Indie Bites

Ben Stokes a full stack developer and entrepreneur based in Bristol in the UK, who's started an ice cream business and cookie dough business amongst other things. Ben, like many indie hackers, has a bunch of small side project ideas, but not enough time to do them. So he started Tiny Projects. Tiny Projects documents his progress with these small ideas, launching 6 projects since May last year, including One Item Store, which he sold, and his most recent, Mailoji, which has just crossed $10k in revenue.SponsorThank you to today's sponsor, VEED.io, who are hiring developers, designers, product people and more. So if you're looking to join a growing bootstrapper-friendly business, reach out to their CEO, Sabba (s@veed.io), or take a look at their published roles here.Get ad-free and extended conversations of the podcast with Indie Feast membership, for just £4 a month.What we covered in this episode:Why Ben started an ice cream businessBuying an ice cream machine for £700 after a few pintsGrowing a cookie dough business to £13k a monthWhy Ben started Tiny ProjectsThe six projects he's worked onHow to sell a project for $5,000, that only made $2Selling $10k of emoji domain namesHow to go viral on hacker newsRecommendationsBook: Shoe DogPodcast: Product JourneyIndie Hacker: Alex WestFollow BenTwitterTiny ProjectsFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet

I've never really understood mental health, or those who have had these challenges in the past. So when I've had my own challenges, I've struggled to comprehend what has been happening to me. This episode is hopefully an interesting insight into how I've been feeling over the past few months to hopefully help others who might be going through a similar thing.Here's some things I talk about:Where I've beenOverworkingWhat went wrongWhy I didn't notice a problemWhy family and friends are so importantThe supportive indie hacker communityYouTube videos are hardBurnout / depression are real shittyMy future plansHow I'm going to get out of this messI mentioned in the pod I'd been making videos about my motorbike, here's a few links if you'd like to watch:Here's the YouTube channel, Monkeying AroundThe video I spent 5 hours onMost recent videoand here's how to contact / support me:TwitterEmail - james@mckinven.coIndie Feast Membership

Today I'm joined by Danny Miranda, who is the host of The Danny Miranda podcast, which has rapidly grown to over 50,000 downloads in less than 6 months. He publishes 3x a week and has had some awesome guests including Harry Dry, Gary Vee and David Perell. Danny is a walking case study of shooting your shot, making your own luck and having laser focus on one single thing.But this episode isn't going to be about podcasting specifically, we're going to talk about how consistency, compounding and execution can lead to you making progress in your personal projects or entrepreneurial ventures. I think you'll be inspired by Danny's story.What we covered:Who is Danny Miranda?Why Danny started out dropshipping? and what stopped him from pursuing that?How did the podcast come about?Why podcasting isn't that saturatedWhy Danny committed to 100 episodes when he startedThe unintended benefits of podcasts?Why laser focus and consistency is the key to Danny's growthHow Danny switched from a starter to a finisherHow to stop context switchingWhy accountability is the key to motivationShort term vs long term thinkingWhy the 75 hard program had so much of an impact on DannyDanny's plan to make money with the pod!RecommendationsBook: Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On ItPodcast: Modern WisdomIndie Hacker: Steph SmithFollow DannyTwitterWebsitePodcastFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A WalletThanks to this episode's sponsor, ChurnkeyIt can be a huge challenge to keep churn down when your SaaS product starts to see traction. The founders of Churnkey know exactly how much of a challenge this can be, having collectively grown three SaaS companies to over $4m in ARR.They realized that they were thinking about cancellations all wrong. A relationship with a customer doesn’t stop with the “Cancel” button. So they built Churnkey, which reduces churn by up to 42% with custom cancellation flows. For every customer who clicks “Cancel,” Churnkey offers up dynamic offers that encourage customers to stay subscribed.Just connect Stripe and plug in a small bit of code. In minutes, you’ll be reducing churn by immediately unlocking subscription pauses, dynamic offers, and cancellation insights. See how much revenue Churnkey can recover for you. Visit churnkey.co to start your free trial.

