26-year-old dropped everything to build a better life. 17 years later, he's making $29k MRR.

43-year-old Sorin Alupoaie left everything behind to move with his wife from Romania to Dublin. After a period of uncertainty, he upleveled his income, then quit his job to focus on his business, Swifteq.

Now, he's making €26k MRR. Let's take a peek at his finances.

Taking a chance on Ireland

Seventeen years ago, Sorin and his wife moved from Romania to Ireland. It wasn't easy.

They did it for two reasons: escaping corruption and increasing their income potential. But until they both found jobs, which took a stressfully long time, it meant that they were living in a more expensive country with less income.

New country. No friends. No family. Little money. Living in a shared house. It was a big step down, both financially and otherwise.

But they kept their eyes on the prize. And with hard work and determination, they found jobs, and began to see the fruits of their labors.

Finding independence

These days, Sorin is a solo founder. Fully independent. He does exactly what he loves to do every day — he builds useful software for customers.

Money brings independence. That's the purpose of it.

His company, Swifteq, builds apps that expand the Zendesk platform to help customer support teams automate and streamline their workflows, allowing them to focus on providing a stellar customer experience.

It started as a side hustle. But after a year, he decided he had the revenue — €5k MRR — and savings to quit his job. So he started working full time.

Sorin needed that cushion before taking the leap. He says he "couldn't afford to" put his family's financial security at risk for his "entrepreneurial ambitions".

There’s a huge difference between indie hackers with families and those without. If you’re on your own, you can work 16 hours a day, cut all your expenses, and move to a low-cost country. But when you have a family, their needs come first. Your business has to come second.

But he needn't have worried. In less than 6 months after going full time on Swifteq, it was supporting him and then some.

Swifteq revenue

Swifteq's revenue has more than doubled in the past year. Here's what he's bringing in:

• Revenue: €26k MRR

• Funding: Savings

• Business savings account: A year of salary

• Personal savings account: €0

• Founder pay: €6.5k/mo gross (give or take)

He says his pay is high for a solo business, but Ireland is expensive and he has two kids. And anyway, he isn't into the idea that founders need to pay themselves as little as possible and reinvest every penny into the business.

If you can’t earn enough money from your business to live a decent life, it’s not worth it. Restraining yourself might work in the short term, but you’re betting your present on a possibly better future. If things don’t work out, you might look back and regret the times you said “no” to that well-deserved holiday with your family. 

Don't take cash injections

Sorin's a bootstrapper. His first startup took significant investment from an angel investor back in 2017, and he won't do that again.

I believe this approach — along with the mindset that invested capital is necessary to build a business — had a profoundly negative impact on how I approached every decision in the business. It ultimately contributed to the business' failure.

He believes bootstrapping should be the default, as cash injections give the "false impression that you're onto something" when you're not.

Worse, he says it leads to founders prioritizing investors over customers.

Invest in your future

As far as personal investments, Sorin only invests in his private pension fund, where he regularly contributes €1k/mo. He's using a shares-based plan, with more risk and higher potential returns.

According to Sorin, in Ireland, pension funds offer the most tax-efficient way to invest personal money. Personal income from other sources, such as dividends, rental income, or profit from investments, is heavily taxed — ranging from 33% to 52%.

Additionally, for business owners, investing into a pension fund allows them to allocate money before any tax is applied, providing significant tax savings.

He wants to have his future covered.

I need to make sure I have enough money to live comfortably when I retire. Also, it’s important to have a backup plan in case my entrepreneurial ventures don’t work out as planned.

Swifteq expenses

Here are his monthly business expenses:

• Salary: €6.5k

• Dev contracting: €3k

• Content marketing: €2.5k

• AWS: €1.2k

• Stripe fees: €800

All revenue beyond this is saved so that he can reinvest it back into the business — he plans to do that soon. Mostly in marketing and product development.

Personal expenses

Here are his monthly personal expenses:

• Mortgage: €1.5k

• Other loans: €400

• Groceries: €1.6k

• Other (going out, hobbies, etc.): €500

He has about €200k left to pay on that mortgage, with an interest rate of 2.75%. Luckily, they bought the house during the 2007-2009 recession, when prices were low. He says prices have gone up by 40-50% since 2015.

Don't count pennies

According to Sorin, the best thing you can do for your business, from a financial perspective, is to prioritize your work based on the return on your time investment. It's not easy, but it's important.

The best way to save money is to spend it on things that matter.

Sorin isn't a budgeter. He says counting pennies is too stressful. He'd rather focus on bigger financial decisions and long-term goals without sweating the small stuff.

You can easily go too far and become overly controlling about how you spend your money. It’s important to leave room for experimentation and trying new things.

He has no guilt spending money on things he likes. But he says his best purchases are always business books, startup podcasts, and startup conferences. These things inspire him.

And he loves to travel to events and talks — the relationships he's built this way have been particularly valuable.

Always side hustle first

Let's end with his best advice:

Always start on the side. Never quit your main job to start a new business, even if you have some initial savings or an investor. I made this mistake with my previous startup and it cost me dearly.

He says that rather than being motivating, financial pressure is an unnecessary stress.

When you’re stressed, your brain goes into fight-or-flight mode. You can’t think straight, and you make poor decisions.

You can follow Sorin on X and Linkedin. And check out Swifteq.

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