Hey pete, like your work a lot. I want to know if i can buy the book in india and whether you will ever consider making a hardback available. You are really cool too btw. I am in second year of my theoretical CS undergrad degree and will make stuff simply because of you. Keep doing your work man.
Love you bro... you changed my life by following you I've been able to be 100% remote and have multiple online business. Now making 16k to 21k per month by following what you been doing over the years.
This is the video that opened my eyes 6 years ago. I now have a bootstrapped SaaS doing $126 MRR and growing. Only took me 6 years to launch 😂 Thanks so much for the inspiration Pieter.
What's the website. You tube won't knock you for shilling Maybe we can up your views or something. Post it to your you tube and stuff. What does it do G? @@EddyVinck
Back here again as I approach the launch of my first SaaS. I was inspired when I saw this in 2018, and the idea of trying this myself has been stuck ever since. Focused on career first, and now that I’m in a good place it’s time to build 🙌🔥
The main takes for me about all of this is. Have passion, and have no breaks on taking action. Action is the oil to the fire that is your passion. Make the imperfect action. It doesn't matter if you do it wrong, if you don't have any idea what you are doing. Passion & action are enough to take you wherever you want to be.
This quote rings alot of truth to me: Pieter: "It's harder to scale WITH people." Immagine training someone in your company, or best case they grew along with the company. Then you need to change directions to stay competetive... wel good luck switching all your employees. Also i like the burtal honesty.
It is possible to build a web app with the latest tech stack and not get any users, while a web app built with a legacy tech stack can be very successful. The real differentiator is the ability to build something that users find useful to the point that they are willing to pay for it. Another important factor is the ability to market the product. The usability and visibility of a product take precedence over the underlying technology used to build it. That said, using newer technologies to build something useful comes with its own perks, including modern interface, performance, and scalability. However, at the end of the day, done is better than perfect.
Damn, people don't know coding! I know since I was 17 (started with C++) but I still don't know how to build startup. But these people who are latecomer to coding surpass me all the time. Wow!
school teached me how to learn and really helped me bootstrap my carrer. But if you think doing everything alone and keep the motivation and determination is OK for you, go ahead
Really good content, I think you've showed me a new kind of startup: no bootstrap, because there's so much commodities on the internet (cloud, for example) and niche markets around the world. I think that's a way to really start an entrepreneur movement. This could even be a way to be a startup accelerator :-)
Love this, watching again years later. "There's always a free version of your app that's much worse, but you're not competing with them, you're competing with premium."
Pieter Level's problem-solving strategy is to Google and struggles with it until an eventual success. This is crucial in starting your own company. There are a lot of struggles that will happen and if you can't work through the pain, you won't make it.
There were plenty of great things in the talk, but seeing the one-time vs residual income side-by-side really hit home. Using a marketplace like Envato to immediately access a large audience doesn't seem like a good idea anymore in lieu of the potential revenue loss over the years to come.
Thank you for your realistic and practical advice. You affirm for me that the true source of ideas is within one's experiences and unique challenges. You confirm for me that diversity of experience is the wellspring of creativity and knowledge. I'm pumped. Ima go f'n do it.
This is a good example of "just go ahead and do things any way you can and want to". I don't agree with every single advice, but the overall state of mind is very healthy.
Great video, really transparent and cutting the crap. I think you're advice applies just as well to large software companies. Greetings from, for a change *sunny*, Netherlands.
Love this presentation. Everything is good in the video except the points about coding - "It doesn't matter whether we understand the code we copied from Stackoverflow. Its fine if it just works" and you also say "Coders doesn't understand half of the code" Both of these sentences are wrong IMHO. Pieter Levels, this kind of coding is a problem. Its true that there are people who figure out things easily by just doing google. This is a hackish way of coding. By doing copy paste and not thinking how this code gonna effect the product in the long run will soon take us into a rabbit hole of code mess and issues. Its very important to understand the code you are writing, Is it maintainable in the long run? How does it affect the overall system? Please don't take me wrong. Take this as my 2 cent advice. I am your customer and supporter.
