3 min read
🪜 The Value Ladder Framework (And how it works)
Hey friend 👋 Hello and welcome to Listen UP IH. Today I'll talk about the value ladder framework. It's a simple idea that can help any solo business grow and…
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Featured
Key Lessons4 min read
🖐️5 Ways to Market Your Business for $0
Hey friend 👋 Today I want to talk about the marketing strategies I've found to work where you don't need to spend any money. I think these are useful to…
Key Lessons2 min read
📢 Audience, offers, channels..
Today I want to talk about the 3 fundamental elements of every business - Audience, Offers and Channels. This framework applies to every business model - SaaS,…
Latest
3 min read
🪜 The Value Ladder Framework (And how it works)
Hey friend 👋 Hello and welcome to Listen UP IH. Today I'll talk about the value ladder framework. It's a simple idea that can help any solo business grow and…
Key Lessons4 min read
🖐️5 Ways to Market Your Business for $0
Hey friend 👋 Today I want to talk about the marketing strategies I've found to work where you don't need to spend any money. I think these are useful to…
Key Lessons2 min read
📢 Audience, offers, channels..
Today I want to talk about the 3 fundamental elements of every business - Audience, Offers and Channels. This framework applies to every business model - SaaS,…
2 min read
Business Brainstorms with Jakob Greenfeld
How do you come up with business ideas? More importantly, how do you validate your business ideas? Jakob Greenfeld is a master at this. He tracks trends,…
Key Lessons2 min read
✋5 Big Mistakes early stage founders make (and how you can avoid)
I've been running private mastermind groups for 3 months now. 2000+ minutes of conversations around building a solo business. With Indie Hackers as well as…
Build In Public3 min read
5 Build In Public Myths Busted
Hey there 👋 Today’s post is about the myths around the build in public trend. But before that I have an important announcement for you. Indie MBA Event with…
1 min read
🧘Meditation for Indie Superheroes with Dr. Christin Chong
We don't talk enough about the mental health side of solopreneurship. Building a business is challenging, more so when you're doing it alone. It can take a…
Key Lessons5 min read
🔦 4 Examples of Side Project Led Growth
Side Project Led growth is a developer’s way of doing marketing! Jokes aside, side projects are a solid growth strategies deployed by small indie hackers to…
Content Business4 min read
📈 How Founder’s Book reached $34000 revenue in 7 months
“Go from Idea to MVP, and beyond. Now!” That’s the tagline of Founder’s Book - A platform of tools and resources for first-time founders and early stage…
3 min read
How to go from Consumer To Creator with Alex Llull
The registration for the August edition of Indie Masterminds closes on July 31st. You will find the program useful if you're a - * SaaS founder * Content…
SaaS9 min read
🏹 How Tweet Hunter Became a Million Dollar Juggernaut
“The Future belongs to Creators” That’s the quote on Tibo’s Twitter banner. Tibo and his friend Tom are founders of TweetHunter - A Twitter audience growth…
2 min read
Finding Joy in the Chaos of Twitter
Twitter can feel chaotic. Especially early on, when you're just starting out. Building an audience can get overwhelming. It starts to feel like too much "work" and not much fun. That is the stage when most people give up on the platform. But this is where Kevon's teachings can help you.
Community2 min read
🚀 New video out: Community Validated - Identify business opportunities by leveraging online communities
Hey there 👋 A quick announcement before we get started 📢 I’m launching something new today - mastermind groups for indie hackers. If you’re looking for…
SaaS4 min read
🧑🏫 Learn from Arvid Kahl - The Embedded Entrepreneur
A Quick update: Today’s post is about Arvid Kahl, he’s the founder of the Edtech SaaS startup Feedback Panda, and author of best selling books like Zero to…
Key Lessons6 min read
🎧 Top 10 Best Episodes of the IndieHackers Podcast
Important announcement: The next Indie MBA even is on June 16th. It’s with one of the most successful indie hackers ever - Arvid Kahl. He will be sharing his…
Playbooks19 min read
The First 100 Users Playbook
You are not the hero of your startup (Your user is!) Getting paying customers for a product is tough. Building something worth paying for comes down to solving…
3 min read
💸 How Zapier got it's first paying user, and how you can get your first 100
You are not the hero of your startup (Your user is!) Getting paying customers for a product is tough. Building something worth paying for comes down to solving…
Key Lessons2 min read
I raised prices for my course, but revenue increased as well.
