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Kevin Ko

@kokev.in
720 followers 529 following 135 posts

Founder/dev @ mightyscout.com - $100k+ MRR SaaS Hacker, 100% bootstrapped. I enjoy helping founders find passion and purpose in their life's work. Tokyo, SF, NYC-based 🇯🇵 🇺🇸

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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 26/03/2025
I think b2b saas operators likely shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to interpreting data. We want to be data-driven to believe we make the right decisions, but our sample sizes are so extremely small that the data often suffers from sampling and survivorship bias, let me explain:
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 26/03/2025
When I first started my SaaS nearly a decade ago, I was in my mid-20s with little experience, so I leaned heavily on the wisdom of those who had already been building successful businesses for years. Their advice became SaaS best practices.
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 13/02/2025
Product hack: If you're unsure whether or not you need to support a legacy feature, just remove it and see if anyone complains. This has saved me a ton of time and money (e.g. removing integrations that cost $ but no one really cared for).
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 05/02/2025
New SEC clarity on crypto tokens should open up a new wave of startups in America. Not dissimilar to the deregulation of cannabis and consumer drones a decade ago. www.sec.gov/newsroom/spe...
sec.gov
SEC.gov | The Journey BeginsLock
The Journey Begins Commissioner Hester M. Peirce February 4, 2025
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 04/02/2025
TL;DR various subreddits are getting overwhelmed by self-promos so they've instituted weird rules, leading to people revolting. I'm only fascinated by this because: 1. Reddit is fantastic for organically building communities 2. Reddit's startup communities are plagued by low-quality promotions
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 27/01/2025
It's been interesting to see reddit startup discourse go crazy due to the amount of bots and promotional posts, meanwhile there are bsky threads about how to cross-promote your startup all over reddit. There seem to be no good communities to talk SaaS. It's actually a double-pronged issue...
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 24/01/2025
Just disabled the auto-renew on two .com domains that hadn't been used since 2016. RIP to the side projects that never came to fruition: latescratch .com -> Some kinda fantasy sports tool? rumblebros .com -> Podcasts with my co-founder? If anyone wants to reserve them for cheap, let me know ;)
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 02/01/2025
For 2025, what kind of content do #indiehackers wish to see on bsky that I could talk about? I have almost a decade of indie hacking experience and have cultivated many lessons and hot takes.
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 30/12/2024
I once did a swot analysis for my startup back in 2011 (I was like 22). That was the startup that failed the hardest of all, tons of time and money wasted
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 26/12/2024
The best way to start is coming up with an idea organically OR from deeply researching, not because it sounds good on paper. Forcing yourself to start can be good for the sake of inertia, but always ends up being poor founder fit. You can still start, just don't expect that iteration to succeed.
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 22/12/2024
This is a _mandatory_ first step before starting your startup—yes, even before purchasing a domain name—and Jason actually wrote a whole guide for it. I think many people underestimate how important this step, and therefore this guide, is.
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 21/12/2024
Jason wrote this 13 years ago and it's now more true than ever. There isn't one successful way to run a business, and the way people run theirs is a reflection of themselves. If that's true, why wouldn't you run it the way you want? Be authentic with yourself and as an #indiehacker (cont'd)
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 18/12/2024
The productivity drop-off from moving to NYC in the Summer is really obvious in hindsight
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 17/12/2024
Daily Indie Hacker Koan #5 > Would you still be an indie hacker if you had a 300k salary at a 9-5?
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Reposted by Kevin Ko
Justin Jackson @justinjackson.ca · 10/12/2024
This has been such a helpful framework for me: stress = demands / resources The breakthrough was realizing there are really only two ways to reduce stress: 1. Lower demands 2. Increase resources
A simple mathematical formula showing 'stress = demands/resources' with three visual examples using squares. The top shows the basic formula, the middle shows 'not stressed' with 3 demand squares over 6 resource squares, and the bottom shows 'stressed' with 9 demand squares over 2 resource squares.
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 01/12/2024
Longtime expats here in Japan do this thing where when talking to a person of authority, they pretend to not speak Japanese to shorten and dumb down the interaction. It made me wonder how many irrational or "dumb" counterparties I've encountered were simply incentivized to pretend to be that way.
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 30/11/2024
Daily Indie Hacker Koan #4 > What are you willing, or not willing, to sacrifice for success?
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 30/11/2024
