diff ~/p/daniel-vassallo ~/p/lenny-rachitsky

Daniel Vassallo vs Lenny Rachitsky

Products, revenue & stack compared side by side.

Daniel Vassallo

Ex-Amazon engineer who popularized the small bets portfolio approach

@dvassallo United States

Lenny Rachitsky

Former Airbnb product lead behind Lenny's Newsletter and Lenny's Podcast

@lennysan United States

Daniel Vassallo vs Lenny Rachitsky at a glance

Both Daniel Vassallo and Lenny Rachitsky are bootstrapped and have sold at least one product. They overlap in Community Builders and Creators & Writers. Daniel is based in United States, Lenny in San Francisco Bay Area, United States. Both started building independently in 2019. Daniel Vassallo has 4 products listed on IndieMakerList vs Lenny Rachitsky's 4. Daniel has sold 1 product. On revenue, Daniel self-reports $210K profit in 9 months (info products) (as of 2020) and Lenny $1M+/yr (newsletter and podcast, each over $500K) (as of 2024). On X, Daniel has about 205K followers and Lenny about 449K.

Side-by-side comparison

Based in: Daniel Vassallo: United States; Lenny Rachitsky: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
Started: Daniel Vassallo: 2019 (7 yrs indie); Lenny Rachitsky: 2019 (7 yrs indie)
Revenue (self-reported): Daniel Vassallo: $210K profit in 9 months (info products)self-reported, as of 2020 · source for Daniel Vassallo's revenue; Lenny Rachitsky: $1M+/yr (newsletter and podcast, each over $500K)self-reported, as of 2024 · source for Lenny Rachitsky's revenue
Products listed: Daniel Vassallo: 4; Lenny Rachitsky: 4
Product status: Daniel Vassallo: 3 active · 1 acquired; Lenny Rachitsky: 4 active
X followers: Daniel Vassallo: 205K; Lenny Rachitsky: 449K
Categories: Daniel Vassallo: Educators & Course Creators Community Builders Creators & Writers Developer Tools; Lenny Rachitsky: Creators & Writers Community Builders Acquirers & Indie Investors
Style: Daniel Vassallo: solobootstrappedbuilds in publicexited; Lenny Rachitsky: bootstrappedexited
Courses & resources: Daniel Vassallo: 3; Lenny Rachitsky: 3

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.

Daniel Vassallo

No stack shared publicly.

Lenny Rachitsky

No stack shared publicly.

How they build

Daniel Vassallo

Place many small bets instead of one big bet; outcomes are hard to predict.
Keep things simple and avoid leaving your fate to a single employer or product.
Build an audience by sharing what you know openly.
Optimize for independence and optionality over prestige.

Lenny Rachitsky

Quality and consistency are the keys to building an audience.
A few deeply researched tentpole pieces can matter more than volume.
Write for a specific audience that lacks a home publication.
Keep free content genuinely useful because it markets the paid work.

Learn from Daniel and Lenny

Daniel Vassallo

[book] The Good Parts of AWS
[course] Everyone Can Build a Twitter Audience
[community] Small Bets

Lenny Rachitsky

Daniel Vassallo vs Lenny Rachitsky FAQ

Who makes more money, Daniel Vassallo or Lenny Rachitsky?

Daniel Vassallo self-reports $210K profit in 9 months (info products) (as of 2020) and Lenny Rachitsky self-reports $1M+/yr (newsletter and podcast, each over $500K) (as of 2024). By these self-reported figures, Lenny Rachitsky'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, Daniel Vassallo or Lenny Rachitsky?

Daniel Vassallo has 4 products listed (including Small Bets, Userbase and Single Server); Lenny Rachitsky has 4 products listed (including Lenny's Newsletter, Lenny's Podcast and Lenny's Jobs).