Indie Bites

Dianna Allen is the founder of TERRA, a DTC candle brand, where she designs and hand pours a variety of candles. In October 2020, Dianna left her life as a freelancer behind to put her efforts into TERRA full-time, which as we all know, is a huge leap to make.What we covered:Should more indie hackers work on physical products?What happened with Budget Meal Planner?Should more indie hackers kill projects more often?Does turning a passion into a business take the enjoyment away?What was the breakthrough moment with TerraMaking the leap going full-time with your businessWhy Dianna went straight intoHow do the economics of a physical product business work?How Terra was started with just $100Using Instagram for 99% of growthThe hardest part of running a physical product businessHow to balance one-term purchases vs MRRWhy we should support more small businesses?LinksDianna's IH podcast episodeDianna's article on growing TERRA to 50kRecommendationsBook: Shoe DogIndie Hacker: AJ from CarrdPodcast: Doesn't listenFollow DiannaTwitterInstagramTerraFollow 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.

Pat Walls is the founder of Starter Story, a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. They interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started their business and how they grew it, including revenue figures for every business they interview.But in this episode, we’re going to be discussing the new SEO course that Pat launched this week, making over $20k in pre-sales.What we covered20k in 2 weeks, how did you do it?How and why Pat started Starter Story?How he grew it to 500,000 monthly visitorsWhy Reddit can be a goldmine, but why Pat stopped using itHow Starter Story allowed Pat to go full-timeThe most insane story out of 2,000 postsBrumateD*ck at Your DoorUsing Twitter to validate an ideaExecuting on that ideaHow to price a courseThe benefit of building in publicHow to execute so quicklyHow to build an audienceRecommendationsBook: Deep Work by Cal NewportPodcast: Indie HackersIndie Hacker: Harry DryFollow PatTwitterStarter StoryPat's Building ThreadLean SEO CourseFollow 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.

Today I’m joined by Rob Hope, who is a South African designer, developer and the host of one of my favorite podcasts out there for entrepreneurs Yo!. He's also the founder of One Page Love, Email Love, and has recently released an ebook with a hundred landing page tips. It's safe to say Rob knows his stuff. When it comes to building landing pages, having started One Page Love back in 2008.What we discussed in this episode:Have we lost the joy of simplicity?How to cut through the noiseWhat makes a good landing pageRob's mammoth landing page Twitter threadHow to write a good Twitter threadHave lots of projects at the same timeDo you have to make money off a side projectHow do you achieve freedomRecommendationsLanding Page: MuzzleBook: Anything You Want by Derek SiversPodcast: Indie HackersIndie Hacker: AJ (from Carrd)Follow RobTwitterLanding Page ThreadOne Page LoveWebsiteYo!Follow 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.

Mark Asquith (aka That British Podcast Guy) is the CEO of Rebel Base Media, the U.K. podcast tech company that makes Captivate.fm and so much more. What we discussed in this episode:What makes podcasting such a good mediumIs the amount of investment in podcasting (from the likes of Spotify) a good thing?Is podcasting oversaturated?What does it take to grow a podcast?How to stay consistent with producing your showHow Mark started out with his businessesBootstrapping the next ventureRecommendationsBook: E-Myth RevisitedPodcast: The Jordan Harbinger ShowIndie Hacker: Corey HainesFollow MarkTwitterRebel Base MediaFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteThanks 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 promo code ‘Indie Bites’ for a 30 day free trial.

Ramy Khuffash, founder of Page Flows, talks about the full-time indie hacker dream, his journey working for a VC backed startup, and the trend of content/directory businesses. He discusses the perks and challenges of being a solo founder and compares bootstrapping to venture capital. Ramy also shares insights on pricing options, exploring new projects, and why he stopped sharing revenue numbers.

