Aditya Malani

Indiehacking to $200k ARR as a solopreneur

3 years ago, I quit my job to try indie hacking for “six months.” That experiment somehow turned into a $200K ARR business, run by just one person - me.

Here’s my story (and the lessons) from my experience building it:

1. Before Indie Hacking

After graduating in 2020 with a degree in Computer Engineering, I joined a then-small startup called WorkIndia as a Software Developer. I had multiple offers, including some from MNCs, but I decided to pass on the fancy MNCs and join WorkIndia instead.

The idea was simple: joining a startup would give me the opportunity to learn a lot more, a lot faster.

That bet really paid off.

Much of what I am today can be credited to my time at WorkIndia (and it's people). Early in my career, I was building and maintaining production-grade microservices on my own. This gave me the confidence that I could build and operate scalable tech products independently. This was before the AI era, when you couldn't just ask an AI to write half your code. So that confidence felt particularly valuable.

I also worked as a Product Manager for a short stint at WorkIndia and later at my next job, BYJU'S. That experience taught me something equally important: understanding what to build is often far more important than knowing how to build it.

By this point, I had developed both sides of the skill set — the technical ability to build products and the product sense to figure out what was worth building.

If you're hunting for your first job - don't look for a job title or company brand. Look for a good manager.

2. Why I Quit My Job

The time I joined BYJU'S was around when the first cracks started to appear in the company. I was part of the BYJU'S Labs team, whose goal was to build new and innovative products to improve learning outcomes.

However, as funding dried up, there was no money to take these ideas to production. After eight months with nothing I worked on making it to production, I was frustrated and started looking for an exit.

I was stuck between two choices: pursuing an MBA or trying my hand at building something of my own.

An MBA was the safer, more sensible choice, but somehow, I couldn't convince myself to do it.

I had some money saved up from my previous jobs, so eventually I decided to give myself six months to try building something. If nothing worked, I'd prepare for MBA entrance exams.

So I quit. I had no idea what I would build. But I quit anyway.

People will tell you to build something on the side and leave your job once you start seeing some green shoots. I'm strongly against this.

Either you go all in, or you don't start.

Save some money, leave the job, and set yourself a goal with a deadline. If you don't reach that goal within the deadline, go back to a job. You can always find another one.

But at least you won't have to wonder whether you gave it your best shot.

There's another reason I think going all in matters. When you quit your job, you don't have a Plan B to fall back on. Somehow, the obstacles you'll inevitably run into when building something feel less challenging when you don't have an easy escape route.

For me, quitting wasn't about being confident that I would succeed. I had absolutely no idea whether I would.

It was about giving myself six months to find out.

3. Why Indie Hacking?

Indiehacking felt like the perfect middle step to go from job to a full scale startup. It would allow me to test my ability to build and sell products, without the overhead of managing people or raising funds. Also, if done right, indiehacking can also liberate you financially, thus making your next big venture a tad bit easier.

4. Finding My Playground: Why Shopify?

Building is easy. The hard part is getting people to pay for what you build.

I'm an engineer with a strong technical background, but I had zero experience or acumen in marketing and sales. So I was looking for a domain where acquiring paying customers would be relatively easy.

Shopify apps ticked all the boxes.

  1. It's essentially B2B SaaS. Getting a business to pay for your software is easier than getting a consumer to pay for it. Businesses are willing to pay if your product solves a problem and provides a clear return on investment.

  2. Shopify has its own marketplace. Shopify has an app marketplace, similar to the Google Play Store. By following the right marketplace optimization techniques, you can rank higher for high-traffic keywords and get discovered organically. And unlike traditional marketing, marketplace optimization is fairly technical in nature (like SEO) which was right up my alley.

  3. It's incredibly easy to build Shopify apps. The Shopify developer and Partner ecosystem is one of the best I've come across.

5. Finding the First App Idea

I tried following the traditional advice:

Nothing worked.

And, in hindsight, for good reason.

These are businesses run by people who are already extremely busy with their day-to-day operations. They don't have much incentive to spend their time talking to a random person on the internet who is hoping to discover a problem they can solve.

Or maybe I was simply doing it wrong.

Either way, I eventually gave up on this approach and tried something different.

I built a one-feature Shopify app (you can find many such ideas on r/shopify) and gave it away for free.

It was a simple automation tool that helped merchants save hours of manual work. Nothing fancy. But it got me users.

