Running a bootstrapped empire of 24+ SaaS products and directories
Unicorn Platform, SEObot, ListingBott +20$3M/yr
🥾 Collection · 194 makers
Bootstrapped: indie makers to know in 2026
Makers who grew without venture capital. This curated list has 194 makers, including John Rush, Marc Lou and Pieter Levels.
Makers in Bootstrapped
194 makers, ranked.
French solopreneur from Bali behind TrustMRR, DataFast, ShipFast and 30+ startups
TrustMRR, DataFast, CodeFast +7$98K/mo
Solo maker behind Photo AI, Nomads.com, Remote OK, Interior AI and the MAKE book
Photo AI, Vibe Jam, Interior AI +5~$219K/mo across products
Montreal developer behind Wizard Zines, illustrated guides to computing fundamentals
Wizard Zines, Mess With DNS, Memory Spy +2$101,558 in 2018
Creator of Tailwind CSS who built a multi-million-dollar business on open source
Tailwind CSS, Tailwind Plus (formerly Tailwind UI), Refactoring UI +4Mid-seven figures/yr
Serial maker of Sizzy, Benji and Tinkerer Club who teaches devs to ship
Sizzy, Benji, Tinkerer Club +6$223K in 30 days
Built and sold Tweet Hunter and Taplio; now runs a $1M/month AI portfolio led by Revid
Revid, Outrank, SuperX +6~$1M/mo across products
patio11: Bingo Card Creator, Appointment Reminder, Stripe Atlas and Bits about Money
Bingo Card Creator, Appointment Reminder, Starfighter +2~$275K/yr sales, ~$200K pro…
Physicist turned permissionless entrepreneur, co-founder of Sales.co
Sales.co, Founder Flywheel, Opportunities.so +5$90K/mo
SaaS marketer behind Swipe Files, Conversion Factory and the top AI marketing skills repo
Conversion Factory, Swipe Files, Marketing Skills +5$1M ARR
Productivity YouTuber behind Ultimate Brain, Notion tutorials and the Flylighter clipper
Ultimate Brain, Creator's Companion, Flylighter +2$1M in Notion template sales
One-person business writer behind The Art of Focus and co-founder of the Eden content app
Eden, The 2 Hour Writer$1M-$1.5M/yr
Vietnamese indie hacker behind TypingMind, DevUtils, and exits Black Magic and Xnapper
TypingMind, DevUtils, Black Magic +3$142K/mo
Former Airbnb product lead behind Lenny's Newsletter and Lenny's Podcast
Lenny's Newsletter, Lenny's Podcast, Lenny's Jobs +1$1M+/yr
Self-taught Canadian solo builder of Post Bridge and a string of consumer apps
Post Bridge, Lovelee, Curiosity Quench +4$48.9K MRR
Serial maker behind BetaList, WIP and Startup Jobs, shipping online for 20+ years
BetaList, WIP, Startup Jobs +11
SEO veteran and serial internet entrepreneur shipping AI-coded SEO tools
ian.is SEO tools, URL Monitor (now Cromojo), Keyword Metrics +1$100K ARR
Founder of Starter Story, the founder case-study brand acquired by HubSpot in 2026
Starter Story, Starter Story Build$1M/yr
Founder of Kit (ConvertKit), bootstrapped from a failing side project to $1M+ MRR
Kit (formerly ConvertKit)$1.19M MRR
Ex-Cisco engineer who built Testimonial.to and grew acquired PDF.ai into a top AI PDF tool
Testimonial.to, PDF.ai, Chat.sh +5$1.3M ARR
Coined micro-SaaS, sold Storemapper, then founded Calm Company Fund for bootstrappers
Storemapper, Calm Company Fund (formerly Earnest Capital), BK UP~$40K MRR
Creator of Livewire, Alpine.js and Flux UI, funded by sponsors and component sales
Livewire, Alpine.js, Flux +2$112K/yr from GitHub Sponso…
MicroConf co-founder, Bluetick founder and author of The Single Founder Handbook
Bluetick, MicroConf, FounderCafe +1Five-figure MRR
Singapore-based Notion template creator behind Second Brain and SyncTasks
Notion Second Brain, Finance Tracker, Easlo Templates +2$239K in 2022
Australian indie dev running a portfolio of 30+ simple iOS apps
Card Value Scanner for Pokemon, Swipe the cat, PIANORUN +3$70K/mo
Ex-Amazon engineer who popularized the small bets portfolio approach
Small Bets, Userbase, Single Server +1$210K profit in 9 months
Founder of SavvyCal; co-founded Drip, which sold to Leadpages
