副収入を、解剖する。 成功談ではなく、意思決定の記録。

April 2, 2018: starts prototyping, maxing out credit cards to about $30K in debt → Kickstarter raises only about $2,000 and fails → turns down investors' '$20K for 40%' terms; his boss at the time, Ben Day, pays $40K for 30% → September 2018: registers the company; a $50 iPhone ad starts driving sales → October 2018: Ben shuts down his debt relief company and its staff join The Adventure Challenge → over $250K in the first quarter, $6M in the first year → 2020: sales surge during the pandemic → 2021: about $80M in sales, about 100 employees → around 2021: Bryant hands the CEO role to Ben and becomes chairman → 2022: Forbes 30 Under 30; cumulative sales pass $100M → 2023: e-commerce cools; about 35 layoffs

March 12, 2026: App Store launch, $65 that month → April about $2,000 → May about $6,600 → June about $8,800 → July: listed for sale on TrustMRR at $160,000 → August about $11,700 → September about $14,000 → mid-October 2026: $57,910 all-time

2023: Published the landmark 'Reflexion' paper as an undergrad and joined enterprise AI unicorn Sierra → Early 2025: Dropped out to incorporate Spear Street Technology and build Instinct → Late 2025: Developed cloud headless browser sandboxes and native telephony pipelines → Early 2026: Launched ultra-exclusive 5-invite beta, causing viral mania and securing a $2.5B valuation → Fall 2026: Crossed $1B in annualized transactional GMV, securing a $10B valuation

Around 2000: gets into software testing → 2001: laid off, becomes a freelance tester and runs local meetups in Brighton → 2007: starts the online forum Software Testing Club → around 2010: the forum takes too much time, so she decides a conference will turn the community into a business; registers SOFTWARE TESTING CLUB LTD in October → 2012: first TestBash in Cambridge, then several years in Brighton → 2014: starts preparing the online learning platform The Dojo → 2017: company renamed Ministry of Testing Ltd; husband Graham becomes a director → from around 2018: Richard Bradshaw serves as CEO, becoming a director in February 2019 → June 2019: Rosie tells the Indie Hackers podcast revenue is $1.2M a year; nine conferences worldwide that year → around 2019 to March 2021: Rosie leads the Indie Hackers community → after the pandemic: back to one conference a year → October 2023: Bradshaw leaves; Rosie returns as CEO

Spring 2020: England's first lockdown; Sam grows veg on his balcony → June 20, 2020: registers POT GANG LTD → July 2020: launches as a side hustle, delivering across London with a few drivers, and opens the WhatsApp help line Potline → February 2021: local press coverage; £20 a month; plans to expand to other UK cities → December 2021: Bryony Brightman becomes a director holding 25% to 50% (exits in 2024) → January 2024: TechRound reports 45,000 growers, with 'Gang Manager' Tom handling support → June 2025: holding company Faraday Gang Ltd owns 75%+ → 2026: the website claims 100,000 growers at £24.99 a month

After the 2000 election: the couple sells political bumper stickers online from their basement, several thousand sold → aims to be 'the Amazon of stickers,' with a warehouse in Hygiene → from 2008: free stickers for WordCamps worldwide → 2010: becomes a custom sticker manufacturer → 2012: adopts open-book management → January 13, 2016: first National Sticker Day; Saul the sticker ball sets a Guinness World Record; moves to Longmont the same year → 2017: Forbes Small Giant ($10.2M revenue, 39 staff); Beth A. Smith joins as COO → 2018–2020: Inc. 5000 three years running → 2020: Colorado Manufacturer of the Year, 99 employees → April 2021: Smith becomes CEO; September: acquired by Resource Label Group

2012: starts as a web developer → 2018–2021: CTO/CIO at PRTE → 2020: co-founds MEDsimple → 2022: joins Rocketseat as Tech Lead, promoted to Head of Product & Technology in February 2025 → June 2026: leaves to run a one-person company → August 4, 2026: launches Enxovaly, 10K+ downloads and R$40K+ in month one → August 10: launches Bíblia Raízes, 2K+ subscribers and R$200K+ in month one

