No no no, this is not for me. I'm never going to start a business. It's insane.
Peldi Guilizzoni of Balsamiq ($6MM/year)
That was the goal: to not have to work for other people, and to create what I wanted to create.
Rob Walling, founder of Drip
Educate yourself about everything about business. Get that broad, universal perspective first. It doesn’t take very long.
Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA
You have to have a willingness to ask for help.
Vicky Hsu, CEO of Habitica
The first huge win was getting the first paying customer… I literally got $5 in my Paypal account, but I was jumping around the room.
Joel Gascoigne of Buffer ($19MM/year)
My business is set to break over $1M in revenue this year, and I am the only employee.
Mike Carson of Park.io ($1.5MM/year)
The best decision I made was shipping my MVP even though it felt way too early.
Mitch Colleran of Join It ($18K/mo)
Remember to talk about your company. People need to hear about what you’re doing.
Shuan He of Maze Engineers ($100K/mo)
Learn to handle failure. It's the hardest thing, but once you get over it, nothing can stop you.
Hari Krishna Dulipudi of VisaList ($700/mo)
Our ultimate goal is to get to ramen profitability, and be able to live off of our profits.
Alexandra Persea of Burner Mail ($400/mo)
If you're waiting for the 'perfect time' to come along, it never will.
Hiram Nuñez of Tee Tweets ($1.2K/mo)
Don’t listen to people who say you can’t make it work as a single founder.
Colin Gray of Alitu ($3.4K/mo)
Don’t look to your competitors for inspiration. Get a sense of your market, but then push past it.
Diony McPherson of Paperform ($26K/mo)
Do sales, not marketing. Even if you're giving your product away for free, start with one-on-one sales.
Grey Baker of Dependabot ($11K/mo)
Once I hit $4,000 in monthly revenue, I quit my job to go full-time on CoderPad.
Vincent Woo of CoderPad ($4MM/year)
We are bootstrapping, living off of our savings, and building everything ourselves
Julia Enthoven of Kapwing ($24K/mo)
I was profitable within the first year, making over a million in annual revenue.
Christy Laurence of PLANN ($83K/mo)
If it's a good idea, you just have to suck it up, that it's going to get stolen.
Christy Laurence of PLANN ($83K/mo)
It started out as just a fun side project to teach myself how to code.
Tracy Osborn of WeddingLovely ($8K/mo)
Sell to other businesses if you can, customers that won't flinch at $200/month. Sell to people who have money!
Jeff Atwood of Discourse ($120K/mo)
My current goal is to get 1,000 customers signed up. It can be done.
Emmanuel Straschnov of Bubble ($136K/mo)
A good hack for surrounding yourself by influential people, if you can't do that, is reading about them.
Daniel Gross of Pioneer
Given equal founder skill, e-commerce and mobile apps succeed much more frequently than SaaS startups do.
Julian Shapiro of Bell Curve
I've been noticing this theme of very small moments causing very large life changes in people…
Daniel Gross of Pioneer
Bubble has more than 100,000 users, a team of six people, and is still entirely bootstrapped.
Emmanuel Straschnov of Bubble ($136K/mo)
The barriers for indie hackers nowadays are so low. Part of my motivation was simply not wanting to be a wantrepreneur forever!
Pete Codes of Tech Press List ($620/mo)
You are where you are. What you do next is more important.
Gary Bury of Timestastic ($28K/mo)
Don't worry about the technology you use — just ship the product as soon as possible.
Michal Ptacek of Officelovin' ($3K/mo)
We offered personal demos to every single person that signed up, during which time we attracted more than 800 users.
Wyatt Jozwowski of Demo ($43K/mo)
I'm a firm believer that almost any skill can be taught. You don't have to magically be born with it.
Hamed of Al-Khabbaz Stay22 ($5K/mo)
If you're a programmer, you're going to need to learn (or outsource) copywriting and marketing.
James Rose of Content Snare ($960/mo)
We bootstrapped from day one, and I'm so happy we did!
Sandra Lewis of Worldwide 101 ($275K/mo)
It began as a personal project, so I was the only validation I needed. I just coded it and used it personally. I'm still the only full-time employee.
Garth Adams of I Want That Flight ($110K/mo)
This business basically started as a one-man show, and even today it's still just the two of us.
Michael Hebenstreit of MH Themes ($30K/mo)
After a couple years working corporate, I really wanted to quit my job.
Gunhee Park of Populum ($70K/mo)
Get started with sales as soon as possible. We hackers never pay enough attention to how important sales are.