SavvyCal, Drip, Codetree +2$20K MRR
Solopreneur who passed $10M in revenue with a one-person business
The LinkedIn Operating System, The Content Operating System, The Saturday Essay$10M+ total revenue
Co-founder of lemlist, bootstrapped from $1K to tens of millions in ARR
lemlist, lemwarm, lemcal +3~$40M ARR
Founder and CEO of Ghost, the open source, non-profit publishing platform
Ghost, AlcoveGhost: ~$11.1M ARR
Canadian full-stack JavaScript teacher behind JavaScript30 and the Syntax podcast
Syntax, Wes Bos Courses
Musician who accidentally built CD Baby, sold it for $22M, and writes books on how to live
CD Baby, HostBaby, Wood Egg
Co-founder and CEO of Transistor.fm, the bootstrapped 'calm company' for podcast hosting
Transistor.fm, MegaMaker, Marketing for Developers +2
Designer and co-founder of Typefully; previously built and sold Mailbrew
Typefully, Mailbrew, Boxy Suite +3Typefully: ~$2M ARR
Former CTO who built Draft.dev to $2.5M and now acquires podcast agencies
Draft.dev, The Podcast Consultant, Rise25$2.5M/yr
Solo founder who bootstrapped Bannerbear, an image and video automation API, to $81K MRR
Bannerbear, Redacted$81K MRR
Founder of Smart Passive Income, author of Will It Fly? and Superfans, Pokémon YouTuber
Smart Passive Income, SwitchPod, Deep Pocket Monster
Solo designer running Designjoy, a $1M+/yr one-person design subscription
Designjoy, Productize Yourself, GatherOS +1$100K MRR
Greek design engineer running bootstrapped tools MagicPattern, BrandBird and SuperMotion
MagicPattern, BrandBird, SuperMotion +3~$6.5K MRR across three pro…
Serial bootstrapper behind Audience Ops, Clarityflow and Builder Methods
Builder Methods, Agent OS, Clarityflow (formerly ZipMessage) +2
Ex-Uber engineering manager who writes The Pragmatic Engineer newsletter
The Pragmatic Engineer, The Software Engineer's Guidebook, The Pragmatic Engineer Podcast
SEO-first serial maker behind GenPPT, LinkDR, AI SEO Tracker and MagicSpace
GenPPT, LinkDR, AI SEO Tracker +5$8.1K MRR
Ex-LEGO engineer building a bootstrapped SaaS portfolio: FeedHive, Aidbase, LinkDrip
FeedHive, Aidbase, LinkDrip +2$400K ARR
French developer-designer behind the Uneed launch platform and Writizzy
Uneed, Uneed Residency, Writizzy$134K in 2025
Syntax podcast co-host and creator of Level Up Tutorials
Level Up Tutorials, Syntax, Phases +1
Vietnamese solopreneur bootstrapping BoltAI, a native AI workspace for Mac
BoltAI, PDF Pals, KTool +1$33.5K/mo
Indie game designer behind Spelunky, Spelunky 2 and UFO 50, founder of Mossmouth
Spelunky, Spelunky 2, UFO 50 +3
Brazil's self-styled first digital nomad, serial AI app builder and Dolafy co-founder
Dolafy, Ready For Mars, Viralist.ai +3
Solo founder of Key Values, the job board matching engineers with values-aligned teams
Key Values~$300K–350K/yr
Co-founded Senja to $800K ARR; now building Ferndesk, self-updating AI help docs
Ferndesk, Senja$5K MRR
Founder of Creator Science, teaching creators to build businesses through experiments
Creator Science, The Lab, CreatorHQ +1
Creator of Hacking with Swift, the free Swift and SwiftUI learning site
Hacking with Swift, Hacking with Swift+, Kickstart +2
Sold FeedbackPanda, wrote Zero to Sold, built Podscan in public (acquired 2026)
Podscan, FeedbackPanda
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
Founder of Visualize Value: minimalist visuals, courses on leverage, and digital art
Visualize Value, Checks VV Edition, jackbutcher.md
Italian developer in Taipei who built Makerkit, the B2B SaaS starter kit
Makerkit, Formtoro, ngx-chips$8,606 in a month
Goa-based maker of AudioPen, the AI voice-to-text notes app
AudioPen, Read Something Great, Tiny Testimonial$73K in first 2 months
Singapore solopreneur behind Jason's Plugins for Carrd, Lifelog, Lists Kit and Commit365
Jason's Plugins for Carrd, Lifelog, Lists Kit +1~$12K/yr
