This summer I’ve discoverd the website IndieHackers.com which interviews “hackers” who’ve started their own businesses (or side-projects) and earn money from it. It’s really inspiring how many ideas people have and how they have realised their passion projects. Also quite nice is the fact that they have to share how much money they earn. So you as a reader can see the relation between the effort the hackers have invested in their project and which outcome it produces. Today I’d like to share three of these hacker projects which have inspired me the most. All projects have in common that they’re automating a process in a remarkable way which is quite interesting to see.

SubmitHub

Interview Link: https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/submithub

This guy started by having a music blog and promoted new music. After a while he got lots of emails every day to listen and hopefully promote new music from users. At some point he decided to automate things and saw a chance to earn money from it by letting users pay for their submissions to him. Also, he has connected further blogs and labels to his service which receive the submissions and can rate them. He validated his idea by building a prototype and because of his large audience from his blog he was able to grow very fast. Personally, I’m not into the music business, but the idea behind it is great.

Logojoy

Interview Link: https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/logojoy

Another great indie hacker project is Logojoy where you can create your own logo. The unique key is that the logo is created by an AI-like algorithm. This means the software evaluates what kind of logos users like (e.g. colors, fonts, font sizes) and based on that it creates a new logo with your brand’s name. The interview is very interesting to read, I can really recommend it.

park.io

Interview Link: https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/park-io

park.io is a really cool project and the most inspiring one for me. It basically reserves domains which will be available in the near future. If only one user is interested in a particular domain, he will get it for 99$. Otherwise (if more than one user is interested in a domain) an auction is created and users will have 10 days to say how much they are willing to pay for it. The one with the best offer wins. The interesting thing is that the creator of park.io has automated everything. From saving the domain to doing the auctions. It’s really incredible, so just read the interview.