Checked 29 September 2026
Unique solopreneurs: one-person businesses worth studying
Most solopreneur lists annoy me. So I wrote one I'd actually want to read.
Why this list is different
Most "solopreneur" lists rank people by money. And they quietly include founders of big companies with staff, like IKEA, eBay or Spanx. That's not solo. That's a company with a famous founder.
Then there are the revenue figures. Plenty have no source at all, and some lists still carry "2021" or "2022" in the title, which tells you how often anyone looks at them again.
This one is different. Every person here runs a one-person business, or says plainly where they get help. Each entry comes from their own current pages, checked on a stated date. I say what makes their way of working unusual, and I give you one thing to borrow, labelled "Steal this".
It's about practices, not envy. It is not a ranking of who's richest.
How I picked them
The rules are simple. The person runs the business themselves today, or they say clearly on their own page where they use freelancers or contractors. If they do, I say so too.
The distinctive practice has to be visible on their current site, not just in old articles. Quotes are copied from the person's own page or a named interview. Revenue only appears where the person publishes it themselves, and if they don't, I leave it out.
People who've stopped being solo go in a separate "worth knowing" box. I didn't want to drop them silently, as if they never existed.
Every link was last checked on 29 September 2026.
One more thing. I tried hard to make the list less male, and it's still mostly men. I only added women whose solo practice I could confirm from their own pages that day, rather than pad it. Padding felt worse than an honest gap.
Pieter Levels: Nomads.com, Remote OK, Photo AI and more
Levels runs several products at once with no staff, and aims to automate work rather than hire for it. His "minimal solo founder setup" lists one founder who is also developer, designer and marketer, "0 humans", and a goal of 100% automation. He made his name in 2014 with a challenge to ship 12 startups in 12 months, which was about finishing things.
"I build internet startups by myself" (his homepage)
Steal this: put a deadline on shipping, not on perfection. One small launch a month beats one big launch that never happens.
Sources: levels.io, Minimal solo founder setup, 12 startups in 12 months
Julia Evans: Wizard Zines
Evans writes and draws short illustrated zines about programming fundamentals, such as How Git Works and How DNS Works, and sells them from her own store. Her blog says most of her income comes from the zines business. The store's FAQ is firm about what she won't sell: no freelance work, no commissions, no paid links, no guest posts.
"I don't do freelance work or commissions." (Wizard Zines FAQ)
Steal this: stick to one thing people will still need in ten years, and say no in writing to the work that would pull you away from it.
Caveat: the store's shipping and support pages say "we", so I can't confirm she handles fulfilment alone. The writing and drawing are hers.
Sources: wizardzines.com, About Wizard Zines, Store FAQ, jvns.ca/about
Maciej Cegłowski: Pinboard
Pinboard is one paid bookmarking product, kept going since 2009 on deliberately boring technology. Users pay a yearly fee, and the site says their data is never sold or shared. It's a solo business that chose small and durable over growth.
"Pinboard is a small site owned and operated by its developer." (Pinboard tour)
Steal this: charge from day one, and use unexciting tools you can keep running alone for a decade.
Sources: pinboard.in/tour, pinboard.in/about, idlewords.com/about
Derek Sivers: writing, books and the /now page
Sivers built CD Baby, and his own book page says he sold it "for $22 million and gave all the money to charity". Since then he has chosen a deliberately small, self-directed working life: books, essays and his own site. He also started the /now page idea, and runs a directory of the personal sites that have one.
"If you're not saying 'HELL YEAH!' about something, say no." (Hell Yeah or No)
Steal this: add a /now page to your site, and use "hell yeah or no" as a filter on optional commitments.
Sources: sive.rs, sive.rs/a, sive.rs/hellyeah, nownownow.com/about
Ivan Kutskir: Photopea
Kutskir built Photopea, a free image editor that runs in the browser and fully supports the PSD format, opening and saving it. One developer, going head to head with professional desktop software. In a 2021 interview he also said he was afraid of taking on a business partner or an investor.
