Indie Bites

Hosted by James McKinven

Business MarketingInterviews guests

Website RSS feed YouTube

Episodes

131

Latest episode

Oct 2025

Language

About the show

Short, bite-sized conversations with indie hackers that have started small, profitable and bootstrapped businesses. You'll learn how they come up with ideas, what they do to validate, find those first customers and make a sustainable income. Episodes every Tuesday.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

October 30, 2025Episode 13016 min

Andrew Gazdecki on the best way to sell your indie SaaS business

Andrew Gazdecki is the founder of Acquire , previously known as MicroAcquire, the largest startup acquisition marketplace. I’ve spoken to many indie hackers about selling their businesses, many of whom have done so using Andrew’s platform. Before starting the Acquire, Andrew spent 8 years bootstrapping Bizness Apps to $10m ARR before being acquired by a private equity firm. You might also know of Boostrappers.com, the site Andrew started, sharing stories of bootstrappers. Finally, he also wrote a book called Getting Acquired, which tells his story and outlines exactly how you can sell your business. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:20 - Startup and acquisition trends Andrew is seeing 03:34 - Ideal time to sell your business 05:10 - Should you build to sell? 07:19 - How to make your business look good to a potential acquirer 08:59 - Twitter/X and bootstrapping 10:24 - How would Andrew Gazdecki start a business today 11:52 - The best marketing channel for a bootstrapped business 12:56 - The most unlikely acquisition outcome 13:35 - Which business types have the highest multiples 15:26 - The future of acquire.com 15:56 - Recommendations Recommendations Book: Impossible to Inevitable Podcast: All In Podcast Entrepreneur: Jack Dorsey

June 2, 2025Episode 12916 min

Why you should build a sweaty startup instead of an indie SaaS - Flo Schirmer

Today I’m talking with Flo Schirmer about "sweaty startups", a term for old-fashioned, low-risk businesses that are often service based and unsexy. I’m talking window cleaning, car washing, self-storage, house moving and more. We’re going to discuss if you can do this as a side hustle, if you should do this over a regular software business, and what you need to do to get started with some ideas along the way. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:38 What is a sweaty startup? 03:18 From window cleaning to home security 04:37 How to start a sweaty startup 06:41 Growth for a sweaty startup 07:26 Sweaty startup vs software - what is best for indie hackers? 08:45 Injecting a tech edge into old fashioned businesses 11:34 Examples of successful sweaty startup brands 13:58 Two free sweaty startup ideas 15:57 Recommendations Recommendations Book - $100m Leads Podcast - My First Million Indie Hacker - Alex Hormozi My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course Sponsor - EmailOctopus 🐙 EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can start today , with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.

May 23, 2025Episode 12817 min

How Tally grew to $150k MRR in 5 years - Marie Martens

Marie Martens is the co-founder of Tally , a form builder she started with her partner Filip, now used by half a million people and are over $150k MRR. Marie was on the pod 3 years ago when they’d scaled to 16,000 users and $8k MRR in 1 year. In that episode we discussed the origin story, getting their first 100 users and how they’d grown so quickly. Today, we’re going to be finding out how they’ve built such a robust business over the past 3 years and 15x’d their revenue. Listen to Marie's first episode: https://indiebites.com/43 Timestamps 00:00 Intro 02:09 From small lifestyle business to larger sustainable business 04:50 Retaining the fun in the business 06:02 Struggles in hiring a remote team 07:32 Building an in-person team in Belgium vs remote 08:17 Running a startup as a parent 10:06 How Tally has grown to $150k MRR 13:07 The pros and cons of building in public 15:08 Growing the product while keeping it simple 15:49 The future of Tally 16:43 Recommendations Recommendations Book - First Round Capital Podcast - Lenny's Podcast Indie Hacker - Olly Meakings My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course Sponsor - EmailOctopus 🐙 EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can start today , with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.

May 1, 2025Episode 12716 min

Why the Marketoonist is the dream indie business - Tom Fishburne

Tom Fishburne is the founder of Marketoonist , a bootstrapped marketing cartoon business he started in 2010. He started drawing and sharing cartoons in 2002, and it took him 8 years to make the leap, despite having a successful career in marketing. 15 years later, Tom is still going strong, with the business making money from cartoon licensing, speaking gigs, brand deals, his book and more. Listen to the extended version of the show here: https://indiebites.com/membership/ Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:23 - Moving to Czech Republic out of college 02:16 - From Czech Republic to MBA 03:19 - Starting cartooning 04:03 - Tom's first client 04:37 - Imposter syndrome 05:20 - Pricing too low 06:01 - Making the leap to full time 07:08 - The terrifying moment of taking the leap 08:08 - How Tom executed on his plan as a full time cartoonist? 09:20 - Marketoonist revenue breakdown 10:45 - Why Tom still does client work 12:45 - Dealing with sh*tty clients 13:55- Dealing with AI and competition 15:55 - Recommendations Recommendations Book - Orbiting the Giant Hairball Podcast - Fly On The Wall Indie Hacker - David Hieatt My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course Sponsor - EmailOctopus 🐙 EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can start today , with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.

April 16, 2025Episode 12614 min

Why Jack Ellis acquired Fathom Analytics from his co-founder

Jack Ellis is the co-founder of Fathom Analytics, a simple, privacy focused analytics tool launched in 2019. I last spoke to Jack on the podcast in 2021, where he talked about the inception and growth of Fathom, taking on a massive incumbent and why Jack loves working with a co-founder. In December 2024, Jack acquired his co-founder’s share in the business, making him the sole owner (i think). Today, we’re going to talk about why he made this unique move and what’s next for Fathom. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:20 Jack finds out about EmailOctopus 02:34 Why Jack acquired Fathom 05:03 How can Jack afford this? 05:28 Why did they not get an external buyer? 07:17 Back to being a solo founder 08:19 Innovating the the crowded analytics space 11:09 Fathom's marketing and growth in 2025 12:34 How is Jack having fun? 13:14 Recommendations Recommendations Book - Dopamine Nation Podcast - Huberman Lab Indie Hacker - Ruben Gamez My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus 🐙 EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can start today , with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.

