"Database of entrepreneur success stories and business case studies."

Draw actionable insights from real-case stories to quickly shape your product idea, pricing, and growth strategy as a solo founder.

Pat Walls came up with the idea for Starter Story during a period of transition and reflection. After moving to a new city and experiencing the failure of a previous startup, he found himself longing to start his own business, but without co-founders or a clear direction. Inspired by reading stories from Indie Hackers and creators like Pieter Levels, Pat began to see the potential in starting an "indie" business by himself.

My image

He was motivated by the idea of working for himself and the freedom it would bring. While exploring different ideas, he noticed a lack of resources that consolidated real stories from entrepreneurs. This observation led him to create Starter Story, a platform where founders could share their journeys, complete with financial details. Pat validated his idea by testing how people responded to early interviews and refined his approach to align with his growing understanding of what potential entrepreneurs found valuable.

A key challenge was maintaining focus and motivation, especially post-launch, as Pat faced personal hurdles and health issues in his family. However, he learned the importance of discipline and eventually established productive habits that fueled his progress. One pivotal lesson Pat took away was that initial setbacks or lack of resources shouldn't deter seriousness in pursuing a genuinely impactful idea.

Pat Walls built Starter Story by initially focusing on grassroots content creation and experimentation. He spent his early days developing lean processes, using tools like Ruby on Rails to automate and manage the blog’s backend. This allowed him to balance between the technical and content production sides effectively. During the initial phase, he worked tirelessly post-day-job hours to create engaging, text-based interviews, ensuring each story was detailed with revenue numbers and unique business insights. The first version of Starter Story came together rapidly, with the website launching just a few months after its conception.

Walls faced significant challenges, especially in marketing and achieving visibility amidst the digital noise. He conquered these hurdles by leveraging platforms like Reddit and Product Hunt for exposure and adopting a build-in-public transparency that attracted an engaged audience. Through persistent testing and SEO optimization, he scaled Starter Story's traffic to over 1.6 million visitors per month and reached a revenue of over $1 million annually by 2023. Despite early skepticism and operational difficulties, Walls utilized a lean SEO framework and continuous content iteration to refine and perfect Starter Story’s value proposition.

Reddit

Reddit played a crucial role in Starter Story's growth, especially in the early stages. Pat Walls effectively leveraged the platform by sharing content in relevant subreddits like r/Entrepreneur. For instance, he shared interviews formatted in a Reddit-friendly way, which meant cutting down on too much self-promotion and ensuring the content was valuable for the community. This strategy led to several features on the subreddit, drastically increasing traffic to the website.

Why it worked: Reddit is a community-driven platform where authentic content can flourish. By providing genuine, valuable content without heavily promoting his brand, Pat was able to earn the trust and engagement of Reddit users. This resulted in bursts of traffic and a growing email list, supplying Starter Story with a foundational audience base.

SEO

Initially, SEO was not the primary focus for Starter Story. However, Pat soon realized its potential and developed a 'Lean SEO' approach. This involved creating Minimum Viable Content (MVC) to test which topics would rank before investing heavily in content development. Once an article gained traction, it would be further optimized and expanded, leveraging keyword insights obtained post-publication.

Why it worked: This agile approach to SEO enabled Starter Story to quickly identify and capitalize on content opportunities without excessive upfront investment. It allowed Pat to effectively scale content creation efforts, contributing to a significant increase in organic traffic, reaching over 1.6 million monthly visitors.

Sponsorships & Ads

Sponsorships, particularly from Klaviyo, have been a successful revenue stream for Starter Story. Early success came when Klaviyo sponsored the website and newsletter for a sizable fee annually. This not only provided financial backing but validated the website's market position to other potential sponsors.

Why it worked: High-value sponsorships provide a stable revenue source and increase the brand's credibility. The consistent sponsorship from a notable company like Klaviyo signals confidence in the product to other potential advertisers and partners, creating a virtuous cycle of interest and revenue.

Building in Public

Pat Walls has been a pioneer in building Starter Story in public, sharing his successes, failures, and insights openly with his audience. This transparency has fostered a sense of community and accountability and drawn interest from other entrepreneurs and thought leaders.

Why it worked: Building in public cultivates a loyal following that feels personally invested in the journey. It also creates networking opportunities and attracts more founders who are eager to share their stories, further enriching the platform's content offering and broadening its appeal.

NextJS boilerplate to build your SaaS and make your first $ online fast.

