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

• Shopify killed this founder's $8M ARR app. His next SaaS is nearing $2M ARR.
• 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: Work for your own customer to learn what they actually need.

AI assistants are evolving. Hatch is the next generation. Built by the founders of Indie Hackers to help you get real work done, Hatch brings your chats, documents, and context together in one focused workspace.

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

Ruslan Leteyski bootstrapped Checkout X, an alternative Shopify checkout, to $8M ARR. Then Shopify locked down checkout access, and the business died overnight. Years of work gone because a platform changed its rules.

He stayed in e-commerce, micro-exited another app, and co-founded Zipchat in 2024. Now, the AI sales agent is nearing $2M ARR, handling 700k customer conversations a month and growing about 10% week over week.

In this interview, Ruslan shares how Zipchat stayed lean and found its footing in a crowded market.

Read the full article →

Gelt is a tax firm built for founders who outgrew filing season stress.

Most CPA relationships are compliance arrangements. They go over the books in March, file the return in April, and then go quiet until next spring. Nothing changes during the year, because no one was looking at the year while it was still happening.

Gelt runs the opposite way. Every client works with a dedicated CPA who knows their business, backed by software that keeps the numbers current instead of nine months stale. The decisions that actually move a founder's tax position get made while there's still time to make them: entity structure, owner compensation, QBI, multi-state exposure, retirement contributions, equity events, and more.

Pairing modern tech with CPAs who care is the difference. Software alone can't make a judgment call about an S-corp election or how to fund a Solo 401k. A CPA without current data spends the whole time reconciling spreadsheets instead of strategizing. Gelt puts both in one place, which is why it’s a fit for founders juggling K-1s, more than one entity, contractors in several places, and sales in states that now want a filing.

Founders can book an intro call and get a straight read on their situation. No commitment, no prep work. Mention Indie Hackers on the intake form for 10% off the first year of strategy.

Talk to a Gelt CPA

1. Hatch: Ditch ChatGPT. Use the most productive AI assistant ever made. Thoughtfully crafted by the founders of Indie Hackers.

2. Cody: Enterprise AI assistant that understands your entire codebase to write and fix code faster.

3. Devin Desktop: The AI-powered IDE you love, now with an integrated Agent Command Center.

4. GitHub Copilot Workspace: The agent-led developer environment for turning ideas into pull requests.

5. Pieces: The coding assistant with infinite artificial memory and long-term context that never forgets.

See all 30 tools in the directory →

Work for your own customer to learn what they actually need.

Jonathan Weinberg built Builder Prime for home improvement contractors. Two years in, growth was slow and the runway was getting short. Then one of his power users asked him to work part-time as the contractor's office manager. Jonathan said yes because, at that point, he needed the job.

Using Builder Prime inside an actual contracting business made the problem obvious: his customers needed a CRM, not a project-management app. Repositioning around that need changed the trajectory, and Builder Prime now makes $80,000 a month.

Read the full growth report →

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

	1. Launch Nest LN: Discover What’s New. Launch Where People Actually Look. A Better Place to Launch, Discover & Get Noticed	▲ 39
	2. Aproov: Match with creators. Get real distribution. Our smallest creator outsold our biggest one	▲ 35
	3. Pytch: Pitch creation and distribution agent How much would you pay to pitch top-tier tech journalists? (Let's talk PR pricing)	▲ 24

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 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.

Even if you haven't hit high revenue numbers with your business yet, take a moment and appreciate the freedom you have as an indie hacker.

—Channing

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