Charlie Clark - How a solo founder took a side project from an idea to $300k+ ARR product!
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Charlie Clark - How a solo founder took a side project from an idea to $300k+ ARR product!

πŸ‘‰πŸΌ About the Guest:

Charlie Clark is a software engineer, creative coder, & bootstrapped founder who has grown his short links product, Liinks, to $25K MRR just 3 years after it officially launched.

πŸ‘‰πŸΌ About the Host:

Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 24,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. He recently sold his second SaaS product, GuestLab, and he is working on a startup idea while hosting this show.

πŸ‘‰πŸΌ Sponsor Corner:

Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/


πŸ‘‰πŸΌ Description:

Listen in as Sharath and Charlie discuss being a bootstrapped founder, building in a saturated market, making your side project a full time job, and more!
 
πŸ‘‰πŸΌ Timestamps:
  • 00:00: Episode Highlight
  • 00:35: Shoutout to Acquire.com
  • 03:01: Intro to Charlie Clark - founder of Liinks, a beautiful link-in-bio page to gather your socials, music, videos, and more
  • 04:52: Why is Liinks spelled with two ii's?
  • 05:28: Why short links are better
  • 07:35: Why Charlie set $25K MRR as a target to quit his full-time job
  • 11:07: How Charlie designed Liinks to be clean, yet fun
  • 15:41: How to convince people to buy your product
  • 20:35: Learnings as a second-time founder
  • 22:45: Why Liinks: Building in a saturated market
  • 27:20: How to know if you want to commit to your project full-time
  • 30:51: How to market in a saturated market
  • 36:25: How to make creator-led products profitable
  • 40:20: How Charlie made Liinks aesthetically pleasing 
  • 43:45: How working at Squarespace helped Liinks grow
  • 48:45: Frameworks Charlie uses for growth, design, and user retention
  • 50:10: How to balance user requests vs your own roadmap?
  • 53:51: How will AI impact the future of Liinks?
  • 58:08: Why Charlie chose the solo founder route
  • 1:00:55: Why Charlie bootstrapped Liinks vs raising venture capital
  • 1:02:53: Outro and closing thoughts
πŸ‘‰πŸΌ Resources:
πŸ‘‰πŸΌ Where to find Charlie:
  • Liinks: https://www.liinks.co/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/clarkcharlie03
  • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarkcharlie03
  • vsual: https://www.vsual.co/closing
  • Emoji Book: http://emojibook.club/
  • Colors of Motion: https://thecolorsofmotion.com/
πŸ‘‰πŸΌ Where to find Sharath:

Episode Video