Indie Hackers

Long-time listener, first-time guest — Courtland (@csallen) and Channing's (@ChanningAllen) mom, Eva, joins the pod to talk raising twins, buying gifts, selling computer parts, co-founder theft, an Indie Hackers quiz for moms, and why you should never retire.

I'm making some changes to the Indie Hackers Podcast. Check out this episode for a sneak peek into what's ahead. 

Julian Shapiro is back on the show today. He's been my co-host for our podcast Brains, he's an investor at Julian.capital and a writer at Julian.com. Lately, he's been super into investing. He's managed to take an overly complex thing like investing and reverse-engineer it, breaking it down into its simplest frameworks. 

• Follow Julian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/julian
• Check out Demand Curve: https://www.demandcurve.com/
• Become an investor with Carveout: https://www.withcarveout.com/
• Apply to Hyper: https://hyper.com/
• Read Julian's memos for founders: https://www.julian.capital/

My twin brother Channing (@ChanningAllen) joins the show for the first time, for a casual chat about our recent trip to Italy, the best and worst parts of getting COVID, the future of media companies and indie creators, and DALL-E 2 and the future of AI.

When Sam Eaton hears a new idea, it's all he can do to contain his excitement and dive right into the code. So when his sister told him she wanted to start a cookie delivery business, there was never any question that he'd apply his indie hacker skills to help out however he could. And to great effect — today they're selling hundreds of thousand of dollars worth of cookies every month. In this episode, Sam and I discuss the advantages of target your local community as a niche, ways to leverage scarcity and social proof to increase sales, and how software engineers can best apply their skills to selling products in the real world.

Twenty pages into reading his first business book, Peldi Guilizzonni (@peldi) closed it for good and told himself, "This is not for me. I'm never going to start a business. It's insane." Not long after that, he rolled up his sleeves and got started building Balsamiq Mockups, which would go on to employee dozens of people, serve thousands of customers, and generate over $6M per year in revenue. Over ten years later, it's still going strong. Learn about the path Peldi took to get where he is today, why he's a legend among bootstrappers, and how he's building a business that's meant to last.

Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/085-peldi-guilizzoni-of-balsamiq

Today I'm talking to Indie Hacker Brett Williams (@brettfromdj) who has built a $1M ARR "agency of one." In this episode we talk about how he manages 50 clients as a solo designer and has 10x'd his prices in the process. 

• Check out DesignJoy: DesignJoy.co
• Follow Brett on Twitter: twitter.com/brettfromdj

Today I'm talking to Greg Isenburg of Late Checkout and Dru Riley of Trends.vc. In this episode, we cover a bunch of topics around media and community. I'll ask them where they get their content ideas, how they create product stickiness, how they stay productive and what new business ideas are sitting in their notes app. 

• Follow Greg on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg
• Follow Dru on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DruRly
• Check out Late Checkout: https://latecheckout.substack.com/
• Subscribe to Trends.vc: https://join.trends.vc/

Today I'm talking to Victoria Young (@victoriahyoung) and Ravi Mehta (@ravi_mehta) about their coaching platform Scale Higher. In this episode we talk about the type of person who could benefit from a coach and how they've been inspired by platforms like Noom and TalkSpace to change the way people are able to level up their professional lives. 

• Follow Victoria on Twitter: https://twitter.com/victoriahyoung
• Follow Ravi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ravi_mehta
• Find a coach on Scale Higher: https://www.scalehigher.com/

Today I'm talking to Steph Smith (@stephsmithio). She runs Trends.co and recently got my attention when she posted on IH how she grew her podcast from 0 to 15k downloads/month. She took a really unique approach to launching her show, The Sh*t You Don't Learn in School, and I want to find out how she did it. 

• Follow Steph on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio
• Check out her new book: https://doingcontentright.com (Enter code "INDIE" to get 60% off!)
• Subscribe to her podcast: https://keeplearning.buzzsprout.com