Jack McDade is the creator of Statamic, a content management system for Laravel. What I love about Jack is how he approaches all of his projects, including Statamic, to just be different. There is so much cookie cutter content out there and everything just ends up looking the same - but not if Jack has anything to do with it. Just take a look at his personal website, his Radical Design course and Icons and you’ll see what I mean. I love it.👉 Join the Indie Bites membership here.Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:27 Why Jack started Statamic02:58 Taking 6 years before going full time04:20 What would Jack have done differently?05:14 How to be different07:40 The unfair indie hacker advantage08:26 Radical Design Course12:45 Learning with Jack15:07 RecommendationsRecommendationsBook: Steal Like an Artist & Extreme OwnershipPodcast: Friendship Onion & Darknet DiarysIndie Hacker: Adam WathanFollow JackTwitterMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - AhrefsThank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring Indie Bites. Ahrefs is the most complete and valuable SEO tool on the market. Bootstrapped companies such as VEED and Transistor have used Ahrefs extensively to understand how to craft their SEO strategies, which have been such a pivotal part of their growth.If you want to get more traffic from Google on your side-project, I’d recommend first trying out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free. You’ll see what keywords your pages are ranking for, understand how Google sees your content and discover what changes you need to improve your search ranking. You should also check out their YouTube channel to understand both the basics of SEO and some more advanced techniques.To try out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, head to ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools

Elston Baretto was last on the pod in March 2021, when he’d just grown his tool, Tiiny.host, to $600 MRR and we recorded as part of my mission to share stories of unknown indie hackers with potential. Fast forward 2 years and Tiiny Host has grown to $10k MRR and Elston has just quit his job to become a full time indie hacker.👉 My side project, Whitstable Craft Co.Topics covered:Hitting $10k MRRWhy PDF hosting has been pivotal for growthBuild what people search forWhy SEO has been such a huge growth driverHow to do SEOGoing full timeWhen is the right time to quit your job?How much to pay yourselfLaunching before it's perfectPressure of growthHow to keep indie hacking enjoyableRecommendationsBook: The New New ThingPodcast: Postgres.fmIndie Hacker: Vetted Founders (tbc)Follow ElstonTwitterTiiny HostMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - AhrefsThank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring Indie Bites. Ahrefs is the most complete and valuable SEO tool on the market. Bootstrapped companies such as VEED and Transistor have used Ahrefs extensively to understand how to craft their SEO strategies, which have been such a pivotal part of their growth.If you want to get more traffic from Google on your side-project, I’d recommend first trying out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free. You’ll see what keywords your pages are ranking for, understand how Google sees your content and discover what changes you need to improve your search ranking. You should also check out their YouTube channel to understand both the basics of SEO and some more advanced techniques.To try out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, head to ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools

Patrick Posner is the creator of a portfolio of Wordpress plugins which have been downloaded almost a million times collectively making him $12k p/m. Patrick went full time indie in 2020 and since then has both grown quickly and scaled back operations to build the best sort of life for him. I love these types of stories of relatively unknown indie hackers who are creating the dream life for themselves.What we covered in this episode:Building Wordpress plugins on the side of a day jobMarketing for Wordpress pluginsGetting 1m downloadsBeating a domain resellerFinding SEO keywords to rank forPricing yearly vs monthlyGrowing fast and scaling backRecommendationsBook - Why We SleepPodcast - The Bootstrapped FounderIndie Hacker - tbcFollow PatrickTwitterMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - AhrefsThank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring Indie Bites. Ahrefs is the most complete and valuable SEO tool on the market. Bootstrapped companies such as VEED and Transistor have used Ahrefs extensively to understand how to craft their SEO strategies, which have been such a pivotal part of their growth.If you want to get more traffic from Google on your side-project, I’d recommend first trying out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free. You’ll see what keywords your pages are ranking for, understand how Google sees your content and discover what changes you need to improve your search ranking. You should also check out their YouTube channel to understand both the basics of SEO and some more advanced techniques.To try out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, head to ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools

Alex MacCaw is the founder of Reflect, a note taking app which he’s grown to $20k MRR with a team of 4. Previously, he was the co-founder of Clearbit, a VC-backed company that scaled to $50m in revenue. After stepping down as CEO of Clearbit, he decided to focus on doing the stuff he enjoys. So he’s sailing around the world building an app that gets him excited every day.👉 My side project, Whitstable Craft Co.What we covered in this episode:Why Alex dropped out of schoolCoding without a CS degreeBeing unemployableStarting ClearbitStepping down as CEO of ClearbitBoostrapping ReflectWhy another note taking app?Building what you enjoyGrowing to 20k MRRGetting the first users for your productSailing around the worldRecommendationsBook: Isaac Asimov's Guide to Earth and SpacePodcast: In Our TimeIndie Hacker: Adam WathanFollow AlexTwitterMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal Website2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - AhrefsThank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring Indie Bites. Ahrefs is the most complete and valuable SEO tool on the market. Bootstrapped companies such as VEED and Transistor have used Ahrefs extensively to understand how to craft their SEO strategies, which have been such a pivotal part of their growth.If you want to get more traffic from Google on your side-project, I’d recommend first trying out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free. You’ll see what keywords your pages are ranking for, understand how Google sees your content and discover what changes you need to improve your search ranking. You should also check out their YouTube channel to understand both the basics of SEO and some more advanced techniques.To try out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, head to ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools

Craig Hewitt is the Founder and CEO of Castos, a bootstrapped podcast hosting and analytics platform with a services arm for podcast production. He’s been in podcasting almost a decade, having started his own show, Rogue Startups and his production service Podcast Motor (which he folded into Castos). Craig not only shares his ponderings on his show, but he also writes a weekly newsletter called Founder Insights.What we covered in this episode:Craig's background in salesLaunching a podcasting productized service in 2014Stair stepping to SaaSWhat is Stair Stepping?Acquiring Seriously Simple PodcastingProduct positioningGrowth and marketing for CastosHis approach to podcastingCastos OriginalsBootstrapping vs raisingFounder Insights newsletterRecommendationsBook: Who Not How by Dan SullivanPodcast: Startups for the Rest of UsIndie Hacker: Moritz DausingerFollow CraigTwitterPersonal websiteMy linksTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - AhrefsThank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring Indie Bites. Ahrefs is the most complete and valuable SEO tool on the market. Bootstrapped companies such as VEED and Transistor have used Ahrefs extensively to understand how to craft their SEO strategies, which have been such a pivotal part of their growth.If you want to get more traffic from Google on your side-project, I’d recommend first trying out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free. You’ll see what keywords your pages are ranking for, understand how Google sees your content and discover what changes you need to improve your search ranking. You should also check out their YouTube channel to understand both the basics of SEO and some more advanced techniques.To try out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, head to ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools

Today I’m joined by Dan Fayle, who is the co-founder of Chekkit, a company that’s he bootstrapped to almost $2.5m ARR and 20 employees. There’s a few interesting things about Dan’s story I know you’re going to like. This is his first company and he quit his job to go all-in with 3 co-founders, he got his early customers through, and I’m not kidding, door to door sales and finally he’s not changed the price of the product since it’s launch 6 years ago.What we covered in this episode:Dan’s backgroundWhy he went all-in on Chekkit from the beginningHow he got his early customers from door to door salesHow to make cold email work at scaleBiggest growth channelsHow an early pivot lead to more growthWhy they stuck to their $99 p/m price for yearsWhat’s next for the businessRecommendationsBook: Shoe DogPodcast: The MoveIndie Hacker: Nathan BarryFollow DanTwitterFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - AhrefsThank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring Indie Bites. Ahrefs is the most complete and valuable SEO tool on the market. Bootstrapped companies such as VEED and Transistor have used Ahrefs extensively to understand how to craft their SEO strategies, which have been such a pivotal part of their growth.If you want to get more traffic from Google on your side-project, I’d recommend first trying out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free. You’ll see what keywords your pages are ranking for, understand how Google sees your content and discover what changes you need to improve your search ranking. You should also check out their YouTube channel to understand both the basics of SEO and some more advanced techniques.To try out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, head to ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools

Tim Soulo is the CMO at Ahrefs, one of the biggest and best SEO tools on the internet. Ahrefs are one of the clear success stories as a bootstrapped company, growing to be a an 8 figure brand over the past decade. Things really took off when Tim took over marketing for the company back in 2015, first focusing on growing the blog, before experimenting with different marketing channel to bring Ahrefs to its current size. In this episode Tim brings a mini SEO masterclass for SaaS founders, gives his thoughts on AI content and reveals if he has ambitions to start a indie project for himself.Join the Indie Bites membership 👈What we covered in this episodeThe basics of SEO for a SaaS toolA mini SEO masterclass for indie SaaS toolsWhy credibility is important for SEOTim’s thoughts on AI contentHow “original work” is essentialWhat marketing channel is going to work in 2023Tim’s favourite marketing experiments for AhrefsDoes Tim have any indie hacker ambitious to run his own companyRecommendationsBook: Perennial Seller by Ryan HolidayPodcast: The PrinceIndie Hacker: Tim likes everyoneFollow TimTwitterPersonal siteFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubePersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)Sponsor - Ramen ClubMy favourite community has just got a significant upgrade as it rebrands to Ramen Club, the best community to help you get to Ramen Profitability.Ramen club has 4 remote coworking sessions a week, masterminds, accountability calls, live AMAs, a fractional CFO, in-house VA, discounts and so much more. But most of all, the founder Charlie has done a wonderful job at cultivating a wonderfully friendly and supportive community.To join the world's most supportive community for bootstrapped founders to reach ramen profitable and beyond, head to ramenclub.so and use code "INDIEBITES" to let Charlie know I sent you and get 50% off your first month.

