It Was Just a Post. Now It’s 20,000 Monthly Readers. Year One.
What we learned from chasing founders, tweaking headlines, and building a publication with no blueprint.
It’s been a wild ride building Indieniche over the past year. What started as just a random idea in my head has now grown into something that 3,000+ founders read, with over 20,000+ monthly reads. That blows my mind.
I’m proud of how far we’ve come, but I also want to take you back to how it started, what worked, what didn’t, the struggles we faced, and some advice if you’re thinking of building something similar.
The Problem
Everything starts with a problem.
Back when I was just getting started, I struggled to find validated SaaS ideas to build. Aside from Indie Hackers, there was nothing really out there that spotlighted everyday founders. I mean the ones from rougher backgrounds or building quietly from small towns, people doing $5k, $10k, $100k MRR without being flashy.
There were a ton of learnings not being shared, and a lot of solid founders who weren’t getting noticed.
So, I figured, this is the niche.
We wrote our first post on LinkedIn about Bhanu, who built a Notion to blog tool and made $250k from a small city in India. He got a shoutout from Dameng Chen, and we spotlighted him. That post basically birthed Indieniche.
We started by telling stories about indie SaaS tools like Figma and Loom, based on public info and writeups. But we knew something was missing: the real voice of the founder.
So, we pivoted. We started collecting stories straight from the source. Direct interviews. Google Forms. DMs. Real stories from the builders themselves.
Now we’ve published 70+ stories and we’re still growing.
Big Lesson: you won’t figure it out all at once. Pivot as you go.
The Challenge
The hardest part of running Indieniche? Getting stories from founders.
Most bootstrapped founders are busy; they don’t have time to write their whole journey. Sometimes I have to DM the same person for weeks or even months. I once chased someone for 4 months and still never got the story.
We only feature founders doing at least $5k in revenue, and we don’t charge a dime. We handle the editing and publishing. But the follow ups, verifications, and back and forth can be exhausting.
Big Lesson: every business has pain. You’ll just have to choose the one you want to deal with.
Some Wins
Even with the challenges, we’ve had some great moments. Here are a few:
We didn’t make a single dollar until month 8, our first $140/mo. came from sponsors
we created a subreddit for indieniche; r/indieniche — now 2k+ founders there
Spun off r/acquiresaas — 900+ members
Made $600 total revenue so far
Launched the Struggles Edition to share raw founder lows
AcquireSaaS happened because some founders started reaching out to sell their startup through us. So, we listened and launched the marketplace.
Big Lesson: listen to what your users are already asking for.
How We Monetize
We didn’t think much about monetization early on. But now, we’ve got a few ways going:
Product of the Week sponsor
Basic and Premium newsletter slots
Saturday Sponsored Emails
Free tools for founders and indie hackers
Monetization from Reddit groups
We keep pricing lean; you can check our rates here.
What We Optimized
We built Indieniche like a product, not just a newsletter. So, we tested a lot:
Filtered out idle subscribers with re-engagement emails
A/B tested better subject lines for higher open rates
Rewarded our top readers with perks
Grew our open rate by over 10%
Marketing & Growth
We’ve tried a bunch of channels. Here’s where most of our readers come from:
70% from Reddit
10% from newsletter recs
10% from LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Medium
10% from Substack Notes & referrals
We're now testing videos to expand even more. It’s early, but promising.
Who’s Reading?
Indieniche Newsletter reaches readers across 43 US states and 117 countries worldwide.
Top Countries by Readership:
- United States: 29%
- India: 17%
- United Kingdom: 7%
- Canada: 4%
- Australia: 3%
Top US States by Readership:
- California: 19%
- New York: 10%
- Florida: 7%
- Virginia: 5%
- Colorado: 5%
This diverse readership reflects a global interest in founder stories, tools, and growth hacks featured weekly in Indieniche Newsletter.
Some of Our Best Stories
We’ve shared a lot of founder stories over the last year; some wild, some super underrated, and some that just hit different. These ones stood out. Either they blew up, taught us something new, or just reminded us why we started Indieniche in the first place.
Want to Stop Paying for Software? This Founder Has You Covered
In this interview, Piotr Kulpinski shares how he built OpenAlternative, grew it to 70K monthly visitors, and monetized it to $3.5K/month, all while keeping it a side project.
Founder Making $100K+ In Revenue Scooping Dog Poop for Pet Owners
In this interview, Mark Gromer shares his founders Journey providing a valuable service to his community by running a pet waste removal company with his son. They help pet owners scoop up poop!
The $231K SaaS Business That Started in a Barber’s Chair
In this interview, Maciej Cupial shares how he bootstrapped Calendesk into a $231K ARR SaaS by staying lean, automating fast, and prioritizing retention over acquisition.
From Raising $600k to Losing It All: The Hard Truths of Startup Life
A raw and honest account of navigating failure, embracing pivots, and finding strength in the unpredictable journey of building a startup.
UI/UX Designer Making $100k in Revenue Building Shopify Apps
In this interview, Erikas Mališauskas, the Co-founder of kaching Appz, explains how he built his Shopify app to $100k in revenue and more.
Founder Making $35K In Revenue Building a Visual Task Management Tool.
In this Interview, Farid shares his building journey; creating a visual task management tool that helps users review, collaborate on and deliver projects faster and easier than ever before.
The Team
You might be wondering who’s behind all this. Just the three of us:
Olayanju Idris — Founder (that’s me)
Ololade Popoola — Editor
Olayanju Teslim — Graphics & design
We are a pretty lean team, but we get the job done. You’ve most likely come across emails from my wonderful editor, and the cool designs you see are all created by our talented designer.
Moving Forward
It’s been a special year. I didn’t come from a newsletter background. I had to learn everything on the go. But seeing the impact this has had on founders and their businesses, makes it worth it.
If you know any founder doing $5k+ in revenue and willing to share their story, send them my way.
We’re also open to sponsors every week, please check our page if you're interested.
And finally, we’re considering opening donations to support the team. If Indieniche has helped you in any way, I’d love to hear from you.
How can we make this better for you? What else do you want to see?
Thanks for rocking with us this far.
Olayanju Idris
Founder, Indieniche
Would be interesting to know your editorial process...