Indie Hackers

In this episode I'm talking to John O'Nolan (@JohnONolan), the founder of Ghost. For the last year, he's been living on a sailboat and growing his company remotely. I want to ask him about what decisions he made early on that put constraints on how and why Ghost grows.

• Follow John on Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnonolan
• Check out Ghost: https://ghost.org/

Today I'm talking to James Layfield (@layfield) a founder who put $3M of his own money into his company Clearfind. I want to find out how he pulled that off and how he's outsmarting the what he calls the "rigged-game" of Venture Capital. 

• Check out Clearfind: https://home.clearfind.com/
• Follow James on Twitter: https://twitter.com/layfield

In this episode I talk to my buddy Julian Shapiro about proven growth tactics for a SaaS he's seen within Demand Curve. I also want to find out what he did to grow his own Twitter audience to over 200k in basically a year. We'll also dig into the details of a side project he and I have been working on. 

• Listen to our new podcast: https://www.brainspodcast.com/
• Follow Julian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/julian
• Check out Demand Curve: https://www.demandcurve.com/
• Sign up for Julian's newsletter: https://www.getrevue.co

My guest today is Michele Hansen (@mjwhansen) and she is here to challenge the stereotype that developers fear talking to customers and are naturally bad at it. We'll also get into specific principles and tactics from her recent book, "Deploy Empathy: A Practical Guide to Interviewing Customers."

• Read Deploy Empathy: https://deployempathy.com/
• Follow Michele on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mjwhansen
• Check out her podcast: https://softwaresocial.dev/

In this episode I catch up with Rob Fitzpatrick (@robfitz) about his new book, Write Useful Books. We'll talk about how he approaches book-writing like product development and why the sales graphs for his books look more like a hockey stick instead of shark fin. 

• Follow Rob on Twitter: https://twitter.com/robfitz
• Read The Mom Test: http://momtestbook.com/
• Read Write Useful Books: https://writeusefulbooks.com/

In this episode I talk to Indie Hacker Valentin Hinov (@ValCanBuild). He is someone caught the pandemic wave in the best way possible. He came up with an idea that not only helps teams feel more connected but also removed a huge pain for team managers. I'll ask him how he built it and how the model for the product has a built-in growth mechanism. 

• Send a Thankbox: https://www.thankbox.com/
• Follow Val on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ValCanBuild
• Read Val's journey: ValCanBuild.tech

In this episode I catch up with Samy Dindane (@SamyDindane), the creator of Twitter growth tool Hypefury. I'll ask him how he found his co-founder from an Indie Hackers post, how he grew Hypefury past $20K MRR, and why indie hackers don't have to solve a completely unique problem to be successful. 

• Hypefury Twitter: https://twitter.com/hypefury
• Hypefury Podcast: https://hypefury.com/podcast/

Michael Seibel (@mwseibel) and I discuss the secret sauce of what goes on inside Y Combinator and how indie hackers can create it for themselves. And because Michael sees nearly 2,000 startups a year--we'll find out the difference between companies that make it and companies that don't. 

• Follow Michael on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mwseibel
• Read startup advice on the YC Startup Library: https://www.startupschool.org/
• Apply for a YC batch: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply

My guests today have a really exciting business model and strategy that I want to dig into. Dan Shipper (@danshipper) and Nathan Baschez (@nbashaw) are the founders of Every, a bundle of business focused newsletters. By structuring Every as a "collective," the writers are happier, the readers are getting better content, and Every is profitable.  I want to find out how they get readers, how they get writers, and how "bundling" can be strategic for indie hackers. 

• Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/
• Follow Nathan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nbashaw
• Follow Dan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/danshipper

Sam Parr (@theSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) have both sold their businesses and are currently hosting one of the best business podcasts out there. In this episode, we talk about what it's like to be in their position now and what kind of businesses they would start if they were doing it all over today.

• Listen to My First Million: https://thehustle.co/my-first-million-podcast/
• Follow Sam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theSamParr
• Follow Shaan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShaanVP