What is a solopreneur?
A solopreneur is an entrepreneur who runs a business entirely alone, with no co-founder and no employees. They may use freelancers, software and AI, but they make every decision and do most of the work themselves, and the business is designed to stay that size.
Solopreneur meaning
Solopreneur is a blend of “solo” and “entrepreneur”. It describes a founder who builds and runs a business alone and intends to keep it that way. The word spread in the early 1990s through Terri Lonier's Working Solo books, which she credits with launching the solopreneur movement (Working Solo). The idea has become far more practical since: payment processors, no-code tools, cloud hosting and now AI let one person do what used to need a team.
Three things define a solopreneur:
- No co-founder and no employees. Contractors, agencies and software are fine; a payroll is not.
- A business, not a job. The aim is an asset that earns without billing every hour: a product, course, newsletter, template shop or productized service.
- Designed around one person. Pricing, support load and scope are chosen so one person can handle them long term.
Solopreneur vs entrepreneur vs freelancer
| Solopreneur | Entrepreneur | Freelancer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Just the founder, plus contractors | Founders and a growing team | Just the freelancer |
| Sells | Products or productized services | Products or services at scale | Their own hours |
| Income ceiling | Set by leverage (software, audience) | Set by the market and the team | Set by hours × rate |
| Funding | Almost always self-funded | Self-funded or investors | None needed |
| Can the business be sold? | Yes, if it runs without the founder's time | Yes | Rarely |
| Example | Pieter Levels (Photo AI) | Nathan Barry (Kit, with a full team) | A contract developer |
Every solopreneur is an entrepreneur; the difference is the plan to hire. Many solopreneurs start as freelancers and move to products once they spot a repeatable problem among clients. Others productize a service: Brett Williams launched Designjoy, a flat-fee design subscription, while still employed, and runs it alone at about $100K MRR.
Solopreneurs by the numbers
318 active makers in our directory run their business completely solo, 40% of all active profiled makers. They live in 48 countries.
- 318
- Solo makers
- 48
- Countries
- 75
- Share their revenue
- $9,390
- Median revenue / mo
- 37
- Over $10K / mo
- 8
- Over $100K / mo
- 12%
- Have sold a product
- 38%
- Build in public
Self-reported or TrustMRR-verified figures; solo makers who share numbers tend to be the successful ones.
- Indie Game Makers47 · 15%
- Mobile App Makers42 · 13%
- SaaS Founders36 · 11%
- AI Builders34 · 11%
- Mac & Desktop App Makers28 · 9%
- Creators & Writers15 · 5%
- Developer Tools15 · 5%
- Directory Makers15 · 5%
- United States64 · 20%
- Germany17 · 5%
- India16 · 5%
- Canada13 · 4%
- France10 · 3%
- United Kingdom10 · 3%
- Netherlands8 · 3%
- Australia7 · 2%
- Swift36
- Next.js25
- React22
- TypeScript22
- JavaScript20
- SwiftUI15
- Tailwind CSS14
- PostgreSQL11
- Unity11
- PHP10
Games and Apple apps lead because those are crafts one person can master end to end; see games made by one person.
Real one-person businesses and what they earn
These are the 75 active solo founders in our directory who publish their revenue, ranked by it. The product shown is their main earner; the figure is the founder's total where they report one.
Figures are quoted as published (monthly, annual or lifetime), with sources on each profile. The same data as a ranked list: one-person companies.
Solopreneur business ideas, backed by data
Instead of a brainstormed list, here is what solo makers in our directory actually run, with how many share revenue and the median of those figures. Click a category to see every maker in it.
Medians with fewer than five makers sharing revenue are anecdotes, not benchmarks.
The ideas that come up again and again:
- A small software tool for a niche you know. Pēteris Caune runs Healthchecks.io, a cron-job monitor, alone at $26K MRR. See micro SaaS.
- An AI app wrapped around one job. Tony Dinh's TypingMind is a better chat interface for AI models; it passed $1M a year.
- A productized service. A fixed-price, fixed-scope service sold like a subscription, as with Designjoy.
- Info products and an audience. Justin Welsh passed $10M in lifetime revenue as a one-person business selling courses to his audience.
- A niche directory or job board. Low support, monetized with paid listings; see the directory business playbook.
- A game or app. Riskier and hit-driven, but the biggest solo outcomes, such as Balatro by LocalThunk, come from here.
How solopreneurs run a whole business alone
- Choose a model with low support load. Self-serve software, digital products and ads scale without more hours; custom client work does not.
- Automate before you hire. Payments, onboarding emails, support docs and AI assistants cover most of what a first employee would do.
- Build distribution you own. Many of the top solo earners here, from Pieter Levels to Marc Lou, grew an audience on X that became their launch channel; others use a newsletter, SEO or LinkedIn.
- Use contractors for spikes. Design, video or legal work can be bought per project.
- Protect your time. Burnout is a common failure mode of a one-person company, so pick a pace you can keep for years. Our maker journeys show how long growth really takes.
- Know your numbers. Use the Stripe fee and LTV calculators to see what each customer is really worth.
Start here: a solopreneur reading path
- 01What is an indie maker? →The product-builder side of solopreneurship, explained.
- 02Glossary →The business vocabulary you will need, in plain English.
- 03Side projects →Most solo businesses start next to a job.
- 04First 100 customers →How solo makers found their first buyers.
- 05When to quit your job →The numbers makers used to decide.
- 06One-person companies →The ranked list of solo businesses with revenue.
- 07Solo founders →Every solo maker in the directory.
- 082026 indie maker report →How solo makers compare with teams.
Former makers who worked solo
3 makers who no longer build their own products — most now work at a company. Kept for the record.
Patrick McKenzie
@patio11 United States201K followers
patio11: Bingo Card Creator, Appointment Reminder, Stripe Atlas and Bits about Money
Bingo Card Creator, Appointment Reminder, Starfighter +2~$275K/yr sales, ~$200K pro…
Tracy Osborn
@tracymakes Canada6.2K followers
WeddingLovely founder, Hello Web books author, GM at TinySeed and MicroConf
WeddingLovely, Hello Web App, Hello Web Design
Chris Sawyer
United Kingdom
Scottish programmer who built Transport Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon alone
RollerCoaster Tycoon, Transport Tycoon, Chris Sawyer's Locomotion
Frequently asked questions
What is a solopreneur?
A solopreneur is a one-person business owner: someone who founds and runs a business alone, without employees or co-founders, often using contractors and software for the rest.
What is the difference between a solopreneur and an entrepreneur?
Every solopreneur is an entrepreneur, but most entrepreneurs plan to hire and delegate. A solopreneur deliberately stays solo, so the business is built around one person's time, skills and systems.
Is a solopreneur the same as a freelancer?
No. A freelancer sells their time to clients. A solopreneur owns a business that can earn without billing hours, such as a software product, course, newsletter or template shop. Many solopreneurs start as freelancers.
How much do solopreneurs make?
Among the 75 solo founders in our directory who share revenue, the median is about $9,390 a month; 37 report over $10K a month. These are public, self-reported numbers from successful makers, not a typical income.
What are good solopreneur business ideas?
The most common businesses run by solo makers in our data are indie game makers, mobile app makers, saas founders, ai builders, mac & desktop app makers. Small software tools, info products, newsletters and niche directories work because one person can build, sell and support them.
Who is the most successful solopreneur?
By self-reported revenue in this directory, Nevo David ($332K MRR (verified)) leads the solo founders. Game developers such as Notch (Minecraft) and LocalThunk (Balatro) also built huge hits largely alone.