Indie Bites

Joe Masilotti is the founder of RailsDevs a reverse job board for Ruby on Rails developers, which is over $4k MRR and on for $100k revenue. Joe also runs the monthly Hotwire Dev newsletter, which has over 2,000 subs. And then late last year, Joe sold his side-project Mugshot Bot, which he took from idea to sale in just 14 months.What we covered on this episode:How and why Joe sold Mugshot Bot at $200 MRRWhen to stop working on projectsHow RailsDevs started with a spreadsheetSolving a problem with a simple solutionWhy a reverse jobs board worksA unique approach to a marketplace businessGrowing RailsDevs (from both sides)Being an embedded entrepreneurWhy RailsDevs has a hiring fee and subscriptionDealing with high churnGrowing a newsletter to 2,300 subsRecommendationsBook: Obviously Awesome by April DunfordPodcast: The Business of AuthorityIndie Hacker: Colleen SchnettlerFollow JoeTwitterRead his blogFollow 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.

Geoff Roberts is the co-founder of Outseta, a bootstrapped all-in-one platform to help manage and grow your recurring revenue business. Before Outseta, Geoff was Head of Marketing for Buildium, a product that went through the phases of bootstrapping, raising and exiting, that was started by current co-founder Dimitris.What we covered in this episode:Taking a big 15 year bet on your businessGoing into an established, durable marketWhy not raise for the company?Single focus vs portfolio of small betsWhy Outseta focused on brand building and not SEOMarketing trade-offsWhy freemium doesn’t work for everyoneBuilding a flat, self-managed organisationRecommendationsBook: Reinventing Organistations; Life ProfitabilityPodcast: Tim Ferris ShowIndie Hacker: Anthony CastrioFollow GeoffTwitterRead the Outseta BlogFollow 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.

David Kofoed Wind is the co-founder and CEO of Eduflow an education platform started in 2015 as Peergrade, which was a peer to peer feedback tool. David is the definition of technical, having studied for a degree in applied math and computer science, then a Ph.D in machine learning. This is where the idea for Peergrade was born, as he started teach a course in data science and solved his own problem.👉 Extended version of this episode.What we covered in this episode:How Peergrade started in 2015Scratching your own itchSelling to universitiesUsing your "unfair advantages"Why David took a Ph.DWhat it's like building a product with a Ph.DHaving a terrible productGoing for and ending the VC dreamPivoting Peergrade to EduflowWhy David resonates with Indie HackersRecommendationsBook: Rework by BasecampPodcast: Out of BetaIndie Hacker: Jon YongfookFollow DavidTwitterFollow 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.

If you’re wanting to learn about building in public, Kevon Cheung is your guy. After not getting the fulfilment he desired from the VC funded startup dream, Kevon struck out on his own in 2020 to become an indie hacker. Since then he’s launched the Build in Public Mastery course, started a newsletter called Public Lab, wrote the Definitive Guide to Building in Public and then to top this all off, wrote a book called Find Joy in Chaos. What we covered in this episode:Building credibilityTaking a 6 month betStarting from scratch to learn a trendChoosing to build in publicAnyone can learn any topicIs building in public just sharing MRR numbers?What is building in public?False positives of building an audienceBuilding a creator businessHow to differentiate course content to blog contentInfo products vs SaaSRecommendations:Book: Life Is What You Make It by Peter Buffet, $100m Offers by Alex HormoziPodcast: Socialette, The Bootstrapped FounderIndie Hacker: Monica Lent, Jay Clouse, Marie NgFollow KevonTwitterPersonal websiteFollow 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.

Marie Ng is the founder of Llama Life, a to-do-list app that helps you focus. As someone who struggles with focus myself, Marie’s app looked to be the perfect thing. Having taught herself how to code 2 years ago, after a career in branding, Marie did what everyone does when they learn to code, build a to do list app. But with her branding background and new quirky angle on a productivity app, she’s made it work. From a solo indie project to now raising a $690k pre-seed round, Marie is making her entrepreneurial dream happen.👉 Extended version of this episode.What we discussed in this episode:How Marie got into brandingWhat is branding?Why indie hackers should consider their “brand”How to create a brandBuilding a product to help with ADHDBuilding to solve your own problemHow to work with ADHDLlama Life’s brand impactWhy Marie raised fundingRecommendationsBook: Honest Guide to Indie Making by Kyleigh SmithPodcast: The Best One YetIndie Hacker: Carl PoppaFollow MarieTwitterFollow Me👉 Listen to my new podcast, No More Mondays.TwitterIndie 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.

Chris Frantz is the co-founder of Loops, YC backed email tool for startups. Chris is one of those people who just knows how to run a SaaS business, having founded and sold Snazzy AI, acquired by Unbounce last year. Chris has been living rent free in my brain after a conversation we had a few weeks ago about my multiple projects. A lot of you are going to have multiple projects too, and wondering why you’re not getting anywhere with them. In this episode, Chris is going to explain why.What we cover in this episodeSome of Chris previous bootstrapped projectsPH profileHow Chris started and sold Snazzy.aiSelling articleTackling email with Loops.soMaking the chef’s knife of emailWhy you should have a single focusWhy having a portfolio of small bets doesn’t workDoing the hard thingsHaving hobby projects vs a businessRecommendationsBook: Atomic HabitsPodcast: The VergecastIndie Hacker: Sahil BloomFollow ChrisTwitterPersonal siteFollow Me👉 Listen to my new podcast, No More Mondays.TwitterIndie 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.