Today I’m joined by Jared Maddern, the founder of Beamhouse Leather, a leather supply business he’s grown to £45k in sales in the past 2 years. Some of you might know I run a handmade leather wallet business on the side, called Whitstable Craft Co, and so this is a little look into the other part of my life.Although Jared doesn’t run an indie SaaS, I wanted to bring slightly different perspective of being an indie entreprenuer. We discuss how building a business in a growing market has and selling pick axes to gold miners strategy has led to his growth, what it’s like working with physical goods and why he put £10k of his own money to take the business to the next level.📹 Watch this episode on YouTube.What we discussed in this episode:Jared’s taco truckHow he started leathercraftingWhere he got his first leather fromHow to learn leathercraftingHow Beamhouse leather startedStarting on Etsy instead of his own websiteThe effect of the pandemic on hobbiesInvesting £12k for leather machineryInvesting personal moneyWanting to keep the business as a side projectRecommendationsBook: How to Win Friends and Influence PeoplePodcast: My First MillionIndie Hacker: Chris OrramanFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - AhrefsThank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring Indie Bites. Ahrefs is the most complete and valuable SEO tool on the market. Bootstrapped companies such as VEED and Transistor have used Ahrefs extensively to understand how to craft their SEO strategies, which have been such a pivotal part of their growth.If you want to get more traffic from Google on your side-project, I’d recommend first trying out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free. You’ll see what keywords your pages are ranking for, understand how Google sees your content and discover what changes you need to improve your search ranking. You should also check out their YouTube channel to understand both the basics of SEO and some more advanced techniques.To try out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, head to ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools

Louis Nicholls is the co-founder of SparkLoop, a product that helps newsletter operators grow through referral partnerships. Indie hackers might know Louis from his Sales for Founders course which he ran a few years ago, as well as his many other projects.What we covered in this episode:How Sparkloop StartedHow Louis met his cofounder ManuelGoing Niche vs BroadPursuing a growing marketWhat is your unique competitive advantage?Avoiding shiny object syndromeSpeaking to your customersHow does a newsletter referral program work?Can you start a referral program from the beginning?What’s the value of a newsletter subscriber?Sparkloop calculatorSparkloop growth from day 1How big is Sparkloop?How to start and grow a newsletterLouis’ favourite newslettersLenny’s NewsletterMorning BrewWhy We BuyRecommendationsBook: Wuthering HeightsPodcast: Default AliveIndie Hacker: Josh HoFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubeJoin the membershipPersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)This Indie Life PodcastSponsor - AhrefsThank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring Indie Bites. Ahrefs is the most complete and valuable SEO tool on the market. Bootstrapped companies such as VEED and Transistor have used Ahrefs extensively to understand how to craft their SEO strategies, which have been such a pivotal part of their growth.If you want to get more traffic from Google on your side-project, I’d recommend first trying out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free. You’ll see what keywords your pages are ranking for, understand how Google sees your content and discover what changes you need to improve your search ranking. You should also check out their YouTube channel to understand both the basics of SEO and some more advanced techniques.To try out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, head to ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools

Kyle Gawley is the founder of Gravity, which he’s bootstrapped to over $25k p/m. In 2012, he scaled a vc-backed company, called Get Invited, to $5m in sales, before a near-death experience made him rethink how he lived his life. Now, Kyle is travelling the world building his bootstrapped SaaS. Let’s find out how he did it.Join the Indie Bites membership 👈What we covered in this episodeStarting out on the VC pathWhat Kyle loved about working in VCHaving a near death experienceListen to Kyle on Indie HackersHow he changed his life afterDeciding to become a digital nomadStarting Gravity to solve his own problemWhat Gravity is for non-technical folksPricing, should you go cheap or upstream?Using Twitter and SEO for customer acquisitionKyle’s thoughts on single focus vs small betsKyle’s new AI projectRecommendationsBook: Zero to Sold by Arvid KahlPodcast: Indie Bites (how meta)Indie Hacker: Pieter LevelsFollow KyleTwitterPersonal siteFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterIndie Bites YouTubePersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)Sponsor - Ramen ClubMy favourite community has just got a significant upgrade as it rebrands to Ramen Club, the best community to help you get to Ramen Profitability.Ramen club has 4 remote coworking sessions a week, masterminds, accountability calls, live AMAs, a fractional CFO, in-house VA, discounts and so much more. But most of all, the founder Charlie has done a wonderful job at cultivating a wonderfully friendly and supportive community.To join the world's most supportive community for bootstrapped founders to reach ramen profitable and beyond, head to ramenclub.so and use code "INDIEBITES" to let Charlie know I sent you and get 50% off your first month.