Late 2025: starts following the app developer community on X → February 2026: gets the idea at the gym, fumbles with Lovable for two months and decides not to launch → rebuilds V2 in Rork in a month, about $7,000 in month one → early deals with big fitness influencers leave 5–10% margins → gives equity to one fitness creator for content and cuts other influencer deals → focuses on Meta ads, then moves the same creatives to TikTok ads → October 2026: about $50,000–55,000 a month → listed for sale on TrustMRR

Studies psychology and spends five summers selling door to door → wants to start a business and meets a technical partner online → the partner's scraper for jobs on company websites becomes Career Hound, aiming for $1,000 a month each → launched around 2024 after trying many approaches → develops a marketing system of timeless content, repeatable formats and low-cost creators, used largely unchanged for two years → September 2026: $28,000 last month, $12,000 MRR

UC San Diego computer science graduate, about 12 years at Amazon and Meta → 2022: Meta layoffs shake his faith in job security → early 2024: builds the card game Big 2 Wild in six weeks with AI tools → starts Harpagia and forces a launch after six months of development (November 2024 per the App Store) → about $1,500 cumulative by month two; sets a goal to quit at $10,000 a month → first Reddit post about six months after launch takes revenue from $1,000 to $10,000; leaves Meta that month → grows through Reddit update posts, peaking at about $18,000 a month → September 2026: over $150,000 in the past year

About eight years as an iOS developer, polishing one side app for years without success → February 2025: a video from an indie developer building an app portfolio changes his approach → keyword research plus fast AI-assisted builds before and after work, about one app a week → October 2025: MRR over €7,000 → December 2025: 28 apps, about $10,000 a month → $84,000 in 2025, year-end MRR $25,000+ → 2026: quits to go full-time → March 2026: about 40 apps, $36,000 a month → May 2026: his wife uses the same method and grows from $100 to $1,000 MRR in 1.5 months

Spends all his Amazon vacation on solo trips and jots the idea in his notes app → interviews about 20 friends from past trips and tests demand with small Meta ads, quits two weeks later → builds from his San Francisco apartment through three MVP iterations → March 2025: App Store launch, filming a TikTok himself daily → ~3 months: $10,000 a month → ~6 months: 75,000 MAU, $18,000 MRR → builds a team of about 60 UGC creators → December 2025: 1 million downloads → January 2026: first $100,000 month → July 2026: 2 million users, $2 million ARR → September 2026: about $140,000 MRR

Quits after three years at an enterprise software company, giving himself 12 months → first app LiftBear makes about $100 in six months → builds HabitKit in two months, launches November 2022, $1,500 in month one → deadline expires, returns to his old company four days a week → June 2023: enters the top five for 'habit tracker' and revenue jumps, so he quits again → $51,000 in 2023 → December 2024: featured on a channel from MKBHD's team → $112,000 in January 2025, $602,000 for the year → about $32,000 MRR in September 2026

First app CORDI, built with friends over two years, launches to no one → June 2023: MonAI built in a month or two and published, built in public on X → 18 months alone at about $300 MRR → Colombian creator Charlie Álvarez finds his handles in the app and reaches out → late 2024: first video, MRR up 10x in a week and near $8,000 in a month → June 2025: invited to Apple's WWDC, related video gets 1.7M views → 2026: quits his job to build apps full time → April 2026: MRR over $35,000

First mobile game Knitted Deer makes $500 → 2014: Skyhill asks for $15,000 on crowdfunding and gets $100, redraws all art, gets onto Steam and is published by Daedalic in 2015 → 2023: I Am Future enters early access with tinyBuild and sells 100,000+ copies, full release in 2024 → December 2025: ReStory announced, 100,000 wishlists in a week → June 2026: demo takes off at Steam Next Fest → August 6, 2026: launch, budget recouped in 12 hours, 100,000 copies on day one → 300,000 in a week → 500,000 by mid-September