Designer of Braid and The Witness, creator of the Jai language, head of Thekla
Braid, The Witness, Order of the Sinking Star +2
Solo founder of ScreenshotOne, a screenshot API for developers and AI agents
ScreenshotOne, How Browsers Work, Open Graph Examples & Debugger +1~$36K MRR
Bootstrapped founder of SignWell e-signatures and Bidsketch proposals
SignWell, BidsketchSeveral million ARR
German founder of supastarter, the SaaS starter kit for Next.js, Nuxt and TanStack
supastarter, supatools, Outbid +1$12K/mo
Co-founder of Tiny and MetaLab, buying and holding wonderful internet businesses
Tiny, MetaLab, Dribbble +1
Software engineer turned solopreneur behind BlackTwist and Shipped.club
BlackTwist, Shipped.club, Latentcam +3$2.5K/mo
Solo founder who bootstrapped Chatbase from a student project to $10M ARR
Chatbase$864K MRR
Founder of Laracasts, the bootstrapped video school for Laravel and PHP
Laracasts, Rosette, Laravel Mix
Developer turned indie hacker on a public $1M revenue journey
iCodeThis, Content Copilot, Indie Action$445K lifetime across proje…
Software engineer turned indie hacker behind AI Directories, TransClipper and ColdConvert
AI Directories, TransClipper, ColdConvert +2$7.7K in the last 30 days
Product Hunt Maker of the Year 2018 behind Sheet2Site, Web3 Jobs and SearchConsole.ai
SearchConsole.ai, Applicant AI, Web3 Jobs +5
Solo founder of Postiz, the open-source agentic social media scheduler
Postiz, agent-media$250K MRR
PSPDFKit founder turned creator of OpenClaw, the open-source personal AI agent
OpenClaw, PSPDFKit (Nutrient), CodexBar +2
Co-founder of Noko (Freckle) and Stacking the Bricks, creator of 30x500 and Sales Safari
Noko (formerly Freckle), 30x500, Stacking the Bricks
French solo maker of Capgo, open-source live updates for Capacitor apps
Capgo, Naturopia$30K MRR
Author of The Mom Test and Write Useful Books, building beta-reading software for authors
The Mom Test, Write Useful Books, The Workshop Survival Guide +1
Dutch no-code maker of Startup Stash who built and sold five curation products
Startup Stash, StartupWatching, Road to Scale +2
Founder of Buttondown, the bootstrapped newsletter platform he started at Stripe
Buttondown, Spoonbill~$15K MRR
Prolific Dutch indie Apple developer behind MacWhisper, Navi and Posture Pal
MacWhisper, Whisper Transcription, Navi +7
Founder of Trends.vc, the market research newsletter and Trends Pro community
Trends.vc, HeadsUp, Multi
JavaScript educator behind Epic React, Epic Web and Testing JavaScript
Epic React, Epic Web, Testing JavaScript +2
Co-founder of Paperform, a bootstrapped form builder grown to $3.5M+ ARR
Paperform$3.5M ARR
Designer behind Design+Code, teaching designers to code, now building the AI builder Aura
Design+Code, Aura, Spring +2
AI-first builder behind TrendFeed and CodeSpring, teaching non-coders to vibe code
CodeSpring, TrendFeed, ChatIQ$29K/mo
Osaka-based solo developer of Inkdrop and the Dev as Life YouTube channel
Inkdrop$10K+ MRR
Kerala-based front-end maker of Web3Forms and Web3Templates (Astroship, Stablo)
Web3Forms, Web3Templates, Astroship +3$75.7K all-time
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
Dutch founder of HeadshotPro who sold AI copywriter Headlime for seven figures
HeadshotPro, Headlime, Landingfolio +1
Copywriting teacher behind Marketing Examples and its 130K-reader newsletter
Marketing Examples, Copywriting Examples
Co-founder of ScrapingBee, bootstrapped to $5M ARR and sold to Oxylabs
ScrapingBee, PricingBot~$5M ARR
Albanian founder who bootstrapped Publer social media management to $3M ARR
Publer, Linkie, Kibo$3M ARR
Founder of Once, a disposable-camera event app, and owner of Xnapper
Once, Xnapper$35K/mo
Full-time open-sourcer maintaining 1,000+ npm packages and dozens of indie Mac apps
Supercharge, Dato, Gifski +6
