Courtland Allen

Stripe emailed to buy IndieHackers before the founder ever pitched them

Courtland Allen had Stripe at the top of his dream-sponsor list for IndieHackers and was building up sales skills to one day pitch them. Before he got there, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison emailed asking to buy the company outright, which beat landing them as a sponsor.

“before I got to that point, Patrick, the CEO, emailed me and was like, hey, can we buy IndieHackers? So I was like, yeah, of course. It's much better than getting a sponsor.”

Professional curiosity: see a business, go down the rabbit hole

The hosts' core research habit is to notice any random business in the wild (a tractor brand seen on a run, a truck part) and immediately interrogate it: how much do they make, what's the business model, how long have they been around, are new companies entering. The compounded backstory knowledge becomes raw material for ideas.

“I bet you, dude, these tractor companies crush it. How much does this Vanmeer company make? And like, what's their business model? And, and like, how long have they been around? Are there any new companies doing this? And so that's like a, a addiction that I have basically.”

Steal thisWhen a random business catches your eye, stop and Google it end-to-end: revenue, business model, age, and new entrants.

A tweet turned into a $4M/year rolling fund from strangers

Courtland tweeted that he wanted to raise a rolling fund. With zero outreach, zero meetings, and zero personal-network asks, strangers from the internet who follow his podcast and Twitter turned it into $4 million a year of investable income.

“And that turned in for me with zero outreach, zero meetings, and zero reaching out to my own personal network. So these are all strangers from the internet who just follow the podcast or follow me on Twitter. And that became $4 million a year of investable income.”

An OnlyFans for astrology, palm reading, and horoscopes

Going down the rabbit hole, Courtland found astrology influencers with 80k-500k Instagram followers whose bio links book sold-out paid readings. The opportunity: software for astrology/palm-reading/horoscope creators - not a $100M outcome, but realistic $10K-$50K/month profit businesses Silicon Valley ignores.

“It made me think there is an OnlyFans for, for palm reading, astrology, horoscopes, you know, like sort of like relationship, like voodoo or whatever.”

Steal thisBuild simple booking/monetization software for astrology and palm-reading influencers; the demand is daily, recurring, and underserved.

The 'Perfect Tuesday': architect an ideal average day, not an endgame

Instead of chasing a 10-year vision or endgame goalpost that keeps moving, Courtland chases the 'perfect Tuesday' - the ideal ordinary day made of small loved rituals (waking without an alarm, a great shower, a fun workout). He then maps a perfect week, month, and year, and architects life to hit them as often as possible.

“And so instead I basically went the other way and I was like, okay, instead of thinking about what's this 10-year vision for myself and what's the end game, it was sort of like, What's the now game? What is the perfect Tuesday for me right now? The perfect average Tuesday.”

Steal thisWrite out your perfect ordinary day, then your perfect week/month/year, and engineer your schedule to repeat them.

Two 22-year-olds built a $30K/month-per-client podcast-clip empire

Henry Belcaster and partner offered to upgrade MFM's audio/video setup for free, then turned it into a business: video editors in the Philippines editing podcast clips, charging clients tens of thousands a month. They charge MFM $30K/month, got hyped repeatedly on the All In podcast, and are on track for $1-2M/year in profit while still in their early 20s.

“these guys will be making $1 to $2 million a year of profit if they play their cards right as 22, 23-year-olds just for operating a, like, you know, sweatshop of video editors in the Philippines. Right. That's what they're doing.”