Launch a product in minutes with a ready-to-build NextJS boilerplate designed for solo founders to ship fast.

Inspired by a tweet from Pieter Levels, who builds startups with just a laptop and no employees, Marc decided to start building his own products.

Over the course of two years, he successfully shipped 16 different products, ranging from AI tools to SaaS.

Throughout the building process, Marc noticed that he was doing the same things repeatedly, which was taking up a lot of his time.

He realized that creating a code boilerplate could help him build products much faster, and he was sure that others would find it useful as well.

In just one week, he built ShipFast and launched it on Product Hunt.

Marc spent a week gathering all the code he had used to build other products over the last 2 years and created a boilerplate called ShipFast.

He launched ShipFast on Product Hunt, Twitter, and Hacker News, and continued to add new features.

Within 48 hours, he had made $6,000.

Marc successfully launched ShipFast on various platforms, including Product Hunt, Twitter, and Hacker News.

The Product Hunt launch was the most fruitful of the three platforms, drawing in 3,000 visitors within 48 hours.

His Twitter audience also gave him an initial boost. Whenever he launched a product on Twitter, he:

• Makes a skit video, which helps his tweets go viral.
• Makes a catchy headline that challenges the status quo

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He also lists his products on Reddit, which helps drive initial customers.

AI-powered platform for automating faceless video creation.

Turn hours into minutes: creates scalable,monetizable video assets for solopreneurs with AI-powered faceless video automation.

Jacob Seeger and Alex Steinberg stumbled upon the idea for Faceless.Video through their own struggles with creating faceless videos for social media. They realized that producing these videos was a time-consuming process, taking up hours each day just to write, edit, and post content without being on camera. This personal challenge sparked a conversation between them about automating this process using AI, which quickly developed into the concept of creating a platform that others could use, too.

Before diving in, they validated their concept by looking at the growing trend of faceless video content, which was gaining popularity among influencers for its ability to engage audiences while keeping creator identities private. Understanding the broader potential, they expanded on their initial idea of an internal tool to a SaaS platform for the masses. Utilizing no-code tools like Bubble, Jacob and Alex swiftly moved from concept to development, refining their tool with feedback and facing technical challenges which they addressed rapidly.

The key takeaway from their process is the power of turning personal frustration into innovation, alongside the importance of leveraging available resources like no-code solutions to address a clear market need. Their journey was one of adaptability, validation, and iterative refinement, leading them to transform an initial problem into a thriving platform that automates content creation efficiently.

Jacob Seeger and Alex Steinberg built Faceless.video using Bubble, a no-code development platform. They initially aimed to simplify their internal production process of "faceless" videos by automating content creation with AI. Jacob, who transitioned from a songwriter to a no-code developer, crafted the entire application on Bubble, handling everything from API integrations to core functionalities within a few short months. Despite lacking formal tech expertise, Jacob taught himself the necessary programming skills and relied on Bubble's comprehensive capabilities, bypassing the need for a traditional tech stack. Challenges included overcoming technical glitches during early user influxes, requiring quick adaptations and solutions to maintain platform reliability.

Social Media Automation

Faceless.video effectively uses social media automation to grow its customer base. The platform allows users to create and post videos automatically on popular platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram without needing human intervention. This automation not only saves users time but also ensures consistent content delivery, which helps in maintaining audience engagement and growth.

Why it worked: Automating the process of video creation and posting reduces the effort and technical knowledge required from users, making it accessible to a broader audience. Regular posting keeps the brand relevant to audiences on multiple platforms, helping to build and maintain a strong presence.

Strategic Partnerships

Faceless.video formed key partnerships that helped in increasing its visibility and reach. Notably, they leveraged a partnership with a successful Twitter creator, which spiked user interest and revenue. This strategic move helped in gaining early traction and overcoming initial challenges.

Why it worked: Partnerships with influential creators or platforms provide credibility and expose the product to larger audiences quickly. This can be particularly effective when the partner aligns with the product's target audience, resulting in immediate user sign-up boosts.

Platform Features and User Satisfaction

The platform continuously introduces features that appeal to a broad range of users, such as the B2B feature that automates product or service promotion via AI influencers. By offering varied functionalities tailored to different user needs, Faceless.video retains a diverse customer base.

Why it worked: Continual innovation and feature expansion ensure users find increasing value in the platform, which reduces churn and increases lifetime value. Satisfying users’ needs by providing versatile tools keeps engagement high and encourages word-of-mouth referrals.

