Book 3: Learning through scars ($3,000/month, year 3)
Author: Alex West
Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Not Business Advice

How I made a million from my personal projects

Book 3: Learning through scars

($3,000/month, year 3)

Table of contents

Introduction

1. Quick recap

Part 1: Competition rising

1. Evil twins

2. Real competition

3. Deciding to niche down

4. Casting a wide net

5. Analyzing the fish

6. Building my speargun

Part 2: Escaping competition

1. New tagline

2. Social proof and testimonials

3. Increased prices

4. A single tiny feature

5. The results

6. A crazy conversation

7. Weaknesses to strengths

Part 3: Surpassing my salary

1. Focusing on revenue

2. Focusing on marketing

3. Affiliate partnership

4. This can't be real life

5. The ceiling

6. Attacked online

7. No one cares about me

8. Business is counter intuitive

Part 4: Managing stress

1. Ancient books

2. Exercise

3. Comfort zones expand

4. Being worried vs being excited

5. Mastery, books and nuances

Appendix

1. It's a philosophy class

2. What's next

3. Time travel

Introduction

It's late at night. I'm on my laptop.

Over the past few months, my life has completely transformed. I went from failure after failure, to launching CyberLeads and even surpassing my salary. I'm pinching myself every day.

But even though things are going great, I'm also stressed.

I just found another competitor. It's the second one this month. And it's another copy of my website. Word for word, comma for comma.

I can't help but feel like they are stealing food from my plate. It feels like they are blocking my way to financial freedom and achieving my dreams.

I think I have to do something about it.

Quick recap

From afar, everything looks nice, smooth and linear:

• After 2+ years of trying, I found a good B2B product, CyberLeads.

• A few months later, I found a good marketing channel, Twitter.

• And as you'll see in this book, less than a year later, I surpassed my salary, doubled my salary, and quit my job.

But reality wasn't that smooth. It was a very bumpy road.

Here is the full story.

Part 1: Competition rising

I had already joined a crowded market with many competitors when I chose to work on CyberLeads. I knew that already.

But me sharing everything, including how much money I make, was creating even more competitors.

Who would have thought, right? It was a double edge sword.

As expected, people were copying my business and marketing.

I hated it.

Evil twins

When I started working at a company, my fear of competing with companies disappeared. I realized that they are slow.

But now I wasn't competing against companies. I was competing against young, fast and hungry guys like me. Motivated people chasing their dreams.

In other words, I was competing against my evil twins.

Ironically, this was scarier. There were no rules.

Some of them copied my website word for word. Others tried to improve it and make it better than CyberLeads. Others were reselling my own lists for 1/3 of the price. Others offered the exact same lists as me, but completely for free as marketing for their main business. Others were running ads against my name. Others were leaking my lists for free on Reddit.

Real competition

Somehow, I was still growing. As if nothing was happening.

That confused me. If competition was the way I thought it was, I should have been dead by now. But I wasn't.

Most of my customers weren't comparing me to my competitors. Many didn't even know that they existed. For most, my real competition was their time, boredom and a spreadsheet.

Only I was stressing about my competitors so badly.

But I was too easy to copy. And if comparisons did start happening, I felt it would become a countdown and race to the bottom.

Deciding to niche down

Should you niche down? Honestly, I don't know.

In my case, I was getting a lot of questions like "how are you different to X/Y/Z?".

I didn't like that. Maybe I shouldn't have minded.

But I wanted to increase my prices over time and become more boutique rather than drop them.

And whenever I tried to increase prices, even by a little, I would get questions like "why are you more expensive than X/Y/Z?"

For me, niching down and increasing prices worked out perfectly.

But having said that, I don't think that everyone should niche down. Or increase prices. Or anything really.

In some cases, staying generic could be better. In other cases, being the cheapest could be better.

The only rule is that there are no rules. It's about trying and seeing for yourself.

Casting a wide net

When I first launched CyberLeads, I casted a wide net by being generic and targeting all businesses.

I didn't do this because I had some strategy in mind, but because I didn't know who would subscribe and didn't want to make assumptions.

My positioning was simple. Specifically, my homepage said "Find fast growing startups to do business with".

I thought I knew who might subscribe, but I was wrong.

A few months after launching and growing, it was now time to analyze my first batches of fish.

My customers were a mix of:

• SaaS companies
• Freelancers
• Consultants
• Agencies
• Journalists
• Investors
• Solopreneurs

It was time to start analyzing.

Analyzing the fish

Now I had some real data:

• Who is interested enough to pay?
• Who is willing to pay the most?
• Who stays the longest?
• Who has the best results?
• Who do I enjoy working with?

I also ran a couple of surveys but honestly they weren't that useful.

I had been burned many times asking for peoples' opinion, so I decided to observe what they do instead.

In other words, see who pays the most and stay the longest.

Luckily for me, I had a clear winner.

Agencies won in every single category:

• They were the largest category of customers
• They were willing to pay the most
• They stayed the longest
• They were the most successful, one closed a $50k deal
• I loved working with busy founders, they never bothered me

A podcast I had listened to 2 years earlier came to mind.

Someone was explaining that you ideally want to sell a solution to someone's number one pain point.

Not number two. Not number three. Strictly number one. It takes your product from "nice to have" to "must have". It makes it super easy for them to take out their credit card and pay.

