Bootstrapping a portfolio of products to a 7-figure
ARR
Andrian Valeanu started his indie hacking career with a blog side project back in 2010. A year later, he went full time.
Now, nearly 15 years later, he has a portfolio of six products bringing in a 7-figure ARR.
Here's Andrian on how he did it. 👇
Wearing lots of hats
I am an entrepreneur from the Republic of Moldova, now based in Barcelona.
The journey began in 2010 when I started Designmodo as a blog. In 2011, my side income matched my salary, so I went full time. Independence was a strong motivation. I wanted control of my time, I wanted my ideas to exist in real life, and I wanted the tools that made me better —if something slowed me down, I tried to build a faster way and share it with others.
These days, I bootstrap internet products, with no investors and no venture capital. Day to day, I run business operations, lead product R&D, prototype and ship features, jump into support when needed, and review SEO and content. I wear the founder hat and the builder hat.
I work across a focused ecosystem:
Designmodo: an email builder with Postcards, plus website building with Slides and Startup
Siter.io: freehand, no-code website builder
Static.app: one-click static site hosting
Pulsetic.com: uptime monitoring with website status badges, multi-channel alerts, public incidents, and scheduled maintenance pages
Unspam.email: email spam and deliverability testing
Absurd.design: a hand-drawn illustration project where I am part of the team
My focus is simple: Help people create and run things online with less friction.
What went into building the initial product?
Process, resources, and decisions matter more than budgets. Since I didn't have a big budget, here's what went into building my products:
Problem selection: Test demand by publishing useful content and freebies, then watch where people struggle.
Scope: Ship the smallest useful slice, a focused and design-oriented product that solves one clear job.
Resources: Solo or very small team, time-boxed sprints, affordable hosting, simple payments.
Tech: WordPress for the site and early content, a lightweight stack for the first product, version control from day one.
Design: Clear UI, consistent spacing and typography, reduce choices to increase success.
Pricing: Start free to validate, add a low-entry paid tier once value is obvious.
Distribution: Twitter and Google Search brought my first users. As email marketing became a key growth channel, we launched Postcards to speed up email production and keep quality consistent.
Feedback loop: ship, observe, learn from support tickets, improve, repeat. Let behavior guide decisions.
A scrappy but reliable tech stack
We use proven tech that a small, senior team can operate reliably. Parts of the backend are Laravel, and we use our own internal frameworks and technology where they fit best.
Frontend: TypeScript, React, Next.js
Backend: Laravel, Node.js, Go for services, Python for utilities
Data: PostgreSQL, Redis
Infrastructure: Docker, Kubernetes where it fits, AWS, Cloudflare, global CDN, object storage
Blogs and early projects: WordPress
Email delivery and marketing: Postmark and Brevo
Monitoring: Pulsetic for external checks, Grafana for dashboards
The challenge that nearly broke the company
Building an indie business is a long game — and it's not a straight line. My toughest moments came from external shocks and from our own experiments that missed the mark. Here's the the biggest challenge we faced.
In 2015–2017, we tried to expand into the WordPress ecosystem with a theme and a plugin. The thesis was good, but we executed outside our core strengths. We over-hired for speed, the build cycles were long, quality lagged, support volume spiked, refunds increased, and revenue did not cover the new burn. Cash got tight, and we accumulated debt.
The correction was hard; we reduced to a core team of three, paused new feature development on those WordPress products, and focused on supporting existing customers while we rethought the strategy.
Here's how we fixed it:
Returned to our strengths, design-oriented web and email tools
Switched to subscriptions to stabilize cash flow
Rebuilt with a lean structure and profit sharing for makers
Set strict spending rules, monthly burn reviews, and kill criteria for projects
Shortened cycles, shipped thinner slices, and used customer data to drive scope
This reset culminated in a 2018 relaunch of our core apps and a steady return to profitable, recurring revenue.
Other challenges faced (and overcome)
Here are some other challenges that shaped us over the years:
Channel shocks: Search updates forced traffic diversification and a deeper product focus
Multi-product prioritization: Several products mean trade-offs; we now work in clear quarterly goals with simple KPIs and say "no more" often
Cash discipline while bootstrapping: No investors means cash flow is king, we keep fixed costs lean and reinvest carefully
Founder stamina: Long cycles can burn you out, weekly planning and small shippable steps protect momentum
If I started over, I would control spending even tighter, validate faster, hire slower, and measure retention before adding features. I would stay fully independent from investor money, plan with a cash buffer, and let data — not excitement — drive scope and timelines.
