebook ads profitably, and how dipping his toe in the water of numerous marketing channels helped him discover which one was worth diving into more deeply.

Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/132-ryan-born-of-cloud-campaign

#131 – Funding for Indie Hackers with Tyler Tringas of Earnest Capital Nov 01, 2019

Show notes

Tyler Tringas (@tylertringas) may not look like Tarzan, but that hasn't stopped him from expertly swinging from vine to vine. Since we last spoke in episode 10, Tyler transitioned from founder to investor, sold his SaaS business, and is helping to spearhead a whole new approach to funding indie hacker businesses. In this episode, Tyler and I discuss the existing VC model and why it doesn't work for bootstrappers, a new funding model that bootstrappers should all be paying attention to, and why he's betting that "90% of startups fail" should no longer be the accepted wisdom.

Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/131-tyler-tringas-of-earnest-capital

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