I found a huge poll and it showed exactly this: finding new clients is the number one pain point of agencies.

That was not the case with SaaS and other types of companies.

So the answer seemed obvious to me. Agencies.

Building my speargun

I remember secretly hoping that freelancers and consultants would be the winning category.

In my mind, I thought they needed my product more than anyone else. After all, one client had the potential to double their income and actually transform their lives for themselves, their families and even their children. How beautiful is that.

But freelancers and consultants didn't actually want it enough to pay for it, especially not at the prices agencies were willing to pay.

Even if it's not providing as much value to agencies, just making them even more successful, they were willing to pay a lot of money for it.

I knew this from Epilepsy Blocker. I remember trying and failing to persuade people with epilepsy to install my tool and pay $10/month because I felt they needed it. Meanwhile, people were finding and paying $10/month for my stupid tool, GitGardener, completely by themselves, simply because they actually wanted it.

So I started building my speargun, targeting agencies.

Part 2: Escaping competition

Sometime in June, to my surprise, I managed to escape all competition and take CyberLeads to new heights.

I didn't do anything crazy. I didn't build much. I just made a few small changes to the homepage, the copy, the pricing and the product.

New tagline

The first thing I did is tweak my positioning by changing the tagline on my landing page, specifying that my product was for agencies.

Specifically, I changed the main text on my homepage from "Find fast growing startups to do business with" to "Find new clients for your digital agency".

That's it.

Social proof and testimonials

I also collected testimonials from agencies that closed deals and added them to the landing page.

A $50k deal here. A $25k deal there. A $10k deal elsewhere.

I also redesigned the landing page and together with all the testimonials it looked amazing.

I was so proud of CyberLeads now. It looked legit and even cool, even though initially I felt like it was too boring and simple.

It looked like a real business.

I also calculated that my customers on aggregate had made more than I had made with CyberLeads.

Which felt awesome.

Increased prices

With my new positioning and social proof, I was able to increase my prices again and again.

Doubled my prices. Then tripled them.

From $29/month. To $49/month. To $99/month.

Conversions kept going up at the same time.

It was amazing. I could not believe it.

A single tiny feature

After niching down, it was easier to improve the product and positioning as I had a clear target customer.

This was months after changing the tagline and increasing my prices.

Up until this point, the only thing that was different between me and my competitors was the copy on my homepage and testimonials.

And now I built a single tiny feature. Specific to agencies.

Nothing fancy, just an extra column to the monthly list that was called "Likely to outsource to agencies" and had values like "Design", "Development", "Marketing", etc. And I made sure the feature was obvious and visible on the homepage.

So now you had every startup that had just raised millions, and what they were likely to outsource to an agency.

I did this manually, one by one, while compiling the list.

People loved this feature.

The results

The amount of people asking me "how are you different to X/Y/Z and why are you more expensive than X/Y/Z" went to down to zero.

Zero. Actually zero. Listen to me man, zero.

And conversions kept going up, while increasing prices.

Just by making little tweaks and changes.

So don't worry, maybe you don't have to be crazy different at first.

And don't worry if you have competitors coming for your scalp.

Tweak the copy. Niche down. Maybe build a single feature. That's it.

Worst case scenario, it doesn't work out and you revert. Big deal.

Best case scenario, you escape competition and shine.

A crazy conversation

I'll never forget this story from the early days.

It was the first week after launching Cyberleads. I was at $300/month and someone was interested in subscribing.

It was an agency owner. I think he was from Canada.

He wanted to talk on the phone and ask me a few questions before committing to the $29/month plan.

Looking back, seems wild to me that I accepted. But this was huge for me, a potential 10% growth if I closed him. So I accepted and gave him my number.

I was working at my full time job. At lunch break, I went to the little park opposite the office.

My phone starts ringing. And my heart starts racing.

Before picking up the phone, I'm thinking:

"Shit.. he's gonna realize that I actually have no systems to collect the data, no team to verify it, no AI system to enrich it, no nothing. It's just silly old me compiling the lists by hand."

In that flash of a second, a talk by Jason Cohen came to my mind. He argues that you should try to run your online business like a boutique, not a supermarket. Only for a few people. High prices. Exceptional service.

"Fuck it. I'll flip it 180 degrees and own it.."

I pick up the phone and we start talking.

After the small talk was over, we start talking about CyberLeads.

"Listen to me man, this isn't another one of those platforms with a bunch of outdated and wrong leads collected by robots, that thousands of other companies are using to bombard with spam every single day.

These are all exclusive, brand new leads that are updated, verified and handpicked, one by one, by a human. Me, personally, actually."

He was impressed.

"Damn, that's what I thought. To be honest, it sounded a bit too good to be true for $29/month, so I just wanted to check in and see that this is for real and not a scam. Ok, I'll subscribe right away, I love this."

Boom. Closed.

I go back to my desk. High on adrenaline. Feeling like Pablo Escobar with the deal I just closed.

I start replaying the conversation in my head...

"Wait a minute.. did he just imply that he didn't subscribe because it was too cheap? And that if it was more expensive, he would have subscribed without hesitation?"

What the hell? This is so counter intuitive.

Weaknesses to strengths

Before this, I always felt bad that I had a simple newsletter. That it was just me doing everything. And that I did things manually.

But after this conversation, it went away.

