Starting an online business is scary. You're putting yourself out there and risking failure in front of thousands or even millions of people. Learn how Pieter Levels has not only faced his fears, but used them as motivation while building an em

#234 – Money, Kids, and Choosing Your Market with Justin Jackson of Transistor.fm

Nov 10th, 2021 1h 15m

Today I'm talking to Justin Jackson (@mijustin). He's someone who started out in entrepreneurship by opening a brick and mortar snowboarding shop. I want to find out how he made the unlikely leap into SaaS and how having four kids at a young ag

#190 – Indie Hacking in the Passion Economy with Li Jin of Atelier

1 Feb 9th, 2021 1h 7m

When Li Jin (@ljin18) was young, she dreamed of going to school to pursue her passion in the arts. Instead she settled for little old Harvard, because common wisdom said there was no money in the passions. Today, the world has changed. The pass

#066 – Building a Tech Business Outside of the Tech Industry with Brian Jagger of Casting Calls America

1 Aug 24th, 2018 1h 6m

When Brian Jagger (@briansjagger) became a casting director, spending hours copying and pasting and editing file names, he knew there had to be a better way. Learn how Brian and his cofounders took advantage of years of learnings from past fail

#063 – Turning Small Ideas into a $35,000 a Month Business with Katie Keith of Barn2 Media

Aug 3rd, 2018 1h 6m

Katie Keith (@Barn2Media) sees small ideas as big opportunities. In this episode, she explains how she and her husband left their full-time jobs to go into business on their own, how they found an endless stream of client work, and how they tra

#038 – When Your Side Project Blows Up with Dawson Whitfield of Logojoy

Nov 30th, 2017 57m 25s

What would you do if your side project made $30,000 in its first month? This is the exact situation that Dawson Whitfield found himself in after a long history of launching projects that didn't make it very far. The conventional wisdom is that

#034 – Making $125,000 a Month as a Solo Founder with Mike Carson of Park.io

Oct 26th, 2017 56m 47s

After a lifetime of hacking, Mike Carson hit on a very big opportunity selling .io domain names. Learn about the forces that made his massive success possible, the threats that almost killed his business, and how his life has changed.

#023 – Building Habit-Forming Products with Nir Eyal, the Author of "Hooked"

Jul 19th, 2017 57m 10s

Why do some products become habits? What keeps people coming back to apps like Facebook and Pinterest every day? Nir Eyal breaks the step-by-step process any product can use to to become a habit, and we also dive into the ethical implications o

#036 – From Two Failed Startups to $10,000,000 in Revenue with David Darmanin

Nov 9th, 2017 55m 48s

When he started Hotjar two and a half years ago, David Darmanin never expected it to grow so quickly. In this episode, we explore how David's past failures, learnings, and jobs as a marketer contributed to the incredible success of his business

#241 – Money, Happiness, and Productivity as a Solo Founder with Pieter Levels (Part 1 of 2)

Jan 20th, 2022 52m 18s

Today I'm catching up with Pieter Levels after 4 years. The world has changed dramatically since we last spoke. Attitudes toward remote work and global travel are all completely different now. We'll talk about what headwinds and tailwinds these

#041 – An Optimistic Nihilist's Take on Building a $2M Business with Vincent Woo

Dec 21st, 2017 56m 55s

Even as a programmer, Vincent Woo never loved school or working at big companies. But he was enthusiastic in growing his side project, CoderPad, into a $2M business. Get his take on startups, luck, and why advice is bullshit.Transcript, speaker

#032 – Before and After Product-Market Fit with Peter and Calvin from Segment

Oct 11th, 2017 54m 1s

Why is it so difficult to recognize product-market fit before you find it? And how do you find it, anyway? Learn about the struggles the team behind Segment faced, and how everything changed after they built a product that people wanted.

