43-year-old lives on a boat and launched an MVP while crossing the Atlantic

For the past three years, 43-year-old Thomas Wink has been living the digital nomad dream, sailing and working from his boat.

Just weeks ago, he finished the MVP for MARQT AI while crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a breathtaking solo, non-stop trip from Colombia to the Azores.

Dodging hurricanes and launching MVPs

MARQT AI, which started off as one of Thomas' side hustles, has slowly evolved into a full-time commitment. Teaming up with a good friend, who is a marketing specialist, and bringing on a talented designer, they just launched their MVP a few weeks ago, which turned out to be an adventure in itself.

“I had to ‘run’ from hurricane Beryl in the Caribbean Sea and almost hit a dead whale while approaching The Azores.”

It took him four weeks to sail the 3,780 nautical mile trip, and by the end of it, they launched the first version of the marketing tool.

With MARQT AI, Thomas aims to democratize market research by offering a low-cost solution for start-ups and scale-ups, giving businesses a competitive advantage at a time when resources are tight.

It all started with boats

Thomas’ indie hacking journey began when he set up his online chandlery, selling nautical items for ships and boats. Using his dad's connections in the boating industry, he started the online business, getting supplier contracts and filling the catalog with products. This was in the early 2000's, when he had built an ERP suite of tools with a webshop module, among other things. Although SEO was still quite new then, within two weeks of going live, he received his first orders just from organic search.

“I was ecstatic, of course, and considered myself ‘a true entrepreneur’.”

After running the business for five years, Thomas acknowledged that he was burning out. While he had enjoyed building the business, the tools, and even marketing, he decided the retail market was not for him and promptly sold the business.

Time as the most precious currency

Currently, the Dutchman who grew up in South Africa lives on his boat and follows the summer where it goes.

His philosophy about money has evolved from worshipping to despising it, and now he finds himself somewhere in the middle. While he views money as essential for survival and to achieve certain goals in work and life, he has decided what would be "enough" for him without falling into the trap of increasing the amount that he needs.

“I think I've found a balance between what I aspire to in work and also my personal life: adventure, friendships, love, and fulfillment.”

For Thomas, time is really the most precious currency in life, which he tries to spend well.

Sources of income

Thomas funds his adventurous lifestyle by living frugally, working on freelance gigs, and side projects.

Besides MARQT AI, he works as a freelance full-stack developer and tries to keep his savings in the savings account.

• MARQT AI revenue: $0—prelaunch

• Personal bank account: $5,000

• Freelance business account: $3,000

• Founder pay: $0

• Investments: $12,000

MARQT AI Expenses

MARQT AI offers a subscription-based service, starting with a free subscription. As they just launched the first MVP recently, the immediate focus is on usage over income. While the product isn't driving revenue yet, parts of the wider project have produced income through other sources.

Development costs (last four months):

• API costs: $3,510

• VMs: $564

Running costs last month:

• API costs: $80

• Costs for VM's: $67.50

As a Microsoft Azure Partner, they have received $25,000 in credit on the platform. This gives them the ability to develop and use VMs, AI API costs, etc.

Thomas prefers bootstrapping to VC funding due to its scope for sustainable growth and independence. However, if a trusted party offered to invest venture capital, he says he would definitely consider it.

“The SaaS market is incredibly competitive, and some VC could give us the edge we need.”

Personal expenses

While budgeting doesn't rule his life, Thomas claims he’s probably “the worst consumer”

out there.

"As a Dutchman, I can say you would be hard pressed to get a coin out of me.”

He has strict priorities for what he spends money on and how much. According to him, the less he spends, the more time he has to enjoy the free things in life, which are many.

Every month when he pays out his "salary," he makes a mental note about how much he spent and can usually account for why it goes up or down. The only guilty pleasures he spends on are the occasional bag of chips, beer, and a pack of cigarettes.

Here are his monthly personal expenses:

• Boat maintenance: $460

• Travel: $70

• Insurances: $220

• Food and drink: $350

• Internet: $110

• Clothing: $25

• Other: $15

Living rent-free on his boat

Thomas sees sailing as his biggest investment. All the time, money, and effort spent traveling and maintaining his boat saves him a lot on rent.

While it would admittedly be more financially prudent to sell the boat, rent a place, and work full-time for a financial institution, he knows from experience that that life makes him miserable.

"I have less money to spend, but more time and energy to experience life."

He attributes his freedom to freelancing, which also enables him to choose which assignments he works on. For example, building a teaching tool for dyslexic children gives him much more satisfaction than maintaining the infrastructure of savings and loans for a bank, having done both of those things.

He also keeps his costs low by looking for bargains, buying second-hand gear, and doing all the boat maintenance myself. His experience working in a shipyard a few years ago to learn more about diesel engine maintenance and repair comes in handy here.

While he could have made a lot more money doing an IT job during that time, he sees it as time was well spent since he can now save a lot on mechanic bills for the rest of his life.

Diverse investments

After some buying and selling on short-term investments, Thomas has now decided to buy into a diverse selection of dividend funds.

“It goes up and down, but I managed to get about a 10% return, which is a lot better than the negative interest rate my bank gave me on the savings account.”

Investments:

• Diverse selection of dividend funds: $12,000

• Crypto: $900

While he’s debt-free, Thomas admits he’s not saving much for retirement, but he does have a retirement scheme attached to when he worked as an employee in the past. Eventually, he plans on growing his investments over the next 25 years.

Skipping insurance and not buying property

Apart from the mandatory insurance dictated by his government, Thomas does not have any insurance. This decision comes from observing his countrymen’s exaggerated risk-avoidant approach to life. He doesn't want to be one of those people who worries all the time just because of material goods.

"Some people can't even enjoy a vacation unless properly ‘insured’. I think that is sad.”

Another piece of financial advice he has ignored is to buy property. Instead, he chose to buy a boat, which has evidently worked out better for him.