And something interesting happened. The users who found the tool useful were now much more willing to talk to me about their problems.

It's much easier to start a conversation when you've already given someone a reason to care.

Provide value first. Then ask questions. The response rate will be dramatically higher.

6. Build Build & Build (the easiest part of my journey)

Talking to users helped me identify a gap in Shopify's native shipping customization options. I heard the same problem from multiple merchants, so I decided to build an app to solve it. That was the beginning of ShipMagic - my hero product.

One piece of advice, especially if you're building B2B SaaS: don't research and build features just because you think they should exist. Let your customers drive your product roadmap.

I kept the development process lean. Instead of spending months building a feature-packed product, I added one feature at a time, driven directly by customer feedback and requests.

I also handled customer support myself, something I still do today. This gave me firsthand insight into how merchants used the product, where they got stuck, and what they wished it could do.

To make it easier for customers to reach me, I integrated a free live-chat tool called tawk.to into the app. It even had a mobile app, which meant I could respond to customers and help them troubleshoot issues when I was away from my laptop.

The process was simple: talk to users, understand their problems, build a solution, and repeat.

I kept running this loop, turning customer conversations into product improvements. Over time, those small, incremental improvements helped shape ShipMagic into the product it is today.

7. Growing on the Shopify App Store

The Shopify App Store is a fantastic acquisition channel for niche apps like ShipMagic. A large part of my growth came from getting discovered by merchants already searching for solutions to their problems.

Here are some of the things I did to improve my app's visibility and ranking.

1. Find the right keywords

Look for high-traffic, low-competition keywords.

Start by typing broad terms related to your app, such as "shipping," "loyalty," or "discount," into the Shopify App Store search bar. Note the autocomplete suggestions. These can give you ideas about what merchants are searching for.

Next, open the top listings for those keywords. Look at how competing apps position themselves, which keywords they use, and how they describe their features.

Don't focus only on broad keywords. Feature-specific, long-tail keywords can help you reach merchants looking for a very particular solution.

2. Optimize your listing

Not all parts of your app listing necessarily carry the same weight in search rankings. Based on my experience, the app title has the highest weight.

Include your primary keyword in your app name at the start (for e.g. "Shipping Calculator: ShipMagic") and use the rest of your listing to communicate the problems you solve and the features you offer. Make sure to use your keywords throughout the listing.

Experiment with different combinations and monitor how your visibility changes. Over time, you'll develop a better understanding of what works for your category.

3. Get reviews consistently

Reviews are important for both discoverability and conversion. They help potential customers build trust in your app before installing it.

I focused on providing prompt, helpful customer support and asking satisfied customers to leave a review.

The key is to make this a consistent process rather than something you do only when you're launching or trying to boost your ranking.

I found that staying close to customers and resolving their issues quickly made it much easier to earn reviews.

4. Get installs from outside the App Store

Don't rely entirely on the Shopify App Store for discovery.

I found relevant Shopify communities, forums, and discussions where merchants were already talking about the problems ShipMagic solves. I shared the app in relevant conversations where it could genuinely help.

I also searched Google for the specific shipping problems my app addressed and found high-ranking Reddit threads, Facebook discussions, and Shopify Community posts. Where appropriate, I contributed a relevant solution and included a link to ShipMagic.

This continues to bring in around 7–8% of my monthly installs even today.

You can also experiment with YouTube tutorials, creator partnerships, and sponsored videos to reach merchants outside the marketplace.

5. Keep your listing fresh

Periodically review your app listing and update it as your product evolves.

Improve screenshots, clarify feature descriptions, update outdated information, and make sure your listing reflects what the product can actually do today.

8. Current Status

Today, Speedy Squirrel powers over 1,000 Shopify merchants worldwide, including brands like Boeing, Manscaped, GoDivа Chocolates, and several other seven-figure businesses.

My flagship product, ShipMagic, generates over 150,000 shipping rates every day.

The business has grown to $200K ARR, and I'm still running everything solo.

What started as a six-month experiment has turned into a business I never imagined I'd build when I quit my job.

9. What Next?

Indie hacking was always step one in my journey as a builder.

Now that I've done it, I'm looking to take on a bigger, more impactful problem.

I'm actively exploring ideas for my next startup. I don't know what it'll look like yet, what industry it'll be in, or whether I'll build it solo. But I'm excited to start from scratch again, this time with everything I've learned from building Speedy Squirrel.

The "six-month" experiment is over. The journey of building is just getting started.