Indie Bites

Today I’m joined by Kenneth Cassel the founder of Pointer.gg a product he pivoted from Slip.so, a course platform making it easy for developers to make high-quality interactive courses. He got inspiration for Slip when he built vim.so, a course made $10k in just one month with - his first internet money. It's not all been plain sailing for Kenneth, as he struggled with failing his way to eventual success, with 4 years building products with no revenue. Now with Slip, he's quit his job, been accepted to YC and gets to build a company he’s always wanted to have.

What we covered in this episode:

• How buying a Raspberry Pi changed Kenneth's life
• Going from maintenance man for a gas station to software engineer
• The inspiration Kenneth took from his Dad
• How he learned programming
• Making $100 in 4 years of side projects
• How to stay motivated when things aren't going so well
• Going from 0-20k Twitter followers
• How building in public impacted Kenneth
• Earning $10k in one month with Vim.so
• Why he started Slip.so
• Dealing with imposter syndrome

Recommendations

• Book: Hell Yeah or No by Derek Sivers
• Podcast: My First Million
• Indie Hacker: The Builder JR

Follow Kenneth

• Twitter

Follow Me

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Personal Website
• Buy A Wallet
• 2 Hour Podcast Course

Sponsor - Fathom Analytics

For the longest time, website analytics software was seriously bad. It was hard to understand, time-consuming to use, and worse, it exploited visitor data for big tech to profit. I've spent countless hours in Google Analytics dashboards trying to figure even out the most basic metrics.

This is exactly why I signed up for Fathom as soon as I heard Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis were building it.

Fathom is simple website analytics that doesn't suck. It's easy to use and respectful of privacy laws, with no cookies following your users around the web. They're also a bootstrapped, sustainable business so I love supporting them. Yes, it might feel strange paying for analytics at first, but once you realise the real cost of free Google Analytics and realising how easy to use Fathom is, you won't go back. You can install the lightweight code on as many websites as you want and quickly see the performance of all your sites.

Link → https://usefathom.com/bites

Peter Suhm is the co-founder of Reform, a tool that lets you easily create simple, brandable forms. Peter is also part of the Tiny Seed 1st batch, where he was working on a product called branch Branch. After that didn't work out, he went through a period of testing and validating ideas.

One of those ideas was a investor update tool, where Peter discovered how convoluted creating a form with existing tools was. Using Twitter and a very early stage MVP, he validated the idea for Reform and got to work building.

Since then he's had #1 Product of the Week on Product Hunt and is now working through the challenges of building features and growing revenue. You might have also heard Peter on the Out of Beta podcast, which he co-hosts with Matt Wensing.

➡️ Get the uncut, 30 minute conversation with Peter on the Indie Bites membership here.

What we covered in this episode:

• Coming up with the idea for Reform
• Validating the idea for Reform
• Why build a product in such a competitive market
• Where form builders keep messing up
• Getting to #1 Product Hunt of the week
• When is the right time to launch on PH
• Marketing and growth tests for Reform going forward
• Continuing to try things that don't scale
• Where should founders start with marketing?
• Peter's approach to product development
• The feedback loop of Twitter
• The upsides of raising Tiny Seed money

Recommendations

• Book: Traction by Gabriel Weinberg
• Podcast: Tropical MBA
• Indie Hacker: Derrick Reimer

Follow Peter

• Twitter
• Personal Site

Follow Me

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Personal Website
• Buy A Wallet
• 2 Hour Podcast Course

Sponsor - Fathom Analytics

For the longest time, website analytics software was seriously bad. It was hard to understand, time-consuming to use, and worse, it exploited visitor data for big tech to profit. I've spent countless hours in Google Analytics dashboards trying to figure even out the most basic metrics.

This is exactly why I signed up for Fathom as soon as I heard Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis were building it.