I think it depends on your goals. If you code for enterprise or mission critical stuff, it makes sense to follow the rules. But I don't. And I can (and do) refactor later. But that may be years later.
You're just outsourcing to Stackoverflow, but not only the coding, also reviewing the code, this way you may introduce some security holes into your apps. But yeah, if you manage to "exit" before these bugs are found you may be fine :p
If your app is a single index.php, most architectural concerns do not apply to you. And this app can surely make money, Nomad List is a good example of this
I've been programming professionally for 20 years and I still google things several times an hour, and yeah I often copy & paste code that I find in an attempt to get a prototype or proof-of-concept working. Understanding and perfection comes later. It doesn't have to be perfect before you ship to production, indeed nothing is ever really perfect.
Hey Pieter, thanks for this great and inspiring lecture. I think that one of (many) the keys to your success is your ability to literally "move fast and break things". Can you share your "technology stack"? Do you use some "bootstrapping" tools and services to make things easier or you just start coding from scratch (server, frontend, etc.)? How did you manage to develop so many projects so fast? I wonder if it's "just" talent and experience, being able to make things fast, or, you have a "system" that you "groomed" through the years that makes this bootstrapping very fast from time to time. Well, I guess it's little of both. :)
Curious about the robots you mentioned in the automation section of your talk. Did you build them or is that a service? What exactly are they doing? Great talk 👍 Thanks much 🙏
With robots I mean all automation which generally comes down to having scripts that run based on a schedule like every minute, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly etc. For example: I write a script that finds people on Nomad List (my website) that are in the same city, then it finds the best cafe from Foursquare, it then creates a meetup page and date and sends all those people a message with a link to the meetup. This script then runs daily to organize new meetups. Realistically you'll want to have a human go over this, to see it doesn't pick the wrong places and dates etc. But that's pretty much "the robot". I have hundreds of these robots doing my work for me every second, minute, hour, day, week, month etc.
I'm not sure if this is answered either in the MAKE book, but how much would you wait before moving onto a new idea from an old one? Besides the fact if you get so unmotivated of an idea.
Amazing talk Pieter, you hooked me from the beginning of the video! Could you help me to clear up my doubts ? What would you define as prototype? Because you can't just launch a prototype on ProductHunt, Reddit, HN, etc and validate the idea, can you? Everything on there is already a final first (or second, etc.) version. But then how do you validate the idea? This leads me to a kind of vicious circle: you can't validate the idea before letting people know about it and you can't either waste time launching a product before validating the idea. So, how do you validate the idea with a prototype: that is a unfinished product or a concept. Also, suppose I use a landing page to validate an idea for example, where do you get people to know about it, it's just a landing page, you can't use PH, Reddit, IH, HN or press because there is no product yet, how and where do you get people to know about and subscribe to it? Sorry for bothering with my tireless curiosity.
In the talk he refers to the "Horse Forum", so measure interest in some kind of niche community. Go to where your potential users are. Test your prototype there. When it's validated, build further and then expose to larger communities. Or, that would be my take.
Very informative👍. How does the legal side look like when you want to test a market? Must I register a business straight away, or ist possible to launch without registering a company for thw start?
a friend of mine shared your posting & video to check out, so I ran thru your video. A few months ago, I accidentally landed at your nomadlist website and I thought it was very cool but i had to start a new project with small startup so I did not continue. It feels awesome that I met the creator of nomadlist. I'm living in Korea and I never thought abou going global SaaS but with your strategy, why not.. I can give it a try. One question for you Mr. Levels, I could not figure out this legal question on the internet. You briefly talked about setting up one company to avoid all the difficult tax and legal issues. If I start a service globally, where do you suggest or recommend to start a company (if my biz is SaaS, IT service such as nomadlist). I don't assume your legal company resides in Bali.. so I heard about founding a company resides in Delaware, USA but like you said, it costs a few hundreds of dollars so. . Thank you
12:07 i do agree on the scammy part, you're mostly won't get taught nothing , and they're pricey with no return on investment also what does max 1 month for prototype 14:32
📚 The book is out now 👉 makebook.io
Hi Peter, Could I buy with paypal? Please. For me, it's a better option now.
