Luca Restagno
Indie hacker and bootstrapped SaaS founder; build‑in‑public lessons, resilience, and lean growth.
Small Wins, Big Miss: Another Unfinished Migration
Friday log, week 57. Built 1 feature. Killed 1 idea. Replied to 31 comments. Wrote 17 posts. Did not finish the migration I swore I'd ship. Here we go again.
Unexpected Detours Often Become Your Greatest Successes
At 25 I had a plan. Senior dev by 30. Staff engineer by 35. Maybe a startup by 40. Here's what actually happened: Got fired at 37. Built 8 products. 7 flopped. Never made it to FAANG. Started snowboarding for the first time at 40. Cofounded...
Use AI to Challenge Your Thinking, Not Just Type Faster
Most people use AI to type faster. The unlock is using it to think differently. What's the most useful thing you've ever asked an AI to disagree with you about?
Second Daily Post Reveals Your True Audience
Posting twice a day for a year taught me something. The second post is the one that finds your real audience. Most people post once and check 6 times. Try posting twice and checking once. Different muscles.
Protecting Quiet Mornings: My Weekly Planning Ritual
Sunday morning ritual. Open the laptop before the house wakes up. Plan the week. Write 2 posts. Don't open Twitter. Do open Threads for 10 minutes to check replies. This used to feel like work. Now it feels like the quiet part...
AI Mastery Demands Skill, Not Laziness
The developers who say "AI makes you lazy" haven't tried using it for a full week. Using AI well is harder than writing the code yourself. You have to know what to ask, when to push back, and when to throw...
Silence Fuels My Most Meaningful Posts
The posts I wrote on days I had nothing to say are the ones that ended up meaning the most.
5 Real Writing Rules Behind 1,200+ Posts
I've written 1,200+ social media posts in the last year. here are 5 writing rules I actually follow. none of them are "use hooks" or "add emojis."
Solo Founder’s Daily Tech Stack for Side Project
My actual tech stack for building BlackTwist as a solo founder with a full-time job. No fluff. Just the tools I use every day and why.
Consistency Builds Momentum, Enabling Viral Success
I've posted every day for 365+ days. Some posts got 200K views. Some got 50. The ones that got 50 still mattered. Because the habit of showing up is what made the 200K ones possible.
Four Surprising Threads Creator Trends From March
We track data from 2,000 Threads creators every month. Here are 4 findings from March that surprised me.
AI Chat Generates, Schedules Threads in Your Voice
honestly I manage almost all my Threads content through Claude now. I open a chat, tell it what I want to post, it drafts it in my voice, I approve, and it schedules directly through BlackTwist. no dashboard. no copy-paste. just a...
Consistent Posting Beats Courses in Marketing Mastery
400 days posting on Threads. Not every post was good. Some were terrible. A few I'd delete if I could find them. But 400 days of showing up taught me more about marketing than any course I ever took. Consistency isn't glamorous. It's just effective.
Eight Products, Four Years: My Most Painful Lessons
I built 8 products in 4 years. Here's what each one taught me, ranked by how painful the lesson was.
Replies Boost Followers: End Posts with a Question
We analyzed 21,864 Threads posts last month. Creators who got 500+ replies grew 10% in followers. Likes are nice. Replies move the needle. If your posts aren't getting replies, add a question at the end. Simple.
Reinventing at 40: Embrace Failure, Start Fresh
I'm 40. Born in '85. And you won't find this on my resume. 5 AM weekends for 1.5 years. Startup went nowhere. Left my city at 27. Procrastinated my own dreams for 6 straight years. Built a SaaS to €3K MRR. Elon's API pricing killed...
Human Judgment, Not Speed, Remains Developer's Edge
The part of development AI can't touch (yet): Knowing which problem to solve. AI can write the code. It can suggest the architecture. It can even draft the marketing copy. But deciding "this is the feature that matters, and that one doesn't" still...
Passion Fuels Early Morning Side‑Hustle, No Regrets
Sunday morning. Family's still sleeping. Coffee's going. Laptop open. This is when the real work happens. Not because I have to. Because I want to. Building something on the side of a 9 to 5 means your weekends aren't really weekends. And...
