Simplescraper

Hey Indiehackers,

I've lurked more than I've posted since signing up in 2017. For the last year+ I've been busy building Simplescraper (https://simplescraper.io/) as an easy to use no-code web scraper and it just passed 20,000 active Chrome installs (and 4.6 star rating :) this week.

Its been a long grind. I've started an event guide, a film festival, a digital magazine, a project management tool, multiple chrome extensions, a todo app. Almost all failed. But each idea failed a little less and I learned heaps of what not to do so I'm thinking that's just part of the journey.

The idea for Simplescraper came up by accident. I wanted to build a charting API (still do) and realized I needed sample data and so began exploring web scrapers. Every one that I tried was a little meh so decided I'd create my own "over the weekend".

7 months later I had something that kind of worked and I've been iterating since.

Browsing IH with a coffee inbetween coding breaks has become a daily routine and seeing people hustle each day - especially other solo-founders - has been super motivating so thanks to everyone for sharing their stories.

It may be a little messy in 2021 but the internet is still magic. Add enough value and I believe it will eventually be returned in spades, so let's keep chasing those goals.

Peace,
Mike