@@tefasmile5183 I support most European payment methods now with Stripe Checkout!
@@levelsio Ok, I am a person from LATAM of Latinoamerica Colombia. In my country the way more easy is PayPal
@@tefasmile5183 Don't worry, I've sent you a free copy now! Check your Twitter DMs :D
Hey pete, like your work a lot. I want to know if i can buy the book in india and whether you will ever consider making a hardback available.
You are really cool too btw. I am in second year of my theoretical CS undergrad degree and will make stuff simply because of you. Keep doing your work man.
Love you bro... you changed my life by following you I've been able to be 100% remote and have multiple online business. Now making 16k to 21k per month by following what you been doing over the years.
CodingPhase that’s cool! what are some you can talk about?
Codingphase changed my mind on making money
That’s awesome!
Yeeeeaaaaa, let's get it!!
Amazing I’m starting on this journey. I used to backpack 2013-2015. Now, I’m frikin bored of corporate and want my freedom.
This is how "how to make money online" videos should be on YT. No ads, no fluff, no bs. Clear cut and straight to the point.
He's Dutch - they're direct - much like me. I love them, I miss the Netherlands.
00:10 Start
06:56 Idea
12:00 Build
14:57 Launch
20:23 Grow
26:18 Monetize
33:24 Automate
35:50 Exit
for those wondering about launch, he said "Product Hunt" 15:36 (i thought he said "productcon")
Thanks
I would add the missed handshake too xD
58:05 Rejected handshake
@@franciskim_co 😂😂😂😂😂😂
This is the video that opened my eyes 6 years ago. I now have a bootstrapped SaaS doing $126 MRR and growing. Only took me 6 years to launch 😂 Thanks so much for the inspiration Pieter.
126$ mrr ? 6 years of building? Don't you think it's time for a change?
@@_D4M1 not 6 years of building 😂 $255 MRR now btw 🥳
@@EddyVinck damn man. Well I guess if you're happy with what you're doing, keep doing it, as a hobby.
What's the website. You tube won't knock you for shilling
Maybe we can up your views or something. Post it to your you tube and stuff. What does it do G? @@EddyVinck
Dang that's crazy, congrats! What kind of service is it?
This is gold, absolute gold, no bullshit, no gimmicks, thanks Peter
Back here again as I approach the launch of my first SaaS. I was inspired when I saw this in 2018, and the idea of trying this myself has been stuck ever since. Focused on career first, and now that I’m in a good place it’s time to build 🙌🔥
The main takes for me about all of this is.
Have passion, and have no breaks on taking action. Action is the oil to the fire that is your passion. Make the imperfect action. It doesn't matter if you do it wrong, if you don't have any idea what you are doing. Passion & action are enough to take you wherever you want to be.
I'm not even counting how many times I returned to this video 😅
Probably one of the best video in this niche I have ever watched.
Watched this in 2024. Thank you, Pieter.
me too, im starting my own path, feel as anxious as excited
This quote rings alot of truth to me:
Pieter: "It's harder to scale WITH people."
Immagine training someone in your company, or best case they grew along with the company.
Then you need to change directions to stay competetive... wel good luck switching all your employees.
Also i like the burtal honesty.
Yes, and not to mention stressful. Hiring and managing people can be very, very stressful.
a lot*
💯
I think this is the only 1 hour video on TH-cam that I sat through. Well done & big kudos! Keen to launch Friend Theory after seeing this!
it sucks that I have no friends :/
This is honestly a great vid. No bullshit, which is rare for this kind of talk.
46:25 👍 That's how I started coding. Literally copy pasting stuff and seeing what it does
It's a good way of learning and not only to become an indie hacker btw
Four years later I'm a Senior Frontend Developer at a large tech company. Beliv in yourslef
@@alexinflux And what about another five years later?
@@QuickMixKZ now I think I'm ACTUALLY getting close to being senior. Also thinking about pivoting to farming or some shit
Why does this not have more views this is great
The biggest thing here is that he was able to validate an idea through Twitter with just a Google Docs.
huge factor to this is the number of audience that you have.