March 5, 2025Episode 12515 min

Typeshare's $34k MRR bootstrapped journey - Sam Shore

Sam Shore is the co-founder of Typeshare , a writing platform made to create and publish text across the internet. Typeshare has made over $1m in revenue since it was started in 2021, with over 80,000 user, currently $34k MRR I’m speaking to Sam to find out how he started Typeshare as the first of 12 startups he was planning to build, and what made this stick. 00:00 Intro 01:10 Sam's entrepreneurial background 02:03 Failed past projects 03:31 12 startups in 12 months 04:16 The idea for Typeshare 05:38 Getting traction with Typeshare 06:50 Getting to $15k MRR in 1 year with infuential partnerships 09:52 How is Sam making sure he has fun with the business 12:18 How to get better at writing online 14:09 Recommendations Recommendations Book - Poor Charlie’s Almanack Podcast - Rework Indie Hacker - Dmytro Krasun My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus 🐙 EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can start today , with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.

February 7, 2025Episode 12417 min

How Justin Duke is building Buttondown into the perfect bootstrapped business

Justin Duke is the founder of Buttondown, a simple email tool he launched in 2017. Justin was last on the podcast 2 years ago when he’d hit $15k MRR and just left his role at Stripe to focus on Buttondown. I was struck by Justin’s well thought through approach to building. He makes calculated risks and shares a lot of his learnings on his blog, Applied Cartography (which is an essential read for any indie hackers). This episode I catch up with Justin to hear how he’s grown the team to 8 people and his approach to building a company he loves. This is a cut down version of an hour long catch up I had with Justin available on the Indie Bites membership which is available at indiebites.com/membership , where we discuss his personal blog, how he structures his time as a new parent and we go deeper into hiring high agency unicorns. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:58 - Buttondown growth 03:40 - How to build a company you don't hate 07:16 - Marketing and positioning Buttondown 11:17 - Buttondown's unique home page approach 13:45 - Building a business you enjoy 15:32 - Recommendations My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus 🐙 EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can start today , with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.

January 22, 2025Episode 12315 min

How to sell your indie business - Josh Peleg

Today I’m not actually joined by an indie hacker, but by someone who can help a lot of indies out there. Josh Peleg is the Head of Biz Dev and Mergers and Acquisitions at BlueThrone. Essentially, he knows all about how to sell a business from the buyer's side. In this episode we’re going to learn from Josh exactly what you need to know about selling your indie product. How you find an acquirer, what does the process look like and how you can get a deal over the line. I’ve spoken to some indie hackers who have gone through exits, such as Rob Walling, Ramy Khuffash, Tibo Louis Lucas and more, but not so much from the other side. Let’s find out what it takes. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:56 What is BlueThrone 02:13 How to find a potential acquirer 04:41 How to set up your business to be sold 06:33 Acquirer red flags 08:31 Acquirer green flags 10:04 The type of exits and what to choose 13:48 Recommendations Reccos Book - The Master and The Margarita Podcast - 20VC My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus 🐙 EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can start today , with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.

January 15, 2025Episode 12216 min

Arvid Kahl on building a profitable SaaS (Podscan), calm funding and juggling a media business

Arvid Kahl is returning to the podcast for the third time. In 2019, he’d just sold Feedback Panda for a life changing amount of money and then wrote the book Zero to Sold. In 2023, he was in full-on creator mode with The Bootstrapped Founder and had just released The Embedded Entrepreneur. Now, he’s still producing the content but is also spending time on his SaaS Podscan, which is an extremely ambitious tool that transcribes every podcast and let’s you track mentions of your brand. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:27 Arvid's life as a SaaS founder 02:48 Are people still building in public 03:54 No longer being a solo founder 05:24 Raising from Calm Fund 09:17 Keeping The Bootstrapped Founder running 12:10 Wins for 2024 13:36 Parting advice 15:08 Recommendations Recommendations Book - A Court of Thorns and Roses Podcast - The Economics of Everyday Things Indie Hacker - Tyler Tringas My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus 🐙 EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can start today , with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.

January 8, 2025Episode 12114 min

High Signal founder on the state of indie hacking and building in public in 2025 - Pete Codes

Recently I’ve been reviewing my catalogue of previous guests and have been intrigued to see where they are now, so expect to see a few more returning guests over the next few weeks. Today is a chap who was last on the podcast 3 years ago, and is still ever present in the indie community. Pete Codes is writes the High Signal newsletter, sharing all the best indie hacking news every week. He’s making his main living through Ghostwriting for Twitter , Bluesky and LinkedIn , but he’s still launching new projects and keeping his previous projects live. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:25 How Pete stays up to date with indie hacking news 03:21 Twitter, Bluesky or LinkedIn 04:36 Is building in public dead? 07:30 Who is still building in public 09:40 Big news stories of 2024 / who has been successful 12:06 Pete's plan for his newsletter, High Signal 12:48 Recommendations My links Twitter Indie Bites Twitter Indie Bites YouTube Join the membership Personal Website 2 Hour Podcast Course PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast) This Indie Life Podcast Sponsor - EmailOctopus 🐙 EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can start today , with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.