Newsletters are simple and for some people way better than a bloated overcomplicated platform. Takes 10 seconds to setup.

The fact that I'm not a big company with thousands of customers means that my leads are actually exclusive and convert better.

And collecting the leads by hand means that the leads are up to date and manually verified, something no other platform can promise.

Part 3: Surpassing my salary

Things were changing fast.

My prices were going up, and with my new positioning, conversions were going up at the same time.

It was amazing. But my MRR was swinging wildly.

I realized that my monthly recurring revenue was a mirage. People don't stay forever. They stay for a few months and then cancel. It's not like a salary. And it's hard to change that.

So I started focusing on revenue.

It was a game changer.

Focusing on revenue

I started experimenting with annual plans.

I calculated how much money I made per customer:
• They pay me $49/month or $99/month
• They stay 2-4 months on average
• So I make $150 on average per customer

I decided to offer an annual plan for $299/year.

I make double the amount of money. I make it all upfront. And customers feel like it's a steal.

People loved this plan. It was very popular.

I surpass my salary this way. Which is not that hard to do cause my salary was like $2k/month. But still.

Surpassed my salary again the following month. And the next.

Life is good. Making around $3k/month from CyberLeads, and another $2k/month from my day job.

I am pinching myself every single day. I feel so rich.

All I have to do is keep going and not burn out.

Focusing on marketing

I started noticing something. My competitors didn't quit because they had a bad product.

They quit because they had bad marketing.

With my limited time and energy, I decided to focus on marketing.

No pretend work. No new features. No new marketing channels.

Just do the things that work. Post on Twitter. Focus on revenue. And ignore every other metric.

Some days I would get zero traffic. Others days I would go viral and get thousands of visitors and many customers.

It was a volatile, yet consistent channel.

Affiliate partnership

I also tried an affiliate partnership.

It was November and Black Friday was coming up.

A Twitter friend of mine was preparing exclusive deals for his community of 30,000+ founders.

I shot my shot and suggested we feature CyberLeads. He agreed.

Initially, I was afraid that a Black Friday deal would be completely "off brand" since I was trying to be exclusive and expensive.

But I found a workaround. A single $1k payment for lifetime access to my lists. It's still expensive, and a good deal too.

We ran the promotion, and it was a massive success.

This can't be real life

Over the next month or so, things went crazy.

I got more than 10 lifetime customers throughout November and December. More than $10k in revenue from this partnership, 30% of which went to my friend, Dru.

He was happy with it. I couldn't even sleep from excitement.

I ended up doubling my salary in profit both in November and December.

I'll never forget one morning specifically, when I woke up and saw that I got 2 lifetime customers overnight.

"Damn.. I made my salary overnight.."

I got up, made my morning coffee and joined my daily company meeting.

It felt different. I can't explain it in words.

The ceiling

This past summer, a friend of mine asked me where I think the ceiling is for CyberLeads. I thought about it for a few seconds.

"I think it's as far as I'm able to grow it."

The market is huge. It supports many multi million dollar businesses. And for someone like me, a million dollars is the sky.

Also, so far it seems that competition is irrelevant, so I think I am the actual ceiling of my business.

So as crazy as it sounds, I think it could reach $1M/year.

But I would have to quit my job to do that.

Attacked online

Just as I was celebrating, life punched me in the face.

It might sound great to grow fast and go viral, but I was not ready for it. I got severe anxiety at first.

I wanted everything to stop.

The likes. The comments. The retweets. Even the emails notifying me that I got a new customer. Seriously. I was so overwhelmed I wanted to go back to normality.

The peak was one day in particular, when I got personally attacked on HackerNews for running a lead generation business.

People called me a criminal. A terrible human being. They also found GitGardener and that made them even more angry.

The jury was out. I was a piece of shit.

I tried to act cool. But all night long I was refreshing the thread, reading the comments, full of adrenaline, secretly hoping that the post would leave the front page.

No one cares about me

A couple days later, everything had stopped.

I visited HackerNews again. They were attacking some other company that day. I think it was Google.

"Oh.. I see.. It's someone else's turn today."

Their attack towards me was not personal. They don't know me. They don't care about me. And they have forgotten about me already.

I may be the hero of my own movie, but in everyone else's I am nothing but an extra. I appear and flash on their screen for a second, and then I'm gone forever.

It was actually liberating. I realized that I could fail miserably without any fear. So I decided to double down.

It has been easier to become ten times luckier by increasing my exposure to the world and shots on target, than it has been to become ten times better at undestanding and predicting the world.

Business is counter intuitive

All these lessons have completely blown my mind. Everything is so counter intuitive.

I could go on forever, but here are some things that come to mind. They might be wrong, but they have helped me.

• When ideating, don't keep your idea secret. Not only won't people steal it, but their feedback will help you improve it.

• When building, don't be a perfectionist. Not only it won't matter to your user, but you are probably making your product worse.

• When you find success, don't assume you are finally smart and launch new things, double down on what you already have and show it the love it deserves.

• When launching, it's better to start generic and niche down later. Of course you can catch bigger fish with a speargun (aka charge higher prices and convert them easier), but it's also a lot easier to miss. It's so much easier to catch fish with a wide net. Especially in the beginning, when you don't really know who is interested yet.

• When growing, share everything. You may get copied, but you will grow faster and inspire others. And, by the way, the internet is usually big enough for another player.

• When working, try to identify and eliminate "Pretend Work" from your life. Working for two hours on the right things is way more productive than working for twelve hours on the wrong things.

• When talking to customers, don't pretend to be a company. Being a one man team is a super power. You can connect to others easily. Especially to other founders.

• When prioritizing, focus on marketing more than you focus on product. Most startups don't die due to lack of product-market-fit, they die due to lack of traction.

• When scaling, stick to one distribution channel. You may be missing out on other channels, but it's better to be great at one than average everywhere.

• When analyzing, stick to one or two metrics. It's better to turn the screws that will make your business fly rather than turn all the screws a little bit.

• When iterating, don't worry if your systems feel fragile. It's better to have volatile systems that consistently work than stable systems that are dead.

• When growing, niche down to a specific segment of the market. Yes, it might be a smaller piece of the pie, but you can be the best and take advantage of power laws.

• When competing, ignore everyone and focus only on yourself. Focusing on things you cannot control is the definition of insanity.

• When executing, don't be afraid to fail and look stupid. Remember that no one cares about you, anyway.

• When looking back, things will appear slow and everything happens all at once. But things aren't linear, they compound.

Part 4: Managing stress

This was the most stressful year of my life. By far.

Competitors. Public attacks. Juggling work and CyberLeads.

Some days I actually felt like I was going crazy.

I had to find ways to manage it.

Ancient problems

I've been picking up a few old books lately.

It relaxes me knowing that my problems are old.

I stumbled upon this little 2,000-year-old text called "Enchiridion of Epictetus".

I didn't read it carefully, study it or underline anything. But one idea stuck.

That some things were up to me. While others weren't.

I cannot make someone subscribe. I cannot make a competitor quit. I cannot make my stress disappear. But I can focus on the inputs that lead to those things.

It has been helpful. Although I still fail to follow it most days.

Exercise

I also found myself running more than ever before.

It has been the best medicine I have.

Regardless of if everything is going perfectly in my life, or everything is on fire, I am always experiencing some stress.

Sometimes more. Other times less. But always.

Almost like mandatory slots of daily stress that have to be filled.

I try to do so with physical exercise. Somehow it makes the rest of the world feel a lot easier and a lot less stressful.

Also, I feel like doing hard things translates into other areas of your life. When I see a former pro athlete dedicate switch career and build a successful business, it makes sense to me.

Comfort zones expand

Everytime I experienced a lot of stress, I wanted everything to stop and go back to normality.

However, as soon as I got back to normality, I got bored and I wanted that stress again.

And the next time it happened, it felt easier.

The first time I went viral, I couldn't sleep at night. A few months later, I went viral 3 times in a row and I slept like a baby.

The first time I was interviewed on a podcast, I went for a one hour run before to relax and prepare what I was going to say. Now I usually join as if I'm jumping on a friendly chat.

The first time I was copied by someone, I was stressed, scared, angry and spying on them. Now, I mute them so I never see them again and I completely stop thinking about them.

So who knows. Maybe the scariest things in the world aren't so scary.

Being worried vs being excited

I used to use this little hack when I competed.

While warming up for my fights, I was always questioning why I'm doing this. Always promising to myself that this was my final fight.

And the feeling was similar every time.

Heart racing. Mouth dry. Constantly sipping on water. Toilet breaks to pee every 10 minutes.

However, after jumping rope for a while, sweat dripping down my nose, endorphines kicking in and my body being warmed up, the feeling somehow started to feel like excitement.

So I would try to brainwash myself:

“Come on already! I'm so excited! Just another day of sparring in the gym! Let's get done with this already!”

Of course it was a lie. I was scared of being paired up with a monster.

But it works if you really say it like you mean it.

Mastery, books and nuances

In fighting, the fundamentals are everything. A jab, a cross, a left hook and a low kick can take you a long way. Even to a world championship.

But the nuances are what really take you there. Knowing when to throw each strike. Distance control. Timing. Faints. Counters. Setups. Reading your opponent. Managing your energy.

And those nuances are only learned in the fire. You can study tape, shadow box, hit the bag and the pads all you want. You can hire the best personal trainer in the world. Practice fancy long combinations, slipping and countering imaginary strikes. But if you don't actually try the techniques in the ugly and real environment of a hard spar or even better a fight, you don't know if they work.

They could be complete bullshit. Usually they are.

I'll never forget how embarrassed I was when I decided to switch gyms. I went from a gym where we used to focus only on technique, to a gym where every day was sparring and another broken nose.

Even though I was one of the best at the first gym, I got my ass kicked by beginners at the second. Beginners that knew one or two techniques, but they had practiced them in the real world.

I had to relearn everything from the beginning.

Books are great too. But nuances cannot be explained in books either. So when you're done, close this book and go build a business. Try things. Experiment. And learn.

Progress won't be linear. Things will be slow, then some key breakthrough moments will come when you least expect them.

At least that's how it was for me.

Appendix

After all these years, I can't believe it.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I gave surpassed my salary.

I think it's time to quit my job.

It's a philosophy class

Business in practice has been nothing like theory.

And at the same time, it has been a philosophy class.

You are tested daily. You have to grow personally. You have to have skin in the game and expose yourself to the world.

