Top all-time · #389
@levelsio
Personal blog · levels.iostartupsbusinessproductivity
@levelsio is a personal blog at levels.io about startups, business and productivity. Since 2013, 139 different Hacker News readers have linked it 204 times, most often “I’m Launching 12 Startups in 12 Months”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 10 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link levels.io for Pieter Levels' posts on indie hacking, solo projects, remote and async work, and the 12 startups in 12 months challenge.
- Recommended for · 10 comments
- Called interesting, fun and a great starting point; one says the 12 startups post radically changed their life.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Bootstrapping startups while traveling the world.
Most-linked posts?
- I’m Launching 12 Startups in 12 Months15 people · 16 mentions · first linked 2014-06-07
- How I build my minimum viable product8 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2014-09-03
- The next frontier after remote work is async7 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2021-03-25
- /6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2014-05-31
- Building a startup in public: from first line of code to frontpage of Reddit6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2017-07-17
- What I would do if I was 18 now5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2016-10-05
- Why I'm unreachable and maybe you should be too4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2021-08-19
- Normalization of non-deviance (Abandoning index.php)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-12-10
- How I hacked Slack into a community platform with Typeform4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2014-11-23
- How my startup got to #1 on both Product Hunt and Hacker News4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2014-08-16
What Hacker News says?
I think you're thinking of https://levels.io/
Comment linking /
on “The architecture behind a one-person tech startup”Submitted What happens when you're #1 on Hacker News for a day as a story · 322 points
HN discussionFor another interesting take on this: https://levels.io/async/
Comment linking /async/
on “Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere”Submitted What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for six months as a story · 188 points
HN discussionI was also curious about this. As the article mentions, Slack doesn't make it easy for your organization to allow open registration. People have developed hacks around this by running a server on Heroku [0], or using Typeform combined with Slack's API [1]. 0: https://github.com/rauchg/slackin 1: https://levels.io/slack-typeform-auto-invite-sign-ups/
Comment linking /slack-typeform-auto-invite-sign-ups/
on “Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects”Submitted Building a startup in public: from first line of code to frontpage of Reddit as a story · 182 points
HN discussionWith all my love to Mr. Levels[1], I'm personally glad the author decided to approach this as their little "Tiny projects" rather than "Follow me as I build six startups in six months". I feel it nicely sets expectations to what I can get out of checking out each project and thinking "well, it's just a tiny project after all, why can't I have made something like this ever month too?". The 12 startups idea was also i…
Comment linking /12-startups-12-months/
on “Six Months of Tiny Projects”Submitted From web dev to 3D: Learning 3D modeling as a story · 170 points
HN discussionI feel this for sure. I was in the "grinder" for a while, and this year I'm making my move into becoming an indie hacker myself. If you're looking for a little inspiration, here are a couple links: - Pieter Levels' announcement post on 12 startups in 12 months: https://levels.io/12-startups-12-months/ - My own blog, where I'm documenting my own journey in building a startup in a month: https://startupinamonth.net/ I…
Comment linking /12-startups-12-months/
on “My product is my garden”Submitted How I went from 100 to 0 things (or how I was robbed of all my stuff) as a story · 165 points
HN discussionI share this preference at times. At times I disappear somewhere quite for months to learn, focus, get stuff done. Most people I know doing that have a) no pets, b) only what's truly necessary. Have a look at some examples of packing lists below. It's a great experience on it's own to learn how little you truly need. The couple behind http://8milesfromhome.com/ is traveling with a dog and the couple behind http://al…
Comment linking /the-100-thing-challenge/
on “Show HN: NomadList – The best cities to live and work remotely in”Submitted We have an epidemic of bad posture as a story · 156 points
HN discussion> P.S. this is part of my goal to launch 12 startups in 12 months (see http://levels.io/12-startups-12-months ) Not to be mean, but is this one really a startup? What's the business model?
Comment linking /12-startups-12-months
on “Show HN: NomadList – The best cities to live and work remotely in”Submitted Google+ spamming people every 2 weeks to put up a profile photo as a story · 155 points
HN discussionHi HN! I made this. Here's some info on the data before everyone goes berzerk :) Firstly, it's crowdsourced from this spreadsheet http://nomadlist.io/edit/ so it might not be 100% accurate. Secondly, NomadCost != cost of living. NomadCost is based on short-term staying in a hostel, hotel or apartment in the center, working in a coworking space and having a basic meal three times a day. That's the average digital nom…
Comment linking /12-startups-12-months
on “Show HN: NomadList – The best cities to live and work remotely in”Submitted ICANN has taken my site hostage as a story · 127 points
HN discussionHere's a post from 2013, "What happens when you're #1 on Hacker News for a day" tl;dr numbers: 15,000+ unique visitors, 25,000+ page views https://levels.io/hacker-news-number-one/ And here's a thread from 2016 where users chime in with their results. tl;dr numbers: A #2 or #3 ranking was about 50k-75k pageviews. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12008384
Comment linking /hacker-news-number-one/
on “Fake “like” factories – how we reverse engineered facebooks user IDs [video]”Submitted It's practically impossible for regular people to buy Bitcoin as a story · 110 points
HN discussionhttps://levels.io/contact/ by Pieter Levels (the author of NomadList). Just read it (and his other posts) and you will understand the whole philosophy behind Indie Hackers and why the traditional "jobs" are so broken.
Comment linking /contact/
on “Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?”Submitted Reset your life as a story · 67 points
HN discussionAh I remember now, it is the guy (Pieter Levels) who built Nomad List which started from a spreadsheet and probably more well known by the HN community, https://remoteok.io/ (and https://remoteok.io/open ). His recommendation is to build like 20 apps, not just one. And to do it all yourself, with little extra help. The book is https://makebook.io . Sales data here https://makebook.io/open . More links: https://nomad…
Comment linking /product-hunt-hacker-news-number-one/
on “Ask HN: How to find profitable side project idea?”Submitted How my startup got to #1 on both Product Hunt and Hacker News as a story · 59 points
HN discussion+1 on indiehackers being a fantastic resource for strategies and motivation once you filter out the multi-person companies. I'd also add in http://levels.io - Pieter Levels is a good steward for the 'maker' movement also https://twitter.com/levelsio
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: How to found a company as a single founder?”Submitted Stop calling night owls lazy, we're not as a story · 54 points
HN discussionI got into one bagging a few months ago after looking at Pieter Levels blog post about it https://levels.io/carry-on-world-travel/ and have been operating from one since the 15th of April. Bought a minaal 3.0 Cary On after going through the r/onebag community. Also bought some more equipment like an anker power core. Have to do a wash cycle weekly. A down jacket hangs off the bag. A laptop, kindle and my phone are t…
Comment linking /carry-on-world-travel/
on “My 40-liter backpack travel guide”Submitted What I would do if I was 18 now as a story · 45 points
HN discussionThis was posted here a few days ago https://levels.io/from-web-dev-to-3d/ . The author was in a similar situation and found 3DS Max and Maya to be beyond his skill level. So he chose Maxon Cinema 4D. I used AutoCAD in university and that is the extent of my knowledge on these matters.
Comment linking /from-web-dev-to-3d/
on “Pixar in a Box”Submitted Go Fucking Do It as a story · 35 points
HN discussionDescribed here https://levels.io/deviance/ (Dec 10, 2020)
Comment linking /deviance/
on “Netlify Drop”Submitted I uploaded 4 terabyte over Korea's 4G, and paid $48 as a story · 32 points
HN discussion