The avg #buildinpublic person struggles at doing the hard thing. They promote on reddit instead of getting in front of real buyers. They build flashy frontends instead of the critical feature. They hire people they know out of convenience, instead of the right people. So mrr never gets past 5k
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 29/11/2024
Daily Indie Hacker Koan #3: > What do you know about your industry that your competitors don't?
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 28/11/2024
Daily Indie Hacker Koan #2: > How large of a company do you want?
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 28/11/2024
Daily Indie Hacker Koan #1: > If you could build for any audience, which would it be?
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 27/11/2024
The unspoken risk in #indie #SaaS is that many outcomes aren't enough for retirement. Meanwhile, playing CEO of my startup means I spend less time each day improving as a dev, hurting my ability to get employed in future. Even if you have high ARR, industry shifts & competition can upend your income
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Reposted by Kevin Ko
Daniel Nguyen @danielnguyen.me · 26/11/2024
Let's make Bluesky a better place for indie founders. It's a fair criticism that Starter Packs were a great marketing strategy. That once the novelty wears off, Bluesky might go downhill just like Threads. And to prevent that, we need to put effort to nurture the community ↓
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 24/11/2024
In hindsight, it's no surprise #buildinpublic #indiehackers flocked to bsky so quickly. Not politics-driven, this was the precise audience that's getting burned by X's API price increases. Also less fake MRR posts because engagement bait and clout aren't directly monetizable 🦋
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Reposted by Kevin Ko
Marc Köhlbrugge @marckohlbrugge.com · 23/11/2024
blueskycounter.com is back online! It now shows historical follower growth all the way back from when you firsted signed up to Bluesky Reposts appreciated 😊
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 23/11/2024
Changed my bsky username and have my domain pointing here now 🙌 (changing your bsky handle is just a TXT record in your DNS if you're curious)
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 22/11/2024
I think before embarking on a #SaaS, one should try to launch a low-stakes product first. I worked at 3 different SaaS startups and then wrote an ebook before starting my first SaaS. You very quickly learn how important distribution is and why you should talk to 30 customers before writing any code
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Reposted by Kevin Ko
Vlad @handle.invalid · 21/11/2024
If you're an indie maker or interested in dev, I'm putting together a starter pack. Drop your @ here, and I'll make sure to include you. Power to the people! 🚀 go.bsky.app/AFG1Sgc
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Reposted by Kevin Ko
Andrei @hudovich.com · 21/11/2024
If you're an indie hacker and wondering whom to follow... Here are two starter packs featuring 210+ Indie Hackers: Part 1 - go.bsky.app/7PVRQFX Part 2 - go.bsky.app/GHWuWr6 Let me know if you want to be added 👇 P.S. Guys, please, repost this 🙌
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 21/11/2024
I've been tinkering with a concept I call "authentic founderism". In short, the allure of indie hacking isn't necessarily freedom FROM corporate employment, but rather freedom TO express yourself authentically through your business.
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 21/11/2024
Lots of new followers! Hi everyone, I consider myself a veteran indie hacker, having built my SaaS to 7 figure ARR over the past 8 years. While not a standout success by any means, I still feel fortunate to be in this position and would love to help out wherever I can!
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 21/11/2024
The best employees/partners I’ve worked with had two traits: 1. High competence, 2. Gave a shit. In hiring, we usually over-index on competence. But if they're apathetic, managing them is a time-sink. (The inverse—low-competence, high-passion—is worse. Low-value, but orgs tend to cut them too late)
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 19/11/2024
I'm a huge proponent of focus music for #deepfocus. Plenty of free options on YouTube (shipped like a madman on www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4kH...) but I accidentally signed up for a year of Endel.io, which Andrew Wilkinson swears by, so I'll be trying this out moving forward
endel.io
Endel - Focus, Relax and Sleep
Personalized soundscapes to help you focus, relax, and sleep. Backed by neuroscience.
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 19/11/2024
Decided to implement a new feature (tracking press mentions), one I had already built before for a side project, and figured porting it to the main biz would take ~1 week tops. It took 3 weeks 🙈
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 17/11/2024
By far the most important thing in years 0-2 of a #saas is speed. Speed at which you ship and speed at which you learn about your customer/industry (i.e. "information turns"). But once your startup matures, you have the luxury of needing to make only one good, major decision per year.
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Kevin Ko @kokev.in · 17/11/2024
Moving platforms feels like a good reason to start posting the veteran #indiehacker takes I've always wanted to post. I'm a software dev and since 2016, I've operated a 7 figure ARR SaaS at mightyscout.com
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