You will be criticized. Have competitors. Feel stressed. Endure the ups and downs. Realize that everything could come down crumbling. And accept that the results are not in your hand.

Your ethics, morals, patience and ego also have to be in check.

Sure. It's harder than just working for someone else.

But it makes you grow and feel alive.

What's next?

I'm about to quit my job to go full time on CyberLeads.

Start working for myself and start designing my ideal lifestyle.

It's tricky, because I want to keep things simple and don't want to fall in the trap of working on my business all day.

The whole reason I started this journey was freedom.

Now that I have it, let's see if I'll be able to handle it.

Or if I'll crush under the pressure of having zero constraints.

Time travel

Hey. This is Alex from the future writing this.

I decided to clean up and re-post my blog posts as free books.

Nothing changed. Even if I disagree with things I said back then.

Regardless of marketing or algorithms, the greatest books have always ended up in my hands through recommendations.

So if you you enjoyed them, you can do the following:

• Share them on X or LinkedIn

• Leave a review on Amazon

• And message me so we can have a chat

Or don't. It's ok.

Thank you for reading.

Wall of love

Thanks to everyone that has been reading for the past years.

• I just finished the mini book series by @alexwestco and it’s awesome. He brings you to his startup journey, and go personal in every stage: from shouting in the void for 2 years, to désillusion, to finally making it. It’s raw and honest. It feels like you’re with him. Much better than most biographies made to be published. The books are free. Go read them!
@marc_louvion

• Got a long day ahead traveling back home so I got myself some nice books to read
@florinpop1705

• Finished all of them in one go. I could not stop. Oh, the pain!! Such an eye opener..
I am on my 3rd (failed) project in 6 months, but now I feel @alexwestco saved me months, possibly years. thanks
@Andrei0Vlad

• The time is never right!!
@thepatwalls

• This is perfect!
@dvassallo

• That is the most inspirational piece of content I read. Bookmarking this for my future references
@tejas3732

• The most honest, powerful and inspiring thing I've read all year. Gives me so much hope to see that I can have a stable life without giving my life to a boring 9-5 desk job. Congratulations man.
@consolerod

• When I was a child I remember reading The Eternaut comic at night I was completely hooked up, waiting for the next night to read again and continue the story.
Yesterday I had the same feeling reading @alexwestco books and I woke up desperately to finish the sixth book.
Looking forward to the rest of the books
@AgustinVqz

• "Most advice is bullshit". I'm sold.
@martinrue

• Reading @alexwestco's third book and it's blowing my mind. His mini books aren't playbooks, but I've learned a ton from them. Really appreciate it.
@dzung_fz

• This is really a great read for aspiring indie hackers. Raw, authentic and super honest. I used to read @alexwestco blogs 4 years ago and this part feels super relatable to me.
Yeah, those cute little side projects.
@ShresthaBheart

• Just started reading Alex's books.
Finished the first 2 today.
So much value + it's FREE.
Thank you so much Alex!!
@HsanC_

• halfway through @alexwestco's book one, and i gotta say im surprised how brutally honest it is.
wish for more books to show the real mess of being an entrepreneur instead of handpicked highlights
@todorovskiognxn

• This is exactly what I needed. Great read.
@Renatello

• this feels like holding a mirror
this isn't some polished picture-perfect fairytale
just a raw, gritty, and accurate depiction of what figuring it out looks and feels like
reminds me that this shit is hard for everyone
@luisgnet

• Book 2 done, on to Book 3
but maybe I should get some work done first
Thanks for sharing all this knowledge Alex.
@lovish888

• I'm currently reading the books of @alexwestco and I had to laugh very loud in public at one part. A lesson every indiehacker/founder has to learn the hard way.
@TweetsOfSumit

• Feels illegal to read all these for free! Amazing stuff, zero BS, great work.
Already waiting for the last two books.
@mysancaktutan

• Been reading @alexwestco books and they are fire. so authentic and real, you feel like he's talking directly to you. Hella inspiring brother, keep going!
@MaximilianDrago

• On to book 3 @alexwestco
This speaks a lot as well to me. Humbling.
"The world is random and chaotic"
I can't go around and making sense of everything.
@cyphorous

• These words from the book 1 of @alexwestco hits different for the perfectionist I used to be.
Reading is a leverage for your actions.
Without action it's just a form of procrastination.
Damn, it's even a good sign, it means you're growing.
@kevin_miguet

• I am only fishing up the book 1 @alexwestco but I can see myself at the very beginning of this journey. Thanks for sharing, it gives me the strength to build and document as well
@YAVIIIN

• Goated quote by @alexwestco.
"Someone holds a gun to your head: "You have to generate revenue online by the end of the week. If you don't, you're dead." Extreme. But effective. All the pretend work goes out of the window.
@byteberserker

• "Life is chaotic. And you shouldn't try to change that. Embrace it's unpredictability and make it work for you. Not against you."
Please, never stop writing man.
Thank you very much for sharing
@luisetelo

• Exited to dive into @alexwestco's second book. I am a total newbie and I find it interesting to read his experience when starting out.
@lastFitStanding

• Yesterday went to the beach, brought the tablet with me to start reading N1, got so hooked, read until 50% of N5 haha
Thanks for such a nice write!
@rrmdp

• I'm reading the first one now.
Great writing and very honest. Love it!
@fisheryeah

