Charlie Clark - How a solo founder took a side project from an idea to $300k+ ARR product!

👉🏼 About the Guest:

Charlie Clark is a software engineer, creative coder, & bootstrapped founder who has grown his short links product, Liinks, to $25K MRR just 3 years after it officially launched.

👉🏼 About the Host:

Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 24,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. He recently sold his second SaaS product, GuestLab, and he is working on a startup idea while hosting this show.

👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:

Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/

👉🏼 Description:

Listen in as Sharath and Charlie discuss being a bootstrapped founder, building in a saturated market, making your side project a full time job, and more!
 
👉🏼 Timestamps:

• 00:00: Episode Highlight
• 00:35: Shoutout to Acquire.com
• 03:01: Intro to Charlie Clark - founder of Liinks, a beautiful link-in-bio page to gather your socials, music, videos, and more
• 04:52: Why is Liinks spelled with two ii's?
• 05:28: Why short links are better
• 07:35: Why Charlie set $25K MRR as a target to quit his full-time job
• 11:07: How Charlie designed Liinks to be clean, yet fun
• 15:41: How to convince people to buy your product
• 20:35: Learnings as a second-time founder
• 22:45: Why Liinks: Building in a saturated market
• 27:20: How to know if you want to commit to your project full-time
• 30:51: How to market in a saturated market
• 36:25: How to make creator-led products profitable
• 40:20: How Charlie made Liinks aesthetically pleasing 
• 43:45: How working at Squarespace helped Liinks grow
• 48:45: Frameworks Charlie uses for growth, design, and user retention
• 50:10: How to balance user requests vs your own roadmap?
• 53:51: How will AI impact the future of Liinks?
• 58:08: Why Charlie chose the solo founder route
• 1:00:55: Why Charlie bootstrapped Liinks vs raising venture capital
• 1:02:53: Outro and closing thoughts

👉🏼 Resources:

• Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/

👉🏼 Where to find Charlie:

• Liinks: https://www.liinks.co/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/clarkcharlie03
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarkcharlie03
• vsual: https://www.vsual.co/closing
• Emoji Book: http://emojibook.club/
• Colors of Motion: https://thecolorsofmotion.com/

👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harath
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harath
• Website: https://5harath.com/
• Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/
• Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/

What is The Undefeated Underdogs?

The Undefeated Underdogs is a podcast unpacking the underdog stories you never heard of!

It highlights the underdog mentality and brings authentic conversations with people who play the long game, take action with a chip on their shoulders, and convert obstacles into opportunities!

Buckle up, as I will be bringing some authentic founders, VCs, community builders, and content creators who got underestimated their whole life, and yet they beat the odds and became insanely successful!