11 solo indie hackers making $1M+ in annual
revenue
No co-founders. No employees. >$1M ARR. Here are 11 of the heaviest hitting solo indie hackers.
Late last year, OpenAI founder Sam Altman and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian speculated that AI would soon create the first one-person unicorn company — that is, a one-person company valued at over $1 billion.
We aren't quite there yet, but meet the solo founders who are leading the race. Each of the entrepreneurs below are generating more than $1M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) while operating solo:
Ania Wysocka: $1.2M/yr
After suffering panic attacks in college, Ania built Rootd, a mental health app to help users manage anxiety.
The prerelease version got 50K downloads. Today it's passed 3M downloads, with users in 150+ countries. Zero employees.
David Bressler: $2.8M/yr
David spent his paternity leave in 2022 building Formula Bot, an AI-powered tool that converts text instructions into Excel formulas.
Couldn't code, so he used no-code tools like Bubble
Total users = 1M+
Profit margins? 87.5%
Ivan Kutskir: $2.4M/yr
After spending his teens creating ad-supported Flash games, Ivan built Photopea, a web-based graphics editor with features similar to Photoshop.
It gets 13M monthly visits, but only costs Ivan $700/year to maintain.
Pieter Levels: $3M/yr
Pieter is a prolific entrepreneur best known for building successful one-person startups like Nomad List, Remote OK, and Photo AI.
He often launches products in just a few days and scales them solo to impressive revenues.
He's also the first person we ever interviewed for Indie Hackers back in 2016.
Marc Lou: $1.3M/yr
After 5+ years of failed startups, Marc started rapidly launching small solo products in 2021.
Since then, he's launched 19+ products, including CodeFast ($60K/mo) + ShipFast ($23K/mo). 💪
Damon Chen: $1.3M/yr
Damon asked for unpaid leave from his job in 2020 and never looked back:
Testimonial.to ($800K/yr) makes it easy to collect and show testimonials.
PDF.ai ($500K/yr) lets you use AI to chat with any PDF you upload.
Mike Perham: $7M/yr
Mike built Sidekiq, the go-to background job processor for Ruby apps. It was open source at first and made $0.
He grew it into a $7M/year solo SaaS by selling a pro add-on with even better features.
Open-source + niche + pro features + zero employees = 💰.
Michael Houck: $1.2M/yr
Michael runs Founding Journey, a one-man newsletter biz focused on startups.
In year 1, it reached 70K subscribers
In year 2, it reached $100K/mo in revenue via sponsorships and premium content, including a paid community priced at $150/yr 💸
Amit Agarwal: >$10M/yr
Amit is quietly building an empire of B2B apps in the Google Workspace Marketplace while everyone else competes in the App Store.
10+ Google Workspace addons
e.g. Mail Merge for Gmail, Email Notifications for Google Forms
2M+ downloads
Joseph Mambwe: $2.5M/yr
Born in Zambia, Joseph used his self-taught skills in coding and 3D animation to bootstrap GymStreak:
An AI-powered fitness app with 3D-animated guides + personalized workout plans.
4M+ downloads
6M+ workouts logged
1M+ meals tracked
Eric Barone: >$50M/yr
One man spent 4.5 years solo-developing Stardew Valley + learning to do the music, art, coding, and design. (A few others helped with later updates.)
It sold 1M copies in its first 2 months and over 41M to date.
Maybe I'm being churlish and grumpy, but I always wonder with these stories:
- Are they really doing that ARR? I'd love some fact checking
- Is there any profit in these businesses at the end of the day?
- Why on earth do these one person businesses not at least have a Virtual Assistant? Why do it all yourself?
I Have doubts about Michael Houck.
1. Checked his website traffic using SEMRush and Ahref's SEO tools - It's < 1000/month
2. Checked responses of his LinkedIn posts - Poor response when you have e75k subscribers
3. Checked his YT channel - Only 1100 followers, only 1500 max views on any video
Am I missing something Channing Allen @channingallen
BTW, his Instagram account has ONLY 311 followers.
WHY he is NOT on Twitter/X where thousands of entrepreneurs / wantrepreneurs / founders connects?
You may want to double/Tripple check this case study.
We spent hours fact-checking revenue, but it's impossible to confirm without looking at people's Stripe dashboards. The numbers are highly credible imo.
These businesses are incredibly profitable. First because software is intrinsically scalable, and second because of the low operational overhead of a one-person biz.
Most technical founders I know really dislike managing other people. That said, I'm a technical co-founder who personally has a virtual assistant and a co-founder, so it really comes down to different strokes for different folks.
I Have doubts about Michael Houck.