AI tool turning text instructions into Excel formulas.

Turn natural-language instructions into Excel formulas instantly,speeding up financial modeling and spreadsheet-based product launches for solopreneurs.

David Bressler, the founder of Excelformulabot.com, came up with the idea while on paternity leave. After discovering the power of AI and its potential in Excel formulas, he realized there was a need for an AI-based Excel formula generator. With 1 billion Excel users worldwide, Bressler saw a big enough market and quickly built a barebone application that went viral and gained traction through Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. Since the launch in September 2022, the website has generated over $14K in monthly recurring revenue.

Excelformulabot was developed quickly to capitalize on the growing AI industry, with a minimalistic MVP built using the no-code platform Bubble.io. The initial version had basic functionality: an input field for user instructions, a button for generating formulas, an output field displaying the results, and a copy button. This barebone MVP took just a few weeks to build, reflecting David's urgency to harness the first mover's advantage in the AI space. He faced challenges related to unexpected high API costs due to viral exposure and immediately had to create a business model to manage costs efficiently. Feedback from the Excel subreddit was crucial for iterating on the initial version, which transitioned into a subscription-based platform with paywalls and logins over several months, demonstrating the effectiveness of user feedback in refining product offerings.

Viral Marketing on Social Media

Excelformulabot experienced significant growth through viral marketing, particularly on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit. The platform gained traction when users began sharing it as a "website that feels illegal to know." The ripple effect from influencers and micro-influencers posting about Excelformulabot amplified the brand's reach substantially. The virality continued across different social platforms, leading to widespread recognition and traffic.

Why it worked: Viral marketing tapped into the power of social proof. When influencers shared their experiences, their followers were intrigued and inclined to check out the service themselves. The portrayal of the site as a secretive hack added a compelling element that spurred curiosity and shareability.

Influencer Collaborations

Direct engagement with influencers has been a crucial part of Excelformulabot’s marketing strategy. David Bressler reached out to influencers whose audiences aligned with the product's use case in areas like finance, data, and accounting. Collaborations were either based on free promotions or paid partnerships, typically ranging from $200 to $3K per engagement.

Why it worked: Engaging influencers allowed Excelformulabot to tap into established communities that trusted their recommendations. This strategy effectively positioned the product in front of targeted users who found immediate value in the tool, especially amidst audiences who frequently use Excel.

Organic SEO and Branding

Excelformulabot benefitted from organic search traffic, largely driven by people searching for terms like "Excel formula bot." The brand's presence as both the category creator and the main solution provider resulted in high exposure on search engines. The site also garnered backlinks from reputable sites, enhancing its organic search appeal.

Why it worked: The brand's dominance in its niche and the creation of targeted content helped capture users actively searching for AI solutions for Excel. Having a name that directly matched user intent searches significantly enhanced discoverability and credibility.

Email Marketing and User Engagement

For customer retention and reengagement, Excelformulabot deployed email marketing strategies. Personalized messaging was developed based on user interactions, such as the type of formulas searched and user engagement levels. These tailored emails helped retain paying customers as well as encourage trial users to convert.

Why it worked: Personalized email campaigns aligned closely with user behavior, increasing the relevance and impact of each communication. This approach fostered a sense of connection and ensured users saw continued value in maintaining their subscriptions.

Empower your solo business with scalable, self-serve growth courses that cut time to results and turn knowledge into action.

After handling loads of stress as an SVP of sales, Justin decided to step down from his job and start a consulting business. He started creating digital content from there on, and have been moving forward ever since, releasing courses, building a massive following, and double down on his solopreneurship efforts.

Justin Welsh developed his first flagship course, The LinkedIn Operating System, by focusing on three main hypotheses: pricing, course length, and production value. He set the price at $150, aiming for it to be an impulse buy, and kept the course under two hours to ensure higher completion rates, significantly surpassing the average course completion rate with his at above 45%. Welsh opted for a straightforward, low-production method, recording his content in a single take using Google Slides and Zoom, which allowed him to focus on delivering value rather than aesthetics. This approach reflected a bias toward action and simplicity, making the content accessible and engaging without unnecessary embellishments.

Justin posts 600 times a year on Linkedin, over 500 days in a row on Twitter, and recently shifted to a multi-page website to attract search engine traffic. He takes help of a friend to improve the site's SEO.

Enable solo creators to auto-publish AI-generated content,accelerating publishing workflows into a scalable digital asset.

When Joe graduated from high school, he began working on a use case for GPT3, focusing on how AI integration into business models could be improved.

