Running a bootstrapped empire of 24+ SaaS products and directories
Unicorn Platform, SEObot, ListingBott +20$3M/yr
🚪 Collection · 97 makers
Exited Makers: indie makers to know in 2026
Indie makers who sold one or more of their products. This curated list has 97 makers, including John Rush, Marc Lou and Adam Wathan.
Makers in Exited Makers
97 makers, ranked.
French solopreneur from Bali behind TrustMRR, DataFast, ShipFast and 30+ startups
TrustMRR, DataFast, CodeFast +7$98K/mo
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
CEO of Late Checkout, host of The Startup Ideas Podcast, creator of Ideabrowser
Late Checkout, Ideabrowser, The Vibe Marketer +3
Syntax podcast co-host and creator of Level Up Tutorials
Level Up Tutorials, Syntax, Phases +1
Brazil's self-styled first digital nomad, serial AI app builder and Dolafy co-founder
Dolafy, Ready For Mars, Viralist.ai +3
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
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
Designer and serial maker behind Humaaans, Blush and Lummi, which Udemy acquired
Lummi, Blush, Humaaans +5
Software engineer turned solopreneur behind BlackTwist and Shipped.club
BlackTwist, Shipped.club, Latentcam +3$2.5K/mo
Developer turned indie hacker on a public $1M revenue journey
iCodeThis, Content Copilot, Indie Action$445K lifetime across proje…
Product Hunt Maker of the Year 2018 behind Sheet2Site, Web3 Jobs and SearchConsole.ai
SearchConsole.ai, Applicant AI, Web3 Jobs +5
PSPDFKit founder turned creator of OpenClaw, the open-source personal AI agent
OpenClaw, PSPDFKit (Nutrient), CodexBar +2
Dutch no-code maker of Startup Stash who built and sold five curation products
Startup Stash, StartupWatching, Road to Scale +2
Drip founder, MicroConf and TinySeed co-founder, host of Startups for the Rest of Us
TinySeed, MicroConf, Drip
Dutch founder of HeadshotPro who sold AI copywriter Headlime for seven figures
HeadshotPro, Headlime, Landingfolio +1
Co-founder of ScrapingBee, bootstrapped to $5M ARR and sold to Oxylabs
ScrapingBee, PricingBot~$5M ARR
Singapore maker who sold OpenGraph.xyz, now runs a portfolio of directory sites
OpenGraph.xyz, ClinicGeek, Dental Clinics Malaysia +4S$5K/mo
German indie dev and YouTuber behind Islanders, Will You Snail? and Thronefall
Thronefall, Will You Snail?, Islanders +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
Lisbon-based serial SaaS builder behind Podawaa and HumanInbox, with three exits
Podawaa, HumanInbox, PimpMySaaS +1$66K MRR
Bootstrapper behind HelpSpot since 2005, LaraJobs and the Mostly Technical podcast
HelpSpot, LaraJobs, Outro +2
Designer behind Refactoring UI, Heroicons and Tailwind's look, now at Shopify
Refactoring UI, Tailwind Plus (formerly Tailwind UI), Heroicons +1
Jaipur-based coding YouTuber behind Chai aur Code and ChaiCode cohorts; LCO founder
ChaiCode, LearnCodeOnline
Co-founder of CodePen, ShopTalk Show co-host, ran CSS-Tricks 2007-2022
CodePen, CSS-Tricks
Co-founder of ScrapingBee and author of The Java Web Scraping Handbook
ScrapingBee$5M+ ARR
Solo founder who bootstrapped Unicorn Platform to $16K MRR and sold it for $800K
Unicorn Platform, saas.page, Paracast +1
Australian founder of the Bento email platform, building from Fukuoka, Japan
Bento, PostShiba, Tatami +1
Non-technical builder who sold Makerpad to Zapier and now runs Ben's Bites
Makerpad, Ben's Bites
Co-founder of GrowSurf, bootstrapped referral and affiliate software
GrowSurf$24K MRR
Founder of Indie Hackers, the community and podcast that named the movement
Indie Hackers
Chennai ex-Zoho maker building Guidejar in public to $5K MRR, with two small exits
Guidejar, Cold DM, Support Guy$5K MRR
ClickFunnels president, creator of Bullet Train for Rails, founded and sold Churn Buster
Bullet Train, Churn Buster, The Rails SaaS Conference
Australian product designer behind Untitled UI, the best-selling Figma UI kit
Untitled UI, Untitled UI React, Untitled UI Icons +2
Creator of Minecraft, sold Mojang to Microsoft for $2.5B; now making Levers and Chests
Minecraft, Levers and Chests
Founder of Paperbell coaching software; bootstrapped and sold MeetEdgar
Paperbell, MeetEdgar
Ex-CTO turned solopreneur behind the SaaS Pegasus Django boilerplate
SaaS Pegasus, Place Card Me, Scriv +2
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
London indie founder of Hovercode; built and sold Page Flows
Hovercode, Page Flows, Linkjar +3
Co-founder of open-source finance app Midday (acquired by Ramp) and Cursor Directory
Midday, Cursor Directory, Languine
No-code maker behind BuildTheKeyword, launching demand-driven small bets
BuildTheKeyword, Holihounds, SellCheq +3
Co-founder of Indie Hackers, now building the Hatch AI workspace
Indie Hackers, Hatch
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
Sold bootstrapped privacy startup Removaly to DuckDuckGo, now runs Sabbath Ventures
