Note:This case study was compiled from publicly available sources including Pieter’s interviews on podcasts, his X account, and his personal Youtube videos. He did not contribute directly.
Pieter's Path to Nomadism
From Economics Student to Indie Maker
Pieter Levels grew up in the Netherlands and studied economics at university. But like many digital creators, he felt a disconnect between the academic path he was on and the kind of life he wanted. He wasn’t interested in climbing the corporate ladder. Instead, he wanted freedom, and the internet seemed like the most promising way to get it.
Early Experiments: Music and YouTube
Before launching software products, Pieter found early success producing drum and bass music. He uploaded tracks to YouTube and, at one point, was earning a few thousand dollars a month in ad revenue. But as YouTube’s algorithm shifted and interest waned, the income dried up. Suddenly, he needed a new way to make money — fast.
A Step Back, Then a Leap Forward
With the music income gone, Pieter moved back to the Netherlands for a while. He described it as a low point — returning home after a taste of independence, unsure of what to do next. But that discomfort became fuel. Determined to regain his freedom, he shifted his focus fully to making things online.
12 Startups in 12 Months
In 2014, he committed to launching “12 startups in 12 months,” a public challenge that would eventually put him on the map. The goal wasn’t perfection — it was consistency. He shipped quickly, shared openly, and improved based on feedback. That challenge led to some of his biggest wins, including:
- Nomad List – A crowdsourced database of the best cities for digital nomads
- Remote OK – A job board for remote workers
- Hoodmaps – A crowdsourced map labeling cities by local vibes
By the end of the year, he had built a name for himself in the indie hacker world and proven that one person, without funding or a team, could create meaningful internet products.
Building a Business Around Travel
Pieter didn’t just build tools for nomads — he lived the lifestyle. He began traveling full-time, working from coworking spaces and cafes in cities like Bangkok, Bali, and Lisbon. His projects were designed around his own problems as a nomad, which helped them resonate with others in the community.
Rather than settling down or growing a team, Pieter leaned into his solo approach. His business, audience, and personal freedom all grew from there.
How Pieter Levels Makes a Living
A Portfolio of Bootstrapped Projects
Pieter Levels earns over $250,000/month from a growing portfolio of solo-built internet businesses. Each product solves a specific problem Pieter faced himself, and nearly all are highly automated with minimal overhead.
Below are his current public-facing projects, sorted by monthly revenue (based on recent updates from his X account):
🧠 PhotoAI.com — $132K/month
An AI-powered tool for generating professional-quality photos of yourself. Originally built to scratch his own itch (wanting better profile photos), it exploded in popularity during the rise of generative AI.
Business model: SaaS subscription
Milestone: Crossed $1M ARR in less than a year
🌍 RemoteOK.com — $41K/month
A remote job board that Pieter built off the back of Nomad List’s audience. It curates listings from companies hiring globally.
Business model: Companies pay to post jobs
Fun fact: It consistently ranks among the top remote job boards online
🛋️ InteriorAI.com — $40K/month
A tool that uses AI to redesign your room or generate interior design ideas based on your space.
Business model: Freemium with paid image generation tiers
Built entirely solo: Like most of Pieter’s tools, it was coded and launched by him alone, often in a matter of days
🧳 NomadList.com — $22K/month
The original breakout success. A crowdsourced database of cities for digital nomads, with filters like internet speed, cost of living, and safety.
Business model: One-time membership fee for access to community features and travel tools
Launched: 2014, after going viral on Reddit and Hacker News
Still maintained: It continues to be a cornerstone of the digital nomad world
🌐 Levelsio.com — $16K/month
Pieter’s personal site and the umbrella under which many of his projects live.
Likely monetization: Courses, book sales, affiliate links, and consulting requests
Notable: He used to show public revenue dashboards here, which inspired many in the indie hacker world
✈️ Fly.Pieter.com — $15K/month
A realistic flight simulator built in the browser, using WebGL.
Business model: Likely freemium with a paid tier or donations
Another solo build: Combines Pieter’s love of tech and travel
📚 MAKE (Book) — $10K/month
A digital book titled MAKE that documents his startup journey and the mindset behind building indie products.
Business model: One-time digital purchase (~$29)
Evergreen asset: It continues to sell via his site and audience
⚙️ All Bootstrapped, All Automated
Pieter famously does everything solo — from coding to design to marketing — and has hundreds of background scripts (“robots”) that automate the operation of his sites. He has no employees and only occasionally works with contractors. This ultra-lean approach allows him to scale without complexity.
