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PRESENTED BY

Here's what you'll find in this issue:

Maddox Schmidlkofer sold 2 startups before he could legally drink. Now his third is at 1,000 users and climbing.
5 vibe coding tools. Some of the latest apps for coding with AI.
Yesterday's build board winners, including three new product launches from indie hackers.
30-second growth tip: Breadcrumb your unreleased features to manufacture hype.

Still using ChatGPT for serious work? Try Hatch instead.

Built by the founders of Indie Hackers, Hatch is the most productive AI assistant ever made. Use code INDIE30FREE for 100% off your first month.

Maddox Schmidlkofer's third and final startup 🥩

Maddox Schmidlkofer already built and sold two businesses before he could legally drink. The biggest was a gaming site that he flipped to a competitor for $120k at age 20. But instead of chasing another quick exit, he's building what he calls his "third and final startup." It's an iOS app called Tallow, and it already has 1,000 users and brought in $650 last week.

Tallow scans grocery barcodes and tells you exactly what's inside, calling out seed oils, EU-banned additives, and microplastics with actual lab citations. Maddox uses his own short-form videos on TikTok and Reels as his only top of funnel. By the time someone downloads the app, they're already worried about their food, which is why his paywall converts at a wild 84%.

Enjoy the full interview!

Read the full article →

AI assistants are evolving. Hatch is the next generation. 🧠

AI models have evolved. ChatGPT has not.

We're still using the same old AI assistant products we were using in 2022, even though the models underneath them keep getting better.

It's time for the next generation of AI assistants.

Introducing Hatch, the most productive AI assistant ever made.

From the creators of Indie Hackers, Hatch was thoughtfully crafted to help you get real work done. From floating windows to tagging documents¡, we've reimagined every aspect of your daily AI assistant to help you operate at a higher level.

Try Hatch free. Use code INDIE30FREE for 100% off for 1 month.

Vibe coding tools to try 🧑🏻‍💻

Hatch: Ditch ChatGPT. Use the most productive AI assistant ever made. Thoughtfully crafted by the founders of Indie Hackers.
Lovable: Describe your idea — Lovable builds a full-stack app and reusable prompts in seconds.
Qodo: Boost test coverage fast — Qodo writes unit tests and smart code suggestions.
Pieces: Store snippets of code offline and use a “long-term memory agent” to search, fix, reuse.
Windsurf: AI-powered IDE that anticipates your next move.

See all 30 tools in the directory →

Bite-sized growth tip 🍪

Breadcrumb your unreleased features to manufacture hype.

Danny Postma hit $20K a month with Headlime by basically treating his coding process like a movie marketing campaign. He was upgrading a simple copywriting tool with advanced AI, and instead of staying quiet, he just kept dropping hints on Twitter about what the software could do long before it was finished.

By the time he actually launched, the anticipation was massive. His revenue doubled every few weeks just because he built an eager audience of buyers early on.

Read the full growth report →

The Build Board 🪧

Every day, indie hackers post updates about the products they're building. Here's what the community voted to the top yesterday!

	1. Clone The App: Discover validated mobile app ideas You don't need a brand new app idea to build a successful business.	▲ 54

	2. Donely: One click Hermes & Openclaw hosting Can't believe Hermes did this! - Mythos type security harness	▲ 52

	3. ZopNight: Technology Value OS for AI, Cloud, and Humans The cloud bill question we couldn't answer, so we built ZopNight	▲ 30

Enjoy building in public? Post an update to your product page on Indie Hackers, and it will automatically be added to the daily leaderboard.

Channing's Tweet Pick 🐦

If you're an indie hacker you get to focus on the app layer and completely avoid all the competition at the model layer. Great time to start something new!

—Channing

We'd love your feedback! 🙃

Did you like today's stories? Did they suck? Which ones?

We're constantly changing things up to make this newsletter more useful, so let us know what you think by replying directly to this email. We read every reply!

Special thanks to Yushavel Calderon for the graphic design, and to James Fleischmann for contributing a post.

—Channing

Indie Hackers | 522 W Riverside Ave #6526, Spokane, WA, 99201

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🗞️ What's New: 2 exits by 20, breadcrumb your features, how to win in the AI industry