12 Startups in 12 Months

BlogApr 19, 2026

Highlights

▸Public commitment is the forcing function — '12 startups in 12 months' works because quitting a month early becomes publicly embarrassing, not because 12 is the right number
▸NomadList and RemoteOK came out of this sequence — one year of shipping surfaced the products that ended up paying for the next decade
▸Build-in-public revenue transparency (live dashboards, Stripe Atlas numbers) became the default indie-hacker playbook because Levels normalized it during this year

Original excerpt

A few years ago I sold all my stuff to explore the world, creating 12 startups in 12 months and building $1M+/y companies as an indie maker such as Nomad List and Remote OK. I'm also a big pusher of remote work and async and analyze the effects it has on society. Follow me on Twitter or see my list of posts. My first book MAKE is out now. Contact me

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