#indie-hacker

3 articles

$25K MRR and Two Founders Still Can't Pay Themselves: the Math

Most indie founders pick salary by feel. The result is usually wrong in one of two directions: too high (no runway buffer when growth stalls) or too low (defeats the point of building). The static math gives you the floor and ceiling — picking inside the range is the actual decision.

CAC Payback > 18 Months Means You Can't Bootstrap (Even With $5K MRR)

LTV/CAC ≥ 3 is the hype number. CAC payback is the one that decides if you can grow without funding. We modeled $5K MRR through six unit-economic profiles — three are sustainable, three quietly burn cash even on healthy LTV/CAC.

$30/Month AWS Bill Becomes $480 the Week Your Side Project Goes Viral (the Egress Trap)

Egress at $0.09/GB is the line that destroys hobbyist AWS bills. 5 TB of viral traffic is $450. We modeled the typical SaaS stack from solo project to growth, and the egress line is what surprises every founder.