Fathom is simple website analytics that doesn't suck. It's easy to use and respectful of privacy laws, with no cookies following your users around the web. They're also a bootstrapped, sustainable business so I love supporting them. Yes, it might feel strange paying for analytics at first, but once you realise the real cost of free Google Analytics and realising how easy to use Fathom is, you won't go back. You can install the lightweight code on as many websites as you want and quickly see the performance of all your sites.

Link → https://usefathom.com/bites

Brian Casel is a veteran of the bootstrapping game, having left his full-time job back in 2008. You might have heard him on the Boostrapped Web podcast where he shares his journey starting and building software products. Over the years Brian has pretty much done it all, built software businesses, courses, productized services and even sold some along the way. Most recently, Brian has been working on ZipMessage, a new way to communicate asynchronously.

➡️ Get the uncut, 60 minute recording with Brian on the Indie Feast membership here.

What we covered in this episode:

• Where did the idea of ZipMessage come from?
• How Brian validated ZipMessage
• Brian's unconventional approach to validation
• Why Brian raised funding from Calm Company Fund
• How can people go from freelancer to productized service
• The importance of building processes in productized services
• Why Brian didn't follow his passion for music

Recommendations

• Book: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
• Podcast: Smartless
• Indie Hacker: James McKinven (errm...)

Follow Brian

• Twitter
• Personal Site

Follow Me

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Personal Website
• Buy A Wallet
• 2 Hour Podcast Course

Sponsor - Fathom Analytics

For the longest time, website analytics software was seriously bad. It was hard to understand, time-consuming to use, and worse, it exploited visitor data for big tech to profit. I've spent countless hours in Google Analytics dashboards trying to figure even out the most basic metrics.

This is exactly why I signed up for Fathom as soon as I heard Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis were building it.

Fathom is simple website analytics that doesn't suck. It's easy to use and respectful of privacy laws, with no cookies following your users around the web. They're also a bootstrapped, sustainable business so I love supporting them. Yes, it might feel strange paying for analytics at first, but once you realise the real cost of free Google Analytics and realising how easy to use Fathom is, you won't go back. You can install the lightweight code on as many websites as you want and quickly see the performance of all your sites.

Link → https://usefathom.com/bites

In 2019 Daniel Vassallo left his $500k salaried job at Amazon to go indie. In the 2 years since he left Daniel has placed many small bets, something he's become known for. In particular Daniel has seen success from his Info Products and building his audience on Twitter, which has grown from 0 to 91k. He wrote a short book on the good parts of AWS, which has made $126,000, then following the Twitter growth, wrote a book called Everyone Can Build a Twitter Audience, which has made $244,000. He shares all of his revenue reports in his Profit and Loss community, which in itself has made over $30k in the past year. In total, and in just over 2 years, Daniel has made $570k in revenue and $306k in profit since leaving his job at Amazon. But he's gained something he didn't have while working for someone else, freedom.

➡️ Get the uncut, 80 minute recording with Daniel on the Indie Feast membership here.

What we covered in this episode:

• Leaving a $500k job at Amazon to go Indie
• The trap of judging your life based on financial value
• Why the initial focusing on one product didn't work out for Daniel
• Where the small bets mindset originated
• How to deal with context switching with small bets
• Dealing with an uncertain income
• Why info products work well for a small bets strategy
• How book publishers work and how we can apply their methods
• The importance of the "small" in small bets
• How you can build a twitter audience like Daniel
• Why Daniel started making wooden cutting boards
• How he made $2,600 from one tweet

Recommendations

• Book: Anti Fragile by Nassim Taleb
• Podcast: Indie Hackers
• Indie Hacker: Peter Askew

More on Daniel

• Twitter
• On the IH pod
• His most popular articles

Follow Me

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Personal Website
• Buy A Wallet
• 2 Hour Podcast Course

Sponsor - Fathom Analytics

For the longest time, website analytics software was seriously bad. It was hard to understand, time-consuming to use, and worse, it exploited visitor data for big tech to profit. I've spent countless hours in Google Analytics dashboards trying to figure even out the most basic metrics.

This is exactly why I signed up for Fathom as soon as I heard Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis were building it.