#283 – Making $8k/mo Targeting $100M/yr with Lukas and Liz Hermann of StageTimer.io

Jun 15th, 2023 49m 44s

Lukas (@_lhermann) and Liz Hermann (@lizmhermann) talk having ambition as an indie hacker, scratching other people's itches, having kids or spouses to help run your empire, making $8k/month from a simple idea, and charting a course to $100M/yr

#282 – Media vs Tech, Twitter Monsters, and Making Millions From Content with Steph Smith of a16z

Jun 3rd, 2023 1h 4m

Steph Smith (@stephsmithio) talks making millions in content subscriptions, working at a16z, putting the AI genie back in the bottle, thread boys on Twitter, educational vs entertainment podcasts, and media companies that monetize aspiring entr

#281 – Seth Godin on Indie Hacking, Doing Hard Things, and Finding Significance in a Changing World

May 25th, 2023 49m 20s

Seth Godin (@ThisIsSethsBlog) talks indie hacking, finding new business ideas, meaningful jobs vs mechanized jobs, dealing with internet trolls, his secrets to productivity, freelancing vs bootstrapping, writing 9000 blog posts in 20 years, and

#280 – Replacing Yourself as CEO, Living on a Boat, and Crowdfunding to Survive with Alex MacCaw of Reflect

May 19th, 2023 52m 42s

Alex MacCaw (@maccaw) talks living on a boat, quitting his own 7-figure company, starting over with a lifestyle business, whether free will exists, crowdfunding from your own customers, and gaining a foothold in a crowded market with Courtland

#279 – Staying Indie vs Raising VC, Getting an MBA, and Disrupting the App Store with Emma Lawler of Velvet

May 12th, 2023 1h

Emma Lawler (@emmaryanlawler) talks whether crypto is dead, VC vs bootstrapping, getting an MBA after a successful exit, why NYC beats SF, trading sleep for work, whether capitalism leads to perverse incentives, and how she plans to disrupt the

#278 – Growing a Portfolio of AI Products Past $300k After a 7-Figure Exit with Danny Postma

May 5th, 2023 53m 22s

Danny Postma (@dannypostmaa) talks his rivalry with Pieter Levels, selling his AI startup, using SEO as a moat, how to be an AI first-mover, why he’s not allowed to use ChatGPT, and passing $300k in revenue with Courtland (@csallen) and Channin

#277 – Addictive Products, Embracing A.I., and Crossing $26k/mo with Lane Wagner of Boot.dev

Apr 27th, 2023 58m 25s

Lane Wagner (@wagslane) talks hitting $26k/mo in revenue, why A.I. disruption is a good thing, the ethics of addictive products, surviving after a first year of no traction, why most business writing sucks, and how to grow revenue by making you

#276 – SaaS Trends, Crowdfunding a Book, and Life After Success with Rob Walling of TinySeed

Apr 20th, 2023 1h 2m

Rob Walling (@robwalling) talks his new playbook on SaaS, why he launched on Kickstarter, the latest startup trends, how to have a winning mindset, and whether we should build a Kickstarter for Indie Hackers with Courtland (@csallen) and Channi

#275 – Love, Cohort-Based Courses, and Monetization Frameworks with Wes Kao of Maven

Apr 13th, 2023 58m 54s

Wes Kao (@wes_kao) talks disrupting traditional education, what it's like to raise $25M, how to stay motivated as a founder, why cohorts are the gold standard of online learning, and how to apply the science of love to product-founder fit with

#274 – Indie Hackers is indie again!

Apr 6th, 2023 1h

Indie Hackers is no longer a part of Stripe! Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen) talk about their history at Stripe, the process of spinning out the company, and future ideas for how to generate revenue now that they're indie hac

#273 – The Threat of A.I., Building in Public vs Transparency, and Code vs No-Code with KP

Mar 29th, 2023 1h 4m

KP (@thisiskp_) talks about why building in public beats mere transparency, whether AI will be the end of no-code, why he's made more money from organizing community than anything else, and how he went from a 9-to-5 job to being a founder with

#272 – Escape Rooms, Side Project Marketing, and Getting to Ramen Profitable with Marc Lou of Habits Garden

Mar 22nd, 2023 52m 19s

Marc Lou (@marc_louvion) talks living in Bali with a private chef, monetizing habit trackers, first date ideas, growing on Twitter, and building over 10 products in a year to finally reach ramen profitability with Courtland (@csallen) and Chann

#271 – Gamification, Digital Nomading, and Growing Sales to $41k/mo with Stas Kulesh of Karma

Mar 15th, 2023 49m 54s

Stas Kulesh (@stas_kulesh) talks about building internal tools as a great hack, why it takes 10 years to understand a new country, the challenging secret of enterprise sales, and slowly growing a SaaS business to $40k/month with Courtland (@csa