This is very inspiring for any dev (myself included) that wants to start shipping real products
Excellent Talk, Pieter! Thanks. 😃
I love this moment 05:49
"It's like shotgun: You shoot a lot of projects and see which sticks."
This is a youtube hidden gem.
6 Years later, Pieter predicted the future about robots and automation. :)
"Most days I need to drink 2 lattes just to get some code on the paper. This robot just runs, and it doesn't sleep."
Your mind is much faster than the cars that the VC guys drive.
It is possible to build a web app with the latest tech stack and not get any users, while a web app built with a legacy tech stack can be very successful. The real differentiator is the ability to build something that users find useful to the point that they are willing to pay for it. Another important factor is the ability to market the product. The usability and visibility of a product take precedence over the underlying technology used to build it. That said, using newer technologies to build something useful comes with its own perks, including modern interface, performance, and scalability. However, at the end of the day, done is better than perfect.
Damn, people don't know coding! I know since I was 17 (started with C++) but I still don't know how to build startup. But these people who are latecomer to coding surpass me all the time. Wow!
Ypu do know how to build a startup just start and build something that intrest you
Pieter literaly - the Hero of our time.
Pieter and Elon Musk, both =D
Omg guise, ur too nice
You change my life today, thanks a lot
Thank you for putting this out, you have inspired me to get my ass into gear and get the robots up and running, thanks dude
Haha go build those robots!
$100 says you never did anything after writing this comment lmao.
school teached me how to learn and really helped me bootstrap my carrer. But if you think doing everything alone and keep the motivation and determination is OK for you, go ahead
Really good content, I think you've showed me a new kind of startup: no bootstrap, because there's so much commodities on the internet (cloud, for example) and niche markets around the world. I think that's a way to really start an entrepreneur movement. This could even be a way to be a startup accelerator :-)
thank you for sharing your story and being honest 😊
He talks as if I play this video at 1,25 speed :). Love this content, inspiring...
that handshake in the end!
Such a inspiration! All the time I’m big fan of him in twitter :) . I wish he would be my mentor/advisor . Thanks for sharing Pieter.
Love this, watching again years later. "There's always a free version of your app that's much worse, but you're not competing with them, you're competing with premium."
00:10 Start
06:56 Idea
12:00 Build
14:57 Launch
20:23 Grow
26:18 Monetize
33:24 Automate
35:50 Exit
thank you
u are pretty unique & a legend of ur own kind, Pieter. this is cool
Really thank you for adding subtitles!
Pieter Level's problem-solving strategy is to Google and struggles with it until an eventual success. This is crucial in starting your own company. There are a lot of struggles that will happen and if you can't work through the pain, you won't make it.
There were plenty of great things in the talk, but seeing the one-time vs residual income side-by-side really hit home. Using a marketplace like Envato to immediately access a large audience doesn't seem like a good idea anymore in lieu of the potential revenue loss over the years to come.
Yep, I wish more platforms supported recurring revenue.
Whoa!
I will go effing do it.
That is a lot of valuable information out there for someone who wants to just start up! Thank you.
Thank you for your realistic and practical advice. You affirm for me that the true source of ideas is within one's experiences and unique challenges. You confirm for me that diversity of experience is the wellspring of creativity and knowledge. I'm pumped. Ima go f'n do it.
💗
Hearing this talk for the 3rd time already. Super valuable content ;)
The best presentation that I've ever listened BY FAR
Amazing content and thanks for opening up. Genuinity helps.
Thank you, Varun!
This is a good example of "just go ahead and do things any way you can and want to".
I don't agree with every single advice, but the overall state of mind is very healthy.
This was very insightful. I admire your success
Such an epic talk! Thanks for uploading Piet!
Really enjoyed this talk man. Great stuff! Love what you're doing and what you've built.
44:48 I think all these javascript frameworks are very difficult and obtruse and bullshit XD I love it
i had jitters just thinking about giving a talk someday. how nervous were you, it looked like a sauna in there. this is fucking awesome thank you
Haha I was nervous before, but a few minutes in it was okay. And yes it's super hot there, no aircon in and it's in Bali! Sweaty AF
You are such a inspiration and motivation. Bought your book Peter! Thank you for sharing this valuable insight
Jonathan Acuña, is the book just a long-winded version of what's nicely presented here?
u da GOAT of indie devs and probably future startups :D
This is SO good. Thanks for sharing!