Fathom is simple website analytics that doesn't suck. It's easy to use and respectful of privacy laws, with no cookies following your users around the web. They're also a bootstrapped, sustainable business so I love supporting them. Yes, it might feel strange paying for analytics at first, but once you realise the real cost of free Google Analytics and realising how easy to use Fathom is, you won't go back. You can install the lightweight code on as many websites as you want and quickly see the performance of all your sites.

Link → https://usefathom.com/bites

Harry Morton is the founder of Lower Street Media, a podcast production agency that specialises in premium podcasts for ambitious companies. Lower Street are the agency behind top shows such as Secret Leaders, Technology Untangled and WFH Daily. Harry's business has skyrocketed since COVID, doubling in size of revenue and headcount in the last 6-months as more companies start to realise how effective podcasting can be. Harry also runs Single Track Conf, a 3-day mountain-biking founder retreat.

➡️ Here's my course on starting a podcast in 2 hours or less (use "bites" for $10 off)

What we covered in this episode:

• Why start an agency? it's not exactly a dream business to start.
• How Harry grew Lowerstreet through cold outreach
  • 1st client, Ultimate Leadership Podcast
• Why the productising model didn't work out for Lowerstreet
• What Harry did in the early days for growth
• How losing 30% of revenue was a catalyst for growth
• Doubling the agency revenue in 6 months
• Quitting his job with no savings to start Lowersteet
• Not knowing what to do when starting the company
• Addressing shiny object syndrome
• Why focus vs portfolio of projects argument is BS
• The secret sauce for making a sh*t hot podcast
• How to make a show that stands out
• Starting a mountain bike community

Recommendations

• Book: Out on The Wire by Jessica Abel
• Podcast: Startup
• Indie Hacker: Andrew Wilkinson

Follow Harry

• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Follow Me

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Personal Website
• Buy A Wallet

Sponsor - 2 Hour Podcast

Yes, that's right, I'm sponsoring my own show 🤯

After producing hundreds of podcasts for myself and clients, I've been pouring all of my knowledge into my new course, 2 Hour Podcast, which shows you how to start, grow and monetize a podcast that takes you less than 2 hours per week.

I know lots of people who want to start a pod and reap the rewards, but struggle to find the time, which is exactly why I made this course.

I've taken a three-pronged approach to making a podcast efficiently. The first is a step-by-step video guide to creating your show, covering everything from branding, to editing to hosting. The second part is a 90 minute tutorial where I make a my own podcast completely from scratch, recording the first episode with Arvid Kahl, using the tips from part 1. The final prong is my full Notion system for creating my show, including my episode CRM, guest and outreach templates, plus an episode briefing doc.

Head to 2hourpodcast.com to get the full course and get $10 off with the code "bites" at checkout.

Jack Ellis is the co-founder of Fathom Analytics, started with Paul Jarvis in 2019. Jack handles the technical side of the business, but isn't afraid to get on the mic on their podcast, Above Board, or send out some spicy tweets. Jack also runs the Serverless Laravel course, which he launched back in 2020. After this conversation Jack has turned into a true friend, speaking with me for several hours after, a genuinely nice chap. You’re going to want the same thing after listening to this pod. Jack talks with great wisdom on how to approach bootstrapping a SaaS company and taking on a huge incumbent.

➡️ Here's my course on starting a podcast in 2 hours or less (use "bites" for $10 off)

What we covered in this episode:

• What is Fathom Analytics
• Joining as a co-founder after the company was founded
• How Fathom started
• How did they know Fathom was going to work
• What growth tactics did Fathom use to grow?
• How did they convince people to pay for analytics?
• The trade-off of free software
• How do you compete in a market with a huge incumbent
• Starting a medium competitor, Pico
• Benefits of having a co-founder
• Quitting a job for Jack's first side-project
• Starting a course (Serverless Laravel) that made $150,000

Recommendations

• Book: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Podcast: Huberman Lab
• Indie Hacker: N/A

Follow Jack

• Spicy Tweets
• Personal Website

Follow Me

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Personal Website
• Buy A Wallet

Sponsor - Part Time Tech Jobs

Thank you to my friend Charlie from Weekend Club for sponsoring this episode, with his new project Part Time Tech Jobs, which is a fantastic site for finding and posting, you guessed it, part time tech jobs
 
If you’re looking to transistion from a full-time role to indie hacking, finding a part time role might be just the thing for you to de-risk that transition. And on the other side, if you’re looking to hire great entrepreneurial talent without breaking the bank, this is where you should post.

