Top 80 indie makers in United States (2026)

Patrick McKenzie

@patio11🇺🇸 United States201K followers

01

patio11: Bingo Card Creator, Appointment Reminder, Stripe Atlas and Bits about Money

Bingo Card Creator, Appointment Reminder, Starfighter +2~$275K/yr sales, ~$200K pro…

Thomas Frank

@TomFrankly🇺🇸 United States145K followers

02

Productivity YouTuber behind Ultimate Brain, Notion tutorials and the Flylighter clipper

Ultimate Brain, Creator's Companion, Flylighter +2$1M in Notion template sales

Brad Traversy

@traversymedia🇺🇸 United States361K followers

03

Web dev educator behind Traversy Media, plus a public lab of indie dev tools

Traversy Media, DevSheets, WebUtils +4

Lenny Rachitsky

@lennysan🇺🇸 United States449K followers

04

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

Lenny's Newsletter, Lenny's Podcast, Lenny's Jobs +1$1M+/yr

Pat Walls

@thepatwalls🇺🇸 United States143K followers

05

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

Starter Story, Starter Story Build$1M/yr

Nathan Barry

@nathanbarry🇺🇸 United States152K followers

06

Founder of Kit (ConvertKit), bootstrapped from a failing side project to $1M+ MRR

Kit (formerly ConvertKit)$1.19M MRR

Damon Chen

@damonchen🇺🇸 United States99K followers

07

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

Sahil Lavingia

@shl🇺🇸 United States394K followers

08

Founder of Gumroad and author of The Minimalist Entrepreneur

Gumroad, Flexile, Helper$17.8M/yr

Tyler Tringas

@tylertringas🇺🇸 United States31K followers

09

Coined micro-SaaS, sold Storemapper, then founded Calm Company Fund for bootstrappers

Storemapper, Calm Company Fund (formerly Earnest Capital), BK UP~$40K MRR

Caleb Porzio

@calebporzio🇺🇸 United States53K followers

10

Creator of Livewire, Alpine.js and Flux UI, funded by sponsors and component sales

Livewire, Alpine.js, Flux +2$112K/yr from GitHub Sponso…

Mike Taber

@SingleFounder🇺🇸 United States6.3K followers

11

MicroConf co-founder, Bluetick founder and author of The Single Founder Handbook

Bluetick, MicroConf, FounderCafe +1Five-figure MRR

Daniel Vassallo

@dvassallo🇺🇸 United States205K followers

12

Ex-Amazon engineer who popularized the small bets portfolio approach

Small Bets, Userbase, Single Server +1$210K profit in 9 months

Justin Welsh

@thejustinwelsh🇺🇸 United States592K followers

13

Solopreneur who passed $10M in revenue with a one-person business

The LinkedIn Operating System, The Content Operating System, The Saturday Essay$10M+ total revenue

Karl Hughes

@KarlLHughes🇺🇸 United States3.8K followers

14

Former CTO who built Draft.dev to $2.5M and now acquires podcast agencies

Draft.dev, The Podcast Consultant, Rise25$2.5M/yr

Pat Flynn

@PatFlynn🇺🇸 United States171K followers

15

Founder of Smart Passive Income, author of Will It Fly? and Superfans, Pokémon YouTuber

Smart Passive Income, SwitchPod, Deep Pocket Monster

Brett Williams

@BrettFromDJ🇺🇸 United States171K followers

16

Solo designer running Designjoy, a $1M+/yr one-person design subscription

Designjoy, Productize Yourself, GatherOS +1$100K MRR

Brian Casel

@CasJam🇺🇸 United States12K followers

17

Serial bootstrapper behind Audience Ops, Clarityflow and Builder Methods

Builder Methods, Agent OS, Clarityflow (formerly ZipMessage) +2

Scott Tolinski

@stolinski🇺🇸 United States64K followers

18

Syntax podcast co-host and creator of Level Up Tutorials

Level Up Tutorials, Syntax, Phases +1

Derek Yu

@mossmouth🇺🇸 United States59K followers

19

Indie game designer behind Spelunky, Spelunky 2 and UFO 50, founder of Mossmouth

Spelunky, Spelunky 2, UFO 50 +3

Lynne Tye

@lynnetye🇺🇸 United States4.8K followers

20

Solo founder of Key Values, the job board matching engineers with values-aligned teams

