Indie Bites

Today we're joined by Dan Rowden, who is an entrepreneur and product builder currently based in Mauritius. Dan, like many other indie hackers runs a bunch of projects alongside a full-time job, which all compound to him making over $5k a month with these projects. In this episode we talk about how Dan manages his time throughout his projects, why he hasn't gone full time yet and what he did when a $75k acquisition offer came along.

Show Notes

Dan, like many other indie hackers, runs a bunch of projects alongside a full-time job which all compound to him making over $5k a month. In 2012 he started Magpile, a free online resource about magazines, which was followed by Subsail, a platform to help indie publishers sell magazine subscriptions.

Earlier this year Dan started using the publishing platform Ghost, which he then started to build a suite of products around, now including:
  • Gloat; a productised service for hosting and self hosting
  • Cove; a commenting tool for Ghost blogs
  • Substation; a theme for Ghost
Dan also launched ilo, a better analytics platform for Twitter a few months ago, which has earned over $6k in revenue since launch.

What we covered in this episode:
  • Why Dan lives in Mauritius
  • Why choose multiple projects over doing just one?
  • How do you manage your time with 3 kids, a wife and a full-time job?
  • Why Dan isn't too worried about 'growing' his side projects
  • The pros and cons of working on your side project with a full-time job
  • Not worrying about the money your side project earns - does it take the fun out of it?
  • Why is Dan so bullish on Ghost?
  • Why having a 'suite' of products is complimentary to each other
  • Getting a 75k acquisition offer
  • Being prepared to sell your projects
  • Building an alternative to Twitter analytics
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Thanks to Weekend Club for sponsoring Indie Bites, which is launching in the US this week!
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What is Indie Bites?

Short, bite-sized conversations with indie hackers that have started small, profitable and bootstrapped businesses. You'll learn how they come up with ideas, what they do to validate, find those first customers and make a sustainable income. Episodes every Tuesday.