NoCS Degree

Pete McLeod had hit rock bottom. After graduating with two college degrees and months of unemployment, he took a minimum wage job at a UK bedding shop—a nightmarish experience where customers smoked crack in the toilets, got drunk, and occasionally threatened violence. During one shift, his manager casually mentioned being threatened with a knife. That was Pete's breaking point. With a few months of savings and nothing left to lose, he quit and decided to bet on himself.

The idea came from observing a pattern in his coding journey: there were incredible stories of people learning to code without formal CS degrees—bootcamp graduates, career changers, autodidacts—yet the tech industry still treated a degree like a golden ticket. Pete decided to interview these developers and showcase their stories to prove the degree wasn't a prerequisite.

Working against a tight runway, Pete spent just three weeks building NoCS Degree before launch. He'd already been thinking about the concept and had researched platforms; he chose Ghost (on Peter Levels' recommendation) and built using the default theme. He lined up about 10 interviews in advance so he wouldn't launch alone. He wasn't trying to build a tech product—he was creating a content platform, which meant faster execution and clearer value proposition.

Pete's launch was explosive. He posted to Product Hunt (moderate traction), then Hacker News (viral). The blog got 29,000 views on day one, 48,000 total in the first week, and 440 newsletter subscribers. Remarkably, he was building the email pop-up while the post was live, messaging Steph Smith on Telegram asking how to make an exit-intent popup.

The real surprise: 30 people emailed him on launch day asking to be interviewed—free content pipeline sorted. His job board launched on Hacker News and hit #1 in the news section for two days straight, gaining 1,000 subscribers in one week.

Rather than chase product subscriptions, Pete reverse-engineered the business model. He already had an audience (newsletter subscribers), so he sold what businesses actually buy: sponsorships and advertising. His first big win came in October when he hit $1,000 in monthly newsletter ad revenue. He posted this milestone on Indie Hackers, which prompted another company to reach out organically, generating an additional $600.

Pete then scaled by applying high-ticket B2B sales tactics borrowed from podcasters like Steli Etmek's "1-2-3 method"—giving prospects three clear options to reduce friction. He pitched bootcamps (Holberton School, etc.) and course creators for sponsorship packages worth $1,000+, drastically more sustainable than the $5-10/month SaaS grind. Within months, he was at ~$2,000/month MRR from sponsorships, affiliate income, and bootcamp packages.

Pete's earlier projects (ski resort list, etc.) failed because he wasn't solving his own problem. NoCS Degree worked because he was genuinely interested in the subject and had a mission behind it—which attracted partners, media, and users authentically.

Pete went from unemployed and on welfare to making around $2,000/month as a 22-year-old indie hacker within months of launch. He's approaching the $10k/month target a mentor challenged him with, driven by genuine passion for helping people escape the gatekeeping narrative in tech. He remains active on Twitter, continues interviewing developers weekly, and is exploring bringing his job board back into the main brand. His success came not from inventing a novel tech product, but from identifying a real audience need, building quickly, and monetizing with B2B partnerships rather than chasing consumer subscriptions.