Full Time Indie Hacker for $177 ARR - Retro of 2023

In 2023, I've released 14 new software and updated 16 other software.
Let's look at some of them and see the lessons learned from it.

The software

Let's start with Ant Commander Pro, a file manager. Started in 2003, released in 2004 and after 19 years still at $0 total.
This is the software I've spent the most of time on working on last year and this year. I've made it more polished and more specialized for developers. I use it every day.
⨠ My feeling is that people are reluctant to install desktop software if they don't know the company. Even if my software are signed, notarized and 100% virus free on VirutsTotal.
⨠ Also SEO should be better
Applet Runner (Pro) IDE plug-in (started in 2021)
This is quite downloaded as it's easily findable from the IDE marketplace. 400 downloads a month from JetBrains marketplace, 600 downloads a month from NetBeans portal and 5 downloads a month from Eclipse Marketplace.
As my project is not open source and my company not part of the Eclipse foundation, my plug-in is not findable inside the marketplace tool of the Eclipse IDE.
Unfortunately only one person has decided to go with the pro version, so about $1.5 MRR from this project.
The goal of this project is not a lot of MRR but offering the possibility to run my other software inside an IDE.
⨠ Using a platform is better for downloads and revenue but be aware of the platform risks (see later with Android)
Treecell, Sheet Viewer, Sheet Stats
Going into the Microsoft Excel world. As most SaaS are providing tools that are replacing Excel, why not provide tools for Excel?
This is typically software where build it and they will come doesn't work.
⨠ More marketing is needed.
Android My Watches Companion
It was making ok money (~$60 MRR) until Google forbade file access from an application to another application. Bad reviews started to appear and revenue went way down.
I needed to do quite some changes in the app to make it work again. I've also changed to free (so that people can try it) and make some tools available with in-app purchase. Now at about $10 MRR.
⨠ Platform risks. Personally, I'm done with mobile development and more focusing on B2B desktop software.
The Desktop Watchmaker
By far the most download (about 100 a month) on my website thanks to SEO. Also the most uninstalled :-). As it's free, I've created a paid widget version to see if I could benefit from its success.
Directory Crop
Tried to surf on the AI trend but no success so far. The good part is that there are many portals for AI tools at the moment.
Toolbox, Watch, Screen Highlighter, Clipboard History, Dictaphone, Discotheek, JLearnIt, Post On Screen, Tree Data Explorer, M2 Repo Cleaner
All free tools get almost no downloads. Meaning that product market fit and marketing is the most important in software, not the price. Especially when targeting B2B.
Decoration, Poster Font (See post image), Poster Font Light, VR Photo Converter and Website Optimizer
In 2023, I've migrated a few tools to freemium. So free for x amount of files processed each month and pay if you want to use it more.
So far no success, but again not that much download either.
VR Photo Slideshow
A Unity VR application for Oculus Quest. I needed to use C# instead of Java. Unity and the VR toolkit can be buggy.
It was quite interesting to write but I don't see the downloads and usage taking off so I'll probably stick to B2B Java Desktop Utilities.

What about the money?

How to manage with that small amount of ARR?

I have some savings of previous freelance work.
I live in a well isolated small apartment in a big city in the Netherlands. The apartment is fully paid, so no mortgage or rent to pay.
My monthly costs are the co-ownership of the building, electricity, heating, internet, insurances, food (about $ 700 total).
Since I have no kids and wife, I don't have any pression to make x amount of money at least per month.
The good thing about indie hacking is that you don't have high expenses if you don't earn anything (like offices or employees).
As I'm specialized in desktop applications, I have low server costs, no GDPR, no server monitoring requirements.

What about money to enjoy life?

I think that most of the people want to earn more money, will spent it buying a bigger house in a nicer neighborhood. This won't bring me more happiness for the money.
Beyond a certain amount, you'll have a diminish return on happiness for money. So just be happy with what you have instead of "I'll be happy when ...". Most of the lottery winners return to their old level of happiness after a few years. And the wish of people after reaching 1 million dollar is to reach 2 millions dollar.
About space: I've bought a virtual reality headset, so I have my table tennis table (Eleven VR), pool table (Miracle Pool), racket sport court (Racket Club), pinball machines (Pinball FX), bowling alley, golf court, home cinema, travel the world machine (Google Earth VR, Wooooorld, Wander, Kayak VR: Mirage) in my living room. You can say that I live like a millionaire.
If you lower your need to impress other people, you need less money. For example, I won't post on instagram all the racing cars I'm driving in VR.

Conclusion

Despite the low ARR, 2023 was a pretty good year for me in term of happiness. I've achieved my goal to release the software I wanted and that I'm proud of. I've reached the top 5 of companies who have released the most software on Microsoft winget.

Now 2024, I'll need to more focus on selling it, I still need to publish to Microsoft and Apple stores. If the revenue doesn't increase, I'll return to work for clients or find a job.