Santiago Basulto of rmotr ($17K/mo)
I had zero experience running a website, writing professionally, coaching, or building an online audience.
Jon Sherman of Practical Golf ($3K/mo)
I was a bit of a fanatical saver at the time. I think I still had some birthday money from my 8th birthday party in my savings account. Which is great if you want to start a business straight out of college.
Andrew Elliott of GoDesignerGo ($1.5K/mo)
We had no one to answer to but ourselves, and that gave us the liberty to take as much time as we needed.
Sol Orwell of Examine.com ($100K/mo)
Focus on a problem you fully understand. Even if it's a tiny niche.
Stefan Klumpp of Bugfender ($12K/mo)
Do it on the side. Store up enough cash in reserve and give it a go before it's too late.
Mike Stott of Epic Plugins ($5K/mo)
Start. That means develop your product and launch it. Don't wait for it to be perfect.
Mehdi Kajbaf of Matboard and More ($170K/mo)
Listen to your customers! This turns them into loyal customers. And loyal customers bring you new customers.
Ryan Frahm of Shoppe ($120K/mo)
Reach out and ask questions. You’d be surprised how many responses you get if you are candid, have integrity, and aren’t a pushy asshole about it.
Om Suthar of SQRL ($1K/mo)
I've been self-employed for basically all of my adult life, minus a 7-week lapse in judgment right out of college.
Josh Pigford of Baremetrics ($134K/mo)
Ship stuff. Building a product and showing no one is the easiest thing in the world.
Rob Caraway of GifShare ($10K/mo)
Believe in what you're building! If you don't, people's negativity will rip you apart more than anything else.
Ervin Kalemi of Publer ($3K/mo)
First think about how you're going to distribute your product, then work backwards from there.
Kyle Davidson of Sourced Adventures ($125K/mo)
Today, creating a website is easier, marketing is becoming easier, and accepting payments is much easier.
Chris Patton of Punchpass ($27K/mo)
I kept building sites that ultimately failed, until I built sites that didn't fail. I just learned by trial and error.
Dominic Wells of Human Proof Designs ($108K/mo)
Spend a weekend being as idealistic as possible—you can always study and learn later, but you can’t do it the other way around.
Sahil Lavingia of Gumroad ($350K/mo)
Getting Plutio off the ground was a challenge. While this series of failures demotivated me, they also fueled me to keep going.
Leo Bassam of Plutio ($8K/mo)
Raise your prices. We have raised our prices three times and made more money.
Ketan Anjaria of HireClub ($14K/mo)
If you fail, then start again, over and over, until you succeed.
Luca Micheli of Customerly ($4K/mo)
Don't overthink it. Figure out what makes your product special and copy the rest.
Evan Marshall of Plain Jane ($70K/mo)
Your first goal should be to get something tangible out there that people can use.
Ed Vinicombe of UXClub ($450/mo)
Always start by working your way back to your north star—what change do you want to bring to yourself and the world?
Buster Benson of 750 Words ($20K/mo)
Getting some initial traction is the hardest. it didn't happen overnight. But we believed in the product, so we kept going.
Adrian Spiac of TranslatePress ($10K/mo)
Launching a SaaS is relatively easy. Making it a success is not.
Malte Scholz of airfocus.io ($14K/mo)
Research your customers, understand their pain points, and build them something they already want.
Dave Ceddia of Pure React ($3K/mo)
Do what you enjoy and what you are passionate about. Those are the things you’ll master.
Bohumil Pokštefl of Kontentino ($51K/mo)
Do not plan! Do the trial and error process instead.
Bohumil Pokštefl of Kontentino ($51K/mo)
Start charging early and don't wait until the product is ready.
Manuel Frigerio of Maître ($13K/mo)
What really worked for me is building a small product. The big picture I have for Logojoy will take years.
Dawson Whitfield of Logojoy ($70K/mo)
When you bootstrap your business, you keep a lot more options for a successful outcome on the table.
Jan Schulz-Hofen of Planio ($110K/mo)
Don't have twins while trying to build a startup.
Dave Child of Readable.io ($16K/mo)
Ideas are worth nothing unless you make it. Test your ideas quickly and keep improving.
Harry Chen of Altcademy ($7K/mo)
Start small. When you're just getting started, make sure you get a few small wins under your belt.
Moe Amaya of HTML Color Codes ($1.3K/mo)
Invest in your customers. Learn about them. Empathize with them. This is the most important thing you can do.
