awesome-awesomeness/html/indie.html

<h1 id="awesome-indie-awesome">Awesome Indie <a
href="https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome"><img
src="https://cdn.rawgit.com/sindresorhus/awesome/d7305f38d29fed78fa85652e3a63e154dd8e8829/media/badge.svg"
alt="Awesome" /></a></h1>
<p>Resources to help independent developers make money.</p>
<p>Making money from your own code has never been easier, but it’s still
hard. Here, I try to curate a list of resources to help everyone
interested in making money from their digital products get inspired and
give it a try. Be it monetizing side-projects, bootstrapping business
ideas, etc.</p>
<p>Projects don’t need to be big, actually, it’s better if they are not,
they just need to be profitable. They might provide a passive income
after the initial bulk of work, and who knows, maybe even help you reach
financial independence.</p>
<p>Going indie does have lots of lifestyle perks :)</p>
<p>All these resources might help inspire you and put you on the right
track but in the end what matters is to <strong>MAKE and TRY
stuff</strong>. So devour this content responsibly :)</p>
<p>Contributions are more than welcome.</p>
<p>by <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/mezood"><span
class="citation" data-cites="mezod">@mezod</span></a></strong> (Doing
things every day with <strong><a
href="https://everyday.app">everyday.app</a></strong>)</p>
<p><strong>Notes:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>If [$], it means it’s not free and probably means I haven’t tried it
but still decided to add it because of the several references.</li>
<li>This repo was once <a
href="https://medium.com/@mezood/making-money-from-your-own-code-has-never-been-easier-but-its-still-hard-2242ddaae6a1">#1
on Github Trending</a>! :_)</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/icepy">Icepy</a> translated this repo to
<a href="https://github.com/icepy/awesome-indie">Chinese</a> :)</li>
</ul>
<!-- In general, I'd be wary of the several paid content-like products specially targeted to indie devs, so unless you can prove their value I'd like to keep them off of this list as much as possible. -->
<h2 id="contents">Contents</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#communities">Communities</a></li>
<li><a href="#newsletters">Newsletters</a></li>
<li><a href="#podcasts">Podcasts</a></li>
<li><a href="#talks">Talks</a></li>
<li><a href="#posts">Posts</a></li>
<li><a href="#blogs">Blogs</a></li>
<li><a href="#case-studies">Case Studies</a></li>
<li><a href="#events">Events</a></li>
<li><a href="#books">Books</a></li>
<li><a href="#tools">Tools</a></li>
<li><a href="#courses">Courses</a></li>
<li><a href="#specific-topics">Specific Topics</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="communities">Communities</h3>
<ul>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses">IndieHackers</a></strong></p>
<p>Learn from profitable businesses and side projects. IndieHackers is
probably the catalyst for this new wave of interest on making an
independent income. It is a collection of interviews to successful
developers about their products. IndieHackers has been especially
interesting to follow since it’s been an indie project itself. <a
href="https://twitter.com/csallen?lang=ca">Courtland Allen</a> has been
very transparent about <a href="https://www.indiehackers.com/blog">how
he built it</a>. The last news make one think that the forum/community
will grow.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://barnacl.es/">Barnacl.es</a></strong></p>
<p>News for bootstrappers, not VC hackers. Hacker-News like forum. <a
href="https://twitter.com/pushcx">Peter Bhat Harkins</a> started it in
early 2016 and I’ve found it of great value ever since. Also, it runs on
<a href="https://github.com/jcs/lobsters">great software</a>, which is
always a thing to appreciate!</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm/">bootstrapped.fm
Forum</a></strong></p>
<p>A forum for bootstrappers. Started in 2013 by <a
href="https://twitter.com/ianlandsman">Ian Landsman</a> and <a
href="https://twitter.com/andrey_butov">Andrey Butov</a> as a