1. Checked his website traffic using SEMRush and Ahref's SEO tools - It's < 1000/month
2. Checked responses of his LinkedIn posts - Poor response when you have e75k subscribers
3. Checked his YT channel - Only 1100 followers, only 1500 max views on any video
Am I missing something Channing Allen @channingallen
BTW, his Instagram account has ONLY 311 followers.
WHY he is NOT on Twitter/X where thousands of entrepreneurs / wantrepreneurs / founders connects?
You may want to double/Tripple check this case study.
Is there a pattern here or is it just random?
Of course there's a pattern: a lot of work
Love these wins—but it’s clear most leaned into product-first intuition over scalable traffic or strategic partnerships. The ones who crack both sides (demand + fulfillment) are going to redefine what solo founders can pull off.
thi is crazy. i follow 3 of them on X. But the other people is also inspiring!!
After reading about these people's experiences, sometimes you'll feel the urge to quit and start a business, but please stay calm. Entrepreneurship is truly not easy; you only see their successful side - A person who's on the path of entrepreneurship.
Its a pleasure read this article. Thanks
Didn't know sidekiq was a one man show!
I know one company alone that probably generates 25% of that revenue
As a graphic designer and digital entrepreneur from Saudi Arabia, this post is incredibly inspiring.
I recently launched an online course for Arabic-speaking women, helping them turn design skills into real income through freelancing and digital products.
I’m in the early growth phase and experimenting with content, community, and positioning.
I’d love to ask the Indie Hackers here:
What were your most effective early growth strategies?
Anything you wish you had done sooner?
Always inspired whenever I see these. Building mine now guys 😁
inspiring
That's crazy, it's so inspiring.
Thanks for sharing this
I’m curious how many of them intended to build $1M+ products vs. just solving something small that took off. Anyone here seen that tipping point happen unexpectedly?
inspiring!
Inspiring article.
Awesome projects from awesome indie hackers.
Stuff like this keeps me going. Hate the 9–5 life—building something of my own is the only way.
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wow these are my first 20 min on IndieHackers and I already found these gems :)
This article is incredibly inspiring! It's amazing to see how solo founders are achieving such impressive milestones without co-founders or employees. The diversity of products and the innovative approaches they take highlight the endless possibilities in the indie hacking space. It's a testament to what determination and creativity can accomplish. Thanks for sharing these success stories—they're a great motivation for all of us in the community!
I Have doubts about Michael Houck.
1. Checked his website traffic using SEMRush and Ahref's SEO tools - It's < 1000/month
2. Checked responses of his LinkedIn posts - Poor response when you have e75k subscribers
3. Checked his YT channel - Only 1100 followers, only 1500 max views on any video
Am I missing something Channing Allen @channingallen
BTW, his Instagram account has ONLY 311 followers.
WHY he is NOT on Twitter/X where thousands of entrepreneurs / wantrepreneurs / founders connects?
You may want to double/Tripple check this case study.
I know him from the beginning; I was his follower on X. He posted a lead magnet that went viral, giving him a head start; he grew to 15000-20000 subscribers, I guess, and then continued on X. Recently, I tried to search for him on X and found out his account got suspended.
Yes, checked his Twitter/X profile some time back and updated the same in my comments.
Huge congrats to all the solo founders out there! 🙌
With AI and the rise of "vibecoding," it's becoming more possible than ever to build something on your own. While many are anxious about the future of their jobs, I believe this shift will actually empower more people to take ownership and create amazing things.
We’re also going to see organizations generate entirely new streams of revenue — and at a much larger scale. Just like how tech unlocked the era of billion-dollar companies, I think AI adoption is about to spark a similar wave of massive growth.
I am actually looking for a role, but meanwhile, building this on my own an AI notetaker called MindNote . Online
There are some incredible stories here, and it's a delight to read. It demonstrates that with a good idea, passion, and the determination to see it through to completion, nothing is impossible.
These are incredibly inspiring success stories. I'd love to hear more about their go-to-market strategy and how they grew their user base. Were they able to grow from scratch, or did they already have an audience or a community they could launch their product(s) to?
Empowering article, more fuel for the journey. Thanks
Indeed, fully aligned. These solo founders kept it lean, started with what they had, and grew something remarkable. Thanks.
Wow impressive stuff. Fair play to each and every one of them
So inspiring. Also seeing a fellow Zambian on the list is so warming.
These people prove that Indie Hackers can make wonders and make money more than startups and small companies with big teams. 🤩
Inspiring to read about all these founders
Wow im asbsolutely inspired by these stories.
So many inspiring successes solopreneur. It needs one app that hits the market fit.
I love Marc Lou!
Amazing
I like indiehackers . This community helps a lot if you want to build your empire
Inspiring
crazy!!!
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