Grey Baker is the co-founder of Dependabot, which is a bot that makes it easy for developers to keep the third party dependencies up to date, which grew to $14k MRR before being acquired by Github in 2019. Grey’s story is a long an interesting one, so there is an extended version of this podcast available on the indie feast membership. But the best bits are here about he started out at McKinsey, before being a pivotal early employee at London FinTech GoCardless, to then cycling around the world and then coming back to accidentally launch Dependabot.👉 Extended version available on the Indie Feast membership here.What we covered in this episodeLanding a gig at consulting firm, McKinseyLearning how to code in 6 monthsJoining VC-backed GoCardless as employee 6Growing GoCardless to 100 employeesWhy Grey left after 4.5 yearsCycling around the worldEating a petrol-ey snickers barStarting Dependabot as a side projectA failed launchDoing things that don't scaleThe growth inflection point - GitHub marketplaceAdvice for bootstrappersRecommendationsBook: The Design of Everyday ThingsPodcast: N/AIndie Hacker: Pete HamiltonFollow GreyTwitterFollow Me👉 Listen to my new podcast, No More Mondays.TwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)Sponsor - Tiiny HostTiiny Host is the simplest way to host and share your web project online. It's loved by thousands of freelancers, agencies & developers across the world to quickly upload demos, landing pages or websites. Just drag & drop your web files or even a PDF to share it with the world in seconds. 👉 Try it here

Ch Daniel is the co-founder of Legit Check, an app that authenticates luxury items, that grew to $6k MRR in just a few weeks. He’s also building simple.ink, which is a simple way to make a website from Notion, it got #1 product of the day and got 1,300 users in the first month. He’s also got his finger in many SaaS pies, running the r/SaaS subreddit where he arranges AMAs and facilitates discussions with some of the biggest SaaS founders out there. As for podcasting, Daniel’s dipped in there too, with his show The Usual SaaSpects an extension of his brand. Most recently, Dan acquired Emojics.comWhat we covered in this episode:Making $200k with an authenticator businessHow does one fall into authenticating luxury items?How Legit Check became legitTurning a one-time purchase business to a subscriptionTaking over the r/SaaS community on RedditFavourite AMA with Sabba and Tim from VEEDThe real reason he started his podcast, The Usual SaaSpectsJames interview on The Usual SaaSpectsDoes the world need another Notion web builder?Pre-launching to build a list of 5,000Acuiring Emojics.comShould more indie hackers acquire businesses?RecommendationsBook: Power of NowPodcast: Prof G Show, Succession PodIndie Hacker: CH DavidFollow DanielTwitterPersonal siteFollow Me👉 Listen to my new podcast, No More Mondays.TwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)Sponsor - Tiiny HostTiiny Host is the simplest way to host and share your web project online. It's loved by thousands of freelancers, agencies & developers across the world to quickly upload demos, landing pages or websites. Just drag & drop your web files or even a PDF to share it with the world in seconds. 👉 Try it here

JR Farr is the co-founder of Make Lemonade, a product studio behind Lemon Squeezy (a platform to sell digital products), Dunked (to showcase your portfolio) and Iconic (a set of cracking looking apps). But this isn’t JR’s first foray into entrepreneurship. Back in 2008 he sold his first startup, College Connecting, before starting and selling another, MOJO marketplace back in 2012. From here he worked at the acquiring company for 5 years, before starting ANOTHER startup, called Weav, a product to help with customer retention. I could list out JR’s CV in more detail, but you can tell that this chap a seasoned entrepreneur.What we covered in this episode:JR's entrepreneurship backgroundBuilding Mojo (Wordpress marketplace)Mojo getting acquired in 2012Why JR stayed for 5 years in a big companyGetting a mini MBASpending $75k on a domain for a failed companyMeeting the Make Lemonade folksOrman ClarkGilbert PellegromJason SchullerShould more founders band together?Building Lemon SqueezyTaking on the digital products spaceGoing into a crowded marketAdvice for entreprenuersRecommendationsBook: The Hard Thing About Hard ThingsPodcast: My First MillionIndie Hacker: Jon YonfookFollow JRTwitterPersonal siteMake Lemonade PodcastFollow Me👉 Listen to my new podcast, No More Mondays.TwitterIndie 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.

Dru Riley is the founder of Trends.vc which at its core helps people discover new ideas and markets through expertly researched reports. Trends is a bootstrapped company that makes money through it’s Trends Pro reports and community.In 2017, Dru took on a mini-retirement, sold a second home and set out with 3-5 years of savings to strike out on his own. After launching various newsletters, products and even book he eventually landed on Trends, which didn’t actually make any money for the first few months. But just 6 short months later, he was at over $20k MRR and growing fast.Now, Dru is working through the challenges of scaling a rapidly growing business and even hiring people to take over that juicy core. The reports. Here's a link to the Indie Hackers episode he did where he talks more about what went into that growth.What we covered in this episode:Hiring for the core competency of the business, the reportsWhat Dru’s day-to-day looks likeChallenges with context switchingStarting Trends for funThe idea behind framework based researchThe first Trends report on cloud kitchensHow does Dru decide on topics for TrendsChoosing to persevere with TrendsLaunching a communityHow comfort challenges led to Trends successWhen to stop projectsWhat Dru does for funRecommendationsBook: Sapiens, CastePodcast: FoundersIndie Hacker: Pat WallsFollow DruTwitterPersonal siteFollow Me👉 Listen to my new podcast, No More Mondays.TwitterIndie Bites TwitterPersonal WebsiteBuy A Wallet2 Hour Podcast CoursePodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)Sponsor - 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/awt.