$293K ARR - stupidly simple bookmarking tool

This is brilliant, this week I went down the rabbit hole of Pinboard - a stupidly simple bookmarking tool.

• A solo project running for the last 14 years.
• 30,000+ users
• $293K ARR
• And 1 simple pricing plan - $22 per year.

That’s it!

This is Pinboard’s revenue over the years -

$117K to $293K per year over 14 years.

Built by “1 dude in his underpants somewhere” as described by the Economist -

If there’s 1 framework that is behind Pinboard’s success, it’s Simplicity.

Everything about it is just simple.

From it’s landing page, to it’s pricing model, to it’s features and even it’s UX.

And that’s why people love it so much.

Ask a customer on HackerNews pointed out - “No feature creep, no bloat, no overthinking it”

(source)

Pinboard’s founder Maciej has been playing (and winning) this solopreneur game for a while. His blog posts are a delight to read - funny and profound at the same time.

This particular snippet really hit home - “A one person business is an exercise in anxiety management.. “

This is from a post he wrote on Pinboard’s 10th anniversary - “I can’t stop winning!”

Brilliant!

His entire blog is full of inspiration and insights from the trenches.

I found about Pinboard when I was reading the book Company of One by Paul Jarvis for the Indie Masterminds book club.

It’s a brilliant book with many such examples and interesting insights and ideas around building small, solo businesses.

Relevant to us all.

I am hosting a book club call next Wednesday to discuss the lessons from the book in detail.

Consider joining the community and chatting with us about the book.

Once you sign up, you can register from this event page.

Cheers 🙌

2 Year Update

Can't believe it will be 2 years since I quit my corporate career to work for myself.

It's been a roller coaster full of ups and downs. Small and big failures, and some tiny wins.

I wrote a couple of “status update” posts reflecting on my journey so far.

• Read this post on my personal blog for a deeper philosophical reflection
• Read this Twitter thread for a more tactical “businessy” reflection

Hope you like it.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need any help.

It’s okay to be small

As I’m reading “Company of One” I’m realizing that it’s okay to be small. And that there’s no reason to chase growth at all costs, all the time.

Loved this quote from the book -

“Better instead of more”

That's it for today folks. Hope you found this useful.

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