A few things happening lately making me think a lot about this whole "build in public" thing: 1. Sharing makes you a target

I've seen several public creators being targeted by DDOS and ransomware lately.

@yongfook has been public about it, but there are way more.

People doing this know that they're targeting a small & profitable team, and they're looking for just that.

📣 Today, @ScrapingBee is 3️⃣, and just reached $1,500,000 ARR!

Year 1️⃣ was sweaty: we tried everything to go from 0 to 1. We loved it.

Year 2️⃣ was magical: we had traction for the first time ever and reached a mythic milestone: $10k MRR.

Now, let’s talk about Year 3️⃣ 👇 @ScrapingBee We were extremely lucky with the first 2️⃣ years of @ScrapingBee. We know it.

But last year, many things changed.

For the first time, we felt we had switched from building a product to growing a company.

This post is about the things we've learned along the way:

- How we were a few days away from being settled from life -

Last summer, we almost sold ScrapingBee for a high 7 figures amount.

SPOILER alert: it didn't happen.

The experience was both nerve-wracking and very valuable.

Here's what happened: With ScrapingBee, we've always been very open about our numbers.

This led to a lot of emails from:
- VC wanting to invests
- PE and competitors looking to acquire us

To those people, we almost always shared the same answer:
"Not looking to sell, except for a lot of $"

We've made it to $1M ARR ✅

2.5 years after launch, @SahinKevin and I finally reached that milestone.

But it hasn't been an easy road, @ScrapingBee was far from being our first try at making money online.

It all started a little over 14 years ago 👇 Kevin and I met in high school, in a small town located in the south of France.

At that time our main interests were mainly Poker, World of Warcraft and computers.

We're not brilliant students, but not terrible either.

Some people spend weeks doing market research before shipping.

Sure market research is useful, but no need to waste months doing it.

Take a 7-day Ahrefs.com trial instead.

Here is everything you can learn, for less than $10, and in 2 hours 👇 Are people interested in my solution? 🤔

Go look at the keywords search volume.

From experience, the absolute number is not very precise, but you can use it to compare your niche to a very successful one.

My gold standard is "email marketing":

Good marketing resources online are rare.

Between AI-generated content, BS listicles, useless lead-magnets, and empty white paper it's easy to get lost.

But here are my favorite resources and tools to get started: SEO 1/2:

@timsoulo course about blogging for businesses is a must-watch for everyone looking to grow their business with content.

ahrefs.com/academy/bloggi…

In 2017 I decided to quit my job to go the bootstrapped way.

Today I'm grateful that @ScrapingBee is doing well.

But our first attempt was a complete failure, reaching only $700MRR after one full year.

I've made a lots of mistake during that time, time to share all of them👇 📕 Mistake n°1: Thinking reading books was enough.

I've read countless number of books about startups and entrepreneurship before launching PricingBot

It really taught me much more than what I learned in university, but it was far from enough.

I've built several SAAS and side-projects those last 5 years 🛠

Not all succeed, but I learned a lot 🤓

Today I'm not sharing great life lessons and business tips.

Today I'm sharing ten practical tips that will help you save time and money on your #IndieHackers journey.

👇 1/ Finding a business idea in 1min ⏱

Too many times I hear: "I don't know what to build" 🤔

1: Go on Capterra.com / g2.com
2: Search for the most successful SAAS out there
3: Read the bad reviews

You now have a business idea

👇 Examples

This time: JavaScript 🤖

I wanted to know what were the most recommended JS books ever. 🏆

So I've compiled more than 800 recommendations from 75 lists and came up with this top 25 most recommended #JavaScipt books of all-time

THREAD 👇 In short, I've compiled articles from Google search results for queries like "Best JavaScript books" and many of its variations

I scraped all pages using @ScrapingBeeand and extracted 📕 titles

Then deduplication + normalization + ✍️ cleaning

Reflecting on 2 years Bootstrapping.

In July 2018 I quit my job and tried to build a profitable SAAS with @kevinsahin.

And we failed, hard: $600 MRR after 1 year.

We tried again and had a bit more luck: $75k ARR within 12m.

Here's what I wish I knew when I began, a thread: 1. This thing takes time

Bootstrapping a SAAS is long, very long.

Of course, you'll hear about fast growth but real overnight successes are very rare.

Most of the time, when you look behind you'll find:
- years of building an audience
- several failed attempts
- consistency

This time: Python 🐍.

I wanted to know what were the most recommended Python books ever 🏆

So I've compiled more than 2000 recommendations from 130 lists and came up with this top 25 most recommended Python books of all-time 📕

THREAD 👇 In short, I've compiled articles from Google search results for queries like "Best python books" and many of its variations

I scraped all pages using @ScrapingBee and extracted 📕 titles

Then deduplication + normalization + ✍️ cleaning

Back at it again.

This time I wanted to know what were the most recommended programming books ever 🏆

So I've compiled more than 1200 recommendations from 68 lists and came up with this top 25 most recommended programming books of all-time📕

THREAD👇 In short, I've compiled articles from Google search results for queries like "Best programming books" and many of its variations

I scraped all pages using @ScrapingBee, and, with custom rules for every page, extracted 📕 titles

Then deduplication + normalization + ✍ cleaning

There are countless startup book lists on the internet 🌐

I wanted to know what were the most recommended startup books ever 🏆

So I've compiled more than 4000 recommendations from 208 lists and came up with with this top 25 most recommended startup books of all-time📕

THREAD In short, I've compiled articles from Google search results for queries like "Best startups books" and many of its variations

I scraped all pages using @ScrapingBee, and, with custom rules for every page, extracted 📕 titles

Then deduplication + normalization + manual cleaning