"I am the only person working on Photopea, and I do 'everything' :)" (Failory interview, 2021)
Steal this: a free product can be a business if the running costs are tiny and it's genuinely better than the free alternatives.
Caveat: his solo status is as stated in that 2021 interview. I couldn't find a newer first-hand statement.
Sources: photopea.com, Failory interview
Sara Soueidan: independent web UI engineer and the Practical Accessibility course
Soueidan describes herself as an independent inclusive web UI engineer, author, speaker and educator. After years of freelance front-end work, she now teaches accessibility through her own video course, Practical Accessibility, which she keeps updating with a public changelog. Her site says it is built in Lebanon, with Eleventy on Netlify.
"I'm an independent inclusive Web UI engineer, published author, international speaker, and educator." (her about page)
Steal this: turn the thing clients keep paying you to explain into one structured course you own, and keep updating it in public.
Sources: sarasoueidan.com/about, practical-accessibility.today
Sindre Sorhus: open source and Mac apps
Sorhus is a full-time open-source maintainer paid for by the community, who also sells small, carefully made apps for Mac and iPhone. He started doing open source while backpacking around Southeast Asia. He says he actively maintains more than 1,000 npm packages.
"In early 2018, I became fully funded by the community." (his about page)
Steal this: many tiny, single-purpose tools can add up to a body of work people will sponsor.
Sources: sindresorhus.com/about, sindresorhus.com/apps
Simon Willison: Datasette, open-source tools and a daily blog
Willison is an independent open-source developer who works in public: a link blog on his own domain since November 2003, short notes on what he's learned, and tools released as he builds them. It isn't a classic product business: his about page lists GitHub Sponsors, sponsorship of part of his Datasette work, and one day a week of work for an AI research lab.
"Prior to becoming an independent open source developer, Simon was an engineering director at Eventbrite." (his about page)
Steal this: write down what you learn the day you learn it. A public trail of small notes becomes your marketing.
Sources: simonwillison.net/about, My approach to running a link blog, datasette.io
Anne Helen Petersen: Culture Study
Petersen was a culture writer at BuzzFeed News. Now she writes Culture Study, a newsletter her readers pay for directly. Her about page explains the deal: subscriptions pay for her reporting, for guest writers at an above-industry rate, and for design work. She says a newsletter lets her write about things even when the headline wouldn't perform on Facebook.
"When I was writing this newsletter for free, I was getting paid by a corporation... But now I'm relying on you." (Culture Study about page)
Steal this: tell your readers exactly what their money pays for. It turns a subscription into a relationship.
Caveat: she pays guest writers and a designer, so this is a solo writer with paid help, not a one-person operation in every respect.
Sources: Culture Study about
Eric Barone: Stardew Valley and Haunted Chocolatier
Barone made Stardew Valley alone, as its designer, programmer, artist, composer and writer. He handled updates himself for several years before recruiting a small team to help in 2019. He told NPR in 2021 that he was building his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, alone. In 2026 he told PC Gamer that fan mail and Stardew's success make it hard to focus.
"I need to just disappear, go into a cabin, and work without distraction." (PC Gamer, May 2026)
Steal this: protect deep-work time as your success grows. The distractions arrive after the hit, not before.
Sources: stardewvalley.net, Wikipedia, NPR, 2021, PC Gamer, 2026
Craig Mod: books, newsletters and SPECIAL PROJECTS
Mod is a writer, photographer and walker. He writes a weekly newsletter about walking in Japan, a monthly one on photography and literature, and books. Since 2019 a membership programme, SPECIAL PROJECTS, has paid for almost all of it. He also publishes a clear position on AI: it helps with research, and never writes his prose.
"AI never writes anything for me" (his about page)
Steal this: let members fund the work, and decide in public where AI helps you and where it doesn't.
Caveat: I describe this as an independent practice, not a zero-staff one. I couldn't confirm the headcount.