Key Values~$300K–350K/yr

Jay Clouse

@jayclouse🇺🇸 United States56K followers

21

Founder of Creator Science, teaching creators to build businesses through experiments

Creator Science, The Lab, CreatorHQ +1

Peter Askew

@searchbound🇺🇸 United States26K followers

22

Domain investor who turns premium .com names into businesses — and sells onions online

VidaliaOnions.com, Onions.com, RanchWork.com +3

Jack Butcher

@jackbutcher🇺🇸 United States354K followers

23

Founder of Visualize Value: minimalist visuals, courses on leverage, and digital art

Visualize Value, Checks VV Edition, jackbutcher.md

Pablo Stanley

@pablostanley🇺🇸 United States103K followers

24

Designer and serial maker behind Humaaans, Blush and Lummi, which Udemy acquired

Lummi, Blush, Humaaans +5

Jonathan Blow

@Jonathan_Blow🇺🇸 United States160K followers

25

Designer of Braid and The Witness, creator of the Jai language, head of Thekla

Braid, The Witness, Order of the Sinking Star +2

Ruben Gamez

@earthlingworks🇺🇸 United States6.1K followers

26

Bootstrapped founder of SignWell e-signatures and Bidsketch proposals

SignWell, BidsketchSeveral million ARR

Jeffrey Way

@jeffrey_way🇺🇸 United States87K followers

27

Founder of Laracasts, the bootstrapped video school for Laravel and PHP

Laracasts, Rosette, Laravel Mix

Peter Steinberger

@steipete🇺🇸 United States601K followers

28

PSPDFKit founder turned creator of OpenClaw, the open-source personal AI agent

OpenClaw, PSPDFKit (Nutrient), CodexBar +2

Amy Hoy

@amyhoy🇺🇸 United States23K followers

29

Co-founder of Noko (Freckle) and Stacking the Bricks, creator of 30x500 and Sales Safari

Noko (formerly Freckle), 30x500, Stacking the Bricks

Justin Duke

@jmduke🇺🇸 United States5.6K followers

30

Founder of Buttondown, the bootstrapped newsletter platform he started at Stripe

Buttondown, Spoonbill~$15K MRR

Kent C. Dodds

@kentcdodds🇺🇸 United States330K followers

31

JavaScript educator behind Epic React, Epic Web and Testing JavaScript

Epic React, Epic Web, Testing JavaScript +2

Rob Walling

@robwalling🇺🇸 United States41K followers

32

Drip founder, MicroConf and TinySeed co-founder, host of Startups for the Rest of Us

TinySeed, MicroConf, Drip

Brian Shin

@brianshinsh🇺🇸 United States8.5K followers

33

Founder of Once, a disposable-camera event app, and owner of Xnapper

Once, Xnapper$35K/mo

Jeff Delaney

@fireship_dev🇺🇸 United States207K followers

34

Creator and voice of Fireship, the fast-paced coding YouTube channel, merged with ui.dev