• Just finished book 6, tight in time
@rasulkireev

• Loved the book - been reading your tweets for years now, and it was really interesting to hear the whole story. Can't wait for the next one :)
@scalingspencer

• Loved reading this, excited for the next one. Remember reading your blogs from when you were working in Milan. Inspired me to pursue my own thing and very happy I did
@alexanderaeswan

• I read this in one sitting thanks for sharing man.
It is really eye opening the amount of struggle that is required to building something. Thank you for being this honest.
@JacobSchwarz963

• Great work, and great thoughts
@jdnoc

• Can't wait for book 2!
@GlitchPhoton

• Hey Alex, anxiously awaiting the next drop. Didn't see it yesterday. Any idea when we might expect it?
@KevinSidwar

• "It's easier to become 10x luckier by increasing your exposure, than it is to become 10x better at understanding and predicting the world." Love this, man.
@colestriler

• great read. you write very concisely yet cover a lot of ideas. it also shows that you are building mental fortitude to handle anything. congrats!
@swyx

• Mate, at the end of your article "Two Years" I was like: This is so sad, but here comes the happy part about the sales...nothing.
Great read. I'm literally in the exact same spot!
@rubenkenes

• "You can't make people buy. All you can do is keep them in your orbit by showing them what you do and staying top of mind." Love this from @alexwestco
@fredrivett

• Reviewing 300 applications for notJust Incubator, I saw many founders doing the same mistakes we all go through at the beginning
Just read the first book by @alexwestco, and this hits home
@VadimNotJustDev

• Just finished @alexwestco Book 3. Learning Through Scars - a raw, unfiltered journey of building a $3K/month business without selling courses. No fluff, just real talk about failure, luck, and the grind. If you're tired of gurus and want a real story, this one's for you.
Davide Agostini

• Amigos, this is my truth that I have been drowning in for the last five years. Alex's book are a must-read
@Amigov_AI

• Had to add @alexwestco as a case study in my upcoming Solopreneur Masterclass, among other incredible solopreneurs and small business owners we can all get inspiration from!
@flaviocopes

• I've never read a book in my life but I'm halfway on book 1.
It's inspiring and makes me want to start a business.
@bel4dm

• Recently read @alexwestco's two Kindle books. Really is a great reminder that it may seem like everyone knows what they're doing... But we usually see only the successes, not the uncertainty, building + getting no traction, etc
You just gotta keep moving forward + building
@gavin_wiener

• Last Sunday evening downloaded all @alexwestco books
by chance opened the number 6 and started to read it
I couldn't stop until I finished it
such a nice, authentic and hooking reading
a real not BS entrepreneurship story
Nice one Alex.
@rrmdp

• I'm getting a lot of motivation out of these. Seems like all of builder X is reading them right now Alex!
@martinrue

• It seems like everyone is reading them right now!
@MahdiEzz_code

Credits

Finally, special thanks to everyone that inspired and supported me, whether they know it or not.

• Pieter Levels, thank you for building in the open and making this movement happen for all of us. It was your revenue tweets and blog posts that made me realize that I could do the same.

• Courtland and Channing Allen, thank you for building Indie Hackers and putting a name to our little movement. I have read every single post, listened to every single podcast and have day dreamed countless times being on your show.

• Patrick and John Collison, thank you for building the tool that has allowed us all to make a living online. No joke, Stripe changed our lives. In awe of what you're building with Arc Institute. And huge fan of your podcast "Cheeky Pint".

• DHH, thank you for bringing common sense to the tech industry. Reminding us that you don't need to run a VC company and become a billionaire to be successful. And that you can have work life balance.

• Jason Fried, thank you for sharing your contrarian views regarding work. It's inspiring to see how ahead of the culture you were with remote work and SaaS. Your books are awesome too.

• Pat Walls (and Demi), thank you for replying to my emails back in 2021. Also for your awesome daily blog, which definitely inspired me to continue to write daily. Finally, thank you for showing us the power of focusing on one business, which you can adapt and evolve over time.

• Daniel Vassallo, thank you for introducing me to Taleb's books and philosophy, they changed my world view and helped me with my journey. Also for sharing your authentic thoughts and taking a stance, even if it's not popular.

• Stamos Venios, thank you for inspiring me to start this journey and for teaching me that you learn by doing, not studying. Your story inspired me a lot. I've told you this directly, but it's true. You are one of the main reasons I'm here today.

• Sam Parr, thank you for sharing my little business with your audience. Even more importantly, thank you for always being nothing but kind and generous to me. Funnily enough, your show, "My First Million", helped me make my first million.

• Derek Sivers, thank you for having the most awesome blog on the planet. Also for writing all your books and giving everything back to charity. You are awesome.

• Jon Yongfook, thank you for building and failing products at the same time as me, from 2018 to 2020. You launched BannerBear roughly at the same time I found CyberLeads, after roughly the amount number of failures. It was cool to not fail and succeed alone.

• Damon Cheng, thank you for showing us that even indie makers can acquire and grow businesses. Your run from quitting your job till today is legendary.

• Marc Köhlbrugge, thank you for building WIP.chat. Seeing other successful makers public TODOs made me realize that everyone just builds things, fixes bugs and makes mistakes. Like me. This was actually one of my most important realizations. It was frame breaking.

