A Solo Founder's Media Empire ‧ Selling a Biz for Millions ‧ Big Tech vs California

Courtland here. I'm on the road!

After 10 years in San Francisco, I left. Like pretty much everyone else. Except instead of going somewhere in particular, I bought a car, packed up my stuff, and headed north without a destination in mind. 🚙

I've been changing cities every few days, usually deciding where to go at the last minute. Why? I talk more about it in this week's podcast episode with Vincent Woo below.

Being an indie hacker has always meant freedom. It means working for the internet, and the internet is everywhere. I've tethered wifi from my phone while sleeping in the woods. And now even big companies are going remote and staying that way.

We've had the tech to do this for ages, but it took COVID-19 to change the shape of our world. Suddenly billions of people are embracing technology to the fullest. Social norms are changing as a result. When all is said and done, the world will look very different, and imo it won't go back.

On to the email! This week:

• A solo founder built a media empire. But he doesn't have a website. Or an app. Or even a co-founder. Learn how Zach Williamson is reaching millions his own way.
• In the news. Uber and Lyft might not leave Cali after all. A new type of image is set to take over the web. Demo Day, but for indie hackers. TypeScript 4.0 is here.
• What if your company sells for tens of millions? It's one thing to think about it. But it's another when the money hits your bank account. I interviewed Vincent Woo of CoderPad to tell us how it feels.
• 3 growth tips. Reduce cancelations when billing customers. Keep people reading your content all the way through. Stop email subscribers from churning.

P.S. We're taking submissions! Make a helpful or inspiring post on the forum and email a link to Channing. Then we'll consider including it as a section on the newsletter. —Courtland Allen

🏰 A Solo Founder's Social Media Empire

You'd never guess that Zach Williamson's social media accounts were owned and operated by a single person. The numbers are just too big.

There's @MarveIFacts: 94,400 followers on Twitter. @factsonfiIm: 148,600 followers. @FilmEasterEggs: 353,600 followers. And more.

The accounts belong to Culture Crave, Zach's network of social media brands that publish news and insights about pop culture: movies, TV shows, sports, celebrities, you name it. In all, their combined audience totals nearly 4,000,000 engaged followers.

Zach's influence is so great that media giants like USA Today and Complex Networks regularly ask them to promote their content. And he does… for a price. On some months his monthly revenue jumps as high as $12,000.

One of the secrets behind his growth? Timing:

Check out the full story of how Zach is building his social media empire on our site. —Channing

📰 In the News

🚕 Big Tech vs California. Uber v California. A judge ordered Uber and Lyft to classify drivers as employees, but both companies threatened to exit the state instead. Who isn't leaving California these days?

🐦 1 tweetstorm, 4 years of wisdom. Adam Wathan has made millions in revenue. He just shared a definitive on how to make it as an indie hacker.

🎨 Get ready to update your images. A new format is in town. It's called AVIF. It's smaller and faster than JPG and PNG, and it just arrived in all major web browsers.

🕺 IH Demo Day on Twitter. YC just had Demo Day, where founders compete to give away parts of their companies. Not to be outdone, bootstrappers are having a Demo Day of their own.

🛠 No-code is blowing up. And now founders are competing. Pieter Levels, Sahil Lavingia, Ryan Hoover, and others are judging who can build the best project without code in 30 days.

💻 Typescript 4.0 is here. About 60% of JavaScript programmers already use TypeScript, and 22% want to try. This latest release from Microsoft will probably bring more developers on board.

💸 What if your company sells for tens of millions?

I can't talk to Vincent Woo without debating. Is the media out to get tech? Are indie hackers misguided? Is Twitter stupid? He has strong opinions, and we always get into it.

So when Vincent sold his business for $XX,000,000, we had to talk. And we had to record it. Because I had questions, and I knew his answers would be great.

First of all, what do you even do with all that money? Let's say you think of money in terms of levels. For argument's sake:

1. $25,000/year — survive 🌱
2. $75,000/year — be happy 😁
3. $150,000/year — erase worries (assuming you've avoided the income treadmill) 🏖
4. $X,000,000 in the bank — long-term freedom, aka "F you" money because you can tell anyone "F you" and still be fine 👊
5. $XX,000,000+ in the bank — fund projects, change your community, change the world 🌍

Well Vincent's business, CoderPad, sold for tens of millions. Which means he has change-the-world money now. His business was bootstrapped, so Vincent gets to keep all the cash. 100%. The investors get nothing, because there were no investors.

In fact, he cites not having investors as a big part of why he was able to build he business he did in the first place. I told him that people say you should raise money, because bootstrapping is just as hard. He couldn't have disagreed more:

Do better by walking slower. It seems like a dream, but clearly it's possible. He didn't even track metrics at CoderPad, because he didn't like the stress and pressure they introduce.

Vincent was as entertaining and intelligent as ever, and he even flipped the script to interview me at some point. I'll have to convince him to come on more often.

Until then, queue up the episode. You're in for a treat. —Courtland

🚀 3 Growth Tips

We've got a mailing list that sends out 5 growth tips a week. You can sign up on our site. Here are 3 from the past week:

1. Every time you bill a customer, you risk cancelation. Why? A bill is an unpleasant reminder of the money they're spending. But it's also an opportunity. Open rates on transactional emails are 4–8 times higher than other emails. So restate your value proposition in these emails and remind customers why your product is worth it. Read more…
2. It costs you time and energy to write content. But many readers will ditch your article before they even get going. Keep them on the page by including an estimated read time at the beginning of each article. Read more…
3. Do your potential email subscribers know what they're getting before they sign up? If not, some won't bother entering their emails. And others will unsubscribe after receiving the first message. Get more skeptics onboarded and increase your conversion by displaying a sample newsletter on your sign-up page. Read more…