indie • hacker
noun
- creator of an online project or venture that can generate revenue
- person seeking financial independence, creative freedom, and the ability to work on their own schedule
So… how do you start?
It's easier than ever to become an indie hacker. But without any guidance, it's also easy to never start at all.
This page includes acomprehensive guide to help you get started.
See what's possible.
Whether your goal is to make $10,000/month and quit your job, or to make some extra cash from a side hustle, the best place to start is to learn from those who've done it before.
Focus: Do Less, So You Can Do It Better
Skills You Should Know As an Indie Hacker
Reasons why you should begin by teaching
Going From Developer to Entrepreneur
How-tos and tips for productizing your services
The fastest products to build
Soft Launch, Don’t Stress Launch
Earn More by Solving Valuable Problems
Make a Simple, Lovable, Complete Product
The Hardest Lessons for Startups to Learn
Sell Before You Build to Avoid the #1 Mistake
Product-Market Fit: The Only Thing that Matters
The Most Crucial Skills to Have As a Founder
How to Brainstorm Great Business Ideas
The Four Fits Framework to a $100M Product
Don't Start With a SaaS: Do a Tiny Product First
Building a $55,000/mo SaaS Business for Music
Making $100,000/mo Teaching People to Code
Growing to $40k/mo Without Coding
Jeff Atwood on Growing Discourse to $120k/mo
Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting
How to Get Rich Without Getting Lucky
How John O'Nolan Grew Ghost to $750,000/yr
How to Start a Startup: The Three Essentials
From Small Side Project to Booming Business
A Framework for Finding Fulfillment
How I Made $211k Selling a PDF and a Video
Bootstrapping My Lifestyle Biz to $20k/mo
How I Went from Indie Lurker to Indie Hacker
$322 → $2K MRR in 60 Days Building in Public
A Step-by-Step Guide of $0–$10k MRR in 4 Months
Why a Lifestyle Business Beats a Startup
Take the leap.
It's time to take concrete steps to turn your dreams into actions. Follow the steps below to make critical decisions on what you're going to create, and how.
Why Smart People Have Bad Startup Ideas
Extreme Questions to Trigger New, Better Ideas
Validation is Backwards
How to Brainstorm Great Business Ideas19 Tactics for Validating Your Product
Turning side projects into profitable startupsSuccessful founders on how they found their ideas
7 Steps to Find a Technical Co-founder
Traps to Avoid When Consulting for Funding
27 places to find co-founders
Half-Assed Startup: How to Keep Your Day Job
Deciding whether to have a side gig or quit your job
Finding the Time for Side Projects
Build a Project Without Quitting Your Day Job
Running a Biz Before It Can Support You
How to Get Runway Before Going Full Time
Expenses You Don't Think of When Starting
Maximizing Runway Can Minimize Success
Running a Business on 5 Hours a Week
Don't Quit Your Day Job (…Yet)
How to feel less isolated as a solo founder
Community discussion: Should you find a co-founder?
Build in Public.
Now that you've written your blueprints, it's time to build! Below, you'll find resources for putting your project together and presenting it to the world.
Reaching out to bloggers to find your first users
How a Marketing Expert Would Launch on a $1,000 Budget
Build a landing page that converts
Product launch checklist
You should build fast. Here's how.
Tools other founders have used to build their products
How to build a product without code
100+ places to launch and list your product
Grow and thrive.
It's time to start growing now that your product is live. And whether that means growing your customer base or designing a sustainable business lifestyle, you'll find helpful resources below.
Strategies for improving customer retention
Ideas on scaling with a low budget
How to engineer word-of-mouth growth
7 steps to reduce churn
11 marketing channels that work for founders
3 sales tips for indie hackers
A lifestyle-first approach to passive income
How to enjoy entrepreneurship over the long term
Organizing your day as a founder