Derrick Reimer is the founder of SavvyCal, a new approach to calendar scheduling and has grown to multiple thousands MRR since he launched it earlier in 2020. Derrick also co-founded Drip with Rob Walling in 2012, which was acquired by Leadpages in 2016. You might have heard Derrick on the Art of Product podcast with Tuple co-founder Ben Orenstein where they document their journey building their products.Get ad-free and extended conversations of the podcast with Indie Feast membership, for just £4 a month.What we covered in this episode:What is SavvyCal?What problem is it trying to solve?Why go into such a crowded market?A nice market or crowded one?The advantage of being a solo founder or small team vs larger competitionHow long did Derrick build before launching the MVP?How much growth has come from pre-existing audience?What goes into a good Product Hunt launch?When should Indie Hackers bring marketing support on?What marketing tactics can you employ?How does TinySeed funding work?Should other founders look for this type of funding?Art of Product podcastRecommendationsBook: The Mom TestPodcast: Software SocialFollow DerrickTwitterWebsiteSavvyCalFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A WalletThanks to this episode's sponsor, ChurnkeyIt can be a huge challenge to keep churn down when your SaaS product starts to see traction. The founders of Churnkey know exactly how much of a challenge this can be, having collectively grown three SaaS companies to over $4m in ARR.They realized that they were thinking about cancellations all wrong. A relationship with a customer doesn’t stop with the “Cancel” button. So they built Churnkey, which reduces churn by up to 42% with custom cancellation flows. For every customer who clicks “Cancel,” Churnkey offers up dynamic offers that encourage customers to stay subscribed.Just connect Stripe and plug in a small bit of code. In minutes, you’ll be reducing churn by immediately unlocking subscription pauses, dynamic offers, and cancellation insights. See how much revenue Churnkey can recover for you. Visit churnkey.co to start your free trial.

Natalie Nagele is the co-founder of Wildbit, the company behind Postmark, Beanstalk, People-First Jobs and more. Wildbit has just turned 20 years old, so Natalie knows exactly what it takes to grow and scale successful bootstrapped businesses. What makes Natalie so interesting to me is that she’s in the group of seriously successful indie hackers (over 100k customers, around for 20 years, pretty large team etc.) and they’re still indie very much living by their own rules.What we covered in this episode:What would you tell yourself 20 years ago before starting Wildbit?How do you find work that you enjoy and fulfils you?How much time should you spend on hobbies vs your business?At what point is a hobby a business and vice versa?How to get into deep workCal Newport, Deep WorkHow many hours you can actually work in a dayHow much should you work on your business?Why you need to take time to step back and thinkHow much is Natalie working now?How do you fit work in with the stuff you enjoy?Work life balanceRecommendationsBook: Anti-fragilePodcast: 99% InvisibleIndie Hacker: Chris Savage + Brendan SchwartzFollow NatalieTwitterWildbitFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A WalletThanks to this episode's sponsor, ChurnkeyIt can be a huge challenge to keep churn down when your SaaS product starts to see traction. The founders of Churnkey know exactly how much of a challenge this can be, having collectively grown three SaaS companies to over $4m in ARR.They realized that they were thinking about cancellations all wrong. A relationship with a customer doesn’t stop with the “Cancel” button. So they built Churnkey, which reduces churn by up to 42% with custom cancellation flows. For every customer who clicks “Cancel,” Churnkey offers up dynamic offers that encourage customers to stay subscribed.Just connect Stripe and plug in a small bit of code. In minutes, you’ll be reducing churn by immediately unlocking subscription pauses, dynamic offers, and cancellation insights. See how much revenue Churnkey can recover for you. Visit churnkey.co to start your free trial.

