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My Inspiration for the $10K MRR Challenge
These bootstrappers inspired me to start my own indie hacker challenge
Tamiz Ahmed
January 03, 2024
At the beginning of this year, I decided to kick off the $10K MRR Challenge.
The goal of the challenge is simple: build, launch and grow a side project to $10K MRR in the next 12 months.
This challenge is inspired by a number of creators who I’ve long admired, and whose similar challenges have played a part in my own goal.
Pieter's remarkable journey from digital nomad to founder of Nomad List (and many other businesses) has been an inspiration to countless entrepreneurs. He has a remarkable ability to spot trends, quickly capitalize on and monetize them, all while sharing his progress every step of the way. His audacious 12 Startups in 12 Months challenge spawned many a copycat, and truly cemented his status as the godfather of indie hacking.
With this challenge, Pieter set out to create a new startup every month for an entire year. Each project tackled a different niche and showcased his adaptability and drive. The impact of his challenge extended far beyond the immediate success of his projects, leaving an indelible mark on those who followed his journey. His transparency and candid sharing of both triumphs and tribulations offered a glimpse into the true essence of entrepreneurship.
I've been a huge fan of Pieter's over the years, and bought his book MAKE when he first launched it, outlining his playbook for everything from ideating, to building, to launching and marketing. I find myself regularly re-visiting portions of the book whenever I need some additional insights or motivation for new projects I'm starting.
Jon is one of my favorite Twitter/X follows as he charmingly trolls all of his fellow indie hackers. Jon launched his own 12 Startups in 12 Months challenge a few years after Pieter, and that led him to building his widely successful bootstrapped business Bannerbear.
What I loved about Jon's challenge, was the reasons behind starting the challenge, specifically how we talked about how shipping products is a muscle that needs to be worked on:
I am embarrassed to say my product shipping muscle has atrophied. So I'm spending the next year exercising that muscle back, by building and shipping a new product every month for a year.
Like Pieter, Jon constantly gives back to the community by sharing both the ups and downs of his journey building his business. He often puts together recaps of phases of growing his business on his blog ($0-$10K MRR, $10K-20K MRR, but my favorite piece of content he has ever created his this video on his journey to $1M ARR.
The most similar challenge to the one I'm embarking on was Nathan's Web App Challenge. Both Pieter and Jon have experience great success with the products that came about from their 12 startups in 12 months challenges, but Nathan has undoubtedly had the best financial outcome of the three.
As the founder of ConvertKit, Nathan’s journey is a testament to the power of building in public and nurturing an engaged community. Nathan sought to establish himself as a thought leader in his industry and to connect with a like-minded audience.
What I liked best about Nathan's challenge was the focus on revenue. In my career, I've largely worked on consumer products (Bleacher Report, Mend, Poppylist), whose focus is primarily user growth vs revenue growth. I want to flip the script a bit given that this will be a wholly bootstrapped side project, and to do that successfully revenue will have to be at the forefront.
While he’s a bit newer to the scene, 2023 really put Marc on the map, and I’ve become fascinated by his story.
Marc initially followed the classic indie hacker path of building a consumer focused app with minimal revenue opportunities, but recently pivoted to B2B focused ideas and has seen his revenue start to explode.
Marc writes an excellent weekly newsletter on his approach to building and shipping startups.
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