Start React Native

William didn't set out to become an indie hacker. He quit his job with some runway, intending to explore what was happening in the React Native space. In late 2017, while working on a contracting project for a Zurich startup, he became obsessed with how popular apps like Uber and Spotify delivered such polished user experiences. This curiosity sparked a Facebook series called "Can it be done in React Native?" where he'd demonstrate how to recreate features from well-known apps using React Native primitives.

What started as personal exploration evolved organically. William began recording screencasts partly because the focused environment helped him work without distraction—recording forced him to explain his thinking aloud, which helped him solve problems. More importantly, he was inspired by the indie hacker philosophy of transparency and building in public. Between late 2017 and summer 2018, he consistently uploaded these videos to YouTube with no grand monetization plans, simply sharing his work openly.

When his videos transitioned from raw work recordings to intentionally crafted tutorials, the community response shifted noticeably. Comments changed tone and people started asking: "Where can we find you on Udemy?" Viewers were explicitly requesting structured courses. After three years of free content and 20,000 YouTube subscribers, William decided to build.

His approach to course creation reflected his MVP philosophy. Rather than spending months perfecting material, he went back through his videos, identified foundational concepts, sequenced them logically, and launched in 2-4 weeks. Because he was a programmer, he built his own platform using Firebase, Stripe, and Vimeo—a deliberate choice to move fast over perfection. The website had minimal context, but that was intentional: it was pure MVP.

When he launched, he went directly to YouTube comments where people had been asking for years. He posted maybe 50 comments linking to his course. Result: **$7,000 in the first 30 days**. All customers came directly from his YouTube channel—100% of them, then and now.

William's core insight was that developers are forgiving early customers. When he discovered a lesson was buggy, subscribers didn't demand refunds—they dug into the problem, learned from debugging it, and appreciated the challenge. This wouldn't work with auto repair customers, but it worked perfectly for his segment.

On the growth side, he experimented relentlessly. His most-watched videos weren't his personal favorites—they were the ones with SEO value in titles. A video titled "Spotify Player: Can it be done in React Native?" had zero search value. But smaller videos with titles like "Bottom Sheet using [library name]" got consistent organic traffic. He adapted: now he produces two types of content—community-focused "Can it be done?" series plus SEO-optimized tutorials. This dual strategy created two distinct distribution channels.

Consistency mattered enormously. He committed to 4 YouTube videos and 2 course videos per month, month after month for three years. Without this consistency, none of the experimentation would have paid off.

William is now earning $6,000/month ($72,000 ARR) with a simple subscription model inspired by Brilliant.org: $9/month billed annually, $23/month monthly, or $600 lifetime. The pricing works because of the large gap between annual and monthly rates, and the lifetime upsell for supporters.

He splits his time: consulting for Shopify on React Native gestures and animations (his "side hustle"), and producing courses and videos (his "real job"). He lives in Zurich, Switzerland, fully supporting himself from his online course business—living the indie hacker dream he once admired.

His vision extends beyond a single course. He's building a membership model with private GitHub repositories where subscribers can contribute, post issues, and help each other. He plans to add starter kits, more courses, and community resources, turning it into a comprehensive React Native learning ecosystem.

William credits indie hackers itself for his trajectory—seeing real revenue numbers from real founders on the platform showed him it was possible. Now he's transparent about his own numbers, sharing Stripe-verified revenue as both inspiration and accountability. His advice to aspiring founders: embrace vulnerability, build in public, and let your community tell you what they need.