Tools and Workflow
Lean, Automated, and Solo
Pieter Levels is the definition of a one-person startup studio. He codes, designs, markets, and scales everything himself — often from cafés or coworking spaces around the world. His workflow is minimal, his stack is simple, and his systems are obsessively optimized for solo operation.
🧰 Software Stack
Pieter intentionally avoids complexity. His core tools include:
- Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript (Vanilla or jQuery), with no heavy frameworks
- Backend: PHP (yes, still), sometimes Node.js
- Database: MySQL or Google Sheets for early prototypes
- Hosting: DigitalOcean, with scheduled cron jobs powering dozens of background tasks
- Payments: Stripe
- Automation: Bash scripts, CRON, and basic web scraping
- Static Sites: He prefers static or semi-static pages for speed and reliability
- Newsletter & Alerts: Email alerts via Mailgun or similar services
He once shared a screenshot of his server showing 180+ cron jobs running hourly/daily tasks — from refreshing job listings to pulling live weather data for Nomad List.
🧑💻 Daily Workflow
His day-to-day is often unstructured but productive in sprints:
- Coding sprints at night: He often works late into the night in coworking spaces (like Dojo in Bali) alongside other indie hackers
- Build publicly: Pieter tweets in-progress features, launches, and wins/struggles in real time
- Minimal meetings: He doesn’t take calls and avoids Zoom entirely
- User feedback loops: Each product includes a simple feedback box, which he reads and acts on quickly
Pieter prioritizes building momentum over perfection — most products ship within 24–72 hours, and he improves them live.
He once shared a screenshot of his server showing 180+ cron jobs running hourly and daily tasks — from refreshing job listings to pulling live weather data for Nomad List.
🧠 Creative Systems & Hacks
- Build First, Polish Later: He regularly launches “ugly” MVPs just to validate demand, then improves UX/UI once traction is proven
- Fake Payment Gates: Pieter has tested features by placing a fake Stripe checkout to see if users would pay — a clever way to validate interest without building the backend
- Organic Launch Cycles: He posts to Product Hunt, Reddit, Hacker News, and Twitter simultaneously to generate buzz
- Open Feedback Loop: Users can suggest changes directly inside the product — suggestions often get implemented within days
💻 Gear & Setup
- Laptop: MacBook Pro
- Editor: Sublime Text or VS Code
- Server Monitor: Custom dashboards and terminal scripts
- No team, no office: Everything runs from his laptop with cloud backups and automation
Pieter often says he doesn’t need a fancy setup — just good internet and caffeine.
Travel Style and Lifestyle
Pieter Levels has been one of the most visible faces of the digital nomad movement — not just through his products, but in how he lives. He’s been traveling for over a decade, often bouncing between Asia and Europe, optimizing for good internet, warm weather, and an affordable cost of living.
🏝 Preferred Regions
Pieter’s early travels took him across Southeast Asia — cities like Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Bali, and Ho Chi Minh City show up frequently in his content and product history. These were also the early hubs of the remote work movement that inspired Nomad List itself.
Over time, he’s also spent long periods in:
- Portugal (particularly Lisbon)
- Japan, where he developed a deep appreciation for Tokyo
- The Netherlands, where he returns occasionally to visit family
He’s a strong proponent of Asia for digital nomads, especially in the early stages of building products due to the low cost and high quality of life.
🛫 Travel Pace: Solo, Lean, Long-Term
Pieter is a “slowmad” by default — preferring to stay weeks or months in one place to get into a deep work rhythm. He usually flies solo, rents Airbnbs or month-to-month apartments, and often sets up a simple routine: laptop, good Wi-Fi, and strong coffee.
He avoids the constant churn of tourist-style travel. His lifestyle is built for flow — minimal possessions, no fixed office, and few obligations.
He once described his move into nomad life as a clean break: sold everything, canceled his lease, packed a laptop and camera, and bought a one-way ticket to Asia.
☕ Favorite Routines & Rituals
- Long nights in coworking spaces like Dojo Bali, often working on product ideas until 2–3am
- Keeping things minimalist — both digitally and physically
- Building in public as a creative anchor: tweeting, sharing screenshots, engaging with feedback in real time
During a rough period early in his journey, he returned to the Netherlands and fell into a deep depression. The cold weather, isolation, and lack of direction pushed him to double down on indie hacking. He often credits that discomfort with pushing him to rebuild his life and business from the ground up.
