My notes on the latest Indie Hackers podcast — Indie Hackers is indie again!

Hey Indie Hackers,

Like others, I was incredibly excited to hear that Indie Hackers is indie again.

I was hoping @csallen and @channingallen would soon make a podcast about it, so we could learn more about how it all went down and, more importantly, what's in store for the future.

Well, I didn't have to wait long.

Here are my notes from the Indie Hackers podcast episode #274 — Indie Hackers is indie again!

Notes

Early traction and the Stripe acquisition

• Indie Hackers was started in 2016
• It was acquired by Stripe within a year of launching
• By that point, they had reached around $8k or $9k in monthly revenue

Being part of Stripe

• Stripe sounds like an amazing place to work and a dream acquirer
• @csallen had the anecdote that when goal-setting for Indie Hackers post-acquisition, they had plans for 10x growth in mind, but @patio11 encouraged them to think bigger — to think about 100x growth and Internet-scale impact

Indie Hackers' growth

• In the years after it's launch in 2016, Indie Hackers has grown a lot
• They grew the forum such that @csallen has some 190k followers
• They grew their newsletter to a huge following and launched a newsletter platform
• They grew the pod to some 20k or 30k downloads per episode

Indie Hacker's goes indie again

• After some six years with Stripe, late last year, @csallen and @channingallen began discussing options to take ownership of Indie Hackers once again
• Well, they succeeded and now Stripe is a seed investor in Indie Hackers
• This outcome reflects really, really well on Stripe

What's next for Indie Hackers in 2023?

• @csallen and @channingallen say the priority will be growing revenue, given they're currently at $O
• As you might expect, they're super excited and motivated by the challenge and opportunities ahead

@csallen and @channingallen's ideas for Indie Hackers

• AI-powered tools for builders
• Leveling up meet ups and communities (with a shoutout to @thesamparr)
• Podcast player for indie hackers
• Features for tokens and gift-giving
• Fully-fledged newsletter platform

Other topics covered

• Negotiation and communication
• Goal setting and mindset
• Lifestyle

If you haven't done so already, I highly recommend listening to the full episode.

If you enjoyed reading this post, I'd really appreciate it if you Retweeted or liked the Twitter thread version of these notes.

You can follow me @david_j_wu to keep up with my writing and what I'm working on.