continuation to the now defunct <a
href="http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz">The Business of
Software</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=%23%23passiveincome&amp;uio=d4">##passiveincome</a></strong>
on freenode</p>
<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=matbram">Matthew
Mallard</a> created this channel on the freenode IRC network in early
2017 and it has been pretty active and growing ever since.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://news.ycombinator.com/">HackerNews</a></strong></p>
<p>News for hackers, mostly technology and entrepreneurship. Not
specific to indie devs but a must for everyone interested in computer
science, creating products and making money. A lot of indie devs lurking
around. Started by <a href="https://twitter.com/paulg">Paul Graham</a>
and maintained by the seed accelerator YCombinator.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://megamaker.co/club/">MegaMaker
Club</a></strong> [$]</p>
<p>Exclusive community for indie makers run by <a
href="https://twitter.com/mijustin">Justin Jackson</a>. Currently
there’s a waitlist. Cost is $249 for lifetime access. I’m not a member
so I can’t personally endorse it. Generally, I’m skeptic on products
targeting indie makers but I still found it relevant to add this
specific product because of cross references. Some people might find it
interesting. Feel free to reference to reviews!</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.foundercafe.com/">FounderCafe</a></strong> [$]</p>
<p>FounderCafe is an invite-only, online community of entrepreneurs
helping each other succeed run by <a
href="https://twitter.com/robwalling">Rob Walling</a> and <a
href="https://twitter.com/SingleFounder">Mike Taber</a>. $99 every 3
months. I’m not a member so I can’t personally endorse it.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://nugget.one/">Nugget.one</a></strong>
[$]</p>
<p>Nugget.one focuses on helping software developers launch successful
side projects. Being part of the community gives access to case studios,
bi-weekly webinars and live mentoring. Run by <a
href="https://twitter.com/justinvincent">Justin Vincent</a>. $19.99 per
month.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://getmakerlog.com">Makerlog</a></strong></p>
<p>Makerlog is a free community of makers shipping products together.
There’s discussions + a task management tracker that allows you to get a
streak (to keep you motivated shipping).</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://www.aussiefounders.com.au/">Aussie
Founders</a></strong></p>
<p>Aussie Founders is a free community bringing together &amp;
supporting Aussies having a go at their own business.</p></li>
</ul>
<h5 id="other">Other</h5>
<ul>
<li><strong><a
href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/">r/Entrepreneur</a></strong>
- Not exclusive to indies/bootstrappers but still with relevant content
for us.</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://bootstrapped.slack.com">Bootstrapped
Slack</a></strong> (<a href="http://www.bootstrappedchat.com/">invite
here</a> invite link currently dead, working on it!) - Slack that
probably originated from the bootstrapped.fm forum. Not really
moderated.</li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/">r/SideProject</a></strong>
- Quite active</li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://sideprojectxyz.slack.com">Sideprojectxyz</a></strong> (<a
href="http://sideproject.xyz/">invite here</a>) - Slack community for
people working on their side-projects.</li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://www.reddit.com/r/indiebiz/">r/IndieBiz</a></strong> - A
subreddit for small and independent businesses.</li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://www.reddit.com/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong/">/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="https://wip.chat">Work In Progress</a></strong> [$]
- A public todo list for accountability, and a <a
href="https://t.me/wipchat">Telegram chat</a> of 800+ makers.
Freemium.</li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/">r/Startups</a></strong> - Not
exclusive to indies/bootstrappers but still with relevant content for
us.</li>
</ul>
<!-- - lobsters -->
<h3 id="newsletters">Newsletters</h3>
<ul>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://bootstrappers.io/">Bootstrappers.io</a></strong></p>
<p>Weekly digest of the best user-submitted articles featured on
bootstrapped.io. Curated by <a
href="https://twitter.com/ninjamonk">Darren Stuart</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses">IndieHackers</a></strong></p>
<p>Newsletter containing the newest interviews of the site and also the
best threads from the forum. Normally ships on Thursdays. By <a
href="https://twitter.com/csallen?lang=ca">Courtland Allen</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://justinjackson.ca/indie/">Indie</a></strong></p>
<p>Stories, lessons, and inspiration for independent makers. By <a
href="https://twitter.com/mijustin">Justin Jackson</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://thesaasbootstrapper.com/resources/">The
SaaS Bootstrapper</a></strong></p>
<p>Content about bootstrapping, SaaS, growth, marketing, and other
startup topics curated by <a href="http://macmartine.com/">Mac
Martine</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://hackerpreneur.co/">Hackerpreneur</a></strong></p>
<p>For indie entrepreneurs &amp; makers who live and work on their own
terms. Every Friday, you’ll get hand-picked startup resources &amp;
essays exploring the future of work in the exponential age. By <a
href="https://twitter.com/MarcEglon">Marc Eglon</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://bootstrap.money">Bootstrap
Money</a></strong></p>
<p>Weekly roundups of stories, guides and resources to help you grow
your internet business. Every Friday. Free. Curated by <a
href="https://twitter.com/ndethore">Nicolas de Thoré</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="podcasts">Podcasts</h3>
<ul>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/">Startups
for the rest of us</a></strong></p>
<p>Started in 2010 by <a href="https://twitter.com/robwalling">Rob
Walling</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/SingleFounder">Mike
Taber</a> have covered almost everything there is to cover in
micropreneurship. <a
href="http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/greatest-hits">Here</a> you
can find a ‘best of’ selection of their podcast.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://www.productpeople.tv/">Product
People</a></strong></p>
<p>A podcast focused on great products and the people who make them.
Since 2012. By <a href="https://twitter.com/mijustin">Justin
Jackson</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="http://bootstrapped.fm/">bootstrapped.fm</a></strong></p>
<p>Several different topics around bootstrapping online businesses.
Started in 2013 by <a href="https://twitter.com/ianlandsman">Ian
Landsman</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/andrey_butov">Andrey
Butov</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://bootstrappedweb.com">Bootstrapped
Web</a></strong></p>
<p>“To share the lessons we learn by doing, and learn from the things
that others are doing, to help us all get ahead as we bootstrap our
businesses online.” Since 2013 by <a
href="https://twitter.com/CasJam">Brian Casel</a> and <a
href="https://twitter.com/JordanGal">Jordan Gal</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="http://entreprogrammers.com/">Entreprogrammers</a></strong></p>
<p>A podcast for developreneurs. Run by <a
href="https://twitter.com/josh_earl">Josh Earl</a>, <a
href="https://twitter.com/jsonmez">John Sonmez</a>, <a
href="https://twitter.com/derickbailey">Derick Bailey</a> and <a
href="https://twitter.com/cmaxw">Charles Max Wood</a> since
2014.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses">IndieHackers</a></strong></p>
<p>Podcast where <a href="https://twitter.com/csallen?lang=ca">Courtland
Allen</a> interviews some of the most successful indiehackers featured
on the site. Started in early 2017 already has 12 episodes with great
content and very carefully crafted related notes and links.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://thesaasbootstrapper.com/">The SaaS
Bootstrapper</a></strong></p>
<p>Interviews with entrepreneurs and bootstrappers about bootstrapping,
SaaS, growth, marketing, and other startup topics. By <a
href="http://macmartine.com/">Mac Martine</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/podcasts/">Smart Passive
Income</a></strong></p>
<p>Not really specific to developers but with great content on the
several types of products to make a living online. By <a
href="https://twitter.com/patflynn">Pat Flynn</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://giantrobots.fm/">Giant
Robots</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.benorenstein.com/">Ben Orenstein</a> (former
growth/product lead at Thoughtbot) and <a
href="https://twitter.com/derrickreimer">Derrick Reimer</a> (co-founder
of Drip) talk weekly about growing their SaaS businesses.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mixergy-startup-stories-1000-entrepreneurs-businesses/id348690336?mt=2">Mixergy</a></strong></p>
<p>Startup Interview podcast hosted by <a
href="https://twitter.com/andrewwarner">Andrew Warner</a>, who made $1
million a month from an online greeting card business.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this">How I Built
This</a></strong></p>
<p>A podcast hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/guyraz">Guy Raz</a>
where startup founders tell their story.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://saas.transistor.fm/">Build your
SaaS</a></strong></p>
<p>What does it take to build a SaaS in 2019? Podcast by <a
href="https://twitter.com/jonbuda">Jon Buda</a> and <a
href="https://twitter.com/mijustin">Justin Jackson</a> as they grow
Transistor.fm.</p></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="talks">Talks</h3>
<ul>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY">David Heinemeier
Hansson at Startup School 08</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/dhh">David Heinemeier Hansson</a></p>
<p>Bootstrapping as the better alternative to VC funded
startups.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3d1asTrWUQ">Tyler Tringas on
Storemapper and MicroSaaS</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/tylertringas">Tyler Tringas</a></p>
<p>15 minutes filled with a lot of valuable information and insights
where Tyler presents the concept of Micro-SaaS and tells us his
story.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3nb_Qj3mRA">Bootstrapping Side
Projects To Profit by Pieter Levels</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/levelsio">Pieter Levels</a></p>
<p>Probably one of the most known indie hackers of the last couple of
years talks about how to turn our side-projects into profitable
businesses. Very straight to the point, Pieter always provides a lot of
insightful thoughts. By the way, don’t get fooled by his lifestyle, his
success is 500% work.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="http://businessofsoftware.org/2011/03/hello-ladies-patrick-mckenzie-at-business-of-software-2010-marketing-to-minorities/">Marketing
for Minorities</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/patio11?lang=ca">Patrick McKenzie</a></p>
<p>Lightning 7-minute talk by one of the most respected indie
developers. The point Patrick is trying to make, is that solo developers
can target way smaller and niche markets which might have low
competition and be very profitable from a solo business point of
view.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8UwcyYT3z0">Talking about
CoderPad and business at Dropbox</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/fulligin?lang=ca">Vincent Woo</a></p>
<p>Talk on building a successful small solo business.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZxP0i9ah8E">Paul Buchheit at
Startup School 08</a></strong></p>
<p>In this classic talk, AdSense/GMail/like button inventor explains how
to listen to your users and why you should be critical of startup
advice.</p></li>
</ul>
<h5 id="other-1">Other</h5>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://vimeo.com/user12790628/videos">Talks from
the MicroConf</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://baconbiz.com/">Talks from the
BaconBizConf</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a
href="http://businessofsoftware.org/2016/07/all-talks-from-business-of-software-conferences-in-one-place-saas-software-talks/">Talks
from Business of Software</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="posts">Posts</h3>
<ul>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://levels.io/12-startups-12-months/">I’m
Launching 12 Startups in 12 Months</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/levelsio">Pieter Levels</a></p>
<p>The challenge that started it all for Pieter. It inspired me to do
something similar. What matters is to create and ship a lot, learning in
the process, until something is worth pushing further.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/">Don’t
Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/patio11?lang=ca">Patrick McKenzie</a></p>
<p>Patrick has written over 500 posts and I have obviously not read all
of them, but of the many I’ve read, I chose this one…</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/03/20/running-a-software-business-on-5-hours-a-week/">Running
A Software Business On 5 Hours A Week</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/patio11?lang=ca">Patrick McKenzie</a></p>
<p>…and this one too :D</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://tylertringas.com/storemapper-bootstrapped-to-50000year-in-2-years-with-live-metrics/">Storemapper:
Bootstrapped to $50,000/year in 2 years (with live metrics)</a></strong>
by <a href="https://twitter.com/tylertringas">Tyler Tringas</a></p>
<p>This is just an example of a business more than one would be happy
with :-) Besides liking how Tyler shares his story building Storemapper,
I think he always maximizes for valuable content.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://unicornfree.com/2013/why-you-should-do-a-tiny-product-first">Why
You Should Do A Tiny Product First</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/amyhoy">Amy Hoy</a></p>
<p>This is the first of a series by Amy Hoy. I’ll be honest, I don’t
even remember what this was about, just that I found it worth my time.
Oh wait, yeah, Amy told me not to code, at least at first. I haven’t
still gotten there…</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://medium.com/@cliffordoravec/the-epic-guide-to-bootstrapping-a-saas-startup-from-scratch-by-yourself-part-1-4d834e1df8c1">The
Epic Guide to Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch — By
Yourself</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/cliffordoravec">Clifford Oravec</a></p>
<p>Another series on what solo bootstrapping is about, with an offensive
twist.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://medium.com/product-people/how-to-get-more-customers-54f64220e430">How
to get more customers</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/mijustin">Justin Jackson</a>.</p>
<p>This is a bit of a too specific topic for this general selection of
posts, but the hell, you need to read it before it’s too late. Ok, I’m
starting to sound marketingy :D</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://hackernoon.com/indie-startups-the-ingredients-of-success-74531fe3a019">Indie
Startups: The Ingredients of Success</a></strong> by <a
href="https://hackernoon.com/@fpgaminer">fpgaminer</a></p>
<p>Numbers with meaning. fpgaminer analyzed all the products featured on
IndieHackers, extracted some statistics and got to some conclusions.
Also worth reading for the approach.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://qotoqot.com/blog/founder-skills/">What
you should know as a founder of a software company</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/ivmirx">Ivan Mir</a></p>
<p>A guide to the complex world of modern software business: everything
from UX design to marketing and writing, with a list of resources to
start with each topic.</p></li>
</ul>
<h5 id="others">Others</h5>
<p>There’s obviously a million posts on the topic. I’m sure this is not
a good selection but it’ll get you started. Here you can find some
more:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a
href="https://bootstrappers.io/">Bootstrappers.io</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://hackernoon.com/">HackerNoon</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://news.ycombinator.com/">HackerNews</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://hackernoon.com/7-articles-for-indie-devs-to-start-shipping-12b22f5e5660">7
Articles for Indie Devs to Start Shipping</a></strong> - great selection
by <a href="https://twitter.com/mskvsk">Alex Moskovski</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="blogs">Blogs</h3>
<ul>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://www.kalzumeus.com/">Patrick
Mackenzie</a></strong></p>
<p>Over 500 posts that show how Patrick went from being a software
engineer to running successful software businesses.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://www.softwarebyrob.com/">Rob
Walling</a></strong></p>
<p>Lessons Learned by a Solo Entrepreneur.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://levels.io/">Pieter
Levels</a></strong></p>
<p>Lots of advice on bootstrapping businesses if you dig between
Pieter’s multiple interests.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://tylertringas.com/">Tyler
Tringas</a></strong></p>
<p>On SaaS and his journey with Storemapper.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://www.joelonsoftware.com/">Joel
Spolsky</a></strong></p>
<p>Software and business have always been topics Joel has covered.
StackOverflow and Trello prove he knows what he’s talking
about.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://m.signalvnoise.com/">Signal v.
Noise</a></strong></p>
<p>The blog of the basecamp people, mostly David Heinemeier Hansson and
Jason Fried, on business and how to run bootstrapped companies.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://blog.pinboard.in/">Pinboard</a></strong></p>
<p>Maciej Cegłowski’s blog for his bookmarking tool, pinboard, useful in
showing the growth of a successful solo business.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/">The
Bootstrapped Founder</a></strong></p>
<p>How to start, run, and sell a bootstrapped SaaS company without
burning out — by Arvid Kahl</p></li>
</ul>
<h5 id="others-1">Others</h5>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://thefoundation.com/blog">The
Foundation</a></strong> - Turning the process of creating a B2B SaaS
business into a formula.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.priceintelligently.com/blog">Price
Intelligently</a></strong> - Blog focused on the economics of the SaaS
business model and SaaS pricing.</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://moz.com/blog">Moz Blog</a></strong> - For
anything related to SEO.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html">Paul
Graham</a></strong> - A lot of content for big funded startups, but
still relevant to bootstrappers.</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://john.onolan.org/">John O’Nolan</a></strong>
- Especially the older posts on how he started ghost.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="case-studies">Case Studies</h3>
<ul>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.indiehackers.com/blog">IndieHackers</a></strong></p>
<p>From capturing a trend to getting acquired in less than one
year.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://levels.io/product-hunt-hacker-news-number-one/">NomadList</a></strong></p>
<p>Solving your own pain, representing a movement, moving fast and
working hard by a serial bootstrapper.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.bugmuncher.com/blog/">Bugmuncher</a></strong></p>
<p>Transparent growth and financial reports by a solo saas
founder.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://basecamp.com/bootstrapped">Basecamp</a></strong></p>
<p>A collection of bootstrapped companies by the people at 37
signals.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://baremetrics.com/blog">Baremetrics</a></strong></p>
<p>An example of riding the wave.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://themakingof.carrd.co/#">Carrd.co</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ajlkn">AJ</a> writes about the making of
carrd.co and the different steps that he took on the way to a successful
product.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.candyjapan.com/behind-the-scenes">CandyJapan</a></strong></p>
<p>Revenue numbers and learnings from running a Japanese candy
subscription box.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://github.com/awesome-self-funded/awesome-self-funded">Awesome
Self Funded</a></strong></p>
<p>Awesome list of successful self-funded tech businesses with &gt;$1M
revenue</p></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="events">Events</h3>
<ul>
<li><p><strong><a
href="http://www.microconf.com/">MicroConf</a></strong> [$]</p>
<p>“The world’s biggest conference for the world’s smallest self-funded
software companies”. It has two editions, one more focused to starters,
and another one focused on growth. Both last two days. Las Vegas. Run by
<a href="https://twitter.com/robwalling">Rob Walling</a> and <a
href="https://twitter.com/SingleFounder">Mike Taber</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://www.microconfeurope.com/">MicroConf
Europe</a></strong> [$]</p>
<p>MicroConf’s European edition. Barcelona. Run by <a
href="https://twitter.com/robwalling">Rob Walling</a> and <a
href="https://twitter.com/SingleFounder">Mike Taber</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://baconbiz.com/">BaconBizConf</a></strong>
[$]</p>
<p>“An alliance for B2B bootstrappers”. Philadelphia. By <a
href="https://twitter.com/amyhoy">Amy Hoy</a> and <a
href="https://twitter.com/alexhillman">Alex Hillman</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://www.startupschool.org/">StartupSchool</a></strong></p>
<p>Free event organized by seed accelerator <a
href="http://www.ycombinator.com/">YCombinator</a>. You have to be a bit
lucky to get in. Also, this suggestion goes a little bit against the
idea of “bootstrapped” but YCombinator has a lot of good resources for
us indie hackers!</p></li>
</ul>
<h5 id="not-specific-to-indie-founders">Not specific to indie
founders:</h5>
<ul>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://businessofsoftware.org/">Business of
Software</a></strong> [$]</p>
<p>“Business of Software is not based in Silicon Valley for good reason.
It is about building long term, sustainable software businesses. …a
thoughtful conference, where people come to listen and learn, not self
promote and shout”. Boston. <a href="http://thebln.com/team/">Team
behind BoS</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://businessofsoftware.eu/">Business of
Software Europe</a></strong> [$]</p>
<p>BoS European edition. London. <a href="http://thebln.com/team/">Team
behind BoS</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://b2brocks.co/">B2B Rocks</a></strong>
[$]</p>
<p>“Leading conferences for B2B and SaaS startups”. Popular business
model for indie devs. Paris. Sydney.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="http://peersconf.com/">PeersConf</a></strong>
[$]</p>
<p>“A conference for those who make the web, and make it their
business”. Seattle (changes every year). By <a
href="https://twitter.com/justjessdc">Jessica D’Amico</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="books">Books</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/Start-Small-Stay-Developers-Launching-ebook/dp/B003YH9MMI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1493983910&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=start+small+stay+small">Start
Small, Stay Small</a></strong> [$] by <a
href="https://twitter.com/robwalling">Rob Walling</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://tylertringas.com/micro-saas-ebook/">Building Micro-SaaS
Businesses</a></strong> by <a
href="https://twitter.com/tylertringas">Tyler Tringas</a>. - A
collection of very well structured posts that cover the most initial
struggles of an indie dev on the way to build a MicroSaaS. I can
personally endorse it and I’m eager to read the yet to be written
chapters :)</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.singlefounderhandbook.com/">The Single
Founder Handbook</a></strong> [$] by <a
href="https://twitter.com/SingleFounder">Mike Taber</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://gettingreal.37signals.com/">Getting
Real</a></strong> by <a href="https://37signals.com">37signals</a>. -
More focused on building web applications, I really recommend it. Short,
straight to the point, very easy to read and full of valuable
content.</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://makebook.io/">MAKE</a></strong> [$] by <a
href="https://twitter.com/levelsio">Pieter Levels</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://37signals.com/rework">Rework</a></strong>
[$] by <a href="https://37signals.com">37signals</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://unicornfree.com/just-fucking-ship/">Just
Fucking Ship</a></strong> [$] by <a
href="https://twitter.com/amyhoy">Amy Hoy</a> and <a
href="https://twitter.com/alexhillman">Alex Hillman</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://justinjackson.withcoach.com/marketing-for-developers-the-book">Marketing
for Developers</a></strong> [$] by <a
href="https://twitter.com/mijustin">Justin Jackson</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a
href="http://www.paulgraham.com/hackpaint.html">Hackers&amp;Painters</a></strong>
[$] by <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/">Paul Graham</a>.</li>
<li>**[The <span
class="math inline">100<em>S</em><em>t</em><em>a</em><em>r</em><em>t</em><em>u</em><em>p</em>](<em>h</em><em>t</em><em>t</em><em>p</em>://100<em>s</em><em>t</em><em>a</em><em>r</em><em>t</em><em>u</em><em>p</em>.<em>c</em><em>o</em><em>m</em>/) *  * [</span>]
by <a href="https://chrisguillebeau.com/">Chris Guillebeau</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://pragprog.com/book/actb2/technical-blogging-second-edition">Technical
Blogging (2nd Edition)</a></strong> [$] by <a
href="https://antoniocangiano.com/">Antonio Cangiano</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://momtestbook.com/">The Mom Test</a></strong>
[$] by <a href="https://robfitz.com/">Rob Fitzpatrick</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://zerotosoldbook.com/">Zero to
Sold</a></strong> [$] by <a
href="https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/about-me/">Arvid Kahl</a>. How
Arvid and his partner Danielle started, ran, and sold the bootstrapped
EdTech SaaS FeedbackPanda, with everything that worked, should have
worked, and didn’t work.</li>
</ul>
<h5 id="other-2">Other</h5>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://books.makesideproject.com/">SideProject
Books</a></strong> - Side Project Books is a curated collection of books
for anyone interested in building a business on the side. By <a
href="https://twitter.com/mubashariqbal">Mubashar Iqbal</a></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thesaasbootstrapper.com/book-list/">The SaaS
Bootstrapper book list</a></strong> - Collection curated by <a
href="http://macmartine.com/">Mac Martine</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/Badass-Making-Awesome-Kathy-Sierra-ebook/dp/B00VAUIM18/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1493985078&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=badass+kathy+sierra">Badass:
Making Users Awesome</a></strong> [$] by <a
href="http://seriouspony.com/">Kathy Sierra</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SI0B5FS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1">Anything
You Want</a></strong> [$] by <a href="https://twitter.com/sivers">Derek
Sivers</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Early-ebook/dp/B009IXMK4O/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1493985002&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=founders+at+work">Founders
at Work</a></strong> [$] by <a
href="https://twitter.com/jesslivingston">Jessica Livingston</a>.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.sideprojectbook.com/">SideProject
Book</a></strong> - [$49].</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="tools">Tools</h3>
<ul>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://github.com/ripienaar/free-for-dev">free-for-dev</a></strong></p>
<p>A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of
interest to devops and infradev. Very useful for bootstrappers to keep
initial costs low ;) By <a href="https://github.com/ripienaar/">R. I.
Pienaar</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://github.com/255kb/stack-on-a-budget">Stack-on-a-budget</a></strong></p>
<p>Another list of SaaS, PaaS, and Iaas offerings that have free tiers
for developers on a budget. Very useful for exploring ideas and building
out proof of concept. By <a href="https://github.com/255kb/">Guillaume
(256kb)</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://github.com/cjbarber/ToolsOfTheTrade">Tools Of The
Trade</a></strong></p>
<p>Spectacular list of categorized tools for developers resulting from
HackerNews threads. By <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisbarber">Chris
Barber</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/davisonio">Craig
Davison</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a
href="https://github.com/Kickball/awesome-selfhosted">awesome-selfhosted</a></strong></p>
<p>“This is a list of Free Software network services and web
applications which can be hosted locally. Selfhosting is the process of
locally hosting and managing applications instead of renting from SaaS
providers.” Lots of salvageable software :P by <a
href="https://github.com/Kickball">Edward D</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="courses">Courses</h3>
<p>Again, I’m not quite fond of listing [$] products made by indie
developers targeting indie developers, especially because I haven’t
tried them myself, but due to several references I assume they are
probably worth it and some people might find value in learning about
them.</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://devmarketing.xyz/">Marketing for
Developers</a></strong> [$]</p>
<p>“An online marketing course for software developers &amp; product
people”. Read some reviews <a
href="https://www.producthunt.com/posts/marketing-for-developers">here</a>.
By <a href="https://twitter.com/mijustin">Justin Jackson</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://30x500.com/academy/">30x500
Academy</a></strong> [$]</p>
<p>“Pick your customer. Learn how they tick. Learn what they need, want,
and are ready to buy.” Find reviews <a
href="http://codefol.io/posts/30x500-why">here</a>(good), <a
href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8119354">here</a>(bad) and <a
href="https://www.quora.com/How-do-30x500-and-How-To-Make-Your-First-Dollar-compare">here</a>.
By <a href="https://twitter.com/amyhoy">Amy Hoy</a> and <a
href="https://twitter.com/alexhillman">Alex Hillman</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<!-- https://www.appsumo.com/how-to-make-your-first-dollar/ -->
<!-- https://fizzle.co/ -->
<h2 id="specific-topics">Specific topics</h2>
<p>In the future, I’d like to have a list of resources for more specific
topics or FAQs such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>‘how to get ideas’ <!-- http://www.oppsdaily.com/ -->
<!-- https://nugget.one/daily -->
<!-- https://www.oppslist.com/ --></li>
<li>‘how to find betatesters’</li>
<li>‘how to find my first 100 users’ <!-- https://promotehour.com/ -->
<!-- awesome places to post your startup --></li>
<li>‘how to validate my idea’
<!-- https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/validating_product_ideas --></li>
<li>‘where to advertise my project’</li>
<li>‘what paid ads work better’</li>
<li>‘i’ve got 100 users, how to grow’</li>
<li>‘how do i deal with support’</li>
<li>‘types of digital products’</li>
<li>‘legal aspects’ <!-- https://termsfeed.com --></li>
<li>‘typical mistakes’
<!-- https://www.47hats.com/2017/05/10/startup-mistake-1-anonymous-startup/ --></li>
</ul>
<p>Help me make a proper list of specific topics!</p>