“Buy time and move fast.”

Rafal Zawadzki has 9 months of runway left to hit ramen profitability, but he isn’t concerned. In fact, he’s confident that he’ll make it because there’s no other option.

Let’s take a peek at his finances. 👇

Workaholism and video games

Rafal is indie hacking full time. Seven days a week.

💰 “I get nervous when I’m away from work ‘signals’ (email, analytics, etc.) for too long. It’s way too similar to withdrawal symptoms.” —Rafal

His grandfather was relatively wealthy and both of his parents are small business owners, so he gets a lot of his money mentality from them — the good and the bad. Ambition, persistence, intuition, workaholism…

💰 ”I work a lot and I enjoy it. But I think I’m also in the process of acknowledging that working seven days a week is probably too much!” —Rafal

He just really likes to build systems and solve problems.

💰 ”I love to play computer games. It’s another venue to solve problems. But it’s too easy because you follow a pre-designed path. Entrepreneurship gives me the thrill that I’m looking for. I play games when I feel beaten by the entrepreneurial path and need an easy win to improve my mood.” —Rafal

The good news is he isn’t beaten yet.

Hard numbers

Here’s what Rafal’s bringing in:

• Spell revenue: $850/mo

• Chatwith revenue: $900/mo

• Actionize: $165 total (validation phase)

• Plugin.surf: $600 total (SEO play)

• Gobble.bot: $0 (turning into lead magnet)

• Other funding: $3k personal investment

• Founder pay: $0

• Bank accounts: 9 months of runway

Here’s a look at his business expenses:

• OpenAI: ~$400/mo

• Supabase: $130/mo

• Vercel: $40/mo

• Mailerlite: $70/mo

• Accounting: ~$170/mo

• Paid ads (Google, Meta, and occasional directory/newsletter): ~$1k/mo

• Misc (Helicone, HelpKit, Upstash, ScrapingAnt, Plausible, Framer, etc.): ~$190/mo

He also purchases new domains more often than necessary. 😂

And here are his personal expenses:

• Rent/utilities: $1k/mo

• Food/transportation/misc: ~$1k/mo

Reinvesting revenue

Rafal currently reinvests all revenue back into his businesses.

💰 ”Time is of the essence. I have not reached ramen profitability yet and my runway is relatively short.” —Rafal

He has 9 months of runway left. He says he has to make it by then, no matter what.

💰 ”There’s no other option. I will make it! :)” —Rafal

If he doesn’t, he’ll stop reinvesting his revenue and start paying himself. Then, he’ll just cut spending and “coast” toward higher revenue. Worst case, he’ll dip into his investments or do a little freelancing.

But it's more than just runway. Rafal is in a hurry because he’s in a relatively new area of AI (GPTs) so he wants to quickly grab as much market attention as he possibly can.

So most of his reinvestment goes into ads. He also outsources small projects and tasks to speed things up.

Here’s what he’s spent on outsourcing to date.

• Slack bot: $80

• Telegram bot: $80:

• ActivePieces integration: $50

• Pipedream integration: $50

• WhatsApp integration: $180

• MVP of a new product: $170

• Email template: $50

• Adding two apps to 25 directories: $50

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Lifetime deals

In the name of speed, financial breathing room, and customer feedback, Rafal worked with AppSumo to do lifetime deals. He has made about $22k from them to date.

That cash influx went right into ads.

💰 ”Doing AppSumo is like going to a pawn shop: You exchange long-term value for a quick injection of cash.” —Rafal

He initially tried to cut costs so that he could pump more into his ads, but it wasn’t enough.

💰 ”That’s something I’ve learned at VC-funded startups: Until you reach PMF and get a market foothold, most problems are best solved with cash. Optimize costs later.” —Rafal

One of the biggest benefits of AppSumo, according to Rafal, is the customer feedback. He says AppSumo customers are demanding. You’ll get bombarded with feedback, feature requests, and bug reports that help you to improve your products.

Obviously, AppSumo is not a long-term play. He’d like to do subscriptions instead to get that sweet, sweet recurring revenue, but his products aren’t right for that model.

💰 ”If there are running costs and the product is used regularly, then subscriptions are best. If it’s more of a set-it-and-forget-it thing, or if it has a straightforward output, then go for one-time payment or usage-based pricing.” —Rafal

For now, he's focusing on one-time payments.

Holding investments

Rafal isn’t currently investing, as he’s trying to stretch his runway as far as he possibly can. But he’s holding the investments that he made previously.

He didn’t disclose how much he has invested, but it’s at a level where it gives him some peace of mind in case things go sideways. It isn’t enough to retire.

His crypto investments are mostly in BTC and ETH, but he also has a small amount (~$100) in every major coin: litecoin, dogecoin, cardano, polkadot, and 10 others.

As far as traditional investments, he invested primarily in popular ETFs (S&P 500). He also holds Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Amazon. And to diversify, he invested in energy (hydrogen and lithium) and developing countries’ ETFs.

In the not-too-distant future, he wants to make business investments in the form of acquisitions. He has already created a holding company (GmbH in Germany) for all of his products. When he has the money, he'll grow his holdings by acquiring promising products.

Buy cheap, buy twice

💰 ”Guilt comes from societal norms and I have quite a loose regard for many of them. If something brings you pleasure and doesn’t hurt anyone, why feel guilty about it?” —Rafal

Rafal doesn’t have many guilty pleasures. But he’s happy to spend where it counts.

💰 ”Don’t spend excessively, but don’t economize on purchases that have long-term value. ‘Buy cheap, buy twice.’” —Rafal

For example, a lot of folks go to IKEA for furniture. Not Rafal. He values nice, high-quality furniture. And he pays a premium for it. Why?

💰 ”I’m a homebody. And that’s how I like to express my taste. Some people buy watches or cars, I like to have nice furniture.” —Rafal

That’s also why he switched to Apple products and became a self-identified Apple fanboy. He used to change his Android phone every year or two. Now, he’s had the same iPhone since 2019.

Another thing he refuses to save on is his health. After all, you can’t get more “longer-term value” than health.

But he does save money in other ways. He lives in Berlin and says it has one of the best ratios of affordability to quality of life in Europe.

And he chose a life partner who shares his attitude toward finances; spending where it counts, but not spending excessively. That saves him both money and peace of mind.

Buy time and move fast

If Rafal could instill one thing into indie hackers, it’s this:

💰 ”Buy commodities; build differentiators.” —Rafal

You need to focus on what makes your product uniquely different. Skip the rest, at least in the beginning.

💰 ”Your customer very likely does not care that you hand coded your landing page or that your server costs only $5 a month instead of $29.” —Rafal

He says those are commodities and they should be outsourced to third parties. Don’t build them. And don’t worry about the cost.

💰 ”Don’t over-optimize your costs. Too often, I see makers dedicate hours of their time to saving $9/mo in cloud hosting or some other service. Instead, buy time and move fast. It’s Economics 101. Someone else has already specialized and created an optimal solution to your problem. Buy it, then focus on building your product.” —Rafal

You can find Rafal on X or check out Chatwith and Spell.

Please note that the above are opinions. This is meant for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be financial advice.

And if you'd like to be featured as a guest in a future interview for this series, let me know in the comments!

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