diff ~/p/adam-wathan ~/p/gregory-schier

Adam Wathan vs Gregory Schier

Products, revenue & stack compared side by side.

Adam Wathan

Canadian creator of Tailwind CSS and founder of Tailwind Labs, now at Shopify

@adamwathan Canada

Gregory Schier

Creator of Insomnia (sold to Kong) and Yaak, the local-first API client

@GregorySchier Canada

Adam Wathan vs Gregory Schier at a glance

Both Adam Wathan and Gregory Schier are bootstrapped, build in public and have sold at least one product. They overlap in Open Source Makers and Developer Tools. Adam is based in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, Gregory in Canada. Adam started in 2016 and Gregory in 2014. Adam Wathan has 7 products listed on IndieMakerList vs Gregory Schier's 5. Adam has sold 3 products and Gregory 1. On revenue, Adam self-reports Mid-seven figures/yr (2020) and Gregory $20K MRR (Insomnia, before its 2019 sale). On X, Adam has about 302K followers and Gregory about 7.4K.

Side-by-side comparison

Based in: Adam Wathan: Cambridge, Ontario, Canada; Gregory Schier: Canada
Started: Adam Wathan: 2016 (10 yrs indie); Gregory Schier: 2014 (12 yrs indie)
Revenue (self-reported): Adam Wathan: Mid-seven figures/yr (2020)self-reported, as of 2020 · source for Adam Wathan's revenue; Gregory Schier: $20K MRR (Insomnia, before its 2019 sale)self-reported, as of 2019 · source for Gregory Schier's revenue
Products listed: Adam Wathan: 7; Gregory Schier: 5
Product status: Adam Wathan: 4 active · 3 acquired; Gregory Schier: 4 active · 1 acquired
X followers: Adam Wathan: 302K; Gregory Schier: 7.4K
Categories: Adam Wathan: Open Source Makers Developer Tools Educators & Course Creators Design Tools; Gregory Schier: Developer Tools Open Source Makers Mac & Desktop App Makers
Style: Adam Wathan: bootstrappedbuilds in publicexited; Gregory Schier: solobootstrappedbuilds in publicexited
Courses & resources: Adam Wathan: 5; Gregory Schier: —

Revenue figures are self-reported by each maker and not audited; dates and scope differ. Highlighted categories are shared by both.

Tech stack

No tools in common in their publicly listed stacks. See the indie maker tech stack.

Adam Wathan

Tailwind CSSLaravelReactVueNext.js

Gregory Schier

RustTauriTypeScript

How they build

Adam Wathan

Build tools for your own projects first — Tailwind started as stylesheets reused between side projects.
Give away a great open-source product and sell premium resources around it.
Teach in public with books, courses, podcasts and live streams to build an audience.
Be candid about the business, including the hard parts.

Gregory Schier

Self-employment is a lever: choose to work for more time, not just more money.
Keep developer data local and in plain files instead of a proprietary cloud.
Strong word of mouth from users matters more than early metrics.
Build the tool you need yourself when the old one stops fitting.

Learn from Adam and Gregory

Adam Wathan

Gregory Schier

No courses, books or communities listed.

Adam Wathan vs Gregory Schier FAQ

Who makes more money, Adam Wathan or Gregory Schier?

Adam Wathan self-reports Mid-seven figures/yr (2020) and Gregory Schier self-reports $20K MRR (Insomnia, before its 2019 sale). By these self-reported figures, Adam Wathan's reported monthly revenue is higher. Figures are unaudited and may cover different periods or businesses, so treat them as rough indicators.

Who has built more products, Adam Wathan or Gregory Schier?

Adam Wathan has 7 products listed (including Tailwind Plus (formerly Tailwind UI), Refactoring UI and Tailwind CSS); Gregory Schier has 5 products listed (including Insomnia, Yaak and Kabook).