Hitting a 5-figure MRR with an open-source portfolio

Caleb Porzio saved up, quit his job, and started building open-source projects. Before long, Livewire took off. And now, his portfolio of products is bringing in a five-figure MRR>

Here's Caleb on how he did it. 👇

A lucky fella

I've been a web developer my whole career. I've worked for agencies and product companies, but I got fed up working for other people. I wanted my own project, and I don't do great in normal job environments.

So, I saved money, quit my job, and started working on open source for fun.

Livewire emerged from that. I knew the pain of big JavaScript frameworks and wanted to explore ways to simplify full-stack dev. I saw Phoenix Live-view, and that weekend, Livewire was born.

Within a year, sponsorships paid my bills. After that, I built Alpine, and since then, Flux UI.

Through these projects, I've stayed in open source doing what I love and have been fortunate to pay a few good folks to help me. I'm a lucky fella.

Currently, we're at a five-figure MRR.

The building process

I make free, valuable tools, then sell educational courses, ebooks, and now premium UI components. That's done pretty well for me so far.

Getting here took a lot of late nights and Twitter posts. Plus heaps of passion and time to delve into it.

As far as my stack, I use Livewire, of course. I primarily work within the Laravel ecosystem because it's home to me; however, AlpineJS has reached a broader audience.

Audience and charisma

When I got started, I already had an audience within the Laravel community. I had spoken at a couple of their conferences and worked at a popular agency in the space.

This was really important. Having that solid base, I shared what I was doing with people who already trusted me.

My natural charisma also gave me a huge advantage in building relationships with people, speaking at conferences, and writing engaging emails. Podcasts have also helped significantly.

If I sucked at communicating and wasn't a "natural" with that kind of thing, it would have been much harder.

The challenge of open source

The biggest challenge I've faced is competition from other open-source tools.

It's hard to have a real moat in open source. Everything is freely available for reference. As soon as a good idea catches on, many others will naturally want to do the same or similar things. You must always push the envelope and stay relevant, which can be exhausting.

Another hurdle was that Livewire is a funky tool. It was countercultural at the time and required significant time and convincing for many people.

But I never stopped preaching it and eventually won more and more folks over.

Learning from peers

Learning from others around me was another significant advantage.

I learned a ton about craft and product from Taylor Otwell, not through instruction, but through observation.

Adam Wathan also greatly influenced me. His thinking and much of the material he's written about sales and entrepreneurship have been invaluable.

Be smart with your money

My advice? Hm. "Keep it real."

Listen to the signals around you. People often tell you what they want, and it's surprisingly hard to listen to them and follow through. But it's crucial to stay grounded in real user demand.

Always ask yourself: "What do my users need/want?" And better yet, ASK THEM! They will tell you directly or indirectly.

Also, DON'T SPEND MONEY! You can make so much more money if you keep your operation simple. Don't let life expenses creep up as you make more. Don't be quick to hire people. Do as much yourself as you can, and stock away cash in an investment account so that if shit hits the fan, you come out on top.

What's next?

I want to realize the full vision of my tools. I want to build the most comprehensive, robust, and productive web stack out there.

I've come a long way, but we still have a way to go before covering all fronts. AI could be huge for our tools if we play it right, so — as with everyone right now — that's a big thing to figure out.

You can follow me on Twitter or listen to my podcast: Notes On Work. And here's a list of my open-source projects.