Elston Baretto is the founder of Tiiny.host and is in a similar position to most indie hackers - working on his side-project alongside a full time job, but has had a career packed with learnings that we're going to talk through in this episode. Elston started out his career at JP Morgan, having reluctantly accepted a graduate job he planned to stay at for 6 months. 4 years later, he was still at the conglomerate bank, but he wasn't satisfied staying there for the rest of his career.While at JP Morgan, Elston launched a few side-projects, some of which still make revenue today, but decided to leave to chase the startup dream. Fast forward a year and the startup dream was over, a company with 14 employees but little traction - sound familiar?Elston went back to work full-time while he figured things out. In January 2020, he launched Tiiny.host, a super simple way to host your projects. After launching, he made $1,000 in just 3 days using lifetime deals and is now chugging away nicely as a side project.What we covered in this episode:What is Tiiny Host and why did Elston start itHow he made lifetime deals work for his launchWhy Elston has put marketing first for Tiiny HostSetting goals for your indie hacker businessHow Tiiny Host got 150 sites a day being created from free SEO pagesHow has he made marketing funDoing side-project marketingElston's plans to go full-timeRecommendationsBook: TractionPodcast: Tim Ferris ShowIndie Hacker: Sabba KenyejadFollow ElstonTwitterTiiny HostFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A WalletThanks to Weekend Club for sponsoring Indie Bites.‘I absolutely love being part of Weekend Club.’‘Huge fan of Weekend Club and I love being part of it.’‘Absolutely love this community.’These are real testimonials for Weekend Club - the internet’s most helpful community for bootstrappers. If you’ve ever struggled meeting other solo founders and staying accountable, then this is for you.We offer weekly Saturday deep working sessions with up to 30 bootstrappers, such as the founders of Simple Poll and VEED, an active Slack community and over 100 software discounts.Go to weekendclub.co and enter a very limited promo code ‘Indie Bites’ for 50% off your first month.

Marie Poulin is the host of Notion Office Hours, creator of Notion Mastery, Run Your Learning Launch, Digital Strategy School, Think Like a Digital Strategist, and co-founded Oki Doki with her husband, where they help folks create, launch, and market online courses and training programs.What we covered in this episode:What is Notion Mastery and why did Marie start it?The impact YouTube had on growthHow the course earned $10k in the first weekWhy Marie doubled down on the course as her main projectWhy it's important not to be a perfectionistWhy niching is importantHow 80% of Marie's course revenue came from YouTubeHow to make the most out of NotionHow to enjoy the work you doMaking $10k extra a month with Gumroad templatesRecommendationsBook: Do More Great WorkPodcast: This Is UncomfortableIndie Hacker: Anne-Laure Le CunffFollow MarieTwitterNotion MasteryMarie's YouTubeFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A WalletThank you to this episode's sponsor, ilo.so!You probably know that Twitter is an incredibly useful tool for us as indie hackers, but sometimes Twitter's in-built analytics tool doesn't quite give you the metrics that really matter. Dan Rowden, from Indie Bites episode 17, has created the most useful analytics tool for Twitter, giving you the metrics that actually help you understand your tweet performance and grow your audience.With one glance, ilo helps you easily see which kind of tweets get more impressions, likes, profile clicks and more so you can get grow your Twitter audience.Head to ilo.so and use the code INDIEBITES20 to get 25% off your ilo subscription for life. There are only 10 codes available so check it out before they all go!

Arvid Kahl is a software engineer turned entrepreneur. He co-founded and FeedbackPanda, an online teacher productivity SaaS company, with his partner Danielle Simpson. They sold the business for a life-changing amount of money in 2019, two years after founding the business. Arvid writes on TheBootstrappedFounder.com because bootstrapping is a desirable, value- and wealth-generating way of running a company. In over a decade of working in startup businesses of all sizes, Arvid has learned a thing or two about what works, what doesn't, and how to increase the chances of building a successful business.Get the full, 60 minute conversation with Arvid here with the Indie Feast membership.What we covered in this episode:The Feedback Panda storyWas the ambition to sell the company from the start?Built to Sell, John WarrillowWhat Indie Hackers can learn from Zero to SoldWhat happens once you sell a business?Why settle on the format of a book?Why didn't Arvid make his book free?How to find a critical problem in a market that's willing to payTips for going into a crowded marketHow to to find your audienceRecommendationsBook: The Mom TestPodcast: Indie HackersIndie Hacker: Sergio MatteiFollow ArvidTwitterThe Embedded EntrepreneurZero to SoldFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A WalletToday we have Embarque.io supporting the show! Embarque is run by a fellow indie hacker and has just crossed 6 figures in revenue. Embarque is an agency that offers productised SEO content that converts.It blew my mind when Julian told me about the growth their client MentorCruise had from the SEO content, resulting in 107% increase in MRR, 100% increase in monthly trials and a 114% increase SEO traffic. My word, wouldn't you want those kind of results for your indie business.Go and check out what Embarque are offering at Embarque.io and get $100 off your first package with the code 'INDIEBITES'.

