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Pieter Levels is a prime example of self-taught success in the tech and digital nomad communities.

Although he began with a business degree, Levels moved from being a disengaged employee to becoming a leader in the digital nomad movement.

His path from coding as a hobby to becoming a multimillionaire highlights his ability to spot niche markets and leverage them through determination, self-taught coding skills, and an understanding of community needs.

Pieter Levels has created several businesses that enhance the digital nomad lifestyle. Here’s a short list of the startups he shipped:

• Levels.vc $209K/m

• PhotoAI.com $53K/m

• InteriorAI.com $47K/m

• NomadList.com $30K/m

• RemoteOK.com $51K/m

Pieter Levels is known for his transparency in sharing his income, which is quite remarkable.

But it's important to remember he didn't start off at the top. He put in a lot of hard work and dedication to reach his current position.

Now, let's dive into his inspiring story!

After graduation, Pieter Levels made money by posting music on YouTube.

After business college, Pieter Levels earned $2,000-$3,000 monthly by uploading music to YouTube, choosing this over a traditional job.

But the home-bound routine and the moral gray area of using others' music took a toll on his well-being.

On a friend's advice, he sold his belongings and traveled with just his laptop. While nomading through Asia, his income dropped, making it hard to get by.

Struggling, he returned to his parents' house in the Netherlands to reflect on his life.

Seeing peers in prestigious jobs, while he faced dwindling earnings, Pieter began to seek a fresh direction.

12 Startups in 12 Months

With a need for innovation, Pieter Levels embarked on his ambitious plan to launch 12 startups in 12 months.

For more insights, his blog offers an in-depth look at his journey.

Fail Fast, Win Fast

Peter’s first startup, "Play My Inbox," drawing on his experience of sharing music with friends via email. This app let users create playlists from the music they sent to each other.

Levels often focuses on personal challenges in his projects, advising developers to "Focus on your own issues first when developing services!" Despide the fact "Play My Inbox" didn't make money, he found the process exciting anyway.

The next venture pursued was "gifbook," a service designed to print animated GIFs into physical books. Unlike purely digital services, gifbook involved real-world logistics like printing and delivery, which significantly reduced the profit margins. Due to these financial challenges, Levels eventually decided to shut the service down.

Thirt was a boldly named service, "Go Fucking Do It." Users set a goal and a deadline, linked their credit card, and faced a financial penalty if they failed to meet their goal. Surprisingly, the service brought in about $500 a month, enough for Levels to live on.

Initially, Levels considered a more conventional name but opted for the provocative "Go Fucking Do It," which included the expletive to grab attention and create buzz. This experience led him to conclude that using unique and daring phrases in marketing can be more effective than opting for common names.

And the winning project is Nomad List, which he founded while searching for the best places to live as a nomad. He couldn't find a comprehensive resource online that compared cities by cost, weather, and internet quality, so he created it himself.

Starting with just a spreadsheet shared on Twitter, the concept quickly gained traction when he mistakenly allowed public editing, leading to widespread community contributions. Recognizing the strong demand, Levels developed it into a full-fledged service.

Today, Nomad List earns about 30k per month, demonstrating the power of solving a personal need and gradually building a product with community input.

In a similar way, his other project, Remote OK, provides a job board for remote workers and brings in around $51,000 per month, following the same principles of addressing specific needs and fostering user participation.

>95% of everything I ever did failed. So ship more

Pieter Levels has successfully tapped into the AI trend of 2023, launching several high-earning services. Notably, his ventures PhotoAI.com and InteriorAI.com bring in $53K and $47K in monthly recurring revenue.

Combined, these AI services contribute roughly $390K monthly, which translates to about $4.7M annually.

These platforms utilize AI to create personalized images, offering users the ability to generate artistic portraits and stylish interior designs for their homes.

After Levels posted the initial AI-generated images on Twitter and saw a positive reaction, and he developed these capabilities into fully-fledged services.

How did he manage to become a solopreneur making $4.7M a year?

Despite the apparent simplicity in their development, the significant revenue they generate is quite unexpected.

The complexity behind these services, along with their challenges, is something Levels discusses in more detail in a YouTube video, providing deeper insights into the workings of AI-driven businesses.

In this video, he shares the challenges of launching a personal development AI startup today.

With AI development becoming more accessible, the market is highly competitive and ideas can be quickly replicated.

Keeping up with the rapid advancements in AI is also crucial.

He's chosen to fund his venture independently, avoiding VC funding, which makes competing with well-funded Silicon Valley firms tough.

To differentiate his service, he's already fine-tuned his AI model and recognizes the need to further enhance his skills in Python and AI.

Despite finding these areas challenging, he remains committed to innovation.

He points out that with tools like ChatGPT making coding more accessible, anyone with a knack for planning and marketing can now create and launch AI-driven services.

He encourages everyone to continue exploring new technologies and launching innovative services.

Lessons Learned:

Pieter Levels has shared many lessons from his journey as a solo entrepreneur, focusing on indie startups. Here are some key points he has learned:

1. Ship Quickly and Iterate: Levels emphasizes the importance of launching quickly and not getting bogged down in perfectionism.

   He believes in shipping imperfect products and improving them based on user feedback, underscoring that "done is better than perfect"​

2. Solve Your Own Problems: He often talks about the value of building solutions for problems you personally understand.

   This approach not only ensures a deeper understanding of the issues but also provides a more passionate base from which to work​ 

3. Use Familiar Tools: Levels advises against getting caught up in the latest technology for the sake of trendiness.

   Instead, he suggests using technologies that you are comfortable with and switching only when you've outgrown them, which helps maintain productivity and focus​.

4. Build in Public: Sharing the development process openly has been a significant part of Levels' approach.

   This transparency helps build an audience, receive immediate feedback, and create a community around the products from the early stages​.

5. Embrace Change and Flexibility: He underscores the importance of being adaptable and flexible, ready to pivot or shift focus as needed.

   This approach has allowed him to stay relevant and continually find new opportunities within the fast-paced tech landscape​.

These lessons reflect Levels' practical, no-nonsense approach to entrepreneurship, focused on rapid development, personal connection to the product, and an openness to learning and adapting as needed.

His success with multiple platforms attests to the effectiveness of these strategies.

Conclusion:

A tough truth: for every Pieter Levels, there are countless others who don't make it.

Should that stop you from trying? Absolutely not.

Failing isn't the end if you keep pushing forward. If you don't give up, you haven't truly failed—you've simply learned and adjusted.

Let Levels' story inspire you. The biggest challenge in breaking into the industry is often the doubt about whether your idea is good enough.

So go ahead and take the leap. If it doesn't work out, learn from it and move on. Pieter Levels proved that success isn't about having everything figured out from the start—it's about having the courage to try.

If he could achieve so much with just a laptop, a backpack, and his determination, what’s really holding you back?