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September 26, 2025•16 min read

I Built 16 Tools in 12 Months. Here's What Actually Worked.

Startup advice says "focus on ONE thing." I ignored it and built 16 products in a year. 4 failed completely. 8 barely make money. But 4 generate $500+/month each. Here's everything I learned about the portfolio approach to indie hacking—the good, the bad, and the brutally honest truth.

"You're spreading yourself too thin."

That's what every startup advisor told me when I said I was building 16 different tools in parallel. They quoted Paul Graham. They referenced The Lean Startup. They said I needed to "focus."

But here's what nobody tells you: focus is a luxury for people who've already found product-market fit.

When you're starting out, you don't know what's going to work. Building one product and waiting 18 months to find out is terrifying. What if you pick wrong?

So I tried something different. I built 16 tools in 12 months. Not as half-baked prototypes—as actual, revenue-generating products that people pay for every month.

Today, my combined MRR across all products is $4,840. Four products make over $500/month each. Eight products limp along at $50-100/month. And four? Complete failures. Zero revenue.

Was it worth it? Absolutely.

Here's the unfiltered story of what I built, what worked, what failed, and the tactical lessons that'll save you years of wasted effort.

The 16 Products: A Complete Breakdown

Let me lay out everything. Revenue numbers, build time, current status. No bullshit, no hiding failures.

The Winners ($500+ MRR) 🏆

1. PDF Table Extractor ($2,400 MRR)

2. Meeting Notes Summarizer ($1,120 MRR)

3. Receipt Organizer for Contractors ($680 MRR)

4. CSV Data Cleaner ($340 MRR)

The Zombies ($50-150 MRR) 🧟

These products aren't dead, but they're not exactly thriving either. They cover their hosting costs and make a little profit, but haven't scaled.

  1. Invoice Reminder Bot: $110/month (11 customers at $10/mo)
  2. Social Media Scheduler (Niche Version): $85/month (17 customers at $5/mo)
  3. Simple Time Tracker: $95/month (19 customers at $5/mo)
  4. Contract Template Generator: $140/month (14 customers at $10/mo)
  5. Google Review Response Writer: $130/month (13 customers at $10/mo)
  6. Email Signature Generator: $55/month (55 customers at $1/mo - pricing mistake)
  7. QR Code Generator (Enhanced): $70/month (14 customers at $5/mo)
  8. Simple CRM for Solopreneurs: $125/month (25 customers at $5/mo)

The Failures ($0 MRR) ☠️

Let's talk about what didn't work:

  1. AI Writing Assistant - Too much competition, no differentiation
  2. Habit Tracker App - Saturated market, couldn't acquire users profitably
  3. LinkedIn Post Scheduler - Built right before LinkedIn changed their API
  4. Notion Template Marketplace - Gumroad already exists, why did I build this?

Total Stats:

Why the Portfolio Approach Works (When Everyone Says It Shouldn't)

Here's the conventional wisdom I ignored:

"Focus is everything. Build one product, make it great, then move to the next."

This advice makes sense... if you already know what to build. But most indie hackers don't.

The portfolio approach gave me three unfair advantages:

Advantage #1: Faster Learning Loops

Instead of spending 12 months on ONE product and THEN learning if it works, I got 16 data points in the same time.

I learned:

I couldn't have learned these patterns with just one product. The portfolio approach is like A/B testing entire business models.

Advantage #2: Risk Diversification

When LinkedIn changed their API and killed my scheduler, it hurt. But it only killed 1/16 of my portfolio.

If that had been my ONLY product? I'd be starting over from zero.

With 16 products:

This is why investors have portfolios. Why shouldn't indie hackers?

Advantage #3: Compounding Momentum

Here's what nobody tells you about building multiple products: they start helping each other.

My PDF tool gets 5K visitors/month. I added a banner promoting my CSV cleaner. Instant 50 extra signups.

My receipt organizer users asked for invoice reminders. Built it in 2 weeks, had 20 customers day one.

My meeting summarizer and time tracker share the same user base (busy professionals). Cross-promotion = free customers.

This is the portfolio flywheel: each product becomes a distribution channel for the others.

The Brutal Truth: What Makes This Approach Work

Before you get excited and start building 20 products, let me be VERY clear about what made this possible:

1. I'm a Fast Builder

I can ship a working MVP in 2-3 weeks because:

If you're just learning to code? Start with 3-4 products max.

2. I Keep Products DEAD Simple

Every successful product does ONE thing:

No dashboards. No teams. No integrations (initially). No enterprise features.

If I can't build it in 3 weeks, the scope is too big.

3. I Launch Publicly Every Time

I didn't build 16 products in secret. I launched each one:

This forced me to:

4. I Kill Fast

Those 4 failures? I gave each one 8 weeks max.

If after 8 weeks:

No sunk cost fallacy. No "just one more feature." Kill and move on.

The Framework: How to Build Your Own Portfolio

If you want to try this approach (and you should), here's the exact framework I use:

Phase 1: Idea Generation (2 hours/week)

I keep a running list of problems I notice. Sources:

Criteria for adding to list:

  1. Can I build an MVP in < 3 weeks?
  2. Would I pay $10/month for this?
  3. Can I describe it in one sentence?
  4. Does Google search show demand?

