Serial maker of Sizzy, Benji and Tinkerer Club who teaches devs to ship
Sizzy, Benji, Tinkerer Club +6$223K in 30 days
🫂 37 makers · 49 products
Best Community Builders in 2026
Makers running paid communities, job boards and maker hubs. This list features 37 indie makers in this space, led by Kitze, Lenny Rachitsky and Marc Köhlbrugge, ranked by profile depth, audience and reported revenue.
Top community builders
37 makers, ranked.
Former Airbnb product lead behind Lenny's Newsletter and Lenny's Podcast
Lenny's Newsletter, Lenny's Podcast, Lenny's Jobs +1$1M+/yr
Serial maker behind BetaList, WIP and Startup Jobs, shipping online for 20+ years
BetaList, WIP, Startup Jobs +11
MicroConf co-founder, Bluetick founder and author of The Single Founder Handbook
Bluetick, MicroConf, FounderCafe +1Five-figure MRR
Ex-Amazon engineer who popularized the small bets portfolio approach
Small Bets, Userbase, Single Server +1$210K profit in 9 months
Co-founder and CEO of Transistor.fm, the bootstrapped 'calm company' for podcast hosting
Transistor.fm, MegaMaker, Marketing for Developers +2
Co-founder of Elephas and Voibe, runs Superframeworks and Indie Masterminds
Elephas, Voibe, OutlierKit +2$150K/yr
Founder of Smart Passive Income, author of Will It Fly? and Superfans, Pokémon YouTuber
Smart Passive Income, SwitchPod, Deep Pocket Monster
Serial dabbler who built and sold Baremetrics for $4M, now shipping AI products
Baremetrics, Maybe, Knockoff +5
CEO of Late Checkout, host of The Startup Ideas Podcast, creator of Ideabrowser
Late Checkout, Ideabrowser, The Vibe Marketer +3
French developer-designer behind the Uneed launch platform and Writizzy
Uneed, Uneed Residency, Writizzy$134K in 2025
Solo founder of Key Values, the job board matching engineers with values-aligned teams
Key Values~$300K–350K/yr
Founder of Creator Science, teaching creators to build businesses through experiments
Creator Science, The Lab, CreatorHQ +1
Domain investor who turns premium .com names into businesses — and sells onions online
VidaliaOnions.com, Onions.com, RanchWork.com +3
Hong Kong educator who taught building in public, now building AI learning tools for kids
Public Lab, Chatty Bestie, AlphaStage
Singapore solopreneur behind Jason's Plugins for Carrd, Lifelog, Lists Kit and Commit365
Jason's Plugins for Carrd, Lifelog, Lists Kit +1~$12K/yr
Founder of Trends.vc, the market research newsletter and Trends Pro community
Trends.vc, HeadsUp, Multi
Drip founder, MicroConf and TinySeed co-founder, host of Startups for the Rest of Us
TinySeed, MicroConf, Drip
Neuroscientist and founder of Ness Labs, author of Tiny Experiments
Ness Labs, Ness Labs Membership, Tiny Experiments
The startup meme king: co-founded Logology, runs LaunchDay, wore a 26-sponsor wedding suit
LaunchDay, Logology, How to Dominate Twitter/X
Technical co-founder of Affilimate and creator of Blogging for Devs
Affilimate, Blogging for Devs, BFD Trends +1
Directory website builder and SEO teacher behind Ship Your Directory
Ship Your Directory$2K+/mo
WeddingLovely founder, Hello Web books author, GM at TinySeed and MicroConf
WeddingLovely, Hello Web App, Hello Web Design
Bootstrapper behind HelpSpot since 2005, LaraJobs and the Mostly Technical podcast
HelpSpot, LaraJobs, Outro +2
Co-founder of CodePen, ShopTalk Show co-host, ran CSS-Tricks 2007-2022
CodePen, CSS-Tricks
Learn-in-public advocate, Coding Career Handbook author and Latent Space host
Latent Space, AI Engineer, smol.ai
Vietnamese builder behind UI UX Pro Max, AgentKit and GoClaw AI agent tools
UI UX Pro Max, AgentKit, GoClaw +3
Founder of Indie Hackers, the community and podcast that named the movement
Indie Hackers
Ex-DoorDash staff engineer building Watchdog AI moderation and flightschools.fyi
Watchdog, flightschools.fyi, Hackayork +1$444 MRR
Co-founder of Indie Hackers, now building the Hatch AI workspace
Indie Hackers, Hatch
Istanbul Etsy seller and self-taught maker of Toolsy and Podkon, tools for Etsy sellers
Toolsy, Podkon, E-İhracat Yolu
Community builder who founded Ministry of Testing and runs Rosieland
Ministry of Testing, Rosieland
Paris designer, CPO and co-founder of book social network Hardcover
Hardcover, LOOT, June
Marketer and newsletter writer who built an audience on Product Hunt
Business & Marketing with Nika
Founder of Merrative, building thought-leadership newsletters for B2B brands
Merrative
Developer behind the Benture remote job board and the Browsynth browser synth
Benture, Browsynth
Cognitive scientist turned founder, co-created the ReviewLab peer feedback platform
ReviewLab
Products by community builders
49 products in this category.