Removaly, Bible Answers AI, Ruth & Boaz
Brazilian indie developer behind Public APIs, Dev Resources and the Linkero page builder
Public APIs, Dev Resources, Linkero +1
Nomad indie maker who sold Remote3 and Promptmonitor, now building open-source Dray
Dray, Thinking Orbs, Promptmonitor +2
Indian solo founder of SiteGPT; sold Notion-blog tool Feather for $250K
SiteGPT, Squad, Feather
Indie iOS developer since 2011 who has shipped 90+ apps and sold Teleprompter Pro
Teleprompter Pro, Voice Teleprompter, Scrolling Credits Maker Pro +1
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
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
Young Indian developer building Subscut after selling PostScheduler and MathUnlock
Subscut, PostScheduler, MathUnlock +3
Solo developer who built and sold PromptHero; now making RailsFast
RailsFast, PromptHero, Hustl +1
Laravel developer behind Larafast, Blogr.ai and bytemail; sold Directify for $85K
Blogr.ai, bytemail, Larafast +1
Self-taught engineer who co-founded and sold Nextsale, now shipping Aikeedo and Keyplar
Keyplar, Aikeedo, Nextsale +1
Veteran Mac developer who created NetNewsWire and MarsEdit
NetNewsWire, MarsEdit, Vesper
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
PostHog product engineer who built and sold BizPlanner AI; now building HandbookHub
HandbookHub, Runopolis, BizPlanner AI +1
Munich CPTO and founder of Add to Calendar PRO, built on their open-source calendar button
Add to Calendar PRO, Add to Calendar Button, Add to Calendar Links +1
Young builder who made and sold the AI slide maker GenPPT, now running CIYA
GenPPT, CIYA
Fractional CTO in Portugal shipping vanilla PHP/JS tools like LLM Overwatch
LLM Overwatch, Toolbox Space, Vanilla Devs +1
Bootstrapped founder of Elmo, open-source AI search visibility; ex-Airbyte first engineer
Elmo, Poach, MealByMeal +1
Indie hacker and growth marketer behind NoonLaunch; sold Remote Profile
NoonLaunch, Remote Profile
Canadian developer building a portfolio of niche directories, AI tools and SaaS
aitools.fyi, Amazing Newsletters, Invoice Mama +2
Wrocław frontend engineer and serial maker who sold the InGastro job board for $13.5K
CMS Brew, Kavalerka.pl, Madeira Flight Risk +1
Wroclaw-based engineer who built and sold Bluesky Meter and Bluesky Stash
Bluesky Meter, Bluesky Stash, Listing Cat +1
PubNative founder and ex-Verve Group co-CEO, now building HYPD AI for paid media
HYPD, PubNative
UX designer who co-founded Nusii proposal software and now runs Beyond the Pixel
Nusii, Beyond the Pixel
Built and sold aiwebdesigner.io, then joined Lovable in marketing and growth
aiwebdesigner.io
Indie founder of HrefLabs, building Kitful AI blogging after selling Minform
Kitful, SignupScore, Minform
Acquired indie products
124 products sold by makers in this collection.
Directory of custom GPTs that reached over a million visits in its first month.
by John Rush
AI landing page generator, sold for $35K.
by Marc Lou
Utility-first CSS framework for building custom designs directly in your markup, installed 110M+ times per week.
by Adam Wathan
Premium library of professionally designed Tailwind components, templates and UI kits.
~$2M in first 5 monthsby Adam Wathan
Collection of task-oriented prompts and workflows for building good-looking UIs with AI.
by Adam Wathan
Twitter growth tool for finding viral content, writing with AI and scheduling tweets; sold to lempire.
by Thibault Louis-Lucas (Tibo)
LinkedIn personal branding and content tool; sold to lempire alongside Tweet Hunter.
by Thibault Louis-Lucas (Tibo)
Makes custom printable bingo cards for teachers; his first product and public marketing testbed. Sold in 2015.
by Patrick McKenzie
SaaS that sends appointment reminder calls, texts and emails for professional services businesses. Sold in 2016 via FE International.
by Patrick McKenzie
Mini-tool serving tweet inspiration prompts; acquired by Tweet Hunter.
by Jakob Greenfeld
Data tool that analyzed what was selling on Gumroad.
by Jakob Greenfeld
Data on indie products for makers and indie investors.
by Jakob Greenfeld
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Exited Makers FAQ
Who is in the Exited Makers collection?
97 indie makers are in this collection, including John Rush, Marc Lou, Adam Wathan, Thibault Louis-Lucas (Tibo) and Patrick McKenzie.
What qualifies a maker for Exited Makers?
Indie makers who sold one or more of their products.
Which indie products were acquired?
Acquired products include AllGPTs (John Rush), MakeLanding (Marc Lou), Tailwind CSS (Adam Wathan), Tailwind Plus (formerly Tailwind UI) (Adam Wathan), ui.sh (Adam Wathan) and Tweet Hunter (Thibault Louis-Lucas (Tibo)).
What do makers in Exited Makers build?
The most common categories are SaaS Founders (49), AI Builders (35) and Creators & Writers (33).
Know a maker who belongs on this list? Submit a maker to IndieMakerList →