Growth via education and PLG
I grow my products via education, plus product-led growth.
Free models so people can try without payment, then upgrade if the product fits their needs.
Word of mouth from useful features and fast support.
SEO from practical guides, examples, and comparisons that solve real problems.
Email marketing for onboarding, tips, and launches that compound over time.
Communities such as Indie Hackers and Product Hunt for early feedback and reach.
And as I said earlier, my initial users came from Twitter and Google Search.
Revenue growth levers
We run SaaS subscriptions. Revenue growth is design-oriented, client-oriented, and product-oriented, slow and steady, with no big ad budgets and no big investments.
Here are our revenue growth levers:
Listen to customers and release features that solve specific jobs.
Shorten time to first value with clearer onboarding and quality templates.
Keep pricing simple with fair limits and annual plans.
Improve reliability, performance, and support so customers stay longer.
What matters most: principles and practice
Two types of advantages matter: principles and practice.
Principles:
Lead with value; Teach first, sell second.
Reinvest most profits into product and people.
Keep teams small, remote, and accountable.
Default to no code for users, reduce time to value.
Practice:
Treat support as product research; every ticket is a clue.
Track trends and watch competitors closely, then build a simpler and better version for your users.
Run public betas to de-risk choices.
Maintain a steady shipping cadence so momentum never dies.
Do not wait for overnight success
And here's my advice:
Do not wait for overnight success.
Start with a painful problem and deliver the first win in minutes.
Build distribution while you build the product, write and share what you learn.
Choose a simple stack you can operate alone.
Track activation and retention early.
Be ready to pivot. A pivot is an informed correction, not a defeat. When the data shows weak pull, narrow the audience, change the promise, or reshape the product.
Overall, protect your cash, ship the next experiment, and keep moving.
What's next?
I plan to keep improving the existing products and add the features customers ask for. I'll stay independent and keep bootstrapping. I'll remain client-focused, raise the quality bar for reliability, performance, and accessibility, and keep the team small and strong. I also plan to continue publishing education that helps makers succeed.
The goal is simple: Solve customer problems better every quarter while keeping our freedom to build.
You can follow along on LinkedIn, X, Indie Hackers, and Product Hunt. And check out my products!
Leave a Comment
How long and how many people did it to take to reach $20K MRR, and how hard was it?
Was the remaining revenue growth just as hard, easier, or roughly the same difficulty to achieve?
At what MRR did you decide to grow your team, and why?
Really cool, I love how you launched by going free version first before any other kind of marketing or monetization. I think that's the trickiest part, since im building something (much simpler with PHP + VPS + Python). I already have the free version up. Great value
Thank you! I needed to read something like this. Although I’m not very savvy in your vertical, it is good wisdom and steps for anyone working on an indie startup.
I love that you jumped into crowded, or even “saturated” market and finding the pain point, fixing it and elbowing your way to a chair at the table (so to speak). I liked reading that not only can it be done, but it can be done bootstrapping and successfully.
This is a great post, sometime when working on your own product, venture you need to hear things like this for that extra motivation, thank you!
I’m glad I found this site!
Impressive work
Really enjoyed this, Andrian. 15 years of steady compounding across Designmodo, Siter, Static, Pulsetic, Unspam, Absurd is a great case for “teach first, ship small, and let PLG + SEO do the lifting.” The WP detour → hard reset → lean relaunch lesson is gold, and the “first win in minutes” principle shows up across the portfolio.
Curious on two fronts:
In week one, what single signal best predicts a paying subscriber; first useful template shipped, monitors added, or an email built and sent?
Of your channels (education, search, community), which one consistently drives the highest-intent trials today vs. just traffic?
P.S. I’m with Buzz; we build conversion-focused Webflow sites and pragmatic SEO for product launches. Happy to share a tight 10-point GTM checklist if useful.
Something that stands out to me in your startup portfolio is that you seem to enjoy tackling big problems in markets crowded with major competitors.
Personally I find that quite fascinating because, for example, I honestly can’t wrap my head around how someone could successfully market a website builder today. Personally, I rely a lot on SEO, and it feels overwhelming — so much content to produce, endless backlinks to secure, and the constant challenge of outperforming thousands of existing players.