Ship or Die
ship-or-die.com
Program where makers must ship their app within 30 days or get kicked out.
Nomads.com (formerly Nomad List)
nomads.com
Community and city database for digital nomads, ranking places by cost, internet, safety and more.
$12K/moby Pieter Levels
T
Tinkerer Club
tinkerer.club
Private lifetime community for people who automate their lives, run local AI and self-host their software.
$223K in 30 daysby Kitze
Lenny's Product Pass
lennysproductpass.com
Bundle giving annual subscribers free access to a set of premium software tools.
by Lenny Rachitsky
Ship or Die
ship-or-die.com
Community for founders who want to ship consistently.
TrustMRR ↗by Jack Friks
WIP
wip.co
Social network and accountability community for makers who log daily progress and ship together.
by Marc Köhlbrugge
Startup Jobs
startup.jobs
Job board for startup jobs.
by Marc Köhlbrugge
AI Jobs
aijobs.app
Job board for AI roles.
by Marc Köhlbrugge
BK UP
bkup.nyc
Rock climbing and bouldering gym in DUMBO, Brooklyn, that Tyler set out to launch as his next chapter.
by Tyler Tringas
MicroConf
microconf.com
Conferences and community for bootstrapped and self-funded SaaS founders.
by Mike Taber
FounderCafe
foundercafe.com
Online community for self-funded entrepreneurs.
by Mike Taber
Community and expert-led classes for small-time entrepreneurs; sold to Gumroad in 2025.
Sold for $3.6Mby Daniel Vassallo
Related categories
✍️ Creators & Writers🎓 Educators & Course Creators☁️ SaaS Founders🤖 AI Builders💼 Acquirers & Indie Investors🗂️ Directory Makers🛠️ Developer Tools🎨 Design Tools⚡ Productivity Tools🧱 Boilerplate & Starter Kit Makers
Top countries for community builders
Community Builders FAQ
Who are the most popular indie community builders?
The best-known community builders on IndieMakerList are Kitze, Lenny Rachitsky, Marc Köhlbrugge, Mike Taber and Daniel Vassallo. In total 37 makers are listed in this category.
What products do indie community builders build?
Notable products include Ship or Die by Marc Lou, Nomads.com (formerly Nomad List) by Pieter Levels, Tinkerer Club by Kitze, Lenny's Product Pass by Lenny Rachitsky and Ship or Die by Jack Friks. 49 products are listed in this category.
How much do indie community builders earn?
Publicly reported revenue varies widely. Examples: Kitze ($223K in 30 days (verified, Tinkerer Club launch); $400K+ total verified), Lenny Rachitsky ($1M+/yr (newsletter and podcast, each over $500K)), Mike Taber (Five-figure MRR (Bluetick)) and Daniel Vassallo ($210K profit in 9 months (info products)). Figures are self-reported and sourced from public posts.
Where are indie community builders based?
The most common countries in this category are United States (15), France (3) and Canada (2).
How do I get listed as one of the community builders?
Submit your profile via the Submit page. Listings are free and reviewed before publishing.
Know one of the best community builders we're missing? Submit a maker to IndieMakerList →