Indie Bites

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.

Sam King is the founder of Flick, a tool for managing and growing your social media, doing over $3.5m ARR fully bootstrapped. Sam has taken a unique path into bootstrapping, first being a YouTuber, then running an agency before flipping it into a SaaS with Flick. There is an hour long extended version of this show available on the Indie Bites membership, head to indiebites.com/membership to sub.What we covered in this episode:Starting out as a YouTuberPivoting from YouTuber to starting an agencyPivoting the agency to start a SaaSMarketing Sam used to grow FlickAffiliate marketingBuilding an MVPHiring challengesRecommendationsBook: Shoe DogPodcast: Diary of a CEOIndie Hacker: BarettoFollowSam on TwitterFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)Sponsor - FiguraOften great design makes products stand out in this day and age; stop trying to figure it out yourself. Figura offers vetted product designers for startups and fast-growing companies. Find your first designer or contractor, or land a helping hand for your product in less than 48hours. Save $199 and start your project for free, using code "INDIE199".Head to figura.digital to try it out.

Michele Hansen is the co-founder of Geocodio, a SaaS business that provides geocoding and data matching for addresses, co-host of the fantastic podcast Software Social and author of the book Deploy Empathy, which is all about how to do great customer interviews. We cover a lot of ground in this short episode, including how to write a book, building in public and mental health as a founder. Along with some concrete tips on how exactly you can do customer research.What we covered in this episode:Michele’s podcast tourBuilding in publicWhy context is important for Twitter debatesThe real reason Michele wrote her bookStarting with a newsletterHow to do customer researchHow to understand your customersChanging their podcast support modelMental health as a founderBeing a founder with ADHDRecommendationsBook: The Little Book that Builds Wealth; Charlie Wilson’s WarPodcast: The IndicatorIndie Hacker: Marie NgFollow MicheleTwitterPersonal siteFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal 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.

Macgill Davis and Will Goto are the founders of Rize, a time-tracking platform that helps you increase your productivity, started in August 2020. Will and Macgill met at a company called Peer, which then got acquired by Twitter, they then left Twitter and founded a company called Humble Dot, which they raised for but unfortunately had to shut down.Join the membership for extended conversations 👈What we covered in this episode:Working on a side project while at TwitterRaising funding then leaving their jobsCo-founders with the same technical backgroundA different approach to finding a co-founderShutting down a business when it’s not doing wellSearching for a new idea and solving your own problemCreating a landing page and running some adsPicking a market to focus onTime tracking for productivityGetting traction through AppSumoCash up front with lifetime dealsRaising vs bootstrappingHow to be more productiveRecommendationsBook: Deep Work by Cal Newport, Atomic Habits by James ClearPodcast: The Rest is History/Revolutions, Masters of ScaleIndie Hacker: Tony Dinh, Arvid KahlFollowMacgill on TwitterWill on TwitterFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)Sponsor - FiguraOften great design makes products stand out in this day and age; stop trying to figure it out yourself. Figura offers vetted product designers for startups and fast-growing companies. Find your first designer or contractor, or land a helping hand for your product in less than 48hours. Save $199 and start your project for free, using code "INDIE199".Head to figura.digital to try it out.

Milly Tamati is not your usual founder. She lives on an remote island off Scotland with a population of just 170 people, previously co-owned a hostel in Thailand, co-founded a wine-tour in Australia and founded an illustration-agency in the UK. Now she’s working on a community called generalist.world, where’s she’s helping generalists like us indie hackers, find like minded individuals and jobs that fit us well.What we covered in this episode:Living on a remote island with 170 peopleRemote life vs city lifeBeing isolated when not in a cityEmbracing communitiesMilly’s crazy career journeyGetting a customer in 12 hoursTesting your product before you launchWhy generalists aren’t valued in the worldGrowing to 850 community members in a few monthsHow to cultivate communityRecommendationsBook - Range by David EpsteinPodcast - Lennys PodcastIndie Hacker - Molly RetterFollow MillyTwitterLinkedInFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal 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 Dominik Sobe, the founder of Helpkit, a product he started last year that turns Notion pages into a professional help center, doing $4.5k MRR. In this episode we talk about Dom’s many failed projects, how he finally found something that worked with Helpkit and how he went from wanting to be a management consultant to being an indie hacker.What we covered in this episode:Dom’s previous projectsWanting to become a management consultantManagement consultant to indie hackerMaking his first internet moneyBeing embarrassed about your first productOverengineering your first productBuilding an MVP during a hackathonValidation before building a productSide projects as marketingBuilding in a growing marketInvesting in SEORecommendationsBook: Start Small, Stay Small by Rob WallingPodcast: Indie HackersIndie Hacker: Minh-Phuc TranFollow DominikTwitterPersonal SiteFollow MeTwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)Sponsor - FiguraOften great design makes products stand out in this day and age; stop trying to figure it out yourself. Figura offers vetted product designers for startups and fast-growing companies. Find your first designer or contractor, or land a helping hand for your product in less than 48hours. Save $199 and start your project for free, using code "INDIE199".Head to figura.digital to try it out.