In 2022, he decided to use his pre-existing skills to build his own business.

In July of that year, he met with a publishing company that inspired him. He came up with an innovative idea of creating books using AI.

Joe realized that using AI for product creation gave him a competitive edge. It allowed him to respond to market trends more quickly than anyone else.

When he started, Joe knew nothing about books, so he researched how to build one. He knew he would leverage his AI skills to ensure the output was good enough.

Joe argues that his first book was probably the worst because he didn’t know how to structure it or what should be included.

He started purchasing competitors’ books and reading through them to know what he needed to write a good book.

Armed with this knowledge, he could write and publish books that people enjoyed reading.

Joe markets his books using Pinterest ADs and targets middle-aged moms. Besides, he posts updates on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram

Helps solopreneurs rapidly build and launch web apps with no code,turning ideas into live products quickly.

As an experienced engineer who grew frustrated with the repetitiveness of software development, Miriam started brainstorming ideas for her next venture after leaving her job. She noticed a significant gap in the market: despite the growing demand for software engineers, many people found coding to be a challenging and time-consuming task. This observation sparked the idea of creating a platform that could make building software accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical skills.

Miriam initiated her exploration by joining an incubator program, where she refined her business idea through collaboration and research. She saw the potential of no-code tools during this period, identifying them as a practical solution to the global shortage of software engineers. With a co-founder facing similar challenges in the tech industry, they set out to develop a platform providing ready-to-use building blocks for software creation.

Before fully pursuing the idea, Miriam conducted market research and validated the concept by engaging with potential users and exploring existing no-code tools. Her engineering background helped her analyze the limitations and strengths of such tools. Feedback and insights from early testers guided the refinement of Softr, ensuring it addressed real-world needs while remaining user-friendly and intuitive. This iterative process was essential in overcoming initial challenges and led to the successful development of Softr, a platform that democratizes software building for non-coders.

Softr was built with a focus on simplicity and functionality, using Airtable as the initial backend. Mariam Hakobyan and her team crafted Softr to enable users to build web apps without code by employing a Lego-like approach where complex functionalities are modular building blocks. The development process spanned several months, with the first basic version launched as a website builder. The team faced challenges primarily in ensuring that the platform was intuitive yet powerful enough, which involved iterative feedback from the initial user base and continuous refinement. The product development wasn't without its hurdles, such as addressing skepticism about scalability and usability, but the focus on reducing the learning curve and addressing common developer pain points led to Softr's successful creation.

Community and Word of Mouth

Softr emphasized the power of community engagement and word of mouth to drive its growth. The founders actively participated in no-code and tech communities to share their progress, gather feedback, and iterate on their product. By fostering relationships within these communities, they built trust and generated excitement around Softr. They capitalized on inbound interest from potential users and leveraged existing customer networks to spread the word about their platform.

Why it worked: The no-code community thrives on sharing and collaboration. By immersing themselves in these circles, Softr tapped into a highly engaged audience that appreciated the straightforward approach to building software. The strong word-of-mouth marketing helped expand their reach and attract a mix of individual creators and business users who were excited about the possibilities Softr offered.

Product-Led Growth and Intuitive User Experience

Softr's growth is largely attributed to a focus on product-led growth, prioritizing an intuitive user experience that enables even non-technical users to build web applications quickly. By designing a platform that minimizes the learning curve, they encouraged more users to experiment and create, thereby expanding their user base organically.

Why it worked: An easy-to-use product lowers the barrier to entry for a greater number of users, driving adoption and retention. Softr's approach to product development reflects a clear understanding of user needs, making it simpler for individuals and businesses to see immediate results. This ease of use naturally encourages users to become advocates for the product, contributing to its growth.

Product Hunt Launches

Softr leveraged Product Hunt for several significant product launches. These launches helped generate substantial initial traction by reaching tech enthusiasts and early adopters interested in no-code solutions. Winning accolades on Product Hunt, such as becoming the number one of the month and even of the year, provided further validation and exposure.

Why it worked: Product Hunt is a platform known for its active community of tech enthusiasts who are eager to discover new and innovative products. Softr's successful launches on Product Hunt tapped into this audience, providing a boost in visibility and credibility. The recognition helped Softr capture the attention of potential users who value simplicity and innovation in software development.