So if you’re looking for a part time tech job, head to parttimetechjobs.co or if you’re looking for tech talent, use the code INDIEBITES for 80% off all featured posts.

Pete runs No CS Degree, among other things, sharing stories of people who have made it as a developer, without going down the traditional route of getting a computer science degree, showing how it's possible to earn a nice salary without going to university. He has also started High Signal, a community for revenue verified entrepreneurs, a site for finding fully remote companies (sold) and finally made 2 courses where you'll learn how to both monetize and grow your newsletter.

➡️ Here's my course on starting a podcast in 2 hours or less.

What we covered in this episode

• Pete's crazy backstory
• How he got into entreprenuership
• Most inspiring story from No CS Degree
• How does Pete get revenue
• Getting a sponsor for a course
• How do you grow a newsletter
• Launching a monetize your newsletter course
• Doing a bundle deal with other indie hackers
• Starting the High Signal community
• Why some paid communities are bad
• Pete's nifty pricing trick
• Launching a job board

Recommendations

• Book: Mindset by Carol Dweck
• Podcast: Indie Hackers
• Indie Hacker: Lachlan Kirkwood

Follow Pete

• Twitter
• Website

Follow Me

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Personal Website
• Buy A Wallet

Thanks to this episode's sponsor, Churnkey

It can be a huge challenge to keep churn down when your SaaS product starts to see traction. The founders of Churnkey know exactly how much of a challenge this can be, having collectively grown three SaaS companies to over $4m in ARR.

They realized that they were thinking about cancellations all wrong. A relationship with a customer doesn’t stop with the “Cancel” button. So they built Churnkey, which reduces churn by up to 42% with custom cancellation flows. For every customer who clicks “Cancel,” Churnkey offers up dynamic offers that encourage customers to stay subscribed.

Just connect Stripe and plug in a small bit of code. In minutes, you’ll be reducing churn by immediately unlocking subscription pauses, dynamic offers, and cancellation insights. 

See how much revenue Churnkey can recover for you. Visit churnkey.co to start your free trial.

Mike Slaats is the founder of Upvoty, an instant feedback software which has recently hit $17k MRR. Mike also runs the SaaS pirates community, where he talks all about running a SaaS company. Previously, he scaled Vindy, an only marketplace for home development to 1m ARR in 5 years.

What we covered in this episode

• Why did you start Upvoty?
• Stopping a $1m business to start from scratch
• Why your work should be fulfilling
• Should you be passionate about your audience?
• How to validate your idea
• How Mike got his first customers for Upvoty
• The value of an MVP and a landing page
• Why you should build runway or have an alternative income source
• How you can make your own luck
• Why indie hackers should build a personal brand
• Mike's one bit of advice for founders; validate
• How to build an MVP with the BML framework

Recommendations

• Book: Intercom on Marketing
• Podcast: How I Built This
• Indie Hacker: Arvid Kahl

Follow Mike

• Twitter
• YouTube
• SaaS Pirates
• Upvoty

Follow Me

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Personal Website
• Buy A Wallet

Thanks to Weekend Club for sponsoring Indie Bites.

‘Huge fan of Weekend Club and I love being part of it.’

‘Absolutely love this community.’

These are real testimonials for Weekend Club - the internet’s most helpful community for bootstrappers. If you’ve ever struggled meeting other solo founders and staying accountable, then this is for you.