Nick Fogle is the co-founder of Wavve and ChurnKey, but there is a lot more to Nick than just that. Wavve is an audio to video platform which has now hit $1.5m in ARR, but Nick has only left his full time job 3 years after starting the company and 9 months after it had eclipsed his salary. Why? Well, Nick had $250,000 student loans to pay off.What we covered in this episode:How Nick got into $250,000 of debtHow he felt in Christmas 2016 when he was looking at the massive numberWhat steps he took to get out of debt (he wrote a book about this)What advice he'd give to others in the same positionWhy he started Wavve, a video to audio platformHow the business grew to $1.5m ARRWhat it takes to work full time and run a businessWhy staying lean is so important for himRecommendationsBook: Anti Fragile by Nassim Nicholas TalebPodcast: Reply AllIndie Hacker: Scott Hurff

Wilhelm Klopp is the founder of Simple Poll, a super simple (but powerful) poll Slack app that has over 600k active users. Wil now works on Simple Poll full time having left his job at GitHub in September 2019 (1 year ago 🎉).What we discussed in this episode:Hows the year been after leaving GitHubWhat is Simple PollHow Wil came up with the ideaHow he grew the app to 600k usersWhat he did to start charging for a free appThe danger of building for another platform (Slack)How he transitioned to work full-time on Simple PollWhat it's like being a full-time indie hackerWhy it's quite good having a job while working on side projectsQuick fire answersPodcast: Art of ProductBook: The Great CEO Within Indie Hacker: Natalie NageleFollow WilTwitterSimple PollFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteThanks to Mugshot Bot for sponsoring Indie Bites.Mugshot Bot automatically generates unique, beautifully designed images for every page on your website or blog so you don’t have to worry about them. This means you can focus on what matters: building your product and creating great content.Mugshot Bot is a tool that I use personally and made by another indie hacker, Joe Masilotti. To level up your link previews, go to mugshotbot.com/indiebites, link in the show notes, to create an image for your site, completely free.

Mubashar 'Mubs' Iqbal is a prolific maker who has started over 90 projects. Currently Mubs is building Founderpath with Nathan Latka, and on One Hour SaaS where he spends one hour every day working on SaaS businesses.In this episode we talked about:How Mubs got into starting side-projectsHow he comes up with ideas and decides what to work onWhy some of his projects run on auto-pilotHow much it costs to run those that are on auto-pilotHow to sell side-projectsHow to build side-projects quicklyWhat Mubs most successful project has beenHow did Founderpath come aboutWhy Mubs started One Hour SaaSRecommendationsBook: Built to SellPodcast: Indie HackersIndie Hacker: Ben TossellFollow MubsTwitterOne Hour SaaSMubs' projects portfolioFounderpathFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteThanks to Mugshot Bot for sponsoring Indie Bites.Mugshot Bot automatically generates unique, beautifully designed images for every page on your website or blog so you don’t have to worry about them. This means you can focus on what matters: building your product and creating great content.Mugshot Bot is a tool that I use personally and made by another indie hacker, Joe Masilotti. To level up your link previews, go to mugshotbot.com/indiebites, link in the show notes, to create an image for your site, completely free.

Rosie Sherry is a community builder, indie hacker and founder. She currently runs the Indie Hackers community and also a weekly newsletter where she talks about building communities. Previously, Rosie founded Ministry of Testing.In this episode we talked about:Rosie's background as an indie hackerGoing full time on Ministry of Testing, growing that into a £1m+ businessWhat it's like running the Indie Hackers communityWhat makes a good Indie Hackers postHow to make the most out of the platformWhy Rosie started Rosieland, her paid newsletterWhat goes into building a communityHow we can be a more inclusive communityRecommendationsBook: Anything from Derek SiversPodcast: Indie HackersIndie Hacker: Monica LentFollow RosieTwitterRosielandFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteThanks 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.