Today we're joined by Philip Kiely, who is currently Head of Marketing at Gumroad. Philip also launched "Writing for Software Developers" last May, making $20,000 in sales in its first week without any pre-existing audience. Since then, Philip has been on a mission to help as many software developers as possible realize that they possess the skills they need to become great writers. What we covered in this episode:Why Philip wrote 'Writing for Software Developers'How Philip made $20k in 24 hours with no pre-existing audienceShould you do pre-sales if you're selling an info product?How Philip got his job at GumroadWhy there has been a boom in the creator economyWhy choose Gumroad as your selling platformWhere a new creator should start when selling a productWho made the most money on Gumroad in 2020Gumroad Stats 2020Follow PhilipTwitterWebsiteFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A WalletThanks to Weekend Club for sponsoring Indie Bites, which is launching in the US this week!‘I absolutely love being part of Weekend Club.’‘Huge fan of Weekend Club and I love being part of it.’‘Absolutely love this community.’These are real testimonials for Weekend Club - the internet’s most helpful community for bootstrappers. If you’ve ever struggled meeting other solo founders and staying accountable, then this is for you.We offer weekly Saturday deep working sessions with up to 30 bootstrappers, such as the founders of Simple Poll and VEED, an active Slack community and over 100 software discounts.Go to weekendclub.co and enter a very limited promo code ‘Indie Bites’ for 50% off your first month.Interested in ad-free episodes an exclusive content? Sign up to the Indie Feast membership.

Dan, like many other indie hackers, runs a bunch of projects alongside a full-time job which all compound to him making over $5k a month. In 2012 he started Magpile, a free online resource about magazines, which was followed by Subsail, a platform to help indie publishers sell magazine subscriptions.Earlier this year Dan started using the publishing platform Ghost, which he then started to build a suite of products around, now including:Gloat; a productised service for hosting and self hostingCove; a commenting tool for Ghost blogsSubstation; a theme for GhostDan also launched ilo, a better analytics platform for Twitter a few months ago, which has earned over $6k in revenue since launch.What we covered in this episode:Why Dan lives in MauritiusWhy choose multiple projects over doing just one?How do you manage your time with 3 kids, a wife and a full-time job?Why Dan isn't too worried about 'growing' his side projectsThe pros and cons of working on your side project with a full-time jobNot worrying about the money your side project earns - does it take the fun out of it?Why is Dan so bullish on Ghost?Why having a 'suite' of products is complimentary to each otherGetting a 75k acquisition offerAwesome thread on the $75k offerWhat were the options?Being prepared to sell your projectsBuilding an alternative to Twitter analyticsRecommendationsMagazine: CourierNewsletter: Dense DiscoveryPodcast: StartupIndie Hacker: Justin JacksonFollow DanTwitterWebsiteFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A WalletThanks to Weekend Club for sponsoring Indie Bites, which is launching in the US this week!‘I absolutely love being part of Weekend Club.’‘Huge fan of Weekend Club and I love being part of it.’‘Absolutely love this community.’These are real testimonials for Weekend Club - the internet’s most helpful community for bootstrappers. If you’ve ever struggled meeting other solo founders and staying accountable, then this is for you.We offer weekly Saturday deep working sessions with up to 30 bootstrappers, such as the founders of Simple Poll and VEED, an active Slack community and over 100 software discounts.Go to weekendclub.co and enter a very limited promo code ‘Indie Bites’ for 50% off your first month.Interested in ad-free episodes an exclusive content? Sign up to the Indie Feast membership.