👋 Hello, Idris here! Welcome to this week's Indieniche newsletter. Each week, I feature tips and stories from successful self-made founders, share insights on building great products, talk about growing your business, and showcase essential tools to help you build and scale better.
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This week's Issue is sponsored by The Motley Fool
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In this interview, Josh Mead shares his journey from leaving behind a 50-person business and a life that wasn’t his, to finding recovery, moving to Morocco, and starting again as an indie hacker. He talks about the tough early days of failed projects, the moment inspiration struck when Skype announced its shutdown, and how that led to building ZippCall, a simple way to make international calls in seconds.
Josh shares:
His backstory and how he started.
How he got his first free and paid customers for his product.
What was effective in attracting customers to his product?
His competitive advantages, what gives him an edge, and insights that have proven beneficial to his operations.
Which books, podcasts, or other resources have had the greatest impact on him.
Advice he'd offer to entrepreneurs who are just starting out.
Q. Hello! Who are you and what product are you working on currently, and who is your target audience (Age range)?
Hey, I’m Josh. I’m originally from the UK but these days I’m based in Morocco. I’m the solo founder behind ZippCall, which is a simple and affordable way to make international calls. You can sign up and start calling in about 30 seconds to any number in over 200 countries. Rates start at $0.02 per minute.
The audience is broad. I see small businesses who need reliable client calls, remote workers and digital nomads, people in countries where the usual apps don’t work, and anyone who just wants something quick without downloads or setup. Age-wise, it leans toward 35–55, but I also get younger users from startup and remote teams who like the no-bloat approach.
Q. What is your backstory and how did you come up with your idea? What year did you start?
My journey into indie hacking wasn’t straight. About 18 months ago, I walked out of rehab in London after struggling with drug addiction. On paper, I was doing fine. I had a facilities management business with 50+ staff, good money, and respect in the community. But the truth was I hated it. I was living a life that didn’t feel like mine.
After rehab I flew to Morocco for some winter sun. I remember sitting at a beach café, catching up on emails, and realizing I felt calm for the first time in ages. That’s when I knew I wanted to build a life that actually worked for me.
I started building products in 2024. None of them took off. I tried an SEO tool, a downtime monitor, a mental health app. All failed. I was making every rookie mistake possible.
Then in February 2025, Pieter Levels tweeted about Skype shutting down. I’d just used Skype for a long bank call and felt gutted. That’s when it clicked. I decided to try building a simple alternative.
At first it was just a coding challenge with WebRTC and AI tools helping me along. I wasn’t obsessing over business models; I just wanted to see if I could get it working. A couple of months later I launched on Product Hunt. To my surprise, people started paying right away.
The idea came from solving my own problem - I needed simple international calling from Morocco, and Skype was closing. Sometimes the best ideas come when you stop forcing them.
Q. Take us through the process of building the first version of your product MVP.
The MVP was scrappy. I’d only been coding a few months, so I leaned heavily on AI coding tools. I’d write down what I wanted, get some code, fix errors, and keep going.
The only goal was simple: let someone make a call from their browser in 30 seconds. No downloads, no complicated setup. Within a week I had something that worked. Buggy for sure, but you could actually call someone.
Q. How many employees do you have working on your product? Do you have any co-founders?
No, it’s just me.
Q. How much monthly traffic do you receive?
The site gets around 5,000 visitors per month. It’s not huge volume, but it’s the right kind of traffic. Most people land on ZippCall because they need to make a call right away. That intent makes all the difference.
Q. How did you get your first customers for your product and how many free/paid customers do you have currently? (Feel free to list them out).
Product Hunt. I posted ZippCall there in May 2025 and it got featured, which gave me that initial visibility boost. The first week was wild - I got maybe 10-15 paying customers. Tiny numbers, but what made me sit up and pay attention was the conversion rate. With such low traffic, having that many people actually PAY meant I was onto something. Today there are around 3,000 registered users.
Q. Since you launched your product, what has worked to attract customers?
SEO has been the absolute game-changer, and I mean unglamorous, boring, long-tail keyword SEO. With past projects I wasted money on ads and “growth hacks.” This time I decided to focus on intent. People search for how to call a bank or family abroad, land on ZippCall, and just sign up. They aren’t browsing, they’re ready to act.
Q. How is your product performing currently, and what are your plans for the future? Can you share your current metrics and revenue figures?
ZippCall has grown better than I expected for something that started as a coding project a few months ago.
$4,500 MRR equivalent (it’s pay-as-you-go, not subscription-based, but that’s the monthly recurring equivalent)
3,000 registered users
Strong conversion rates from high-intent organic traffic
Consistent month-over-month growth since launch in May 2025
I’m not chasing some crazy exit or fantasizing about some huge ARR, my next goal is to hit $10k MRR. That’s my “financial freedom in Morocco” number. It’s just enough to be completely secure, living the life I actually want. It would mean I can keep building, keep learning, and not worry about crawling back to England and my old life.
Q. Since the inception of your business, have you gained any insights that have provided you with a competitive advantage and proven beneficial to your operations?
High-intent traffic beats vanity metrics every time, simplicity is a competitive moat, you hear it all the time but it’s so true: Solve your own problem first!
Q. What tools have helped you grow your product?
I literally would not have a product without Cursor IDE, Claude-4-sonnet and ChatGPT. I also use Xcode and Android Studio.
Q. Which books, podcasts, or other resources have had the greatest impact on you?
I listen to My First Million and Greg Isenberg’s Startup Ideas podcast. Book-wise, The Goal by Eli Goldratt for business and the Basic Text from Narcotics Anonymous for recovery.
Q. What advice would you offer to entrepreneurs who are looking to start or have just begun their journey?
You don’t need to have it figured out before you start. You learn faster by doing. Keep experimenting until something clicks.
Q. Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
No, not at the moment.
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions! What is your contact info if people would like to inquire about your services? You can add all your links.
You can find me most active on X or on Instagram.
Let me know what you learned from this interview and have a productive week! 🙏
Indie Tip of the Week
Too many founders get stuck waiting for the perfect moment to launch. They tell themselves they need a better landing page, more features, or a clearer vision before putting their product out there. The truth is you only start learning once real people use what you’ve built. Every early user teaches you something new; what matters to them, what confuses them, and what they’re willing to pay for. If you spend months hiding your idea, you miss out on all of that. Progress comes from momentum, and momentum comes from shipping something real, even if it’s small. Put it out, talk to people, and let their reactions show you where to go next.
Indie Product of the Week
This week’s pick isn’t a tool for building startups; it’s a tool for building your wealth. The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor has been helping people invest smarter for 20+ years, with a track record of 1,000%+ returns since 2002.
If you’ve been thinking about investing but don’t know where to start, this might be the easiest way in. Check it out here
Indie Trivia Of the Week
Richard Hatch is the very first winner of which reality TV show?
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