Indie Bites

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.

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.