• Danny Postma, thank you for showing us that even indie products can exit to a larger company. And that even after an exit, if you want it bad enough, you can go back to square one and try again and again until you succeed again.

• Jason Cohen, thank you for your amazing blog and talks. Probably the best business blog in the world. And for your talk on boutique bootstrapped businesses. Seriously, that talk helped me niche down, raise my prices and change my life.

• Dru Riley, thank you for running an amazing campaign for CyberLeads together, back in 2020. Those high revenue months were the final push and confidence I needed to quit my job. Thank you my brother. Forever grateful.

• Andreas Klinger, thank you for being a class act and making an effort to help me find a job when I needed one. Also, for always replying to my emails and DMs.

• Vic, thank you for helping me find the next lever of growth for CyberLeads. No joke, you helped me change my life.

• Mubs, thank you for launching 50+ projects in public throughout the years and showing us how fast one can build.

• Andrey Azimov, thank you for your epic 2018 run, becoming Maker of the Year and changing your life. Your scrappiness and determination were infectious.

• Dimitris Raptis, thank you for being one of the very few people from our little hometown that is in our little bubble and industry. Also, thank you for reminding me that working on products you enjoy is more important than the money you make.

• Katerina Limpitsouni, thank you for being the final person from our little hometown that is in our little bubble and industry. I've used your designs and illustrations countless of times. They are awesome.

• Dimitris Kourtesis, Nikos Tsoniotis and Stefanos Tsiakmakis, thank you for accepting me in your startup incubator back when I knew nothing. Thank you for teaching me that killing projects is just as productive as building them. This was one of the biggest lessons I ever learned.

• Justin Jackson, thank you for your essays and podcasts regarding the importance of markets. You might not know it, but they were super impactful to me and helped me end up in the lead generation market, which helped me find CyberLeads and change my life.

• Josh Pigford, thank you for being one of the first people to show your complete list of failed products before your big success. I remember seeing the list and preparing mentally to go through the same. I built 19 failed products, then the 20th changed my life. Thank you.

• Nathan Barry, thank you for being one of the few people continuing to share revenue numbers after reaching millions in revenue. We have small businesses like myself doing that. We also have huge public companies doing that. It's great to have companies in the middle, like yours, do that too. Also, thank you for showing me the value of niching down and focusing on one segment of the market at a time. It really helped me grow CyberLeads and change my life.

• Ali Salah, thank you for being one of the OGs from 2018 and showing me that slow, consistent growth, in a saturated market, while focusing on product, can actually happen. This hasn't been my own experience and it's another example that anything and everything can work, there are no magic recipes.

• Michael Aubrey, thank you for being another story of hard work. Seeing you try for multiple years before finally achieving success is inspiring. Reminds me of my own journey.

• Reilly Chase, thank you for showing me that you can build a boring business, on top of an existing platform, and grow alongside it. Been inspiring to watch you grow over the years, build a team, a house and a life for yourself and your family.

• Rob Walling, thank you for your books and for your amazing podcast. I've listened to so many episodes over the years and there is always something interesting to take from them, because you and your gueststalk from experience, not theory.

• Jack Butcher, Bilal Zaidi and Trung Phan, thank you for the awesome podcast, the great art and the funny memes you've all been sharing with us for the past many years.

• Nico Jeannen, thank you for showing us that building and exiting multiple little businesses is possible. Also for keeping it real and sharing the good and the bad. There aren't that many people that do that and it's inspiring to see.

• Marc Lou, thank you for setting a new standard on shipping fast. I thought I was prolific for shipping 20 products from 2018 to 2020, but you took it to a whole new level. Respect.

• Peter Askew, thank you for blurring the lines between boring and cool. Selling onions online is simultaneously one of the most boring and one of the coolest businesses in the world.

• John O' Nollan, thank you for inspiring me to build a remote business and travel the world. You were one of the first entrepreneurs I looked up to, and still a massive fan.

• Harry Dry, thank you for showing me the power of storytelling and copywriting. Seeing your Yeezy.Dating saga unfold in real time back in 2018 was awesome and your climb to the top of the copywriting world is inspiring.

• Jordan O' Connor, thank you for your amazing blog. I remember reading every single post, multiple times, as you grew your business from zero to tens of thousands of dollars per month, changing your life for yourself and your ever growing family.

• Sahil Lavingia, thank you for building Gumroad, it helped me make my first $100K online. Also, thank you for challenging the status quo, thinking out of the box, doing things your own way and never being too busy to reply to my DMs back in the day. Truly grateful.

• AJ from Carrd, thank you for showing us that you can build and grow a simple, elegant and useful product by yourself and make great money without charging high prices. Frame breaking.

• Alex Napier Holland, thank you for being real and having authentic thoughts and opinions. Your are one of the very few non BS and non cringe people on my timeline.

• Florin Pop, Mr Purple, thank you for staying humble and ambitious at the same time. It's inspiring to see you set goals and then go after them.

• David Park, thank you for sharing the good and the bad so openly and authentically. Not only in business, but in life too. Your story is inspiring.

• Andrea Bosoni, thank you for showing me the value of being consistent and for being one of my Italian brothers. It's been great your amazing content for all these years, whenever I see your posts I always get a nice feeling of familiarity.

