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PRESENTED BY

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

Theo Browne got annoyed with AI chat apps, built his own in two weeks, and turned it into seven-digit ARR.
Yesterday's build board winners, including three new product launches from indie hackers.
30-second growth tip: Be picky about which customers you sell to.

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.

Theo Browne turned AI-chat frustration into 7-figure ARR 🤖

Theo Browne already had a lot going on: a popular dev YouTube channel, a YC-backed company, and products like Ping․gg and UploadThing. Then he got annoyed with the AI chat apps blowing up in 2024 and built T3 Chat. Within two weeks, it generated more revenue than every other product in the company combined. It now does seven-digit ARR, while his creator business brings in about $276k/year.

But that flywheel is painfully expensive. Theo says running a moonshot startup and a moonshot YouTube channel at the same time "sucks." Each one wants more than 100% of his focus, and he's constantly behind. But the two also make each other better: his content improves because he's actually building, and his products get pressure-tested by 2,000+ developers watching live.

Theo's advice for founders is… to get a real job! His five years at Twitch gave him the connections, teammates, and investment support that helped make the whole thing possible.

Read the full interview if you're building with an audience or trying to figure out how much focus one founder can realistically split.

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: The next-generation AI assistant for getting real work done.
Augment Code: Context-aware AI agent that navigates huge repos and writes fixes like a senior dev.
Windsurf: AI-powered IDE that anticipates your next move.
Lovable: Describe your idea — Lovable builds a full-stack app and reusable prompts in seconds.
Junie: Chat, refactor, and generate tests across JetBrains IDEs with context-aware AI.

See all 30 tools in the directory →

Bite-sized growth tip 🍪

Be picky about which customers you sell to.

Vincent Woo runs CoderPad, a live-coding interview tool companies use to evaluate engineers in real time. Early on, he made a call most founders flinch at: he openly preferred a handful of great customers over a pile of mediocre ones. The logic is simple. Great customers grow with you, tell their friends, and don’t bury your inbox in support tickets.

So he built for the good ones and let the wrong-fit accounts churn without chasing them. CoderPad now does $170K+/month.

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. Cornerman: AI coaching during your interview My first paying customers vanished. I rebuilt it into an AI copilot that takes you from "should I apply?" to signed contract.	▲ 11

	2. Monoshoot: Turn raw product photos into studio-grade images I got frustrated trying to do AI product photography for a client. So I built the tool I wished existed.	▲ 9

	3. Ai SiteForger: From prompt to production I built an AI platform that creates and deploys websites, apps, and stores from a prompt.	▲ 6

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 🐦

IMO the greatest benefit of being an indie hacker is being free to invest in multi-dimensional growth. When you own your time, you can allocate it however you want.

—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 | 120 Westlake Avenue N, Seattle, Washington 98109

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🗞️ What's New: 7-figure ARR in 2 weeks, be picky about customers, multi-dimensional growth