This is awesome! I was also living in Canggu when you talked here, wish I went to this talk!
Very good video Pieter, thank you for sharing your ideas.
Great video, Pieter. Really inspiring!
Why I didnt see this video 5 yrs ago.
watched at the end of 2022 still on 🔥🔥🔥
9:00 level up your niche, your problem, your scale - that’s how you get as rich as you want
Such a great vid! Every maker should watch this..
28:22 validating before launching - buffer example
"Don't do marketing stuff, be honest"
Could you tell me what is the platform he is talking about? I cannot find it.. Does he say Producon?
That would be producthunt.com, very big website where you can find all the latest and hippest products and tools, make use of it ;)
Everyone on the planet is not gonna learn how to code or build 12 startups in 12 months. Choose a skill, get good at it and stay in your lane.
Philip Ramos this talk isn't for everyone on the planet
Very insightful presentation, thanks!
Great video, really transparent and cutting the crap. I think you're advice applies just as well to large software companies. Greetings from, for a change *sunny*, Netherlands.
Pieter is simply awesome
29:07 so shady lol but good talk all around
Love this presentation. Everything is good in the video except the points about coding -
"It doesn't matter whether we understand the code we copied from Stackoverflow. Its fine if it just works"
and you also say
"Coders doesn't understand half of the code"
Both of these sentences are wrong IMHO.
Pieter Levels, this kind of coding is a problem. Its true that there are people who figure out things easily by just doing google. This is a hackish way of coding. By doing copy paste and not thinking how this code gonna effect the product in the long run will soon take us into a rabbit hole of code mess and issues. Its very important to understand the code you are writing,
Is it maintainable in the long run?
How does it affect the overall system?
Please don't take me wrong. Take this as my 2 cent advice. I am your customer and supporter.
I think it depends on your goals. If you code for enterprise or mission critical stuff, it makes sense to follow the rules. But I don't. And I can (and do) refactor later. But that may be years later.
You're just outsourcing to Stackoverflow, but not only the coding, also reviewing the code, this way you may introduce some security holes into your apps. But yeah, if you manage to "exit" before these bugs are found you may be fine :p
If your app is a single index.php, most architectural concerns do not apply to you. And this app can surely make money, Nomad List is a good example of this
People may call it technical debt or anything
The truth is such engineering bureaucracy may just be extra fat for small projects
I've been programming professionally for 20 years and I still google things several times an hour, and yeah I often copy & paste code that I find in an attempt to get a prototype or proof-of-concept working. Understanding and perfection comes later. It doesn't have to be perfect before you ship to production, indeed nothing is ever really perfect.
Hey Pieter, thanks for this great and inspiring lecture.
I think that one of (many) the keys to your success is your ability to literally "move fast and break things".
Can you share your "technology stack"? Do you use some "bootstrapping" tools and services to make things easier or you just start coding from scratch (server, frontend, etc.)? How did you manage to develop so many projects so fast?
I wonder if it's "just" talent and experience, being able to make things fast, or, you have a "system" that you "groomed" through the years that makes this bootstrapping very fast from time to time.
Well, I guess it's little of both. :)
I mostly use vanilla PHP, JS with jQuery, vanilla CSS, running on NGINX on Ubuntu on a VPS
Thumbs Up Pieter!. Thanks for this.
Very inspiring and informative! Will be sure to follow your process.
I like this guy. His memorial needs to have "This is Bullshit" on it. haha
nice flash is really going to help
Loved your video Peter🔥, just want to know I am from Dubai can I build SaaS to target U.S market.
Have a great day Peter.
Thanks for uploading!
Curious about the robots you mentioned in the automation section of your talk. Did you build them or is that a service? What exactly are they doing?
Great talk 👍
Thanks much 🙏
With robots I mean all automation which generally comes down to having scripts that run based on a schedule like every minute, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly etc.
