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Making $125,000 a Month as a Solo Founder with Mike Carson of Park.io

Episode #034

After a lifetime of hacking, Mike Carson hit on a very big opportunity selling .io domain names. Learn about the forces that made his massive success possible, the threats that almost killed his business, and how his life has changed.

  1. 6

    honestly it sounded like his wife pushed him to this success haha. I hope she is getting many lovely things from him.

  2. 4

    Either this episode or Julian Shapiro episode are my favourite so far. Two very different characters.

    I thought Mike's point criticising 'growth' was quite interesting. In my opinion $125,000 a month is enough money. And i totally see why he doesn't want the baggage of being slowed down if he tries to expand. His mind is too exciting to be slowed down by meetings / hiring / firing / people ripping off his algorithms etc ...

    As usual this episode was superbly interviewed.
    Thanks Courtland.

    1. 4

      For real, this was one of the first podcasts I got into in years. Courtland is phenomenal at interviewing.

      1. 1

        Courtland really does a great job. You know an interviewer is good when you actually want to listen to him weigh in with his thoughts.

  3. 4

    This was a great episode Courtland. Thanks for the great work!

  4. 3

    I really enjoyed this interview. Really inspiring. I don't think I learned anything new but some really good reminders.

    I feel like the point about not doing any marketing is interesting and, I'd be keen to hear other people's thoughts on this -

    I found out about park.io through HackerNews but it also came up on at least 5 of the mailing lists I'm on in like a 3 month period. It's completely glossed over (not just by Mr Carson) but most of the interviews I have read and listened to on IndieHackers...

    1. Most of the products people that get featured on here are products squarely aimed at the kind of person who reads Indie Hackers/ wanna be digital nomads (early adopter, hacker/ online marketer, trend driven, health conscious, urban, liberal, well educated, productivity geek, well travelled, friends all over the world, constantly consuming information online, disposable income...)

    2. This community (hackers/ digital marketers) is highly engaged online and spend most of their talking about products and sharing online. It's a core part of the culture (Stripe buying Indie Hackers is a prime example)

    In comparison, if I created a an app for people who aren't as engaged online - Dr's in their 70s, in small towns - it wouldn't get as much shares as a Park.io - How many mailing lists would be interested in talking about it for free? ...and how many of those readers would be early adopters? - willing to invest time in getting the app to the point where it works.

    What I am saying is he created a product that tapped into already existing demand (I can't count how many people I know who have .io domains) and, he picked a market of people who are highly engaged online with an ecosystem that he can easily tap into that would push him forward.

    I feel like these 2 aspects to his project are probably why this project has been so successful when compared to his other ones.

    This isn't to bitch or be negative, I'm just saying, I think these are way more important points than people make out, in my opinion.

    Would be interesting to see if there is a correlation between revenue numbers and people targeting this market vs, not targeting this market.

    1. 3

      I think what matters in general is that you know how to reach your target market. With Mike for park.io, his parked domain pages were enough, because people who are searching for domains will end up there.

      With other tech-focused products, that's not the case, and you need other channels. HN works well for IH, for example. Others have to seek out various online forums and Facebook groups. I just talked to David Darmanin of Hotjar and paid advertising worked wonders for them. And I've interviewed a few people who rely almost entirely on SEO for traffic.

      There are different markets here imo — they're not all the same. But they can all do well regardless.

      People from any group will talk to each other, even if they're not online. And everyone is on Facebook nowadays, anyway. Everyone searches Google. The bakery down the street from me has 100k followers on Instagram, and it's the only place they announce their donut menu for the week.

      So whatever you do, understand who you're targeting and where they hang out.

      1. 1

        I agree that it's about knowing your customer and exploring channels that they are already active on. It's a simple idea but very easy to forget or, overlook.

  5. 2

    My Main Takeaways:

