Bootstrapper with 22K users and $1M+ revenue shares his first-100-customers playbook

kylegawley · x · 2026-10-01

Indie founder Kyle Gawley shares how he grew his software products from zero to 22,000 users and $1M+ revenue over 15 years, distilling the tactics into a free 5-day email playbook: pre-selling 7 users before writing code, a DM opener with a 90% response rate, landing Jason Calacanis as a customer, and a magazine feature that brought 100 users overnight. He argues human video and personal branding will be the most valuable assets of the next 5 years, since AI can't replicate authentic experience-sharing.

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