diff ~/p/daniel-vassallo ~/p/pat-walls

Daniel Vassallo vs Pat Walls

Products, revenue & stack compared side by side.

Daniel Vassallo

Ex-Amazon engineer who popularized the small bets portfolio approach

@dvassallo United States

Pat Walls

Founder of Starter Story, the founder case-study brand acquired by HubSpot in 2026

@thepatwalls United States

Daniel Vassallo vs Pat Walls at a glance

Both Daniel Vassallo and Pat Walls are bootstrapped, build in public and have sold at least one product. They overlap in Educators & Course Creators and Creators & Writers. Both are based in United States. Daniel started in 2019 and Pat in 2017. Daniel Vassallo has 4 products listed on IndieMakerList vs Pat Walls' 2. Daniel has sold 1 product and Pat the same number. On revenue, Daniel self-reports $210K profit in 9 months (info products) (as of 2020) and Pat $1M/yr (as of 2023). On X, Daniel has about 205K followers and Pat about 143K.

Side-by-side comparison

Based in: Daniel Vassallo: United States; Pat Walls: United States
Started: Daniel Vassallo: 2019 (7 yrs indie); Pat Walls: 2017 (9 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; Pat Walls: $1M/yrself-reported, as of 2023 · source for Pat Walls's revenue
Products listed: Daniel Vassallo: 4; Pat Walls: 2
Product status: Daniel Vassallo: 3 active · 1 acquired; Pat Walls: 1 active · 1 acquired
X followers: Daniel Vassallo: 205K; Pat Walls: 143K
Categories: Daniel Vassallo: Educators & Course Creators Community Builders Creators & Writers Developer Tools; Pat Walls: Creators & Writers Educators & Course Creators Directory Makers
Style: Daniel Vassallo: solobootstrappedbuilds in publicexited; Pat Walls: bootstrappedbuilds in publicexited
Courses & resources: Daniel Vassallo: 3; Pat Walls: 4

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.

Pat Walls

Ruby on Rails

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.

Pat Walls

Distribution matters more than the product — find one channel that works, then find the next one as you grow.
Consistent daily deep work over a long period beats bursts of hustle.
Eventually you have to pick one idea and go all-in instead of juggling many projects.
Be radically transparent about numbers — real revenue makes content stand out.
Build a business to change your life, not to become your life; rest to stay in the game.

Learn from Daniel and Pat

Daniel Vassallo

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

Pat Walls

[youtube] Starter Story on YouTube
[newsletter] Starter Story Newsletter
[community] Starter Story Premium
[course] Starter Story Build Accelerator · $395

Daniel Vassallo vs Pat Walls FAQ

Who makes more money, Daniel Vassallo or Pat Walls?

Daniel Vassallo self-reports $210K profit in 9 months (info products) (as of 2020) and Pat Walls self-reports $1M/yr (as of 2023). By these self-reported figures, Pat Walls' 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 Pat Walls?

Daniel Vassallo has 4 products listed (including Small Bets, Userbase and Single Server); Pat Walls has 2 products listed (Starter Story and Starter Story Build).