What’s an “Indie Hacker”? This is the blunt, step-by-step.

An indie hacker is a solo founder who builds and sells digital products, usually software, without outside funding.

Here’s an example

A solo developer creates a $10-per-month AI resume-scanner tool. They host it on a $5 VPS server, pick up 500 paying users (500 users × $10 = $5,000), and now earn a huge amount of profit while running everything from a laptop.

Or take Buy Me a Coffee (many people you might follow use it). That’s indie hacking: it’s just a Stripe wrapper with a nice UI and shareable function.

The creator is an indie hacker who built a simple psychological mechanism for people to support creators, when really it’s just processing payments with better context using Stripe…

Another example is Pieter Levels who made PhotoAI.com which uses Replicate API. He didn’t build the AI from scratch, he just wrapped an existing API with a user-friendly interface and marketing with Stripe as a payment processor.

That’s it: independent entrepreneur + self-built software = indie hacker.

This doesn’t mean they don’t work a 9-5; most indie hackers hack after work too. It also doesn’t mean they work entirely solo all the time; the term usually refers to anyone who occasionally creates things by themselves.

Most projects indie makers launch fail-often by design-because they know not everything will hit. Yet their rapid iteration and pivoting, which big companies can’t match, make them deadly once they hit on an idea that gains traction.

You have to keep on trying and shipping things. 95% of things will fail, but the 5% that works, wins everything back!

Key parts broken down

Indie = independent. No venture capital, no boss, just personal savings or product revenue.

Hacker = builder. Codes, designs, markets, and supports the product themselves.

Digital products = SaaS apps, mobile apps, browser extensions, AI agents, products, etc.

Revenue-first mentality = aim to cover their own living costs, not to chase unicorn status.

Tiny budgets, fast launches = ship quickly, iterate with customer feedback, keep expenses low.

A way to think of an indie hacker

You can think of an indie hacker as a tiny merchant, like street food-truck owner for software: owns the cart, cooks the food, handles cash, tweaks the menu daily; small, nimble, and self-sustaining.

The typical pathway (quick guide):

Spot a niche pain point people want solved or scratch you’re own itch.

Build a minimal version in a week, not months.

Launch on communities like Product Hunt or Reddit.

Charge from day one; reinvest profits.

Repeat: improve feature → get more users → grow income.

Why do people indie hack?

Freedom over schedule and product decisions.

No investors to please.

Potential for comfortable, steady income without scaling a huge company.

Go make things, others matter.