Fireship, Fireship PRO, Bytes

Matt Wolfe

@mreflow🇺🇸 United States121K followers

35

AI YouTuber and founder of Future Tools, the AI tool directory and newsletter

Future Tools, Future Tools Newsletter, The Next Wave

Tanner Linsley

@tannerlinsley🇺🇸 United States114K followers

36

Creator of TanStack: Query, Table, Router, Start and other open source libraries

TanStack Query, TanStack Table, TanStack Router +3

Frey Chu

@freychu🇺🇸 United States5.1K followers

37

Directory website builder and SEO teacher behind Ship Your Directory

Ship Your Directory$2K+/mo

Aaron Francis

@aarondfrancis🇺🇸 United States64K followers

38

Developer-educator behind Mastering Postgres, High Performance SQLite and Solo

Database School, Solo, Screencasting.com +1

Marco Arment

@marcoarment🇺🇸 United States105K followers

39

Indie iOS developer of Overcast, previously Instapaper and Tumblr

Overcast, Unforgetful, Instapaper +1

Casey Liss

@caseyliss🇺🇸 United States32K followers

40

Indie iOS developer of Callsheet and co-host of Accidental Tech Podcast

Callsheet, MaskerAid, Peek-a-View +1

Ian Landsman

@IanLandsman🇺🇸 United States1.8K followers

41

Bootstrapper behind HelpSpot since 2005, LaraJobs and the Mostly Technical podcast

HelpSpot, LaraJobs, Outro +2

Eric Barone

@ConcernedApe🇺🇸 United States1.4M followers

42

Solo developer of Stardew Valley, now making Haunted Chocolatier

Stardew Valley, Haunted Chocolatier

Charlie Chapman

@_chuckyc🇺🇸 United States10K followers

43

Indie iOS dev of Dark Noise and host of the Launched podcast

Dark Noise, Overviewer

Chris Coyier

@chriscoyier🇺🇸 United States230K followers

44

Co-founder of CodePen, ShopTalk Show co-host, ran CSS-Tricks 2007-2022

CodePen, CSS-Tricks

Shawn Wang (swyx)

@swyx🇺🇸 United States201K followers

45

Learn-in-public advocate, Coding Career Handbook author and Latent Space host

Latent Space, AI Engineer, smol.ai

Daniel Jalkut

@danielpunkass🇺🇸 United States19K followers

46

Former Apple engineer running Red Sweater Software, maker of MarsEdit

MarsEdit, FastScripts, Black Ink +2

Kevin Yun

@kevinyun🇺🇸 United States2.8K followers

47

Co-founder of GrowSurf, bootstrapped referral and affiliate software

GrowSurf$24K MRR

Nicolas Cole

@Nicolascole77🇺🇸 United States228K followers

48

Writer and co-founder of Ship 30 for 30, author of The Art & Business of Online Writing

Ship 30 for 30, Premium Ghostwriting Academy, Typeshare

Courtland Allen

@csallen🇺🇸 United States71K followers

49

Founder of Indie Hackers, the community and podcast that named the movement

Indie Hackers

Steph Smith

@stephsmithio🇺🇸 United States165K followers

50

Creator of Doing Content Right and Internet Pipes, former a16z podcast host

Internet Pipes, Doing Content Right, Doing Time Right +1

Erik Kennedy

@erikdkennedy🇺🇸 United States16K followers

51

Freelance designer teaching practical UI design through Learn UI Design

Figtree

Toby Fox

@tobyfox🇺🇸 United States2.1M followers

52

Creator and composer of Undertale and Deltarune

Undertale, Deltarune

Riley Brown

@rileybrown🇺🇸 United States252K followers

53

AI creator and vibe coder who co-founded Vibecode and now builds Agent Native

Vibecode, Agent Native

Andrew Culver

@andrewculver🇺🇸 United States7.4K followers

54

ClickFunnels president, creator of Bullet Train for Rails, founded and sold Churn Buster

Bullet Train, Churn Buster, The Rails SaaS Conference

Chris Raroque

@raroque🇺🇸 United States18K followers

55

Solo developer of the Ellie daily planner and other productivity apps, YouTuber

Ellie, Amy, Luna +1

Ben Katz

@ben_makes_stuff🇺🇸 United States829 followers

56

Ex-DoorDash staff engineer building Watchdog AI moderation and flightschools.fyi

Watchdog, flightschools.fyi, Hackayork +1$444 MRR

Mubashar Iqbal (Mubs)

@mubashariqbal🇺🇸 United States16K followers

57

Upstate New York maker running a solo product studio with 100+ side projects

Bluesky Directory, I Worked On, Side Project MVP +3

Billy Basso

@Billy_Basso🇺🇸 United States15K followers

58

Chicago solo developer who spent seven years building the hit Metroidvania Animal Well