Sources: craigmod.com/about
Justin Welsh: a weekly essay, courses and digital products
Welsh was a Chief Revenue Officer at a venture-backed company when he burned out. He rebuilt his working life around a one-person business instead. The rhythm is fixed: one essay every Saturday, with courses and products built on the audience it creates. His about page says he has built "a $15M one-person business with no employees and no investors" (his own figure, undated).
"I write one essay every Saturday for ambitious people living and working on their own terms." (his about page)
Steal this: pick a publishing rhythm you can keep for years, and build products on top of the audience it creates.
Sources: justinwelsh.me/about
Marc Lou: ShipFast and a long list of small products
Lou ships a large number of small products, keeps the ones that work, and lists every one on a single page, failures included. The page shows discontinued products and sales next to the live ones, which is unusual candour.
"I've built 36 startups solo." (his homepage)
Steal this: keep a public list of everything you've shipped, failures included. It's a portfolio and a sales page at once.
Sources: marclou.com
Tony Dinh: TypingMind
Dinh builds in public and ships quickly. His current product is TypingMind, a chat interface for AI models. He's honest that he isn't strictly alone: he works with a freelancer and deliberately avoids becoming a manager.
"I still consider myself solopreneur because I don't really want to step into that management, you know, role." (The Bootstrapped Founder, 2023)
Steal this: pair yourself with one trusted freelancer instead of hiring a team. You keep the solo speed and lose the bottleneck.
Sources: typingmind.com, news.tonydinh.com, Interview with Arvid Kahl
Worth knowing, but not solo now
- Arvid Kahl writes The Bootstrapped Founder and builds Podscan in public, documenting decisions as he makes them. Podscan's about page says it "secured some seed funding in 2024" and talks about "we", so it isn't a solo business. The habit of writing decisions down as you go is still worth copying. (thebootstrappedfounder.com, podscan.fm/about)
- Paul Jarvis wrote Company of One, the book most people mean by "stay small on purpose". He co-founded Fathom Analytics, so he wasn't solo, and Fathom's page says he no longer exists on social media or has an online presence. Read the book; don't look for the person. (usefathom.com/pjrvs)
Me, for honesty: Jack Stovell
I wrote this page, so treat this entry with suspicion. It sits last for that reason.
I run Adapt Progress Evolve Limited, a one-person software studio in London (company 10047328, incorporated 7 March 2016). 26 Claude agents do the building, checking and day-to-day operating. A human approves everything that ships, and that human is me.
There are 17 projects listed on jstov.uk/work. 14 are live, including ScriptGrain, ReviewNudge, Hilyt and Launch Video Maker. One is in development: Jarvis, the voice assistant that coordinates the fleet. Two are paused, and I show them anyway. Hiding them would be a bit rich on a page about honesty. If you want the longer version of how it works, it's in Solo AI developer: what it actually looks like.
Steal this: give routine work to agents, but keep approvals for payments, deploys and publishing as a human decision.
I'm not ranking myself against anyone. I'm last, and that's the point.
FAQ
What is a solopreneur?
A solopreneur runs a business on their own, without employees. Many still use freelancers, contractors or software for work they would otherwise hire for.
What makes a solopreneur business unique?
Usually one deliberate constraint: a single product kept for years, like Pinboard since 2009; many tiny products, like Marc Lou; or readers and members paying instead of advertisers, like Craig Mod and Anne Helen Petersen.
Can a solopreneur use AI agents instead of hiring?
For a growing share of routine work, yes. Pieter Levels describes a setup with "0 humans" and a goal of full automation, while Craig Mod uses AI for research but never for his prose. Decisions that carry risk still sit with the person.
Do solopreneurs ever hire?
Often, eventually. Eric Barone recruited a small team to help with Stardew Valley updates in 2019, and Tony Dinh works with a freelancer. Staying solo is a choice some make for good and others make for a stage.
How do solopreneurs find customers without a sales team?
Mostly by publishing: a weekly essay, like Justin Welsh; a blog running since 2003, like Simon Willison; or free work that leads to paid work, like Julia Evans's blog and zines.
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