Built-in Virality Through Free Plan and Branding

Softr offered a free version of their product with limited functionality, which still provided substantial value to users by allowing them to connect a custom domain. This approach not only attracted a wide range of users but also integrated a "Made with Softr" badge on free builds, creating a built-in virality loop as users shared their creations online, showcasing Softr's capabilities.

Why it worked: By offering a valuable free option, Softr removed initial cost barriers, encouraging widespread usage and experimentation. The branding element of the "Made with Softr" badge served as a subtle but effective marketing tool. As users shared their projects publicly, the badge acted as a silent promoter, helping to spread Softr's reputation and attract additional users seeking similar solutions.

A shovel for solopreneurs: quickly generate brand-ready headshots for websites, social, and pitches.

Danny Postma's journey to creating HeadshotPro began with the launch of stable diffusion AI in September 2022, sparking his interest in image generation. Initially considering a stock photo venture, he faced quality issues and legal risks, leading him to pivot. Delving into AI that transforms faces, he quickly developed a similar product, capturing the potential of AI-generated images.

Encountering an initial burst of success with a related product, which saw impressive sales and shares on social media, Danny realized an opportunity for refinement. Collaborating with a developer friend, he explored AI solutions for creating professional headshots. Feedback and market reaction showed a substantial demand for this niche, prompting him to establish HeadshotPro as the focal point of his efforts. This experience underscored the value of flexibility and responsiveness to market signals in the ideation phase.

HeadshotPro's initial product was built by Danny Postma using a combination of machine learning and generative AI algorithms. Postma leveraged both open-source models like Stable Diffusion and custom-developed models to enhance the output quality beyond what many competitors offered. The development process was rapid, with the first iteration being launched within 30 hours, emphasizing agility over initial perfection. This quick launch, however, presented challenges, such as the servers going offline frequently initially and the need to consistently improve the AI's ability to generate realistic headshots. Over the next year, Postma worked extensively on deploying multiple models, including LLaVa for image quality checks and Codeformer to remove AI artifacts, which required continuous testing and iteration to refine and maintain the high standard of headshots that are comparable to real photographs.

SEO

HeadshotPro's growth heavily relied on strategic search engine optimization (SEO). The company achieved significant visibility by ranking in the top 10 for high-volume keywords such as "professional headshots," which have substantial monthly search volumes. They implemented a two-pronged SEO strategy: First, they utilized programmatic SEO by creating over 200 pages targeting long-tail keywords for various cities and counties, such as "professional headshots San Francisco." This method helped them capture location-based searches. Second, they wrote blog posts targeting popular keywords, boosting their site's visibility. The domain's strong ranking power, bolstered by numerous backlinks gained from launches on Product Hunt and social media engagement, further enhanced their search engine visibility.

Why it worked: By focusing on keywords directly linked to their service, HeadshotPro found an effective and relatively fast way to reach potential customers who were already searching for headshot services. This approach provided a steady stream of organic traffic, increasing reach without constant marketing expenses.

Product and Social Media Launches

The initial launch of similar products, such as ProfilePicture.AI, greatly impacted HeadshotPro’s growth through platforms like Twitter. The launch was heavily focused on making the product highly shareable, capitalizing on social media's viral nature. Danny Postma, the founder, leveraged his existing followers and connections on social platforms, especially during launches. This method made HeadshotPro visible to a wider audience, quickly leading to substantial initial sales.

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Why it worked: The product's inherent shareability and the initial buzz effectively exploited social media channels. This immediate and broad exposure created by tapping into established audiences resulted in notable sales surges when the product was first introduced.

Programmatic Pages

In addition to SEO, HeadshotPro created multiple web pages to target niche, long-tail keywords. This involved generating pages specifically optimized for different geographic locations and specific headshot needs. The strategy leveraged the concept of catering content to unique searches that potential customers might be making, allowing HeadshotPro to dominate niche searches.

Why it worked: The creation of these tailored pages meant capturing traffic that might be overlooked by competitors focusing on broader keywords. This tactic not only held potential for attracting more targeted traffic but also ensured diverse entry points for organic search visitors, effectively broadening their visible footprint across many specific search terms.

Empowers solopreneurs to quickly reach customers and launch outreach campaigns, accelerating growth with AI-driven email automation.

The co-founders developed the tool out of necessity for their lead generation agency. Initially, they used existing tools to help their customers generate leads. However, as they scaled, the cost of using these tools, which required payment per email account, became unsustainable.

In response, they decided to create their own tool, utilizing the skills of their developer. Initially, the tool was intended for internal use. However, after discussing it with others, they recognized its unique value and its potential to benefit many similar businesses.