🏠 Housing Preferences
No vanlife, no coliving hype — Pieter keeps it simple and solo. He rents temporary places with solid Wi-Fi and desk space.
If anything, his dream home is his server — it works 24/7 while he travels freely.
Vision and Philosophy
At his core, Pieter Levels is driven by a deep desire for freedom, independence, and creative autonomy. He’s never chased traditional startup validation — no funding rounds, no Silicon Valley hype, no teams of 50. Instead, he’s become a global symbol of what’s possible when one person learns to ship fast, build in public, and monetize directly.
“You’re not wrong. The timing is wrong.”
— One of Pieter’s most quoted takes on trusting your instincts
🎯 What Drives Him
- Self-sufficiency: Pieter’s obsession with automation stems from a belief that modern tech allows solo founders to do what used to require large teams
- Efficiency over ego: He doesn’t care for polished offices or big branding. His success is built on ugly but functional code, raw honesty, and relentless iteration
- Helping others break free: Through his transparency and tools, Pieter empowers thousands of people to escape traditional 9–5s and find remote work or build products of their own
💡 Views on Money & Success
Pieter doesn’t idolize luxury. His focus has always been financial freedom, not wealth for its own sake. He lives simply, reinvests in his products, and avoids lifestyle inflation.
For him, success is being able to wake up every day and work on exactly what he wants — without clients, investors, or bosses.
He’s known for saying that “freedom is better than funding,” and his actions back that up. Pieter makes millions in revenue across his products, yet still codes solo in coffee shops, often wearing the same black tank top.
🧠 Long-Term Goals & Projects
Even after achieving financial independence, Pieter keeps building. Some of his current and evolving goals include:
- Expanding PhotoAI, his newest and most lucrative product, into the broader generative AI space
- Improving RemoteOK and Nomad List to adapt to the post-pandemic remote work boom
- Automating more of his business operations to create passive income with minimal human input
- Writing and sharing more openly via his book and blog to inspire others following the indie path
- Exploring deeper tech — possibly robotics or hardware — and experimenting with the idea of a basic income platform or early-stage funding for indie hackers (though nothing formal yet)
Lessons and Takeaways
Pieter Levels didn’t follow the rules — and that’s exactly the point. His journey offers a blueprint for anyone tired of waiting for permission to build. From launching 12 startups in 12 months to turning a simple spreadsheet into a $1M+ business, his career is packed with scrappy, unconventional lessons.
🔥 Tips for Aspiring Nomads
- Start before you’re ready: Pieter didn’t wait until he was an expert. He built in public, Googled his way through coding, and improved along the way
- Travel with your laptop, not a plan: His nomad life started by selling everything, booking a flight to Asia, and figuring things out as he went
- Live lean at first: Early on, he was making $500–700/month. That gave him room to experiment while living in low-cost cities like Chiang Mai and Ho Chi Minh
📉 Lessons from Mistakes
- Don’t trust the hype: He spent too much time reading TechCrunch and chasing startup myths before realizing bootstrapping was a better fit
- Build small before you think big: Trying to “disrupt an industry” on day one is a trap. Solve your own problems first, then scale from there
- Ignore the haters: As soon as he found success, critics showed up — on Reddit, on Twitter, and in the press. He learned to disengage and keep shipping
🧠 Advice He Repeats Often
“Learn to code. If you’re not coding, you’ll probably be unemployed.”
He’s blunt, but not wrong. Pieter is vocal about the power of learning to build your own tools — even if it’s just basic HTML and JavaScript. His biggest advice for indie hackers and nomads:
- Solve your own problems
- Share your work early and often
- Monetize quickly — don’t wait
- Automate what you hate doing
📚 Influences & Resources
- Books: While he rarely references books directly, his thinking aligns with The 4-Hour Workweek and Company of One
- People: He credits Patrick McKenzie (patio11) as a major influence, especially around validating SaaS ideas and charging money
- Platforms: He encourages building on Twitter/X, Product Hunt, Reddit, and niche communities — not chasing Instagram clout
Whether you agree with his methods or not, Pieter’s playbook is a masterclass in lean execution, solo entrepreneurship, and staying true to your weird ideas.
If there’s one big takeaway: you don’t need funding, a team, or a perfect plan — you just need to start.
Where to Follow Him
You can follow Pieter and explore his projects here:
- 🌍 Explore his community for remote workers at Nomad List
- 🐦 Follow his live updates and product launches on Twitter
- 📘 Read his book on solo entrepreneurship at ReadMake.com