• Flavio Copes, thank you for showing me the value of writing daily, with the simple heuristic of "do stuff, encounter problems, write about the solution". Your website and blog remind me of what the internet was originally made for, real and authentic.

• Lim How Wey, thank you for sharing all of your knowledge around SEO. It was really helpful to me. And thank you for always being kind and supportive, I truly appreciate it.

• Arvid Kahl, thank you for sharing the story of exiting your SaaS business. It's been awesome to see you re-invent yourself and write your books.

• Swyx, thank you for inviting me on your podcast back in the day and for always being kind and supportive. Also for being prolific and constantly working on new things and technologies, it's contagious.

• Dmytro Krasun, thank you for showing me that progress happens slowly, then all at once. Your journey is awesome.

• David Perell, thank you for spreading the benefits of writing and specifically of writing daily. Your essays, podcasts and newsletters are fantastic.

• Noah Kagan, thank you for building AppSumo and for always keeping it real and honest. Seeing you embark on random new side quests like YouTube and being successful is cool to see also.

• Andrew Wilkinson, thank you for showing me that you can build insane wealth with boring businesses. Your essays and books are amazing. It's great to see your progress from being a freelancer, to running a small studio and being afraid to hire people, to managing hundreds of employees, to running a portfolio of companies, to finally going public. Insane.

• Andrew Gazdecki, thank you for building Acquire (formerly MicroAcquire) and helping indies like myself exit our companies and change our lives. Gazdecki style.

• Steph Smith, thank you for all the amazing essays. I remember reading "How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably" and realizing that I don't have to be fancy, just consistent. Also, every single one of your MFM appearances was great.

• George Mack, thank you for being one of the few, modern, original thinkers, popularizing new terms and expanding the lexicon. Your newsletter is one of the best I've read in my life, your ability to explain concepts is on another level.

• Jonathan Garces, thank you for all the amazing memories working on CyberLeads together. You are the only business partner I've ever had and helped me more than I could even imagine. It was a blast, my favorite business era.

• Lachlan Kirkwood, thank you for all the amazing chats over the years, going through similar milestones and challenges with our very different businesses. I'm really proud of you exiting your business and re-inventing yourself.

• Vytas Bu, thank you for believing in me and trusting me to work together. Even more importantly, I'm grateful to call you a true friend and thank you for treating me like a brother.

• Andreas Asprou, thank you for reminding me what true wealth is and for pushing me to take a break and write these books. I wouldn't have done it without you.

• Max DeMarco, thank you for inspiring me to continue being the main character of my life. You always have main character energy and it's contagious. Seeing you grow and always challenge yourself was amazing. Hope to make it to your next Muay Thai fight.

• Niklas Christl, thank you for being one of the most successful yet humble and honest people I've met. That contrast is amazing and inspiring. Hope to see you soon and catch up again.

• Giuseppe Ettore, thank you for growing side by side since 2020. I still remember showing you CyberLeads when it was just an idea, during lunch break at the office. Time flies. We started our jobs on the same day in Milan, we both quit our jobs since then, have achieved a lot and always support each other. And I believe we always will.

• Justin Gluska, thank you for the amazing chats in New York. I hope to see you again somewhere around the world.

• Eracle, thank you for welcoming me to Las Palmas. We had many amazing chats and nights out. Hope to visit again.

• Nikolas Konstantinou, thank you for welcoming me to the island of Cyprus. You have always helped me when I needed help, without asking for anything in return.

• Dawid Cedrych, thank you for being a dream client and for showing me that true business is a win-win game. I'm forever grateful for your trust in me, for encouraging me to write and for always being humble and real.

• Pete Codes, thank you for featuring me in your awesome newsletter and for being supportive over the years. It was also cool meeting in person a few years back.

• Jonny Ward, Daniel Ward, Doug Ward and David Carter, thank you all so much for being generous enough to invite me one of the impactful coffee/dinners of my life, when you had absolutely nothing to gain from me. I will never forget.

• Mohammad, thank you for giving me perspective on life and how you can continue being happy and positive no matter what happens.

• All the staff and friends at Cafe Nero for giving me free coffee and letting me write my books all day.

• Eneas Lari, for being my best friend in life.

• My family.

And to all the people that have supported me over the years or have shared my books. If I missed you, it's not on purpose.

Constantly updating this list.

Table of Contents

- Book 3 (June 10th 2026)

- Not Business Advice

- How I made a million from my personal projects

- Book 3: Learning through scars

- ($3,000/month, year 3)

- Table of contents
- Introduction
- Quick recap
- Part 1: Competition rising
- Evil twins
- Real competition
- Deciding to niche down
- Casting a wide net
- Analyzing the fish
- Building my speargun
- Part 2: Escaping competition
- New tagline
- Social proof and testimonials
- Increased prices
- A single tiny feature
- The results
- A crazy conversation
- Weaknesses to strengths
- Part 3: Surpassing my salary
- Focusing on revenue
- Focusing on marketing
- Affiliate partnership
- This can't be real life
- The ceiling
- Attacked online
- No one cares about me
- Business is counter intuitive
- Part 4: Managing stress
- Ancient problems
- Exercise
- Comfort zones expand
- Being worried vs being excited
- Mastery, books and nuances
- Appendix
- It's a philosophy class
- What's next?
- Time travel
- Wall of love
- Credits