How to Become an Indie Maker: A Step-by-Step Guide for 2026

Step 1: Start on the side, not with a resignation letter

Almost every maker in our directory started part-time. Pat Walls launched Starter Story while working a full-time job, writing for two hours every morning; it grew into a business reporting $1M/yr (2023) and was later sold. Damon Chen launched Testimonial.to as a side project while working at Cisco, spending about $2K. Sahil Lavingia built Gumroad as a weekend project.

A job buys you time to learn without panic. Set a clear target instead — Andrey Azimov gave himself a hard deadline and a concrete revenue goal ($1,000 MRR), which he reached after about 14 months.

Step 2: Find a problem people already pay to solve

Ideas are cheap; painful problems are rare. Amy Hoy teaches “Sales Safari”: watch where people already complain online and build for that pain. Arvid Kahl calls it being an “embedded entrepreneur” — join a community first, then find the problem worth solving there.

Good sources of problems:

• your own repeated annoyances at work (most dev tools start here);
• subreddits, forums and Slack groups in a niche you understand;
• search demand — Adam Lyttle validates app ideas with keyword research before building;
• existing products with bad reviews — Uku Täht built Plausible as a simple alternative to bloated incumbents.

Step 3: Build the smallest useful version — fast

Josh Pigford built and launched the first version of Baremetrics in about eight days. Aim for that: one core feature, a landing page and a way to pay. Speed matters more than polish because you will throw most early work away.

Tools that shorten the path:

• Boilerplates such as those in Boilerplate & Starter Kit Makers handle auth, billing and emails. Marc Lou reuses one codebase so new launches take days.
• Boring tech. Pieter Levels famously keeps everything on one server with familiar tools for as long as possible.
• AI coding tools. Mckay Wrigley and Riley Brown show non-coders building real software with AI. See AI Builders and No-Code Makers.

Compare stacks across the directory on our tech stack page.

Step 4: Charge from day one

“If no one pays for it, it is not a business yet,” is how Luca Restagno frames it. Payment is the only validation that counts. Patrick McKenzie adds a second rule: charge more — most software businesses dramatically underprice.

Two common early tactics: pre-sell before you build (Jane Portman and Benedikt Deicke validated Userlist with interviews and pre-orders), or offer a launch lifetime deal to fund development, which Damon Chen used early on.

Step 5: Treat distribution as the real work

The most repeated lesson across hundreds of maker stories is that distribution beats product. John Rush’s rule is to spend more time on SEO and content than on code and design, and to start SEO on day one because it takes 3–6 months to compound. Pat Walls says to find one channel that works, then the next one.

Channels that work for small budgets:

• SEO and content — Kevin Sahin and Pierre de Wulf grew ScrapingBee to ~$5M ARR (at exit) (2025) largely on technical content.
• Directories and launch platforms — see the launch platforms list and our post on directory submissions.
• Social media — talk like a human, reply daily and share wins and failures.
• Communities — be useful first. Find yours on the communities page.

Step 6: Build in public

Sharing your numbers, mistakes and lessons attracts customers, peers and opportunities. Tony Dinh grew an audience while building, which helped TypingMind reach the numbers on his profile ($142K/mo (TypingMind + DevUtils) (2026)). Florin Pop shares every revenue figure publicly for trust and accountability.

Explore the build-in-public collection to see how others do it, and verify revenue with tools like TrustMRR if you want extra credibility.

Step 7: Run several small bets

You cannot predict which product will work, so make more attempts. Thibault Louis-Lucas (Tibo) shipped 11 products in 11 weeks; the eleventh, Tweet Hunter, took off and was later acquired. Daniel Vassallo built a whole community around the “small bets” idea. Cap each experiment — John Rush suggests at most a week per bet — and cross-link them so they feed each other traffic.

Step 8: Focus once something gets traction

Small bets are for discovery, not forever. Jon Yongfook stopped his 12-startups challenge at product seven to focus on Bannerbear. Pat Walls shut down every other project to go all-in on Starter Story. When one product shows signs of life — growing signups, organic word of mouth, people complaining when it breaks — give it your full attention.

Stay founder-only for as long as you can. John Rush’s rule of thumb: skip hiring, outsourcing and paid design before $10k MRR.

Step 9: Decide your endgame — keep, grow or sell

An indie business gives you options. Some makers keep products for a decade; others sell to recycle capital into the next idea. Tony Dinh sold Xnapper for $150,000, Tyler Tringas sold Storemapper at roughly $40K MRR, and Josh Pigford sold Baremetrics for $4M in cash. Tyler’s advice is to prepare your business to be sellable long before you want to sell it.

Browse indie exits for real deals and startup marketplaces if you want to buy or sell.