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
Singapore maker who sold OpenGraph.xyz, now runs a portfolio of directory sites
OpenGraph.xyz, ClinicGeek, Dental Clinics Malaysia +4S$5K/mo
Polish engineer-turned-indie hacker behind Visualizee.ai AI renders
Visualizee.ai, VizTunr, Morga.ai +3$8.2K MRR
Directory website builder and SEO teacher behind Ship Your Directory
Ship Your Directory$2K+/mo
German indie dev and YouTuber behind Islanders, Will You Snail? and Thronefall
Thronefall, Will You Snail?, Islanders +1
Developer-educator behind Mastering Postgres, High Performance SQLite and Solo
Database School, Solo, Screencasting.com +1
Indie iOS developer of Overcast, previously Instapaper and Tumblr
Overcast, Unforgetful, Instapaper +1
Founder of RightMessage and Double Your Freelancing, author of This Is Personal
RightMessage, Double Your Freelancing, Planscope
Indie iOS developer of Callsheet and co-host of Accidental Tech Podcast
Callsheet, MaskerAid, Peek-a-View +1
Lisbon-based serial SaaS builder behind Podawaa and HumanInbox, with three exits
Podawaa, HumanInbox, PimpMySaaS +1$66K MRR
Co-founder of Plausible Analytics, writer on privacy and bootstrapped marketing
Plausible Analytics$1M+ ARR
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 Senja, bootstrapping a testimonial tool in public to $1M ARR
Senja$1M ARR
Solo developer of Stardew Valley, now making Haunted Chocolatier
Stardew Valley, Haunted Chocolatier
Denmark-based serial maker of Shipixen, Page UI and the Morning Maker Show
Shipixen, Page UI, Page AI +5
Solo developer of Photopea, the free browser-based Photoshop alternative
Photopea~$200K/mo
Slovakia-based 'Coding Dinosaur' who has shipped 200+ web projects
Featurenest, Download3000, Colorion +3
Indie iOS dev of Dark Noise and host of the Launched podcast
Dark Noise, Overviewer
Creator of Plausible, the open source and privacy-first Google Analytics alternative
Plausible Analytics$1M+ ARR
Builds and teaches AI coding; creator of Chatbot UI and founder of Takeoff
Takeoff / MagicLearn, Chatbot UI, Mckay's App Template +1
Co-founder of ScrapingBee and author of The Java Web Scraping Handbook
ScrapingBee$5M+ ARR
Software engineer and sole owner of Fathom, the privacy-first Google Analytics alternative
Fathom Analytics, Serverless Laravel, SingleStore for Laravel
Solo founder who bootstrapped Unicorn Platform to $16K MRR and sold it for $800K
Unicorn Platform, saas.page, Paracast +1
Former Apple engineer running Red Sweater Software, maker of MarsEdit
MarsEdit, FastScripts, Black Ink +2
Australian founder of the Bento email platform, building from Fukuoka, Japan
Bento, PostShiba, Tatami +1
Brazilian indie Mac and iOS developer behind AirBuddy and VirtualBuddy
AirBuddy, VirtualBuddy, WWDC for macOS +1
Creator of the Notion Mastery course and co-founder of Oki Doki
Notion Mastery, Oki Doki
Pakistani solo founder of Fore Studio: Vitals and Flit Mac apps, StartupBase, Depost AI
Vitals, Flit, StartupBase +2$13.3K all-time
iOS indie developer behind Apollo for Reddit, Pixel Pals and Juno
Apollo for Reddit, Pixel Pals, Amplosion +2
Co-founder of GrowSurf, bootstrapped referral and affiliate software
GrowSurf$24K MRR
Writer and co-founder of Ship 30 for 30, author of The Art & Business of Online Writing
Ship 30 for 30, Premium Ghostwriting Academy, Typeshare
Chennai ex-Zoho maker building Guidejar in public to $5K MRR, with two small exits
Guidejar, Cold DM, Support Guy$5K MRR
Independent iOS developer behind Widgetsmith, Pedometer++ and Sleep++
Widgetsmith, Pedometer++, Sleep++ +1
Australian product designer behind Untitled UI, the best-selling Figma UI kit
Untitled UI, Untitled UI React, Untitled UI Icons +2
Apple-featured indie developer of Compresto for Mac and the Steps pedometer app
Compresto, Steps, Grok Bots$73.8K all-time
Solo designer of Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn
Papers, Please, Return of the Obra Dinn, Mars After Midnight +1
Founder of Paperbell coaching software; bootstrapped and sold MeetEdgar
Paperbell, MeetEdgar
Solo developer of the Ellie daily planner and other productivity apps, YouTuber
Ellie, Amy, Luna +1
Belfast founder of Gravity SaaS boilerplate, Alertly and the Zero To Paid course
Gravity, Alertly
Montreal developer-educator behind CSS for JavaScript Developers and The Joy of React
CSS for JavaScript Developers, The Joy of React, Whimsical Animations
Ex-CTO turned solopreneur behind the SaaS Pegasus Django boilerplate
SaaS Pegasus, Place Card Me, Scriv +2
Ex-DoorDash staff engineer building Watchdog AI moderation and flightschools.fyi
Watchdog, flightschools.fyi, Hackayork +1$444 MRR
Developer behind DevHunt, Float UI, RapidForms and Wrapifai
DevHunt, Float UI, RapidForms +2
Former BlackRock trader who co-founded Ship 30 for 30 to teach online writing
Ship 30 for 30, Premium Ghostwriting Academy
Paris-based solo founder of Hyperping, bootstrapped uptime monitoring and status pages
Hyperping$11K MRR
Upstate New York maker running a solo product studio with 100+ side projects
Bluesky Directory, I Worked On, Side Project MVP +3
Colombo-based Elixir developer bootstrapping WallStRank and imgDeliver; exited from inkl
WallStRank, imgDeliver, phoenix-diff +2
Co-founder and CEO of Geocodio and author of Deploy Empathy
Geocodio
London indie founder of Hovercode; built and sold Page Flows
Hovercode, Page Flows, Linkjar +3
No-code maker behind BuildTheKeyword, launching demand-driven small bets
BuildTheKeyword, Holihounds, SellCheq +3
Designer behind Starrt, the Carrd templates and tips hub, building small tools with AI
Starrt, Sparkstation, Breefing +2
Belgian no-code solopreneur behind Build The Keyword; sold No-Code Exits and No-Code Guru
Build The Keyword, No-Code Exits, No-Code Guru
Bootstrapper who built and sold TinyPilot, now writing Refactoring English
TinyPilot, Refactoring English, Zestful +3
Indonesian Webflow developer and solo maker of Unsection, a website section design library
Unsection, Gita design & Webflow subscription$1.4K MRR
Sold bootstrapped privacy startup Removaly to DuckDuckGo, now runs Sabbath Ventures
Removaly, Bible Answers AI, Ruth & Boaz
Istanbul Etsy seller and self-taught maker of Toolsy and Podkon, tools for Etsy sellers
Toolsy, Podkon, E-İhracat Yolu
Australian engineer in France running OnlineOrNot, a self-funded uptime monitoring SaaS
OnlineOrNot
Brazilian indie developer behind Public APIs, Dev Resources and the Linkero page builder
Public APIs, Dev Resources, Linkero +1
Community builder who founded Ministry of Testing and runs Rosieland
Ministry of Testing, Rosieland
Egyptian automation designer selling Claude Fast and SEO Boost kits for Claude users
Claude Fast, SEO Boost$24.7K all-time
Nomad indie maker who sold Remote3 and Promptmonitor, now building open-source Dray
Dray, Thinking Orbs, Promptmonitor +2
London-based indie SaaS maker behind Pop Invoice and the Indie and Profitable newsletter
Pop Invoice, Bunni AI, Hey New +1
Indian solo founder of SiteGPT; sold Notion-blog tool Feather for $250K
SiteGPT, Squad, Feather
Mac indie developer behind Rectangle, Rectangle Pro, Superkey and Hyperkey
Rectangle, Rectangle Pro, Superkey +7
Ads-first indie hacker who sold Talknotes for $200K, now building AdKit
AdKit, Talknotes
Bootstrapper who grew and sold Fomo, now building the TRMNL e-ink dashboard
TRMNL, Fera, Fomo
Finnish solo game developer known as Hempuli, creator of the puzzle game Baba Is You
Baba Is You, Environmental Station Alpha, Noita +1
Multi-exit engineer behind Zero BS CRM, now building a 100% AI-run business
Profit Swarm, Strew, Zero BS CRM (Jetpack CRM)
Founder of Flying Meat, two-decade indie Mac maker of Acorn and Retrobatch
