In November 2021, Marc Lou was fired from his job as a product manager under entrepreneur Tai Lopez. But instead of spiraling, this moment marked the turning point of his life.
He discovered the “build in public” community on Twitter—an ecosystem where indie hackers openly share progress, failures, and lessons in real time. Inspired by digital creators like Pieter Levels and Danny Postma, Marc set his sights on freedom: the kind you earn by building solo businesses that scale without teams.
He had $20,000 in the bank, no coding skills to brag about, and zero online following. But he was living in Bali with his wife and determined to make something work.
Table of Contents
4 Years of Frustration, One Bold Restart
Marc’s entrepreneurial journey actually began in 2016, driven by bold dreams of becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg. But four years of grinding brought little success. He launched products, grew a SaaS to $3,000 MRR, and burned out. In 2021, he gave up and took a corporate job to recover from depression.
That job didn’t last long—but it gave him perspective. Getting fired didn’t sting because he had a bigger dream now: to be a profitable solopreneur, building indie startups from anywhere in the world.
Starting Small: Mood2Movie and the Build-in-Public Spark
In December 2021, he launched Mood2Movie, a simple app recommending movies based on your mood. It wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was launchable—and that’s all that mattered.
One Reddit post later, the app went viral and pulled in 10,000 visitors. This moment kickstarted Marc’s “build in public” era.
In the next six months, he launched seven more micro-projects without worrying about monetization. These experiments helped him sharpen essential skills: coding, SEO, writing, and launching.
The Habit That Taught Him to Market
In mid-2022, he went all in on Habits Garden, a gamified habit tracker that slowly gained traction. As a self-proclaimed “product-first” developer, Marc didn’t love marketing. So he found a workaround: side project marketing—creating free tools to drive traffic to paid products.
His free tool VisualizeHabit went viral and brought in 30,000 users. In January 2023, Habits Garden hit 10,000 users. By February, he’d taught himself mobile development and launched the app across iOS and Android.
Even though it was only earning $700/month, the joy of creating and the lessons learned were worth more than revenue alone.
The Startup Blitz: 8 Products in 8 Months
Realizing he needed to make a living, Marc returned to his early strategy—shipping startups like a madman. But this time, he applied strict filters:
- No free plans
- Only painkiller solutions
- Move on fast if no product-market fit
He built eight startups in eight months, and six made money. By July 2023, he was earning ~$3,000/month, with the majority of revenue coming from MakeLanding, an AI-powered landing page builder.
Still, he didn’t love the product or its market. So when he sold it for $35,000—and later Habits Garden for $10,000—he gained both cash and clarity.
The Breakthrough: ShipFast and Product-Market Fit
After a soul-searching trip to Korea in August 2023, Marc came back with a new resolution: build for customers he actually cared about.
That led to the creation of ShipFast, a Next.js boilerplate that compresses years of startup knowledge into one dev-friendly tool.
“I told my wife we’d be lucky to make $100 with it,” Marc said.
By the end of the month, ShipFast had made $40,000.
The product had hit a nerve. Testimonials poured in. Developers were shipping faster and making money—just like Marc had hoped. With each tweet, he shared updates, engaged the community, and steadily grew trust.
No Team, 91% Margins, $65K/Month
In November 2023, Marc’s revenue hit $65,400/month with 91% margins—and zero employees.
His product line expanded to include:
- CodeFast: Learn to code faster.
- DataFast: Growth tools for indie hackers.
- ByeDispute: A no-code tool to prevent Stripe chargebacks.
- IndiePage: A showcase platform for solopreneurs.
- ZenVoice: Stripe invoices without the 0.4% fee.
By December 17th, ShipFast had generated $168,100 in revenue on its own.
What Money Really Buys
Marc’s lifestyle didn’t change drastically. He still surfs, writes, and codes daily. He still lives simply—because six years of surviving on $1,000/month taught him that happiness comes from creating, not consuming.
But money bought him freedom. And it bought attention. He can now speak to a wider audience—not because they care about boilerplates, but because a $60K/month story turns heads.
Lessons for Future Founders
If Marc could speak to his past self, here’s what he’d say:
- Find your role models. Inspiration will carry you through the dark phases.
- Don’t marry your code. Most startups fail. Keep shipping until one sticks.
- Solve painful problems, not nice-to-haves.
- Always add a buy button. Test for monetization early.
- Start, then think. The act of building breeds better ideas.
Today, Marc Lou is more than just a solo founder. He’s a testament to what can happen when you embrace iteration, community, and purpose-driven creativity.
From fired to financially free in two years. That’s not just a story—it’s a blueprint. Learn more at https://marclou.com/
Leave a Reply