Hey friends 👋 So it's been almost 2 months since I started pre-sales for my writing course. [https://ayushchat.gumroad.com/l/make-money-writing] And 1 month…
Key Lessons5 min read
🗣️3 Examples of how Indie Hackers spoke to their users and built the right product
Your startup is not about you, it’s about your users. Yet, many Indie Hackers avoid speaking to their target customers as much as possible. You can not build…
Key Lessons6 min read
💸 3 Examples of how indie hackers raised their prices and found success
Price is one of the most important aspects of any business. Most indie hackers are terrified of increasing their prices. They worry that they'll scare away…
Build In Public3 min read
How I used Twitter to validate my course idea and make $512 in 35 days
So my writing course crossed $500 in sales today morning. I thought it would be useful to share how I used Twitter to validate the idea and pre-sell the…
Community5 min read
3 Examples of Founders who scratched their own itch and succeeded🏆
Scratching your own itch can be a great way to generate business ideas. But only if you can find a critical mass of people who face the same problems as you…
Key Lessons8 min read
Key Lessons from the success of Closet tools
A “key lessons” report diving deep into how the micro SaaS app Closet Tools found success.
Build In Public2 min read
How to presell a product on Gumroad and launch via Twitter (Raw numbers!)
Writing has been at the base of my solo business for almost a year now. I use it in different ways as: * Product consultant * Freelance writer * Info product…
2 min read
Grab The Solo Founder Playbook 📚
Hey there 👋 I've just published a short e-book titled - The Solo Founder Playbook. You can read the intro here, and read the rest of it on the site.…
Playbooks12 min read
The Solo Founder Playbook
Most startups fail, but all founders succeed(in the long run!) Building a startup is hard. 90% of them don’t find success, but the lessons that founders learn…
Key Lessons5 min read
7 Best Business Newsletters to read in 2022 [For Free!]
If you're like most founders, indie hackers, solopreneurs you're always on the lookout for new resources to help you grow your business. And what better way to…
Key Lessons3 min read
3 examples of How Founders leveraged their network to build profitable businesses 👨👨👧👦
A powerful network or an engaged audience is vital for success as an Indie Hacker. Otherwise, it can be hard to get eyeballs and feedback on your project.…
11 min read
7 Online businesses you can start from home [2022] (With Examples)
So, you're thinking about starting a business. Congratulations! The best thing you can do for your career is to be in control of your own destiny. But where do…
Key Lessons4 min read
7 Habits of Highly Effective Indie Hackers
There's no one-size-fits-all answer for success as an indie hacker, everyone is on their unique journey. Yet some common patterns emerge that help founders…
Creator Economy10 min read
11 Creator economy startups to watch out for in 2022
Over the last 9 months, I've profiled many startups in this newsletter. Quite a few of them serve the creator economy. The creator economy is a term used to…
Key Lessons8 min read
Key Lessons from Podia’s Success 🧑🏫
A “key lessons” report diving deep into how the course platform Podia achieved success in the competitive creator-economy market.
Creator Economy8 min read
How to capture the creator economy | Podia 🎨
“Faster iterations coupled with perseverance is the best route to have a successful product -- not sleek designs or scalable code.” 👆 That’s Spencer Fry’s…
Creator Economy13 min read
How to reach $4.2M ARR while pursuing a mission | Ghost👻
“Ghost is being made for love, not for profit.” 👆That’s a line from John O’Nolan’s intro video for Ghost’s Kickstarter campaign from back in 2013. John is the…
7 min read
75+ Insights from successful bootstrapped startup stories
Hey👋 I have profiled more than 30 indie hacker stories for this newsletter over the last 10 months or so. Over time I have collected the best lessons we all…
No-Code8 min read
How a NoCode form builder reached $8500 MRR in a crowded market📃 | Tally
“Be patient, don’t be afraid of doing the drudge work, and be ready to pivot when you need to.” 👆 That’s Marie Martens’ advice to aspiring Indie Hackers.…
meta19 min read
21 Key Lessons from 21 Indie Hackers (Listen Up IH Wrapped)📈
This newsletter has been running for almost 9 months now. I’ve researched and written about some of the most successful indie hackers throughout the year. As…
No-Code9 min read
How to reach $1M ARR with a 1-page site builder 📈| AJ of Carrd
"Constraints are superpowers" 👆That's the number 1 lesson we can all learn from AJ, the founder of Carrd. AJ is a pseudonymous startup founder who…
Startup Books7 min read
How to build an audience-driven business👨👩👧👦 | Arvid Kahl - The Embedded Entrepreneur
"Just give and help and support." 👆 That's Arvid Kahl's message to fellow Indie Hackers. Arvid [https://twitter.com/arvidkahl] is the founder of the…
No-Code5 min read
What is the No-Code Movement and why it matters?
