The Indie Hackers Podcast: How Developers Are Bootstrapping, Marketing, And Growing Their Online Businesses

In this episode I'm talking to John O'Nolan (@JohnONolan), the founder of Ghost. For the last year, he's been living on a sailboat and growing his company remotely. I want to ask him about what decisions he made early on that put constraints on how and why Ghost grows. Follow John on Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnonolan Check out Ghost: https://ghost.org/

Today I'm talking to James Layfield (@layfield) a founder who put $3M of his own money into his company Clearfind. I want to find out how he pulled that off and how he's outsmarting the what he calls the "rigged-game" of Venture Capital.  Check out Clearfind: https://home.clearfind.com/ Follow James on Twitter: https://twitter.com/layfield

In this episode I talk to my buddy Julian Shapiro about proven growth tactics for a SaaS he's seen within Demand Curve. I also want to find out what he did to grow his own Twitter audience to over 200k in basically a year. We'll also dig into the details of a side project he and I have been working on.  Listen to our new podcast: https://www.brainspodcast.com/ Follow Julian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/julian Check out Demand Curve: https://www.demandcurve.com/ Sign up for Julian's newsletter: https://www.getrevue.co

My guest today is Michele Hansen (@mjwhansen) and she is here to challenge the stereotype that developers fear talking to customers and are naturally bad at it. We'll also get into specific principles and tactics from her recent book, "Deploy Empathy: A Practical Guide to Interviewing Customers." Read Deploy Empathy: https://deployempathy.com/ Follow Michele on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mjwhansen Check out her podcast: https://softwaresocial.dev/

In this episode I catch up with Rob Fitzpatrick (@robfitz) about his new book, Write Useful Books. We'll talk about how he approaches book-writing like product development and why the sales graphs for his books look more like a hockey stick instead of shark fin.  Follow Rob on Twitter: https://twitter.com/robfitz Read The Mom Test: http://momtestbook.com/ Read Write Useful Books: https://writeusefulbooks.com/

In this episode I talk to Indie Hacker Valentin Hinov (@ValCanBuild). He is someone caught the pandemic wave in the best way possible. He came up with an idea that not only helps teams feel more connected but also removed a huge pain for team managers. I'll ask him how he built it and how the model for the product has a built-in growth mechanism.  Send a Thankbox: https://www.thankbox.com/ Follow Val on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ValCanBuild Read Val's journey: ValCanBuild.tech

In this episode I catch up with Samy Dindane (@SamyDindane), the creator of Twitter growth tool Hypefury. I'll ask him how he found his co-founder from an Indie Hackers post, how he grew Hypefury past $20K MRR, and why indie hackers don't have to solve a completely unique problem to be successful.  Hypefury Twitter: https://twitter.com/hypefury Hypefury Podcast: https://hypefury.com/podcast/

Michael Seibel (@mwseibel) and I discuss the secret sauce of what goes on inside Y Combinator and how indie hackers can create it for themselves. And because Michael sees nearly 2,000 startups a year--we'll find out the difference between companies that make it and companies that don't.  Follow Michael on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mwseibel Read startup advice on the YC Startup Library: https://www.startupschool.org/ Apply for a YC batch: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply

My guests today have a really exciting business model and strategy that I want to dig into. Dan Shipper (@danshipper) and Nathan Baschez (@nbashaw) are the founders of Every, a bundle of business focused newsletters. By structuring Every as a "collective," the writers are happier, the readers are getting better content, and Every is profitable.  I want to find out how they get readers, how they get writers, and how "bundling" can be strategic for indie hackers.  Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/ Follow Nathan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nbashaw Follow Dan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/danshipper

Sam Parr (@theSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) have both sold their businesses and are currently hosting one of the best business podcasts out there. In this episode, we talk about what it's like to be in their position now and what kind of businesses they would start if they were doing it all over today. Listen to My First Million: https://thehustle.co/my-first-million-podcast/ Follow Sam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theSamParr Follow Shaan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShaanVP

Kyle Gawley (@kylegawley) was running a high-growth, venture-backed company when he ended up in the hospital partially due to all the pressure he was under. That experience led to some introspection, which I'll ask him about in this episode. We'll also talk about his new company, which he decided to build with a completely different approach to growth.  Follow Kyle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kylegawley Save three months by trying Gravity's SaaS boilerplates: https://usegravity.app/

In this episode I talk to Andrey Azimov (@andreyazimov) about moving to Bali with a $3K runway and launching his "Hardcore Year." I'll ask him about the projects he launched to reach $10K MRR. Follow Andrey's journey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andreyazimov Check out his personal site: https://www.andreyazimov.com/ Create a website from a spreadsheet: https://www.sheet2site.com/

Today I'm talking to Dan Cederholm (@simplebits) about his somewhat reluctant journey into growing Dribbble. He's a self-described "accidental entrepreneur. So, in this interview, we'll talk about how someone who identifies as a creator and a designer can fill the role of a founder.  Follow Dan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/simplebits Check out Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/

Chris Bakke (@ChrisJBakke) came on my radar when he posted an AMA on Indie Hackers after selling his $2M ARR SaaS for $50,000,000. Like a lot of people in the Indie Hackers community, I have a lot of questions. In this episode, I'll find out how Chris came up with the idea and why he intentionally chose a tiny market.  Follow Chris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisJBakke Check out Chris's new startup: https://laskie.com/

Molly Wolchansky is the founder of The Agent Nest (@theagentnest), an application that manages social media posts and marketing materials for real estate agents. In this episode, we'll find out why she chose this niche and how seven years of manual agency work led to a breaking point.  Follow Molly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theagentnest Check out Molly's App: https://www.theagentnest.com/

Today's guest recently sold his company, FeedbackPanda, but instead of disappearing to an island, I've seen him all over Twitter, all over his blog, all over Indie Hackers helping people. In this episode, I talk to Arvid Kahl (@arvidkahl)  about how involuntary reciprocity built his audience and how Indie Hackers can do the same. We'll dig into his new book, The Embedded Entrepreneur, to break down how he co-developed and grew his businesses through audience engagement.  Check out The Bootstrapped Founder: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/ Follow Arvid on Twitter: https://twitter.com/arvidkahl Arvid's new book: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com

Today I'm talking to two of the top creators on OnlyFans: Savannah Solo and Aella. Each of them is earning 5-figures a month on the platform, which sits at the intersection of the creator economy and porn. (NSFW… depending on where you work.) In this episode we talk about the stigma of making a living from porn, marketing strategies to get huge on social media, and the future of independent creators on the internet. Savannah's NSFW Twitter: https://twitter.com/savannah_solo Aella's NSFW Twitter: https://twitter.com/aellagirl Aella's safe-for-work Twitter: https://twitter.com/aella_girl Courtland's OnlyFans page: https://onlyfans.com/csallen

Derrick Reimer has been following a playbook that involves taking on big players in a market by drafting on their tailwind. It's gotten him to six-figure revenue with SavvyCal but it wasn't a strategy that always worked. In this episode, we'll talk about how he failed when trying to take on Slack and how he eventually bounced back with SavvyCal.  Follow Derrick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/derrickreimer Get your first month free with Promo Code "IndieHackers" at SavvyCal: https://savvycal.com/

Since John Doherty (@dohertyjf) was on the podcast three years ago, he's completely changed the business model of his company. In this interview, we'll talk about the moment his customers told him "his baby was ugly" and what happened next.  Follow John on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dohertyjf Find an agency on Credo: https://www.getcredo.com/ Get unlimited copyediting on EditorNinja: https://editorninja.com/

Joining me is an indie hacker whose broetry post about how he hit $10K MRR went viral. I invited him here to walk me through how he got to that milestone and what his new challenges are as he grows his company Bannerbear toward the $1M ARR mark.  Follow Jon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/yongfook Check out Bannerbear: https://www.bannerbear.com/ Subscribe to Jon's newsletter: https://www.bannerbear.com/open