Think · Launch
Ship the ugly MVP
If it looks like a weekend project and charges money, it is done. Design, refactors, and 'real architecture' wait until strangers pay.
Taste is a delay tactic. Revenue tells you which corners matter. Speed is the only unfair advantage a solo maker has against teams.
How to run it
- 01Cap v1 at a weekend or two, not a quarter.
- 02Use the stack you can deploy from a phone.
- 03Put a price on it before you like the UI.
- 04Post the live URL, not a mock.
In the wild
Levels has said for years that Nomad List and later products shipped looking amateur on purpose. Marc Lou's cadence is weekly ships, not quarterly unveils.
Used by · 3
Pieter Levels
@levelsio
Itch-first · SEO + X
Profitable solo products, shipped in public, SEO + Twitter as the company
Marc Lou
@marc_louvion
Picks & shovels · X-native
Picks-and-shovels for indie hackers and a weekly shipping cadence
Sahil Lavingia
@shl
Creator rails · simplicity
Building in public, simplicity as positioning, creators as the niche