26-year-old gets comfortable with yet another failure by limiting risk

26-year-old Stefan Savevski is becoming more confident as an indie hacker thanks to a string of failures.

His latest failure — 2-year, 70-hour-per-week project — failed when his entire team finally burned out. But the learnings that he took away from the experience have already helped him in his most recent project, Armor Wallet.

It's pre-revenue, but he's making a living from it. Let's take a peek at his finances.

From freelancing to crypto startups

Stefan's journey to indie hacking started with freelance copywriting. He made his first $500 when he was 18 years old and immediately went on a shopping spree, buying gifts for his parents, grandparents, and friends.

The next month, he spent it all on himself. And the third month, he had money left over and didn’t know what to do with it. So he picked up a book on what to do with the extra money and started reading.

Then, he started saving. Then, he started investing.

Then, he started building companies. And now he's on his second crypto startup.

Failing with CryptEarn

He started CryptEarn with a whopping five cofounders. They went all-in on the product for two years, working 70+ hours per week in addition to full-time jobs.

But it wasn't working, so they did a Hail Mary. They took part in a reality show for startups called The Founder Games. The plan was to win it all and take home the prize money: $750k.

While on the show, they pivoted, launched, and got 4k users within just five weeks. But they got 4th place.

Next, they planned to win a "venturethon" by Soonami for $125k, but that was a bust as well.

After two long years, the entire team felt demoralized. They were burned out. And they had other projects they wanted to work on. So, though they had planned to do one more push to monetize, they called it quits.

It might look like a failure, but ultimately, I think of it as a major success. If it weren't for CryptEarn and all the roads we crossed together as friends, we wouldn't be who we are today. And we wouldn't be in the positions we're in.

Becoming comfortable with failure

Failure was not an option for them, but in the end, they failed.

This wasn't Stefan's first failure. In his short career, he has failed at dropshipping, self-help courses, an ebook about freelancing, a YouTube channel, a game, a vape store in the Philippines, and now, CryptEarn.

And it probably won't be his last failure either. But he's okay with that. He's comfortable with failing — it's just part of being an indie hacker.

I’m trying to build something that’s going to break that curse of working for a salary, and that may take time. I’m comfortable with missing ten times and hitting a home run on the 11th try. All it takes is one success.

Cofounding Armor Wallet

While everyone else in CryptEarn took some much-needed time off, Stefan got to work on Armor Wallet right away.

He started as a contractor in business development, then quickly became the marketing manager, and now, just three months after joining, he's a cofounder. All his experience with CryptEarn really paid off in the end.

Armor Wallet is an AI-powered crypto wallet that takes the emotion out of investing. He says you can think of it like "ChatGPT + Metamask + Unibot." You talk to it with prompts and it uses AI agents to complete tasks for you.

He likes this one more than CryptEarn because it has a solid monetizing structure and the value is easily understood by everyone. He's learning from those failures.

Getting funding is like dating

Armor Wallet is fully bootstrapped at the moment, but they're testing the waters with investors.

It's not his first time looking for funding — CryptEarn got $25k from an angel investor at one point. And his advice from the experience is to, "Look at talking to VCs like talking to girls."

If a VC thinks you’re desperate, they’ll run the other way. But if you’re bootstrapping, completely casual about what you’re building, and act like you don’t need their help, they’ll fall head over heels in love with you. I guess that’s just human psychology.

So far, the responses from investors have been quite positive.

Armor Wallet revenue

Stefan is indie hacking full time. He splits his time — roughly 50 hours per week — between Armor Wallet, freelancing, and creating content on X. Freelancing and X only take up about 10 hours per week, so that leaves 40 hours for Amor Wallet.

Let's take a look at what he's bringing in

• Armor Wallet revenue: $0 — prelaunch, going live in October

• Founder pay: $1.2k/mo

• Freelancing: $600-$1k/mo

• Sponsored posts on X: $1k/mo

• Personal bank account: $20k

Taking money from a business with no revenue is unusual, but he's able to do this because the majority owner is bankrolling it out of his savings in the early days.

