diff ~/p/damon-chen ~/p/joel-gascoigne

Damon Chen vs Joel Gascoigne

Products, revenue & stack compared side by side.

Damon Chen

Ex-Cisco engineer who built Testimonial.to and grew acquired PDF.ai into a top AI PDF tool

@damonchen United States

Joel Gascoigne

Founder and CEO of Buffer, the profitable, fully remote social media tool

@joelgascoigne United States

Damon Chen vs Joel Gascoigne at a glance

Both Damon Chen and Joel Gascoigne are bootstrapped and build in public. They overlap in SaaS Founders and Marketing & SEO Tools. Damon is based in San Jose, United States, Joel in United States. Damon started in 2020 and Joel in 2010. Damon Chen has 8 products listed on IndieMakerList vs Joel Gascoigne's 2. Damon has sold 1 product. On revenue, Damon self-reports $1.3M ARR (Testimonial.to + PDF.ai) (as of 2024) and Joel $22.4M ARR (as of 2025-05). On X, Damon has about 99K followers and Joel about 72K.

Side-by-side comparison

Based in: Damon Chen: San Jose, United States; Joel Gascoigne: United States
Started: Damon Chen: 2020 (6 yrs indie); Joel Gascoigne: 2010 (16 yrs indie)
Revenue (self-reported): Damon Chen: $1.3M ARR (Testimonial.to + PDF.ai)self-reported, as of 2024 · source for Damon Chen's revenue; Joel Gascoigne: $22.4M ARRself-reported, as of 2025-05 · source for Joel Gascoigne's revenue
Products listed: Damon Chen: 8; Joel Gascoigne: 2
Product status: Damon Chen: 7 active · 1 acquired; Joel Gascoigne: 1 active · 1 shut down
X followers: Damon Chen: 99K; Joel Gascoigne: 72K
Categories: Damon Chen: SaaS Founders AI Builders Marketing & SEO Tools; Joel Gascoigne: SaaS Founders Marketing & SEO Tools
Style: Damon Chen: bootstrappedbuilds in publicexitedserial maker; Joel Gascoigne: bootstrappedbuilds in public
Courses & resources: Damon Chen: 1; Joel Gascoigne: 1

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.

Damon Chen

No stack shared publicly.

Joel Gascoigne

No stack shared publicly.

How they build

Damon Chen

Start small and cheap, validate with early lifetime deals, then reinvest.
Buying a promising product can beat building from scratch.
Premium, memorable domains are a real growth lever.
Listen to support tickets; they reveal what to build next.

Joel Gascoigne

Default to transparency, including salaries, revenue and equity.
Build a long-term, independent, profitable company instead of chasing venture-scale outcomes.
Run the company fully remote and give the team time back, as with the four-day week.
Report to shareholders openly every month, the way public companies do.

Learn from Damon and Joel

Damon Chen

[podcast] Behind the Craft: From Engineer to Indie Hacker Making $1.3M ARR

Joel Gascoigne

[newsletter] Buffer shareholder updates

Damon Chen vs Joel Gascoigne FAQ

Who makes more money, Damon Chen or Joel Gascoigne?

Damon Chen self-reports $1.3M ARR (Testimonial.to + PDF.ai) (as of 2024) and Joel Gascoigne self-reports $22.4M ARR (as of 2025-05). By these self-reported figures, Joel Gascoigne's reported monthly revenue is higher. Figures are unaudited and may cover different periods or businesses, so treat them as rough indicators.