Animal Well

Mike Cao

@MikeCao🇺🇸 United States1.1K followers

59

Creator of Umami, the open-source, privacy-focused Google Analytics alternative

Umami, Flight, Sparrow +1

Channing Allen

@ChanningAllen🇺🇸 United States22K followers

60

Co-founder of Indie Hackers, now building the Hatch AI workspace

Indie Hackers, Hatch

Bryan McAnulty

@BryanMcAnulty🇺🇸 United States1.6K followers

61

Founder of Velora, Heights Platform for course creators, and LatchLoop AI agents

Heights Platform, LatchLoop, Velora

Ex-big-tech data engineer who built DataExpert.io into a $4.7M+ education business

DataExpert.io$56K MRR + cohorts

Bootstrapper who built and sold TinyPilot, now writing Refactoring English

TinyPilot, Refactoring English, Zestful +3

Kyle Krzeski

@founderkyle🇺🇸 United States15K followers

64

Sold bootstrapped privacy startup Removaly to DuckDuckGo, now runs Sabbath Ventures

Removaly, Bible Answers AI, Ruth & Boaz

Gus Mueller

@ccgus🇺🇸 United States5.9K followers

65

Founder of Flying Meat, two-decade indie Mac maker of Acorn and Retrobatch

Acorn, Retrobatch, VoodooPad +1

Mac developer behind retro Apple Music remotes and PDX Transit

QuickTune, Music Remote, Music MiniPlayer +2

Jordan Coeyman

@acoyfellow🇺🇸 United States3K followers

67

Designer turned builder shipping AI agent tools; works on Agent Experience at Cloudflare

inbox.dog, FormDrift, t2t +2

Sergey Kaplich

@sergey_kaplich🇺🇸 United States1.4K followers

68

Marketer turned AI engineer building Depo, an honest daily budget app for iOS

Depo, 9to9, daytone +1

Veteran Mac developer who created NetNewsWire and MarsEdit

NetNewsWire, MarsEdit, Vesper

Danny Takacs

@danny_takacs🇺🇸 United States245 followers

70

Founder of Quicklisting and owner of indie horror distributor Cosmic Films

Quicklisting, Cosmic Films

Jared Rhizor

@jaredrhizor🇺🇸 United States497 followers

71

Bootstrapped founder of Elmo, open-source AI search visibility; ex-Airbyte first engineer

Elmo, Poach, MealByMeal +1

Alden DoRosario

@adorosario🇺🇸 United States497 followers

72

Bootstrapped founder of CustomGPT.ai and co-founder of the Chitika ad network

CustomGPT.ai, Chitika

Mike Moloney

@moloneymike🇺🇸 United States1.6K followers

73

Founder of FilterGrade, a marketplace for photo and video editing assets

FilterGrade, Moloney Creative Agency

Ashita Achuthan

@ashitaa🇺🇸 United States2.6K followers

74

Former Twitter and Amazon PM building Journee, Otto and other AI consumer apps

Journee, Otto, Fantoons

Bart Proost

@bartproost🇺🇸 United States366 followers

75

LA-based engineer at Anyscale behind brew.fm and the tennis app Doyouplay

brew.fm, Doyouplay

Seth Rose

@TheSethRose🇺🇸 United States

76

Dallas developer shipping open-source AI agents, MCP servers and automation tools

Clawdbot Security Check, AI File Organizer Agent, MCP Server Starter +1

Orlando Kalossakas

@sunglassesface🇺🇸 United States3.6K followers

77

Co-founder and CTO of Toolhouse, which turns AI chats into AI workers

Toolhouse

Vivek

@vivek7405🇺🇸 United States262 followers

78

Full-stack developer building WebJs, a no-build web components framework

WebJs, Recroo AI

Alessandro

@ale_amenta🇺🇸 United States1.1K followers

79

founderepo.com, become a startup insider, fast.

Founderepo

Howe Wang

@wanguws🇺🇸 United States1.3K followers

80

Data products that help people understand federal technology spending, investment, and innovation faster and better.