"No-Code" or "Low-Code" is a term used to describe the tools and platforms that let anyone build software products without having to do software programming…
SaaS10 min read
$8,000 in revenue without even a product 💸| Tuple
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Be useful on the internet" 👆 That's Ben Orenstein's advice for aspiring…
Content Business10 min read
Building A Winning Bundle🏆 | Every
"The magic of writing is that it can make readers feel less alone in the world. The magic of a writer collective is, perhaps, that it can make writers feel…
SaaS8 min read
Freelancer's path to building a SaaS with $10K MRR 🏡| Agent Nest
"Tell yourself - I can do this and I WILL do this. Just focus on your business, focus on what you care about." 👆 That's Molly Wolchansky's advice to Indie…
No-Code10 min read
Rising with the No-Code Movement 🏄♂️| Makerpad
"Code or No-Code, figure out the path of least resistance and start building" 👆 That's Ben Tossell's advice for Indie Hackers Ben…
Creator Economy8 min read
Indie Hacker on the Unicorn Track🦄 | Riverside
Listen Up IH - Episode 28 "I want to build a billion dollar company" That's Nadav Keyson's [https://twitter.com/nadavkeyson] audacious vision for his startup…
Creator Economy8 min read
Flying past $23K MRR in 2 years🦅 | Hypefury
Listen Up! IH - Episode 27 "Keep your ears and eyes open, because there are opportunities everywhere." 👆 That's Samy Dindane's advice for aspiring Indie…
Lifestyle Business6 min read
Escaping Death to find his Destiny 🌟| Kyle Gawley of Gravity
Listen Up IH - Episode 26 I have no employees, no investors, no funding, no fixed location. Just me and my laptop, building what I love while traveling the…
Digital Nomads7 min read
The Hardcore Year approach to $10K MRR💪 | Andrey Azimov
Listen Up! IH - Episode 25 "Just start a simple one-button app, whatever your idea is." 👆 That's Andrey Azimov's advice to aspiring Indie Hackers. Andrey…
Creator Economy5 min read
Rock Bottom To Rocket Ship🚀 | How Veed Grew To $5M+ ARR
Listen Up! IH – Episode 24 “Keep pushing, and make something people search for” That’s Sabba Keynejad’s message to Indie Hackers. Sabba…
Community5 min read
Kindness and Community | Rosie Sherry👼
Listen Up IH - Episode 23 “It’s really, really simple. I’m kind to people and I think about people first.” That’s how Rosie Sherry gets people to care deeply…
Creator Economy5 min read
Ideas you can run with🏃♂️
Listen Up IH - Episode 22 “The most exciting business Ideas fit on the back of an airplane napkin” – Carmine Gallo That is the spirit with which every…
Build In Public7 min read
21 Lessons From 21 Indie Hackers
Listen Up! IH – Episode 21 Hey folks👋 This newsletter has been running for the last 20 weeks. I have gone down some interesting rabbit holes when doing these…
Digital Nomads7 min read
Digital Nomad To Prolific Indie Hacker | Pieter Levels 🧳
Listen Up! IH – Episode 20 “Be less scared and just do more things!” That’s Pieter Levels [https://twitter.com/levelsio] advice for aspiring Indie Hackers.…
No-Code6 min read
Living The Indie Hacker Dream | Jon Yongfook
Listen Up! IH – Episode 19 “If you want to go from 0 to $10K MRR you should divide your time 50:50 between coding and marketing” That’s Jon Yongfook’s advice…
Content Business6 min read
The Power Of Writing Online | David Perell
Listen Up IH - Episode 18 Writing on the internet, is one of the most under-utilized under explored opportunities in the world right now! That’s the number one…
Creator Economy6 min read
0 To 28M ARR While Building In Public📈 | Nathan Barry
Listen Up! IH – Episode 17 “It takes way longer than you think, and it’s worth it if you keep going.” That’s Nathan Barry’s advice for aspiring IndieHackers.…
Community6 min read
A Community Around Products| Lessons From Ryan Hoover Of Product Hunt🤗
