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PRESENTED BY

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

This founder accidentally hit #1 on Product Hunt and now runs a 5-figure MRR software review site.
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: Turn your employees into your main marketing channel.

BlinkUX, a product design consultancy partnering with innovators like Google and NASA, is recruiting AI agent builders and users to shape next. Complete the eligibility form to join their panel, test cutting-edge tools before launch, share insights, earn gift cards, and help shape AI products used by people like you.

He accidentally hit #1 on Product Hunt 🛠️

Francesco D’Alessio built a software review site over a weekend, scheduled it on Product Hunt, and then completely forgot about it. It hit #1 for the day anyway.

Five years later, Tool Finder is a solo operation pulling in 5-figure MRR, and Francesco has spun up a small portfolio around it (including an iOS app called Bento and a scrum estimation site).

Tool Finder helps professionals find and save money on software, and Francesco monetizes it through a mix of sponsorships, affiliate revenue, and a paid Deal Pass that gives users access to exclusive software discounts. After five years of staying mostly faceless behind the brand, he recently leaned into YouTube and put himself on camera, which is what unlocked the tighter vendor relationships and pre-launch embargoes that keep the site ahead of competitors.

The full interview is worth a read! Especially if you're trying to figure out when to hire, when to stay lean, or how to build a business that fits how you like to work.

Read the full interview →

The Smartest Businesses Aren't Using AI. They're Rebuilding Around It. 💡

Most businesses are experimenting with AI. The smartest ones are redesigning how they operate.

Adding AI to an existing workflow can create incremental gains. Rebuilding the workflow around AI can fundamentally change the economics of the business.

Agency Advantage 2026 is a free virtual event exploring how agency leaders, founders, operators, and AI practitioners are using AI agents, automation, and AI-native systems to scale output, improve efficiency, and create competitive advantages.

Attendees will learn:

How teams are scaling without increasing headcount
How AI agents are being deployed into real business operations
New approaches to pricing, delivery, and growth in an AI-first world
What separates AI-assisted organizations from AI-native businesses

Featuring 20+ speakers, live discussions, and practical frameworks that can be applied immediately.

June 30 – July 1, 2026. Free Virtual Event.

Vibe coding tools to try 🧑🏻‍💻

Hatch: Ditch ChatGPT. Use the most productive AI assistant ever made. Thoughtfully crafted by the founders of Indie Hackers.
Snyk Code: Scan and auto-patch security flaws right in your source code.
Claude Code: Command-line AI that reads, edits, and tests your codebase via natural language.
Amazon Q Developer: Build and refactor AWS apps faster with AI that understands your stack.
Bolt.diy: Prompt an app — Bolt spins up and deploys the full-stack in one click.

See all 30 tools in the directory →

Bite-sized growth tip 🍪

Turn your employees into your main marketing channel.

When Alina Vandenberghe launched Chili Piper, she weaponized her team's personal LinkedIn accounts. People engage with real humans, and they ignore faceless company pages.

By empowering every employee to jump into industry conversations and build their own audiences, Chili Piper effectively cloned their marketing efforts. They bypassed the slow grind of corporate brand building and rode personal algorithms all the way to $30M in revenue.

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 How a walking app makes $615K/month and what you can learn from it	▲ 32

	2. Aurora: DeFi Surveillance System to Detect Market Manipulation Acquisition opportunity: DeFi surveillance platform with live infra and 700K+ data points	▲ 12

	3. AI News Agent: AI-powered niche news aggregator for Telegram bots 5 things IH comments taught me about finding first customers in 48 hours	▲ 5

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

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.

Channing's Tweet Pick 🐦

The reality is that in the AI age you need to be both (a marketer and craftsman)!

—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: Accidental #1 on Product Hunt, employee-driven marketing, product vs marketing