We noticed that as soon as we tried to scale, the prices increased instead of decreasing. — Kaevand Co-founder Instantly; (Source)

Instantly AI’s founders developed their initial product as a SaaS platform focused on cold email outreach automation. The early development centered around building a robust backend capable of handling high email volumes, integrating with multiple email providers, and ensuring deliverability. Common tools for similar SaaS projects typically include Node.js or Python for the backend, React or Vue for the frontend, and cloud providers like AWS or GCP for infrastructure, though exact choices are not publicly specified by Instantly AI.

Their first prototype involved building a minimum viable product that automated core outreach functions (e.g., campaign setup, inbox rotation, and basic analytics). The prototyping process included testing deliverability extensively to prevent emails from landing in spam folders, a recurring technical challenge. Iterative testing and frequent updates based on user feedback helped stabilize the core features. While the exact timeline to their first working version isn’t specified, founders in this space often reach an MVP within several months, iterating rapidly before a broader release. Notably, ensuring consistent deliverability and integrating multiple email accounts proved especially challenging during the initial build.

Instantly.ai leveraged email marketing powered by its own product to achieve initial growth.

The team targeted existing customers from its previous agency and shared success stories from initial clients via Facebook groups and Twitter. In addition, it launched an email marketing masterclass, which triggered organic growth.

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Instantly sharing success stories on X.com

A screenshot of the Instantly Masterclass on Facebook

AI writing assistant focused on confidentiality and privacy.

Enable solo creators to generate content privately and quickly,cutting time and cost to publish and market digital assets.

After witnessing ChatGPT's remarkable rise in 2022, Jozef became intrigued by AI from both philosophical and technological perspectives. He started researching privacy and AI, believing that the technology would become increasingly invasive.

During his research, he noticed a lack of work in the privacy field, so he decided to focus more of his time there.

His initial idea for StealthGPT was based on his theory that as AI-generated text usage became more prevalent, AI detection systems would also become more common.

He then came across a viral video about GPTZero, one of the first AI Detectors, and at that moment, he knew that he needed to create StealthGPT.

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GPTZero viral video

Jozef took his savings to start building the initial product for StealthGPT. He leveraged the free version of Vercel to incubate his business and took on side projects to finance his development. Working on the prototype in the evenings, it took about six months before he was making enough revenue to both keep expanding through ads and start paying himself.

Like any good indie hacker, I started broke. I started by personally loaning $250 to the business. — Jozef (Source)

Jozef StealthGPT Techstack:

• NextJS/React
• Vercel
• Tailwind
• Planetscale
• Resend (Notifications)
• Clerk (auth)

A Snapshot of StealthGPT in Feb 2023

StealthGPT grew organically. Mentions on tech-focused podcasts and blogs boosted SEO rankings for keywords like undetectable AI.

Jozef allocated a marketing budget to user-generated content from reliable small creators on TikTok and Instagram, as well as to advertising on Google, Meta, and X.

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Tweet encouraging usage of StealthGPT

Platform for selling digital products directly to customers.

Launch and monetize digital products fast with a simple self-serve storefront for solo creators.

Sahil loves building stuff. He really enjoyed the process of taking a problem coming up with a solution, and then shipping a prototype of that solution to see how good his concept was. Before finishing college he had already shipped a dozen products. Most of the time, they weren't that great.

But sometimes something works out really well, and then he has to decide if he actually wants to work on the idea some more. Very rarely, the answer is yes. That was the case with Gumroad. The question at its core was really compelling to him: How easy could one make it to sell something?

The first version was built in just one weekend back in April 2011. Sahil had learned Python while working at Pinterest and was able to hack together a basic CRUD application. The whole of Gumroad was a single main.py—one Python file. It was deployed on Google App Engine so he didn't need to know how to do anything related to ops.

Their main strategy in the early days: sending out a lot of emails. That's really it. They scoured the web for people who could benefit from a product like Gumroad, and then told them about it. Literally thousands of times. "That's the only way, really, when you're young and no one cares or knows who you are, to get folks to use your product."

"Over time, they needed to do that less and less. But until you have a lot of customers or some other force that can supply some momentum, there's nothing better than knocking on doors. My sense is that people really just don't want to cold email people, and are looking for an out. If that's you: stop! It doesn't exist! Just hunker down and dedicate some time to finding people, reaching out to them personally via email, phone, whatever, and being okay with it sucking for a while."