Listen Up IH - Episode 16 "Technology is part of our culture and it’s in many ways a way to express yourself. The same way that music is a way to express…
Startup Books7 min read
Ask Questions Even Your Mom Can’t Lie To 👵| Rob Fitzpatrick
Listen Up, IH! — Episode 15 “Do you think this is a good idea?” That’s the worst question you can ask someone as a startup founder. Rob Fitz…
No-Code5 min read
How To Validate Startup Ideas Without Code | Lessons From Bram Kanstein
Listen Up, IH! — Episode 14 > “I truly believe that if you deliver real value and solve someone’s problem, they don’t care how you do it.” That’s Bram…
Creator Economy6 min read
The Hustle Of Building A Million-Dollar Content Business✍ | Sam Parr
Listen Up! IH – Episode 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Copywriting is the number one skill you need if…
Creator Economy6 min read
Making $100K In 6 Days | Story Of Traf’s “Overnight Success”🤑
Listen Up, IH! — Episode 12 “Luck favors those who are in motion” That’s James Traf’s insight from being an “overnight success” Traf [https://twitter.com/traf]…
Unbundling5 min read
Only 2 Ways To Make Money – Bundling & Unbundling 💸
Listen Up, IH! — Episode 11 “Humans don’t like too much choice.” 👆That’s Tyler King’s [https://twitter.com/TylerMKing] insight after running a successful SaaS…
Lifestyle Business8 min read
Aspiring Billionaire To Profitable Indie Hacker | Lessons From Sahil Lavingia Of Gumroad
Listen Up! IH – Episode 10 > “Enough is a decision, not an amount.” 👆That’s what one of Sahil Lavingia’s customers told him recently. A thought that resonates…
Build In Public7 min read
Idea To Exit In 2 Years | Lessons From Selling A SaaS At $55K MRR | Arvid Kahl
Listen Up, IH! — Episode 9 > “Audience research to me is the most important thing in a business” 👆That’s Arvid Kahl’s most important insight after building…
Creator Economy7 min read
Growing From 0 To $20K MRR With Winning Trends | Dru Riley
Listen Up, IH! — Episode 8 > “Love what you’re working on, stick it out through pivots and iterations.” 👆That’s Dru Riley’s [https://twitter.com/DruRly]…
Community5 min read
Building, Scaling & Selling A Thriving Community | Jay Clouse
Listen Up, IH! — Episode 7 > Take relentless action. 👆That’s Jay Clouse’s [https://twitter.com/jayclouse] message for Indie Hackers Communities are all the…
User Research4 min read
2.3 Billion Pageviews & 9 Years Of Customer Focus | Evan Britton
Listen Up, IH! — Episode 6 > Year to date, Famous Birthdays has surpassed 2.3 Billion Page Views. Outside the major social networks, Famous Birthdays has the…
Creator Economy4 min read
The Patron Saint Of The Passion Economy | Li Jin
Listen Up, IH! — Episode 5 > “I just want to rebuild the middle class and help people live better lives” 👆That’s Li Jin’s mission statement. She is a former…
User Research4 min read
Making 1.5M/Year By Re-Imagining Local News With WhereByUs
Listen Up! IH – Episode 4 > “We get it. We’re creators too.” 👆That’s a quote from the landing page of WhereByUs [https://www.whereby.us/] — an organization…
Creator Economy5 min read
How “The Winner” Of Indie Hackers Built A $38K/Month SaaS Business With A ‘Dollar A Day’ Product | Jordan O'Connor
Listen Up! IH – Episode 3 > “I Won Indie Hackers” Back in August 2020, Jordan O’Connor [https://twitter.com/jdnoc], founder of Closet Tools…
Community6 min read
The Great Unbundling – Power Of Vertical Networks With Greg Isenberg
Listen Up, IH! — Episode 2 > “There are two ways to make money in business: You can unbundle, or you can bundle.” — Jim Barksdale Greg Isenberg…
Lifestyle Business7 min read
Daniel Vassallo’s Lifestyle-First Approach To Indie Hacking
Listen Up, IH! — Episode 1 > “I want to work on my own terms, doing the things that intrinsically motivate me.” This was Daniel Vassallo’s first-ever comment…