He Said No to $1.5M Valuation – The Solo Founder Who Bootstrapped StackNinja and AI Leads from the South of France

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Louis Lesavre, a 35-year-old father of two living in the south of France, left a 15-year career in autonomous vehicles (Nissan, Toyota, Renault) and crypto (Ledger) to build his own future as a solo indie hacker.

In May 2025, with no prior professional coding experience, he taught himself JavaScript and launched StackNinja in August—an AI-powered wellness platform that creates personalized supplement and lifestyle recommendations using blood biomarkers and scientific research. It gained paying users on day one, but growth later stalled.

Realizing great technology needs equally strong distribution, Louis mastered community-driven marketing on Reddit, Facebook Groups, and LinkedIn. This experience led to his second product: AI Leads, launched November 1, 2025. The AI platform automates human-like engagement and lead generation across niche communities, turning organic conversations into customers.

Using AI Leads to promote StackNinja, Louis achieved rapid organic growth without paid ads, including paid trials and corporate inbound interest. AI Leads itself hit hundreds of visitors and early revenue on launch day.

Recently offered a $1.5M pre-seed valuation, Louis declined, choosing full ownership, family time, and the freedom to build a diversified portfolio of apps while staying bootstrapped.

Read the full story
https://www.fakemayo.com/p/how-louis-built-two-profitable-apps-and-reached-a-1-5m-valuation-in-3-months

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