We offer weekly Saturday deep working sessions with up to 30 bootstrappers, such as the founders of Simple Poll and VEED, an active Slack community and over 100 software discounts.

Go to weekendclub.co and enter a very limited promo code ‘Indie Bites’ for 50% off your first month.

Noah Bragg is an indie hacker in its truest form. Building in public hacking away on his project, Potion, which is a a way to host your Notion pages as websites behind a custom domain. He's also the co-host of the Product Journey podcast, where he speaks with his co-host Ben about their progress on their respective side projects.

What we covered:

• The goal of building a huge business
• Project: Coffee Pass
• When to decide to stop a project
• Failing after 2 years working on something
• First project as an indie hacker: Supportman
  • Selling Supportman
• Starting Potion
  • $250 to $3,000 MRR in 4 months
• How to do a successful product hunt launch
• How to get a product hunt maker grant
• Focusing on product instead of marketing
• Finding the right market / a growing market
• Dealing with competition

Recommendations

• Book: ReWork
• Podcast: My First Million
• Indie Hacker: Kenneth Cassel

Follow Noah

• Twitter
• Potion
• Website
• Product Journey Podcast

Follow Me

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Personal Website
• Buy A Wallet

Sponsor - Upvoty

Do you want to build the best product possible? Then listening to user feedback is one of the best ways to do so. Because by listening to the problems of your users, you can build a real problem-solver that they'll love.

Upvoty is a user feedback tool that gives your user's a voice and makes it really easy at the same time for you to prioritize what to build next. By installing Upvoty's feedback boards, you'll have all of your user feedback in one central place and it will really help you connect with your customers and understand their needs. On top of that, you can close the feedback loop by setting up your Changelog and Product Roadmap. Your users will be actively involved in building new features and will love you for that.

Try Upvoty 14-days for free and with the code 'INDIEBITES' you'll get a 10% discount on any of their plans.

Sign up here.

Andy Cloke is the founder of Data Fetcher, a platform for running API requests in Airtable, which is currently doing around $3k MRR. Andy has started many projects in the past, his most recent one, Influence Grid, was sold for $55k back in mid-2020, having only started it 7 months before. In this episode we talk about his framework for finding trending ideas, building a product and being successful with marketing as a developer. We also talk about the process of selling your product and how to make that go smoothly.

What we covered

• Andy's background
• Kabooshi
• Why Andy started Influence Grid
• How to leverage Exploding Topics to find trending ideas
• Getting validation for your idea
• Using cold outreach to grow a platform
  • Rocket Reach
• Doing SEO from the start
• How he grew Influence Grid to $3k MRR
• Why decide to sell Influence Grid?
• Should you go through a platform for an acquisition?
• How to best prepare for a small acquisition
• What Andy bought himself after selling for $55k
• What he did after the acquisition
• The process of finding a new idea
  • Software Ideas by Kevin Conti
  • Micro SaaS by Tyler Tringas
• Why Andy started Data Fetcher
• How Data Fetcher has grown to $3k MRR
• Andy's framework for finding a successful idea
• How to push through when things aren't going so well

Recommendations

• Book: Blue Ocean Strategy
• Podcast: Startup to Last
• Indie Hacker: Jon Yongfook

Follow Andy

• Twitter
• Data Fetcher

Follow Me

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Personal Website
• Buy A Wallet

Sponsor - Upvoty

Do you want to build the best product possible? Then listening to user feedback is one of the best ways to do so. Because by listening to the problems of your users, you can build a real problem-solver that they'll love.

Upvoty is a user feedback tool that gives your user's a voice and makes it really easy at the same time for you to prioritize what to build next. By installing Upvoty's feedback boards, you'll have all of your user feedback in one central place and it will really help you connect with your customers and understand their needs. On top of that, you can close the feedback loop by setting up your Changelog and Product Roadmap. Your users will be actively involved in building new features and will love you for that.

Try Upvoty 14-days for free and with the code 'INDIEBITES' you'll get a 10% discount on any of their plans.

Sign up here.