Jordan Gonen of Disrupt Cards ($1.5K/mo)
If we were just trying to fix a problem, we would have quit 2 years ago. We're trying to right a wrong.
Andrew Carpenter of Intrinio ($10K/mo)
Find something you love, and then just take a leap of faith.
Daniella Mancini of Scribly ($14K/mo)
I think your biggest asset is to know yourself, to know your strengths and weaknesses.
Ionut Neagu of ThemeIsle ($50K/mo)
Being able to make a good living from this is our version of a unicorn.
Kai Brach of Offscreen Magazine ($10K/mo)
Not every great idea has to be inspired by the mission that ultimately sustains it.
Christian Beck of UX Power Tools ($16K/mo)
Always start with the question of, 'What's the actual problem?'
Jon Brody of Ladder ($200K/mo)
A lot of people want to spend a lot of time building something crazy technical or complicated. Don't.
Joel Runyon of Paleo Meal Plans ($15K/mo)
I don't want to sound like a Nike shoe commercial, but just go do it. Just try it. That's the biggest thing.
Matt Verlaque of UpLaunch ($66K/mo)
Bootstrap. That should be the default answer. Almost all companies are bootstrapped and should be.
Jason Cohen of WP Engine ($133MM/year)
Be willing to try to do things your own way. You're going to fail if you try to copy the big guys.
AJ of Carrd ($30K/mo)
Don't build stuff you don't need right away. Focus on your customer first.
Eelco of Sjabloon ($1K/mo)
There is no single book, podcast, or program that has been the silver bullet for my success.
Dmitry Dragilev of JustReachOut.io ($30K/mo)
Be a part of the community you want to build your products or services for.
Puneet Sahalot of PowerPack ($20K/mo)
It's just a question of what you want. You should filter things through a rubric of what you enjoy doing.
Lynne Tye of Key Values ($25K/mo)
Be good with asking for advice. Preface it with what your goals are, and what your circumstances are.
Lynne Tye of Key Values ($25K/mo)
Since anything can work, take the advice that really resonates with you.
Jason Cohen of WP Engine ($133MM/year)
Learning to code was just incredible. It let me move so much faster. You can get the idea out there and bring it to life.
Matt Verlaque of UpLaunch ($66K/mo)
I'm thinking about my business all day long. All weekend, all night, before I go to sleep, when I wake up, in the shower, when I'm working out, always. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Natalie Nagele of Wildbit
We're not in medicine or accounting where there's real rules to follow. There's no rules here. So we get to invent them however we want.
Natalie Nagele of Wildbit
Always start by working your way back to your north star—what change do you want to bring to yourself and the world?
Buster Benson of 750 Words ($20K/mo)
All it takes is a few minutes of one-to-one, human-to-human interaction for a feedback call to turn into a first sale.
Asad Khan of LambdaTest ($50K/mo)
If there's anything valuable I learned these past few months, it’s that whatever you're struggling to do, do it in public.
Othmane of 1kProjects ($600/mo)
I can't stress how important blogging is… my evergreen blog posts from 2013 continue to receive a lot of traffic today.
Al Chen of KeyCuts ($250/mo)
Try making something simple first. I know everyone says it, but they say it because it’s true.
Razvan Ciocanel of EpixPxls ($500/mo)
Not every great idea has to be inspired by the mission that ultimately sustains it.
Christian Beck of UX Power Tools ($16K/mo)
I continued to launch and continued to flop, but I never considered giving up.
Vikas Yadav of GrumpyText ($3K/mo)
Validate your idea before writing a line of code.
Emma Lawler of Moonlight ($55K/mo)
My approach has always been hackish. I paid little attention to best practices.
Robin Singh of E-junkie ($70K/mo)
Stop talking. Listen. If the pain is strong enough, someone will pay you for it.
Nate Ritter of PingBid ($15K/mo)
It's completely fine if you don't know what you're doing.
Austin Ginder of Anchor Hosting ($21K/mo)
It's completely fine if you don't know what you're doing.
Austin Ginder of Anchor Hosting ($21K/mo)
You can’t get anything out if you don’t put anything in.
Aurelien Amacker of Systeme.io ($50K/mo)
I don't understand why most startups don't sell services or online courses on top of their software.
Aurelien Amacker of Systeme.io ($50K/mo)
When everyone has a real stake in the outcome, things tend to get done, and to get done well.
Alexander Lashkov of Linguix.com ($1K/mo)
Giving up a fraction of $1,000,000 is better than owning 100% of a company with zero revenue.
