

Indie Hackers
Courtland Allen and Channing Allen
Courtland and Channing Allen interview the ambitious indie hackers who are turning their ideas and side projects into profitable online businesses. Explore the latest strategies and tools founders are using to capitalize on new opportunities, escape the 9-to-5 grind, and create their own personal revenue-generating machines. The future is indie!
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 28, 2019 • 1h 11min
#130 – Iterating Your Way to Founder-Product Fit with Zach Resnick of EasyPoint Concierge
Zach Resnick (@TrumpetIsAwesom) began travel hacking as a broke college student looking for a way to see the world without spending thousands of dollars on flights. Today he's used his vast knowledge of the travel industry to create EasyPoint, a concierge service and that's generated almost $60K/month in revenue this year. In this episode, Zach emphasizes the criticality of product-founder fit, weighs in on the benefits of working with friends, and reflects on the winding path he's taken to build a business that customers both love and pay for.Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/130-zach-resnick-of-easypoint-concierge

Oct 25, 2019 • 29min
#129 – Quick Chat with Dominic Monn of MentorCruise
Dominic Monn (@dqmonn) created a marketplace for mentors where none existed, and quickly grew it into a positive revenue stream. What's more, he did it while enduring a 3-hour commute and working a demanding internship. In this episode, we discuss how Dominic leaned heavily on cold outreach to populate his marketplace, the joy of reaching out to (and hearing back from!) satisfied users, and the importance of planning when most of your day is already booked with a full-time job.Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/129-quick-chat-with-dominic-monn

Oct 21, 2019 • 1h 11min
#128 – Finding 22,000 Paying Customers Despite Stiff Competition with Tyler King of Less Annoying CRM
When Tyler King (@tylermking) set out to build Less Annoying CRM, he knew he was entering a crowded market full of well-funded competitors focused on astronomical growth. So instead he took the slower, surer path to success, and bootstrapped his way to 22,000 paying customers and over $2.6MM in annual revenue. In this episode, Tyler and I discuss his insights for making it work in a crowded industry, why he went from avoiding customer service to prioritizing it over everything else, and how he makes the tough choices when facing dilemmas that don't have an obvious answer.Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/128-tyler-king-of-less-annoying-crm

4 snips
Oct 18, 2019 • 28min
#127 – Quick Chat with Ghyslain Gaillard of Indie London
Ghyslain Gaillard (@iamghyslain) of Indie London knew that he wanted to be at the heart of the indie startup scene in Europe, but when he couldn’t find his birds of a feather, he decided to start his own meetup from scratch. In this episode Ghyslain and I discussed the major benefits of getting energized with a group of like-minded indie hackers, why it's so worthwhile to ask others for help, and the practical value of cold outreach in growing your product.Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/127-quick-chat-with-ghyslain-gaillard

Oct 13, 2019 • 1h 20min
#126 – Finding Success by Staying Optimistic with Ketan Anjaria of HireClub
Ketan Anjaria's (@kidbombay) path to success was paved with hardship. He was flying high in the 90s dot-com boom, until he lost his job in the crash. His funded startup won awards at TechCrunch Disrupt and earned him interviews with Time magazine, until it ran out of money and he had to shut it down. But despite the setbacks, Ketan always managed to rediscover his optimism and try a new path forward. In this episode, we discuss the importance of not giving up in accomplishing your goals, why community is an underrated foundation for building a business on top of, and how Ketan has grown his business HireClub 20% month-over-month to reach $30,000 in monthly revenue.Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/126-ketan-anjaria-of-hireclub

Oct 11, 2019 • 39min
#125 – Quick Chat with Danielle Johnson of Leave Me Alone
Danielle Johnson (@dinkydani21) is no stranger to the challenge of building an online business. So when she hit on a new idea for a product that could solve a problem better than the competition, she made sure to learn from her past mistakes and do things differently this time around. In this episode, Danielle and I chat about how she went from an idea to an MVP with 50 beta testers in just two weeks, her strategies for successfully launching her product multiple times, and why she and her co-founder are committed to building their business transparently.Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/125-quick-chat-with-danielle-johnson

Oct 7, 2019 • 56min
#124 – Talking to Customers and Growing to $50,000 a Month with Sarah Hum of Canny
Sarah Hum (@SarahHum) got a job working at a big tech company, in part because she wanted to learn how create a startup of her own. But it didn't take her long to realize the truth: the best way to learn is to dive in head first. In this episode, Sarah shares how she went from employee to founder, why she chose to bootstrap her company and travel the world rather than staying in SF and raising money, and how she's steadily grown her revenue to over $50k/month.Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/124-sarah-hum-of-canny

Oct 5, 2019 • 35min
#123 – Quick Chat with Louis Nicholls of Sales for Founders
Louis Nicholls (@louisnicholls_) never intended to build the audience he server. He just wanted to help people, even if it meant doing it for free. Thousands of email subscribers later, he's been able to build a successful course teaching sales to founders, and he's made over $40,000 in its first three iterations. In this episode, Louis and I talk about SaaS vs info products, the importance on starting small and making incremental improvements, and why "be helpful on the Internet" is possibly the best advice for startup founders.Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/123-quick-chat-with-louis-nicholls

Sep 30, 2019 • 58min
#122 – Filling a Gap and Bootstrapping to $1M with Josh Wood of Honeybadger
Josh Wood is living an indie hacker dream: from freelance developer to co-founder of Honeybadger, a monitoring tool for developers that generates over $1M a year in revenue. Even better, he only works 30 hours a week. Josh joined the show to talk about the reward of switching from selling his time to selling a product, how Honeybadger filled a gap left by declining incumbent players, and why building a customer-friendly low-churn business is a solid way to achieve long-term growth, even if sales and marketing aren't your strong suit.Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/122-josh-wood-of-honeybadger

Sep 28, 2019 • 34min
#121 – Quick Chat with Mubashar Iqbal of Pod Hunt
Mubashar Iqbal (@mubashariqbal) has always been a maker first and an indie hacker second. That much is obvious from his track record of building 80+ side projects. But recently, he's taken his "work on things you love" mindset and applied it to a business of his own: Pod Hunt. In this episode, Mubs and I discuss strategies for crafting successful consumer-facing products and he shares his thoughts on why you should always prioritize product-founder fit.Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/121-quick-chat-with-mubashar-iqbal