For example: I write a script that finds people on Nomad List (my website) that are in the same city, then it finds the best cafe from Foursquare, it then creates a meetup page and date and sends all those people a message with a link to the meetup. This script then runs daily to organize new meetups. Realistically you'll want to have a human go over this, to see it doesn't pick the wrong places and dates etc. But that's pretty much "the robot".
I have hundreds of these robots doing my work for me every second, minute, hour, day, week, month etc.
@@levelsioCan you lift the hood and show HOW you built them (any one)?
I'm not sure if this is answered either in the MAKE book, but how much would you wait before moving onto a new idea from an old one? Besides the fact if you get so unmotivated of an idea.
Max 1 or 2 months I think
@@levelsio Thanks Piet!
Amazing talk Pieter, you hooked me from the beginning of the video! Could you help me to clear up my doubts ? What would you define as prototype? Because you can't just launch a prototype on ProductHunt, Reddit, HN, etc and validate the idea, can you? Everything on there is already a final first (or second, etc.) version. But then how do you validate the idea? This leads me to a kind of vicious circle: you can't validate the idea before letting people know about it and you can't either waste time launching a product before validating the idea. So, how do you validate the idea with a prototype: that is a unfinished product or a concept. Also, suppose I use a landing page to validate an idea for example, where do you get people to know about it, it's just a landing page, you can't use PH, Reddit, IH, HN or press because there is no product yet, how and where do you get people to know about and subscribe to it? Sorry for bothering with my tireless curiosity.
In the talk he refers to the "Horse Forum", so measure interest in some kind of niche community. Go to where your potential users are. Test your prototype there. When it's validated, build further and then expose to larger communities. Or, that would be my take.
They make them look like final versions, but few are. They're mostly MVP prototypes. If they take off they continue development on it, generally.
do you go into Software Requirement Specification document whenver you launch a project
What was the name of the guy who build his startup in public? (I know Pieter did that too, but I mean the name he gives on the presentation)
Drew Wilson!
@@levelsio thanks
this presentation is brilliant guys.
Danke well for sharing man! Always inspirational.
I listen to this video for 200times
Very informative👍. How does the legal side look like when you want to test a market? Must I register a business straight away, or ist possible to launch without registering a company for thw start?
+1 for the dog food reference. We have seen plenty of the same vids I guess :D
a friend of mine shared your posting & video to check out, so I ran thru your video. A few months ago, I accidentally landed at your nomadlist website and I thought it was very cool but i had to start a new project with small startup so I did not continue. It feels awesome that I met the creator of nomadlist. I'm living in Korea and I never thought abou going global SaaS but with your strategy, why not.. I can give it a try.
One question for you Mr. Levels, I could not figure out this legal question on the internet. You briefly talked about setting up one company to avoid all the difficult tax and legal issues. If I start a service globally, where do you suggest or recommend to start a company (if my biz is SaaS, IT service such as nomadlist). I don't assume your legal company resides in Bali.. so
I heard about founding a company resides in Delaware, USA but like you said, it costs a few hundreds of dollars so. .
Thank you
I suggest setting it up in the country you're a personal resident. For me that's Netherlands.
Thanks Pieter!!!!
I need to buy you a milkshake in Crate! Amazing speech!
The future is truly automation
Please make an Audiobook
You are a inspiration
Love the process of launching the idea! Just small advice from a tech guy: don't say cronjobs are robots :)
beautiful and so motivating!
Man that's a lot from you , big thanks
12:07 i do agree on the scammy part, you're mostly won't get taught nothing , and they're pricey with no return on investment
also what does max 1 month for prototype 14:32
I'd be asking so many questions, these people r fucking up.
Great content, thanks for sharing your experience. I watched this presentation after I watched the how to be a millionaire podcast.
Really helpfull please some video can give more deeply info about it especially how get view on your website will be great ....
Find contributors for your side project at www.FindASideProject.com
what are you doing with your startups in this corona virus pandemic period. Since they are for digital nomads.
Is living with his savings I suppose
@@israteneda Remote OK is about remote jobs
remoteok.io
Record revenue for Nomad List as people want to plan for becoming nomads after COVID
Very inspiring guy and projects