The Currents of a Founder
Explore the currents of entrepreneurship and how to navigate technology, branding, and work-life balance in your business journey.
Read the essay →From the archive
Indie Hacking
Explore indie hacking essays and podcast conversations from Arvid Kahl’s Bootstrapped Founder archive.
Should Indie Hackers Go to Tech Conferences?
Should software founders attend tech conferences? The answer is a resounding yes. If you’d asked me five years ago, I’d have completely disagreed. So today, I’ll share my journey from skepticism to…
Read the essay →Indie Hackers’ Myopic View of AI
AI has an image problem among founders, particularly indie hackers and within the online communities that we frequent. In the builder community, we are constantly inundated with shallow copies of the…
Read the essay →My SaaS Server Exploded (& How I Salvaged It)
Earlier this week, I finally found time to work on a large code change. When I deployed it, things got worse quickly. Here’s what happened, why it happened, and how this changed my approach to…
Read the essay →MicroConf Atlanta — My Biggest Learnings
I am writing this still from the hotel where MicroConf 2024 just wrapped up. I’m on the road in Atlanta, and I want to share my impressions from this conference and the things I learned, the things…
Read the essay →Addressing my Weaknesses
I’m a pretty okay developer, but when it comes to marketing and sales, I really need help. And for the longest time, I’ve held myself back. That ends today. My current SaaS business, Podscan, is at a…
Read the essay →Indie Hacking Isn’t Dead — It’s Just Less Hacky
I talked to Peter Levels earlier this week, and he had several controversial takes that he shared with me during our conversation. But in the acting being dead, that was probably the most…
Read the essay →Proof of Work: How Indie Founders Build Defensible Businesses
I was recently talking to several indie founders about how cloneable their businesses are. Many of them have had to deal with copycats and have since developed methods of either engaging with them or…
Read the essay →ChatGPT: Goldmine or Minefield for Indie Hackers?
Everybody in the indie founder community is talking about ChatGPT. Some founders discover how powerful it is as a writing tool, others have it build their products, and some entrepreneurs are even…
Read the essay →