Arvid Kahl on side projects, hobbies and making money as a founder

Arvid Kahl on side projects, hobbies and making money as a founder

Author: James McKinven November 29, 2023 Duration: 17:06

Arvid Kahl runs The Bootstrapped Founder, a podcast, newsletter and educational resource to help founders grow successful bootstrapped businesses. He’s also written two books, Zero to Sold and The Embedded Entreprenuer. Arvid is a returning guest, having previously been on the show almost 3 years ago, to talk about his exit from FeedbackPanda, which he grew to $55k MRR with his partner, Danielle.


In this episode we talk about life as a creator and solopreneur, how Arvid is scratching his SaaS itch and how people can leave their jobs to work on their side projects.

👉 Get the full 55 minute conversation here.

Timestamps

  • 00:00 Intro
  • 01:45 Turning hobbies into business
  • 02:51 Structuring how you spend your time
  • 05:14 Revenue for The Bootstrapped Founder
  • 07:13 Why do consulting when you have runway
  • 08:30 Scratching the coding itch
  • 12:07 How to make a side project a main project
  • 15:52 Recommendations

Recommendations

(Prev. the mom test, IH pod and Sergio Mattei)

My links

Sponsor - EmailOctopus 🐙

EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can start today, with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.


Every Tuesday, James McKinven sits down for a short chat with someone who’s quietly building a business on their own terms. Indie Bites focuses on the real, often messy, beginnings of profitable, bootstrapped ventures. Instead of abstract theory, you’ll hear founders explain the exact moment an idea clicked, the scrappy ways they tested it without spending a fortune, and how they landed those crucial first few customers. The conversations are deliberately kept concise, getting straight to the practical insights that make a difference when you’re starting with limited time and resources. This podcast digs into the specifics of creating a sustainable income independently, covering the intersection of entrepreneurship, marketing, and hands-on business tactics. It’s for anyone who prefers learning from direct experience rather than corporate playbooks, offering a regular dose of motivation and actionable advice from people who are actually doing the work.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Indie Bites
Podcast Episodes
Bouncing back from losing 70% revenue - Max Serrano, IGotAnOffer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:37
Max Serrano is the founder of IGotAnOffer, a bootstrapped coaching platform focused on helping people get jobs and progress their career. Initially starting out in consulting, Max started IGotAnOffer on the side, creatin…
Can you really scale a No Code SaaS? - Kieran Ball, NoCodeLife [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:45
Kieran Ball is the founder of NoCodeLife, a selection of case studies of those making successful businesses using NoCode. Kieran also has courses on how to become a NoCode SaaS founder, specifically using the Bubble plat…
B2C vs B2B SaaS as an indie hacker - Val Sopi, Blogstatic [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:00
Today I’m joined by Val Sopi, the founder of Blogstatic, a lightweight blogging platform built to take on the likes of Ghost. Currently Val is sitting around $1k a month, but with a low-priced annual plans approach, he’s…
How VEED bootstrapped to $7m ARR - Sabba Keynejad, VEED.io (2020) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 14:23
Today I'm revisiting one of my favourite episodes, from 2020, with Sabba Keynejad, co-founder and CEO of VEED.io, an online video editing platform. When I interviewed Sabba, VEED were at around $2m ARR, fully bootstrappe…
The slow and steady path to growth - Michael Christofides [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:55
Today I’m joined by Michael Christofides, who is the founder of PgMustard, a product which helps people speed up Postgres queries. Michael started out working for a Devtools company as a product manager and went on to ru…
How to get to ramen profitability - Charlie Ward, Ramen Club [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:49
Today is a special episode, because it marks 100 episodes of Indie Bites. And to mark the occasion, I’m bringing back my guest from episode 1, Charlie Ward, founder of Ramen Club to talk about how he’s grown to community…