Making $1k/mo — between $125 and $350 per post — from sponsored content is a bit unusual too. Especially since he only has 2k followers. To do this, he says you need a following that is the exact target of a product that's seeking advertising. And you need to be connected with KOL ("key opinion leader") managers.

Investing in crypto

Stefan also makes money from his investments.

He only invests in crypto because he says it has the highest ROI. So far he has invested about $25k in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, Avax, and Zilliqa.

Yes, it's high risk, but that's what he wants right now. High risk; high reward.

Since I’m young, I can take on a hell of a lot of risk. But in about 10 years or so, I won’t be able to do that. I’ll be looking at stable investments — the get-rich-slow kind, like mutual funds, real estate, and precious metals.

And he points out that, despite the negative stigma, traditional finance and governments are waking up to the power of blockchain. Governments are creating CBDCs and adding lots of regulation. He says crypto is the future.

Money is about to change — the faster you get on board with crypto, the more prepared you'll be for the future.

He suggests being mindful of scams, though, as there are a lot of them. And he says it's important to remember that crypto moves in four-year cycles — expect earnings to fluctuate accordingly.

Armor Wallet expenses

Here are his monthly business expenses. They're pretty low while they build, but they may go up after launch.

• ChatGPT: $20

• Grammarly: $140 a year, so that comes out to $10 a month

• Copyscape: $5

• Office rent: $125 ($250 split with his girlfriend)

Personal expenses

And here are his monthly personal expenses. Again, super cheap. He says that's one of the cool things about living in North Macedonia.

• Rent: $0 — he lives with his parents

• Electricity: $50

• Water: $15

• Trash: $10

• Phone and internet: $25

• Food: $100

• Going out with friends: $50  

• Shopping: $0

• Gas: $60

Make more money

Stefan has no interest in budgeting. And he doesn't need to, given the low costs in his country.

He says that, when a big expense comes up, he just does more freelance, takes care of the expense, then gets back to normal. In his mind, earning more is what's important; not saving more.

Things aren’t expensive, you’re just not making enough money.

With that said, he does keep his expenses lower than most — even for North Macedonia.

Mitigate startup risk

To save money, he lives with his parents. No mortgage. Not rent. And very few expenses in the way of food or bills.

He says this is customary in his country. And it's the reason that he feels so comfortable taking risks.

Just knowing that I won’t be financially ruined if something fails is enough for me to keep grinding.

He expects success to happen at some point in the next 4-5 years and he's happy to wait. He says he just has to put in the work.

Traveling on the cheap

Traveling is important to Stefan, but he does it on the cheap. He says that he can do a 10-day vacation by the sea in Greece for $400, total. Bucharest is only $300.

He's able to get these prices because he knows where to stay and eat, and he doesn't go on big spending sprees.

But he suggests working through travel agencies and booking either early or at the very last minute. Forgo the July and August vacations. Instead, go for mid-September. It'll be 5x cheaper.

And here's a "secret deal" that he's found: Travel agencies buy out the rights to host people on private properties. All you have to do is go in and ask about it. And leave your email for any new deals that come up.

As for keeping costs down when you get there, don’t fall for the common tourist traps. Instead, do what the locals do. Go where they eat and shop where they shop. It might be a five minute drive out of town, but it’s worth it.

Educate yourself about finances

Stefan suggests educating yourself on personal finances as soon as possible. It's incredibly important, but most kids don't learn it — particularly in North Macedonia, where it's taboo to talk about money.

He had to teach himself by reading books. Here are his top picks:

• The Intelligent Investor

• The Psychology of Money

• Rich Dad Poor Dad

• Investing In Gold and Silver

• The Fiat Standard

• The Bitcoin Standard

• The Metaverse

He notes that, while not all of these are finance books, it's good to know what's going on in the world, and to get an idea of how to look at trends vs hype.

Everyone should read personal finance books. Start with Rich Dad Poor Dad and The Psychology of Money. Once you read those, you'll know what to do.

You can follow along with Stefan's successes and failures on X or reach out on Telegram (@savevski). And check out Armor Wallet.

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