The downside of this mindset is that I end up restricting myself to small projects with very limited revenue potential.
I’d love to hear your perspective on how others could approach this kind of challenge — especially for people like me who have limited time and resources to invest in projects.
That’s a great observation, and I can relate to how overwhelming crowded markets can feel. What helped me was shifting my perspective from competing with everyone to serving a specific audience better than most.
For example, with Siter.io, I didn’t try to build “another website builder” for everyone. Instead, I focused on a narrower use case: freehand, no-code design for people who wanted speed and simplicity. By narrowing the problem, the market becomes less intimidating and the SEO/content strategy becomes more focused too.
With limited time and resources, I’d suggest starting small:
Define a clear, narrow problem where the competition feels less overwhelming.
Create the smallest useful version of a solution and ship it.
Use your content not to “outproduce” everyone, but to teach something specific and practical that your exact audience cares about.
Big markets look scary when viewed as a whole, but there are always underserved corners where small projects can thrive.
Impressive work building and managing multiple products, really inspiring. If you had to pick just one, what was the single most effective distribution channel that got your very first traction?
i am really inspired
Thank you, I really appreciate that. For my very first traction, the most effective channel was publishing useful content and sharing it on Social Media and Newsletter and through "Google Search". Writing tutorials, examples, and freebies helped people discover my work naturally, and from there I built relationships and trust.
It wasn’t about chasing a huge audience, it was about being consistent with creating value. That consistency was what turned into early traction.
wow
Impressive work building and managing multiple products, really inspiring. If you had to pick just one, what was the single most effective distribution channel that got your very first traction?
The 2015-2017 WordPress challenge resonates deeply - it's fascinating how success can actually create blindspots that lead you outside your core strengths. Your recovery playbook is gold: return to strengths, switch to subscriptions, lean structure + profit sharing.
The 'treat support as product research' principle is undervalued. I'm curious about your portfolio prioritization - with 6 products, how do you decide which gets the next feature sprint? Is it purely retention-driven, or do you have other decision frameworks for resource allocation across the ecosystem?
Growth can be just as risky as stagnation if it pulls you away from your core. That lesson shaped how I run things today.
On prioritization: retention and usage data are definitely strong signals, but I don’t treat them as the only input. I balance three factors:
Customer signals: support tickets, feedback, and direct requests. These often surface friction or opportunities we didn’t see from metrics alone.
Ecosystem impact: since the products are connected, a feature in one tool can make another more valuable. For example, improving Postcards strengthens email workflows across other apps.
Focus and bandwidth: each quarter I set clear goals with simple KPIs, and we consciously say “no” more often than “yes.” This prevents spreading thin.
So the framework is part retention-driven, part customer-driven, and part ecosystem-driven. The goal is to keep momentum steady while ensuring we’re solving meaningful problems in the right order.
Great
Bootstrapping a portfolio of products to a 7-figure ARR requires smart scaling, lean strategies, customer-first focus, consistent innovation, and disciplined execution for sustainable growth without external funding.
Exactly, that’s been the formula: stay lean, listen to customers, and keep shipping. Bootstrapping forces discipline, but it also keeps the freedom to build long term.
"Default to no code for users, reduce time to value." The second part I get, but unless the product is dev-focused, don't most products default to no code?
Also, surprising to see Product Hunt recommended in 2025. My negative experiences there led me back to Indie Hackers, in search of proper community.
Good point! What I meant is we try to strip away complexity so users can get value without needing to touch code. Even small technical barriers can slow people down.
Totally hear you on Product Hunt. It’s not the same for everyone, for us it worked in the early days for visibility, but Indie Hackers has been much better for real conversations.
Strong principles + steady practice. Curious: what’s the one KPI that most often kills a feature or project for you (activation, retention, or time-to-first-value)? And when did you know education/SEO had compounded enough to lean into pricing and lifecycle emails?
Retention is usually the killer, if people don’t come back, nothing else matters. For SEO/education, we leaned in once we saw steady organic traffic converting into signups month after month. That’s when pricing and lifecycle emails started to really pay off.
Got it. Treat retention as the hard gate; when organic signups are consistent, pricing and lifecycle finally compound. That’s the takeaway I needed.
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