Corey Haines is the founder of Swipe Files, he also runs refactoring growth, mental models for marketing, hey marketers and he was previously the head of growth at Baremetrics. I've been a follower of Corey for a while and impressed by the level and consistency of everything he produces.In this episode we talked about:What projects Corey is currently working onWhy he left BaremetricsWhat it's like leaving a stable, full-time job to be an indie hackerHow he manages his time between projectsHow much revenue he makesHow to build things quicklyDeciding on what ideas to focus onAdvice for indie hackers wanting to live the dreamRecommendationsBook: Atomic HabitsPodcast: AkimboIndie Hacker: David PerrellFollow CoreyTwitterSwipe FilesMental Models for MarketingRefactoring GrowthHey MarketersFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteThanks 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.Full TranscriptJames: You've got a lot going on. Tell me a little bit more about your various side projects, where your main focus is right now.Corey: Yeah. So I don't know, maybe I just caught the entrepreneurial bug or have an itch to create stuff. But, about two years ago I started just making stuff on the side. I started with a newsletter actually that ended up shutting down later, but it was called the TLDR on SaaS marketing. And that was like my first entry point into creating something and sharing it online and it's actually the reason why I created my Twitter account in the first place. and then, yeah, it's just been through a little bit of. serendipity and connection between projects.um, you know, I was talking with a Baremetrics customer, actually. And he's like, Hey, where do I find someone like you? where would you post a job if you were hiring yourself? And I was like, actually, I don't know. There isn't really like a job board for marketers. So I went out and built it. Later on I was talking about different mental models and frameworks that I've found really helpful for my work at Baremetrics.Other people were asking for the Notion doc and you know where to learn more about it. So I figured out why don't I just package this up into a course, same thing with B2B SaaS marketing, with what we've done at Baremetrics is figuring out how to create this new course too. Now Swipe Files, I would swipe something and I would write some notes, some bullet points about here's, what I think is great about it and then I noticed this is actually pretty useful because there's a few sites out there, like swipefile.com and Swipe Worthy, or I think it's swiped.co, which are fantastic sources of inspiration, but you still have to do the work to figure out what you want to glean from it.So Swipe Files is my attempt to build a library of content where I will tell you and show you what it is you can take away from it instead of having to deduce it for yourself. And now I've got a bunch of other things I'll do in the future, but, yesterday went full time as a creator on my own stuff.James: Yeah. Tell me a little bit more about that. So previously you head of growth at Baremetrics. How long were you there for and, what went into making decision that now is the right time to leave?Corey: I was there for almost two years and had a fantastic time, experimented with a ton. We grew about 30% which was  great for a bootstrapped company. I really changed a lot and I was all over the place with, trying to find different channels and breakthroughs, and really what we came to was that company wasn't at the right spot to really support a growth role with the budget and the engineering time that was needed to really push the ball forward and so just decided to part ways. And I was already the place that I wanted to go full time and my own stuff anyways I think coincidentally, a little bit serendipitously was perfectly the timing for me to start working on my own stuff full time and, head on to this new chapter of my life.James: So with your various side projects, or they're not side projects now that you're full time projects, How do they each look in terms of revenue what's making the most for you? Corey: Yeah  right now the breadwinner are the courses, refactoring growth and mental models for marketing and I've done about 36,000 in the last 10 months. I couldn't do what I'm doing today without that revenue on the side, to be able to, fund myself into going full time as a creator. The other one, now that I'm trying to build into becoming the breadwinner is Swipe Files. And to date I actually, I couldn't tell you the revenue that has done, I think it's probably done a couple thousand in revenue because it's split between monthly annual in lifetimes.It's a little bit more difficult for me to... I didn't go through Stripe and do the math beforehand. but, um, it does about like the MRR today is about a thousand dollars.  and then, Hey Marketers, to be honest, I've started to neglected for the last year. I launched it and then I spent a good four or five months working really hard on it. And then figured I would outsource it to my nephew, who is a poor college student and, and needs some cheap, manual labor.It still does $100 to $300 a month, maybe. And it's a pay what you want model too. So sometimes I'll get a job posting for one dollar and sometimes I'll get a job posting for a hundred bucks. But it depends. James: so you've got all of these projects so much going on now.  How do you squeeze it all in? And how did you manage your time before? I guess this week?Corey: The answer is I didn't, and I'm going to figure it out now. When I was with Baremetrics full time, I was very much working in these sprints. With Hey Marketers; I created the job for within three weekends and then I would just work here and there nights and weekends, especia...