Alexander Lashkov of Linguix.com ($1K/mo)
Giving up a fraction of $1,000,000 is better than owning 100% of a company with zero revenue.
Alexander Lashkov of Linguix.com ($1K/mo)
When everyone has a real stake in the outcome, things tend to get done, and to get done well.
Alexander Lashkov of Linguix.com ($1K/mo)
My validation came mostly from speaking to developers on Indie Hackers and Reddit.
Kyle Gawley of Gravity ($2.7K/mo)
I realized that sometimes in order to make a project work it takes a lot of persistence.
David Walker of Paddle Logger ($1K/mo)
It's completely bootstrapped with less than $100/month in running costs.
Ben Tossell of Makerpad ($19K/mo)
It's completely bootstrapped with less than $100/month in running costs.
Ben Tossell of Makerpad ($19K/mo)
Do only the things you enjoy doing and find someone who'll pay you for it.
Kirill and Leonid of Mkdev.me ($12K/mo)
When it comes to roadblocks, I view them as growing pains as opposed to obstacles.
Ben Arellano of WP Courseware ($23K/mo)
My approach has always been hackish. I paid little attention to best practices.
Robin Singh of E-junkie ($70K/mo)
My approach has always been hackish. I paid little attention to best practices.
Robin Singh of E-junkie ($70K/mo)
Do only the things you enjoy doing and find someone who'll pay you for it.
Kirill and Leonid of Mkdev.me ($12K/mo)
Of course we made mistakes, but mistakes are how you grow. It's part of the game.
Aurelien Amacker of Systeme.io ($50K/mo)
Analysis paralysis is way worse than taking a risk and failing, which is actually learning.
Shannon McLaughlin of Ubuntu Baba ($20K/mo)
Analysis paralysis is way worse than taking a risk and failing, which is actually learning.
Shannon McLaughlin of Ubuntu Baba ($20K/mo)
Validate your idea before writing a line of code.
Emma Lawler of Moonlight ($55K/mo)
Do only the things you enjoy doing and find someone who'll pay you for it.
Kirill and Leonid of Mkdev.me ($12K/mo)
I never imagined that this plugin could be monetized, mostly because I was building it for myself.
Igor Benić of Simple Giveaways ($560/mo)
If you're just starting out, don't quit.
Igor Benić of Simple Giveaways ($560/mo)
I continued to launch and continued to flop, but I never considered giving up.
Vikas Yadav of GrumpyText ($3K/mo)
It's completely bootstrapped with less than $100/month in running costs.
Ben Tossell of Makerpad ($19K/mo)
Be willing to test and see how things go. Then when you have some success, drill in and make it repeatable.
Josh Ho of Referral Rock ($70K/mo)
I don't do any press, PR, guest posts, content marketing, or even SEO.
Ben Tossell of Makerpad ($19K/mo)
I don't do any press, PR, guest posts, content marketing, or even SEO.
Ben Tossell of Makerpad ($19K/mo)
Do only the things you enjoy doing and find someone who'll pay you for it.
Kirill and Leonid of Mkdev.me ($12K/mo)
I've always believed that indie businesses should charge from day one.
Kyle Gawley of Gravity ($2.7K/mo)
It took me around eight weeks of evenings and weekends to put together a proper MVP.
Kyle Gawley of Gravity ($2.7K/mo)
I honestly never even considered that it would have any commercial viability.
Kyle Gawley of Gravity ($2.7K/mo)
My validation came mostly from speaking to developers on Indie Hackers and Reddit.
Kyle Gawley of Gravity ($2.7K/mo)
For what was supposed to be a passive revenue stream, IntroCave started out pretty damn active.
Will Hankinson of IntroCave ($1.4K/mo)
For what was supposed to be a passive revenue stream, IntroCave started out pretty damn active.
Will Hankinson of IntroCave ($1.4K/mo)
Having a product I can own and tinker on has been a good way to stay fulfilled at my day job.
Will Hankinson of IntroCave ($1.4K/mo)
Having a product I can own and tinker on has been a good way to stay fulfilled at my day job.
Will Hankinson of IntroCave ($1.4K/mo)
Never shipping means never knowing or finding any sort of market.
Owen Williams of Charged ($2.2K/mo)
Never shipping means never knowing or finding any sort of market.
Owen Williams of Charged ($2.2K/mo)
Your users are more forgiving than you think!
Owen Williams of Charged ($2.2K/mo)
Trying and struggling looks like incompetence right up until the moment it looks like success.
Shane Parrish of Farnam Street