    • Mike has been part of the Hacker News community for about 10 years, and enjoyed reading the content there.
    • Look to solve problems that you yourself are experiencing - Mike got the idea for park.io (a service that immediately buys you a specific domain when it becomes available) from his own experience of the problem that it solves.
    • Using his tool park.io, he started buying different cool domain names because he thought they were valuable. So, his wife told him to try to auction them to see if they really are valuable; so he put a domain up for sale and it sold for $2,000 (he bought it for $45). He did it again, proving that it worked, so he decided to scale it up.
    • You're never too late to start something (he got into domain investing 20 years after everyone else)
    • Half of Mike's revenue is from buying and selling domains on his own, and half is through park.io
    • Over time Mike has gained an intuition for identifying the true value of domains, which helps him know when buying and selling them.
    • He started park.io on the side for fun and for his own use, then he evolved it into a service for others too
    • Mike quotes Shoe Dog by Phill Knight of Nike, saying that "[in business] it's always going to feel like there is some crisis that seems like it's going to end everything, but you just figure out a way to get around that"
    • Try a bunch of things and fail fast - Mike launched a bunch of things that didnt take off. He made sure to fail fast and quit ideas that he knew would not work. And then eventually with Park.io he won.
    • Don't fight reality - you'll know when the idea doesn't work, kill it (and start something else [or pivot]). Eventually you will find something that works, the take advantage of it!
    • You will learn from your failures - make sure to always be working on things that are just a little bit outside of your comfort zone, so at the very least, you come out with extra knowledge. And have patience to keep going even after you fail, because you realise that what you are learning is making more formidable as a founder.
    • Mike says that as indie hackers, there are businesses that we can start that would become profitable very quickly right out of the gate; when starting out and with limited resources such as money, time and audience reach, it's better to focus in these types of businesses, rather than on businesses that take years of effort to become profitable (unless it's a compelling vision that you are extremely committed to).
    • According to Courtland's experience over the last 7-8 years, the idea DOES matter. However Mike says that we shouldn't focus on the idea, rather we should focus on experimenting [and researching] and let the idea come to us. This is what he did with park.io, he says he didn't "come up with an idea, park.io just naturally evolved into what it is as I kept experimenting [and researching]"
    • Be open to creating businesses IF the opportunity arises, but maybe just explore things that you're interested in, and something will come with that (and this will be WAY more fun)
    • Mike's other businesses, File.io and nameserver.io etc weren't making as much money as his Park.io business
    • Mike says that one indicator that you've stumbled upon a winning idea is that you don't have to do any marketing to get customers (he didn't do any marketing for park.io, he just put a parked page up for every domain he had, directing people to park.io if they wanted that domain)
    • Mike says that there is a of pressure on business owners to always be trying to grow by hiring people. But mike does not subscribe to this advice. He also says that when you grow and start hiring people you become slow. - Also, his goal is not to grow and make as much money as possible, his goal is happiness.
    • He gives the analogy of a painting. Always trying to grow your business, is like having a painting, and wanting a bigger and bigger painting. When you dont need a bigger painting when you can have a smaller sized painting that enables you to focus on all the details that you care about.
    • Mike says that the hardest thing about being a solo founder is not having another perspective on things.
    • Automation testing as a solo developer founder is very helpful.
    • Mike uses bots to automate a lot of stuff in his life and business.
    • Mike uses AWS EC2 stuff and PHP and Node.js
    • Mike has automated data analysis scripts to gather information for his research in domain name investing
    • Mike says he's very introverted and doesnt have many close friends, which he says is a crisis that is going on for middle-aged men
    • It's important to choose your romantic partner wisely, they can either help or harm you and your business.
    • Park.io is not a subscription service, it's an order service, so Mike is always on the edge of his seat, uncertain of whether his business will continue to profit the next month.
    • Focus on making your users happy
    • Avoid white lies
  6. 2

    My favorite interview so far. Learned so many insides specially on the side of automation. Also an eye openers for the great use of files.io . Thanks courtland

  7. 2

    Finally someone that disagree with the growth mentality. I feel that for each additional person in the team, the time spent on communication is increased exponentially.

    Favorite episode, so far. Great inspiration!

  8. 2

    Definitely my favorite episode so far. Especially loved the part where Mike talks about frequently reaching a point where you think, "Oh no, this is it, it's all over" but finding a way around it. It's happened so many times with my own apps where something external would cause me to think it's all over, but somehow there is always another option. And most of the times the app is better for it.

  9. 2

    I like his philosophy of prioritizing happiness over growth. I think a lot of people miss the point of being in business. Isn't it supposed to be about the pursuit of freedom and ultimately happiness? Who sets out to be rich but miserable?

  10. 2

    This was great to listen to. Thanks Courtland and Ryan.

  11. 2

    Good humble guy. I like this interview.

  12. 2

    Great episode!!

  13. 1

    I have the impression that the episode has not ended properly.

  14. 1

    Very unique product interesting learning about this. Also Mike's voice reminds me Snake's voice from Metal Gear Solid xD