Pieter Levels: Millions on Outdated PHP. Why One Programmer is More Successful than an Entire Startup

Philosophy and MVP

Analyzing Pieter Levels' Approach: How One Person Creates an Empire of Online Services

Pieter Levels (levels.io) is a unique phenomenon in the world of digital business. He didn't attract millions in investments, didn't build a team of hundreds, and didn't use complex corporate strategies. Instead, he proved that one person, armed with the right philosophy, simple tools, and incredible discipline, can create and maintain several profitable projects that together generate millions of dollars in revenue.

His approach is a ready-made guide to action for indie developers, startup founders, and anyone who wants to create digital products while remaining independent.

The "Solo Entrepreneur" Philosophy: Speed, Action, Independence

At the core are several key principles that Levels not only preaches but also rigorously applies in practice.

1. Speed and action as a foundation. Levels has elevated speed to an absolute. His philosophy is not about the "perfect idea," but the "idea launched into the world." He doesn't strive for perfectionism but brings a minimally viable product (MVP) to market to immediately test its viability. His famous "12 startups in 12 months" challenge was a method to combat analysis paralysis and fear of launching. It forced him to move from long deliberations to a "made-launched-tested" cycle.

2. Solo development and independence. Levels is one of the brightest representatives of the indie hacker movement. He never attracted venture investments and managed without hired employees for years. This allows him to maintain full control over the products, make quick decisions, and not waste time on management and reporting to investors. As he himself noted, many startup founders with multimillion-dollar funding privately admit they envy his "more fun, independent, and creative approach."

3. Creativity as a driver. For Pieter, creating products is primarily a creative process that brings joy. He does it not just for money, but for the sake of creation itself. Even if a project doesn't bring significant profit, he can continue working on it because it brings him joy and is a meaningful activity.

Practical Implementation: The Art of MVP by Levels

Levels is a master of creating Minimally Viable Products (MVP). His approach is a benchmark guide for applying this concept.

• Extreme simplicity and focus. He doesn't build complex systems. His MVPs often represent the simplest solutions testing one key hypothesis. For example, the Nomad List service didn't start with a website but with a public Google sheet he opened for collaborative editing. Only when this "sheet" proved its value and gathered a lot of data did he turn it into a full-fledged site. This perfectly illustrates the principle: first, confirm demand, then build.

• Manual labor instead of automation. Levels doesn't spend time automating processes until there's confirmed demand. A striking example is the launch of Photo AI. Initially, it was a simple HTML page with a Stripe payment link and a form for uploading photos. There was no backend at all: Levels manually downloaded images and ran them through a model. When 1,000 people paid for the service in the first 24 hours, it became solid proof of demand, and only then did he start writing code for automation. This is a direct adherence to Paul Graham's famous principle: "Do things that don't scale."

• MVP as market research. Levels admits he often doesn't know the exact business model of a future service. He learns from users. After launching the MVP for Nomad List, he saw companies starting to send requests to post job listings for digital nomads. Thus, monetization was formed, which he hadn't initially planned.

Tools, Marketing, and Monetization

Tools and Technologies: Minimalism as a Superpower

Levels' tech stack is deliberately simple and almost archaic by modern standards. He consciously avoids trendy frameworks, believing they often unnecessarily complicate the process.

• Frontend: HTML, CSS, Vanilla JavaScript, and jQuery. He notes that he doesn't use React or Vue because jQuery and native JS handle his tasks well and don't require complex build systems.

• Backend: PHP (often older versions) and SQLite. The advantage of SQLite is its incredible simplicity - it's a single file that's easy to copy and back up.

• Infrastructure: Inexpensive VPS (e.g., DigitalOcean), Cloudflare for caching and protection. For monitoring, he uses UptimeRobot in conjunction with custom healthcheck scripts in PHP that inform him about the state of services.

His credo: complex frameworks require constant updates, are subject to trends and marketing, while simple technologies are stable and "just work." This allows him to deploy and maintain sites cheaply and with minimal effort.

Marketing and Monetization: Transparency and Smart Models

1. "Build in Public" Strategy
   Levels is a benchmark in following this principle. He openly shares on Twitter and his blog the entire development process - not only successes but also failures, metrics, revenues, and even routine. This extreme transparency creates an incredible level of trust and audience loyalty, turning followers into co-participants in his journey.

2. Engineering as Marketing
   He creates small but useful tools (e.g., Hoodmaps - a crowdsourced city district map) that attract traffic and increase brand awareness. These projects serve as advertisements for his larger products.

3. Community as an Asset
   Levels realized that media spikes quickly fade. To retain the audience, he created the #nomads community in Slack for Nomad List users. This created a network effect: participants generate content, help each other, and share links to Levels' products. The community became not only a marketing channel but also a source of invaluable feedback and new ideas.

4. Flexible Pricing
   In monetization, Levels also adheres to the principle of simplicity and honesty. For example, for Nomad List, he offered a lifetime membership instead of a monthly subscription, arguing that he doesn't like unexpected charges for users. He set the price intuitively, based on demand: if sales were too fast, he raised it; if they slowed, he lowered it.

Part 3/3: Cases, Finances, and Conclusions

Success Cases: From Spreadsheet to Empire

• Nomad List (2014): A directory of the best cities for digital nomads. Launched as a Google sheet, it grew into a full-fledged site with its own community. It became profitable from the first month. Growth was ensured by SEO optimization (each filter combination has its own URL to capture long-tail queries) and community marketing.

• Remote OK (2015): A platform for finding remote work. It was launched on a simple stack, carefully prepared for release on Product Hunt (posting at the right time, accompanied by tweets with GIFs) and immediately attracted 100,000 visits, taking first place. It is monetized through paid job postings from companies.

• AI Projects (2022): Proved the effectiveness of his approach in a new field. The MVP Photo AI, launched in one day, brought in 1,000 customers in the first day. Levels quickly replicated the successful model, creating several image generation services (interiors, avatars).

Scale and Financial Results

Levels' approach has yielded impressive financial results. As of 2022, his annual income was about $2.95 million, 70-90% of which is net profit. This income is formed from a portfolio of projects:

Levels' financial strategy aligns with his digital nomad lifestyle: he doesn't burden himself with possessions and invests the majority of his income in low-risk ETFs and other assets.

Practical Conclusions for Every Creator

Pieter Levels' approach proves that in the digital age, one person, armed with the right philosophy and simple tools, can create products that impact millions of lives and generate significant income.

1. Launch quickly, learn on the go. Don't strive for perfection, aim for feedback from real users.

2. Do things that don't scale first. Manual labor at the start is not shameful but effective for testing hypotheses.

3. Use simple technologies. They save time, nerves, and money on hosting and maintenance.

4. Be open. Share your process with the world - it's the best and most honest marketing.

5. Create for pleasure. Internal motivation and creativity are the most powerful and enduring drivers.

6. Listen to users. Let the market shape your business model.

7. Automate the routine. Scripts for monitoring and error handling allow one person to manage a fleet of services.

His story is not just a success story in IT, but a manifesto of independence, creativity, and practical ingenuity in the digital age. It's a roadmap for those who want to create meaningful projects while remaining masters of their time and work.