Phase 2: Validation (1 week)

Before building ANYTHING:

  1. Create landing page (30 minutes on Carrd)
  2. Post to 3 relevant subreddits
  3. Track signups for 1 week
  4. If < 25 signups → kill it
  5. If 25-50 signups → build MVP
  6. If > 50 signups → build MVP + paid ads budget

Phase 3: Build MVP (2-3 weeks)

My standard MVP includes:

That's it. No:

Phase 4: Launch (1 day)

Same day, post to:

Email waitlist with:

"Hey! [Product] is live. You signed up 3 weeks ago. First 20 people get 50% off forever. [Link]"

Phase 5: 8-Week Trial (8 weeks)

For the next 8 weeks:

Week 8 decision matrix:

Phase 6: Scale or Maintain

Winners get 10 hours/week:

Zombies get 2 hours/week:

Failures get deleted:

The Patterns: What I Learned From 16 Experiments

After building all these products, clear patterns emerged:

Pattern #1: Boring Beats Sexy

My most successful products are BORING:

My failures were "cool":

The boring tools solve annoying, repetitive tasks. People pay to make annoyances go away.

The sexy tools solve "nice to have" problems. People try them, then churn.

Pattern #2: Search Traffic > Social Traffic

Products that get traffic from Google search have:

Products that rely on social media:

Lesson: Build for search intent, not social virality.

Pattern #3: B2B > B2C

Business users:

Consumer users:

Lesson: Build tools for people spending company money, not personal money.

Pattern #4: Daily Pain > Monthly Pain

Tools people use daily stick:

Tools people use monthly/yearly don't stick:

Lesson: Daily habit = retention. Monthly need = churn.

Pattern #5: Niches Beat Platforms

I tried building a "better time tracker." Failed. Too much competition.

Then I built "time tracker for freelancers with automatic invoice generation." Success.

Same with social media scheduler. Generic version? Failed. "Social scheduler for local businesses"? Works.

Lesson: Niche down until you're the only option, not the best option.

Common Questions (And Honest Answers)

Q: Isn't this just "portfolio of small bets"?

Yes! Daniel Vassallo popularized this. I'm living proof it works.

Q: How do you not get overwhelmed managing 16 products?

Most products need < 2 hours/week after launch. Only winners get real attention.

Q: Don't you feel guilty about the zombie products?

No. They make $50-150/month with zero work. That's $600-1,800/year passive income per product.

Q: How much time do you work per week total?

~35 hours/week across all 12 active products (killed the 4 failures).

Breakdown:

Wait, that's 76 hours? Okay, I work more than I thought. 🤔

Q: What's your tech stack?

Same for everything:

Total hosting cost: $200/month for all 12 products.

Q: Do you have a team?

Nope. Just me. I outsource nothing because:

Q: How do you do customer support for 550 customers?

I get ~15 support emails/week across all products. That's ~2 hours/week total.

Why so low?

The Anti-Patterns: What Doesn't Work

I also learned what NOT to do:

Anti-Pattern #1: Building for Yourself Only

I built a habit tracker because I wanted one. But I'm not the market. The market wanted gamification, streaks, social features.

I wanted minimalism. Nobody paid for minimalism.

Lesson: Your problems are not everyone's problems.

Anti-Pattern #2: Competing with Free

QR code generators exist for free everywhere. I tried to charge $5/month for a "better" one.

Nobody cared. Free is free.

Lesson: If good free alternatives exist, you need 10x better, not 2x better.

Anti-Pattern #3: Building on Shaky Platforms

LinkedIn changed their API. Killed my scheduler overnight.

This taught me: if your product's core functionality depends on a third-party API you don't control, you're playing with fire.

Lesson: Build on owned platforms (search, email) not rented ones (social media APIs).

Anti-Pattern #4: Launching Without Distribution

My Notion template marketplace had zero distribution plan. I just assumed "build it and they'll come."

They didn't come.

Lesson: Distribution > Product. Always.

Should You Try the Portfolio Approach?

Honestly? It depends.

This approach works if you:

This approach DOESN'T work if you:

The portfolio approach is not for everyone. But it's right for me because:

  1. I'm risk-averse (diversification = security)
  2. I get bored easily (16 products = always something new)
  3. I value freedom over scale (small bets = no employees)
  4. I learn by doing (16 experiments = 16x learning)

What's Next: Building #17-20

I'm not stopping at 16. Current pipeline:

  1. Email Warmup Tool (Week 2 of build) - Helps cold emailers avoid spam folder
  2. Simple Form Builder (Idea stage) - Typeform alternative for $7/month
  3. Screenshot API (Validating) - Take programmatic screenshots of URLs
  4. Podcast Show Notes Generator (Waitlist live) - Auto-create show notes from audio

My goal for 2026:

The Real Lesson: Optionality Is Power

Here's what nobody talks about with the "focus" advice:

Focus assumes you know the right thing to focus on.

When you're starting out, you don't. You think you do, but you don't.

The portfolio approach gives you optionality. You try 16 things. 4 work. You double down on those 4.

Now you have the luxury of focus because you've already validated what works.

If I'd "focused" on building just the habit tracker (my first idea), I'd have:

Instead, I built 16 things in 12 months and found 4 winners. Now I have $4,840/month in recurring revenue and clear signal on what to build next.

That's the power of the portfolio approach.

Not every indie hacker needs to build 16 products. But every indie hacker should build MORE than one.

Because you don't find product-market fit. You discover it through experimentation.

P.S. - Want to follow along as I build products #17-20? I share everything on Twitter (@digiwares) and in my monthly newsletter. Revenue numbers, code snippets, launch playbooks—all of it.

And if you're thinking "I should try this portfolio thing"—do it. Start with 3 products. Launch them in 3 months. See what happens. You'll learn more in 90 days than most indie hackers learn in 2 years.