Ethan Orenstein

I swear I work on projects that I scale and monetize too, but while I was working my TIDE LOG app I decided to remaster and re-release my retro surfing mobile game too. Flappy-surfing fun for the whole family! #buildinpublic #indiehacker

Just launched a quick app project to pass the time while I wait for some data from a paid campaign to roll in.

#buildinpublic

When you're starting a new project, you don't know what you don't know.

You're probably gaming out second and third order problems you may never even encounter.

Pick something. Learn it. Move on.

After my first big failure, my options were:

- Try a new idea
- Get a normal job again

I looked back at everything I'd learned in 6 months of "failing" and option 1 sounded way more appealing and possible.

#buildinpublic

It's the least scrappy I've ever operated while still remaining pretty darn scrappy.

A lot of my past success came from B2C affiliate offers via organic & more recently paid. A lot of that was pretty darn scrappy and done by myself.

This week - scoping out a new B2C project, initial test campaign, and hiring some freelancers to test creatives.

haha yes

It's like giant, flashing exit signs asking you, "Do you really want to set your money on fire?"

Yes! Let me.

Setting up new accounts/assets on Meta/Tiktok business & ad managers is such a f***ing pain. I think that may be intentional.

All of my programming knowledge is self-taught. All of my experience is from projects of my own. I started out as a journalist!

You don't need credentials to build things.

You just need to start building things. You'll learn what you need when you need it.

#buildinpublic #indiehacker

2025’s biggest success for me was paid campaigns to lead sales.

I do think pretty much anything can work though - not magically and not without execution. But it’s a big world out there.

Anything can work. Pick one. Learn the systems. Replicate & repeat.

2023-2024ish came with some setbacks. 2025 had some successful tests. 2026 is about execution & scale & diversification.

#buildinpublic

The types of money printers I've built over 10 years:

- Physical, digital, and print-on-demand products
- MicroSaaS subscriptions
- Lead capture and lead sales
- Affiliate marketing projects

Exactly - whatever works for you is what works

Thanks for the feedback - that's a great suggestion.

What's your big idea for 2026?

Claim your free url, start building and validating at www.slapplaunch.com

#buildinpublic #indiehacker

Check it out at www.slapplaunch.com

#buildinpublic #indiehacker

One more to close out 2025: SLAPPlaunch.

A platform designed to validate and share ideas (at any stage), find your first users, and collect feedback via simple surveys - all while building SEO to your owned properties with dofollow links & editable landing pages.

Start for free - happy new year!

I didn't really get Tailwind CSS at first. Why am I using bastardized style rules as class names?

But once I got the hang of it, styling on the fly while building became way faster.

Just another flow to make building and shipping faster for me.

Good analogy haha

Not live yet, no users - I'm avoiding overengineering.

Here's a little preview:

Skip the finer polish on V1:

I'm working on a validation/distribution tool -

I was about to jump into building some custom skeleton loaders for my dynamic pages.

Stopped myself real quick and opted for a simple loading.tsx for the routes (nextjs).

Keep it simple, stupid.

#buildinpublic

SEOs describing Google Search Console or basic site search operators to see how your site is indexed like they're some mystical secret weapon got to stop.

SEO is not that complicated.

To launch a basic service business online, you need:

A website
Lead capture
A CRM
Email
Scheduling
Invoicing and payments

That can be up to 6 different tools before you've made a dollar if you're not careful.

I built serviceCRM to solve that.

VOL 1. Closes out 2025 with a bit of my background and what to expect from the project.

In early 2026, you can find some tools for validating/distributing your new ideas, solution for A/B testing & improving your conversion rates, and some other fun stuff.

Happy Slappin!

#buildinpublic

Happy to say I've stuck to my goal of publishing consecutive weekly issues & videos of THE SLAPPY WEEKLY: slappshell.com/resou… & youtube.com/@Slap…SLAPPSHELL is my new project condensing my experience in running online businesses over the past 10 years into products, tools, and services.

(re)Building a money printer:

Start with the parts of the blueprint you know are working.

Try something new for the parts that failed.

Repeat.

More money printing blueprints from SLAPPSHELL coming in 2026 & beyond.

Google, Meta, etc. will happily take all the ad spend you give them.

If you're running paid campaigns without good conversion tracking (or poor conversions in general), pause them and fix that first.

You'll be happy you did.

serviceCRM is essentially a turn-key business platform (whether you're a service business or website developer).

But, any successful launch requires 2 things: validation + distribution.

SLAPPSHELL has a solution for that coming soon.

Will check it out - thanks!

Logo File Maker Upload or design custom logo files for your applications with our easy-to-use Logo File Maker tool. Get all the sizes you'll need for your application, favicons, and social profiles.

Here’s a gift:

that idea you’ve got?

The v1 can be started for free with nothing more than a laptop.

Oh, you still need to make a logo, favicon, different sizes?

Merry XMas, just do the damn thing

www.slappshell.com/logo-file-ma...

#buildinpublic #indiehacker