The Indie Hacker & Solo Builder Archive

“Paras Chopra on bootstrapping Wingify for 15 years to tens of millions in ARR without a dime of venture capital.”

“Ex-Google engineer Michael Lynch reflects on walking away from a lucrative Big Tech salary to seek autonomy as an independent builder.”

“Ask HN: What's your quarantine side project? Over 2,200 founders and developers share what they built while stuck at home.”

“Kozmos founder details the devastating impact of platform risk when Google Chrome extension store policies killed their business.”

“A deeply vulnerable account of the psychological toll, identity crisis, and emotional wreckage when your venture-backed startup folds.”

“Courtland Allen shares how building in public and interviewing founders grew Indie Hackers into an indispensable community acquired by Stripe.”

“Slava Akhmechet shares why developer adoration does not equal market viability: solve a burning business problem before perfecting architecture.”

“DigitalOcean acquires CSS-Tricks: Chris Coyier built a niche publication into a multimillion-dollar bootstrapped acquisition over 15 years.”

“Pinboard acquires Delicious: Maciej Cegłowski proves that charging users directly from day one outlasts free ad-supported giants.”

“How to acquire your first 100 customers: direct email outreach, community presence, and solving acute pain points for free first.”

“My 2-year journey to $10K MRR: Bannerbear founder shares the pivots and pricing changes that made image generation profitable.”

“Instapainting: going from $4k in debt to $32k/mo in automated revenue without employees by orchestrating manual artists.”

“Ask HN: What mistakes did you make starting as a consultant? Over 250 practitioners share billing and client boundaries.”

“Canny founders detail how disciplined expense control allowed them to achieve ramen profitability and build a sustainable SaaS without investors.”