Acorn, Retrobatch, VoodooPad +1
Canadian game designer behind Celeste and TowerFall, co-founder of Extremely OK Games
Celeste, TowerFall, Celeste Classic +2
Indie Safari extension developer behind StopTheMadness at Underpass App Company
StopTheMadness Pro, StopTheScript, StopTheFonts +2
Solo developer who built and sold PromptHero; now making RailsFast
RailsFast, PromptHero, Hustl +1
ISO 27001 consultant building ISMS Copilot, heyGRC and Aevral without investors
ISMS Copilot, heyGRC, Aevral +1
Vietnamese developer who made Flappy Bird, then pulled it at the height of its fame
Flappy Bird, Swing Copters, Flappy Birds Family +2
Cebu-based bootstrapped founder of FontVisual, a font preview tool for crafters
FontVisual, Where to Find VA
Italian developer known as poncle, creator of Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors, Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania, Vampire Crawlers +1
Solo founder of Typebot, the open, self-hostable chatbot builder
Typebot
Indie hacker from India who exited CursorClip and now builds TraceSig
TraceSig, CursorClip
Serial bootstrapped SaaS founder: Mailparser, Docparser and now Refiner
Refiner, Docparser, Mailparser
One-person studio Amphibian Digital, maker of FrogDR and ramen.tools
FrogDR, ramen.tools, twelve.tools +1
Nomadic developer behind Saas UI, the React component library and SaaS starter kits
Saas UI, SaaS.js, Trevize +3
Bootstrapped founder of Elmo, open-source AI search visibility; ex-Airbyte first engineer
Elmo, Poach, MealByMeal +1
Bootstrapped founder of CustomGPT.ai and co-founder of the Chitika ad network
CustomGPT.ai, Chitika
German developer building RewriteBar, an AI writing assistant for macOS, on the side
RewriteBar, A Wifi Place, SnooScan
Founder of 1000.tools, a curated directory capped at 1,000 tools
1000.tools, Picavatar, HuntedWall
Seoul-based indie Mac developer of Shotomatic, hands-free screenshot automation
Shotomatic$15.8K all-time
Bucharest-based product engineer building Krumzi, an AI graphic design tool
Krumzi, InstaCarousel
UX designer who co-founded Nusii proposal software and now runs Beyond the Pixel
Nusii, Beyond the Pixel
Founder of ChaiBuilder, an open-source visual website builder for React and Next.js
ChaiBuilder, chaicore, Chai Studio
Author of Company of One and co-founder of Fathom Analytics (retired 2024)
Fathom Analytics
Canadian developer who spent seven years making Tunic, the fox adventure about secrets
Tunic
Solo founder of Readbetter, which sends newsletters and articles to Kindle
Readbetter, NotionReads
Hanoi-based product manager and nights-and-weekends maker of SmartGantt and FeedbackGlow
SmartGantt, FeedbackGlow, BskyUtils
Copenhagen software engineer building Race Calendar BG and Amounthly alongside a 9-5
Race Calendar BG, Amounthly, FileBridge
Spanish co-founder of Orbe, a geolocation and Shopify Markets app for global stores
Orbe, Mushdesk
Solo creator of PocketBase, the open source backend in a single file
PocketBase, Presentator, Hide Ratings Extension
Independent developer building Taleshape and Shaper, open-source SQL dashboards on DuckDB
Shaper
Bootstrapping SpecialX, an agentic AI companion for creating and posting content
SpecialX, Appliful
Technical founder of Sweep Certificates, business software for UK chimney sweeps
Sweep Certificates
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Bootstrapped FAQ
Who is in the Bootstrapped collection?
194 indie makers are in this collection, including John Rush, Marc Lou, Pieter Levels, Julia Evans and Adam Wathan.
What qualifies a maker for Bootstrapped?
Makers who grew without venture capital.
What do makers in Bootstrapped build?
The most common categories are SaaS Founders (92), Creators & Writers (66) and Educators & Course Creators (59).
Know a maker who belongs on this list? Submit a maker to IndieMakerList →