Post 5+ Times Weekly, Grow 3× Faster
Creators who post 5+ times a week on Threads grow 3x faster than those who post once. That's not opinion. That's from our February report analyzing 255 creators and 27M views. Consistency wins. Every time. We built BlackTwist to make that easier. Schedule...
Fall First, Grow Later: Start Anything Now
Started snowboarding at 40 with zero experience. Spent the first 3 days falling. Bruises everywhere. A 12 year old flew past me doing tricks. But there's something about learning from scratch at an age where you're "supposed" to have it figured out. It...
Hidden Milestones Reveal Real Indie Hacker Progress
SIGNS YOU'RE ACTUALLY MAKING PROGRESS AS AN INDIE HACKER: (even when it doesn't feel like it)
Post on Saturdays for 40% More Views
Most Threads creators think weekdays are the best time to post. We analyzed 20,000+ posts from 255 creators last month. Saturday averaged 2,912 views per post. That's 40% higher than Wednesday. Everyone takes weekends off. That's exactly why you shouldn't.
Daily Posts Compound: 182k Views vs 50
Quick math on consistency. Post once a day for 365 days. Assume each post gets 500 views (that's low for active accounts). That's 182,500 views in a year. From one post a day. Most people post for 2 weeks, see 50 views, and...
Stop Planning, Ship Early—Learn More From Failure
"Still planning" is the most expensive hobby in tech. I know because I did it for 6 years. Read every blog post. Took every course. Built nothing. Then I shipped something ugly. It made $200. That $200 taught me more than 6...
Consistency Beats Metrics: Show up Daily and Build
Founder to founder. I don't care about your follower count. I don't care about your revenue. I care that you show up every day and build. If that's you, let's connect. What are you working on right now?
Career Paths Aren't Linear: Rebuild After 30
I'm 40. Born in '85. My resume doesn't tell this story. At 25 I woke up at 5 AM on weekends for 1.5 years for a startup. It failed. At 27 I left my city. Nothing left to lose. Procrastinated my dreams for 6...
AI Turns Developers Into Editors with Architectural Insight
Most people use AI to write code faster. I use it to think about architecture differently. When Claude can generate any function in seconds, the valuable skill becomes knowing which function to build. And which ones to skip entirely. We aren't coders anymore....
Imperfect Consistency Beats Waiting for Perfect Weeks
I'm 40 with a full time job, a partner, a dog, and a side project that somehow keeps growing. People ask me how I manage it all. Honestly? I don't. Some weeks I nail it. Other weeks the side project gets nothing....
Start Writing Even When Stuck; Ideas Follow
My content creation process, fully honest: Step 1: "I have nothing to say today" Step 2: Open laptop anyway Step 3: Write 4 posts in 20 minutes Step 4: "Where did those come from?" Here's why this keeps working.
Rest Is Part of Growth—Skip Posting when Exhausted
Friday reminder. You don't have to post today if you're exhausted. The algorithm won't punish you. Your audience won't forget you. Your growth won't disappear. Take a breath. Rest is part of the strategy too. (yes I'm telling myself this as much as...
Talk to Users, Not Just Add Features
Your side project doesn't need more features. It needs more conversations with the people using it.
Let AI Code, Users Map, You Set Vision
AI writes your code. Users write your roadmap. The only thing you need to write yourself is the vision.
AI Handles Code, You Focus on What to Build
I'm 40 and I just mass deleted 200 lines of code I spent 3 hours writing. Then I asked Claude to rewrite the whole thing in 8 minutes. The old me would've been frustrated. The current me? Relieved. Writing code isn't the job...
Real Product Decisions Come From Listening, Not Roadmaps
The exciting part of building a product is launching something new. The part that actually matters is what you do the week after. This week I'll be reading every comment. Watching how people use the MCP server. Fixing whatever breaks. Talking to...
Being a Generalist Fueled My Startup Success
I'm 40. I've been told my whole career that you need to specialize. Pick one thing. Go deep. Become the expert. I did the opposite. And it's the reason BlackTwist exists.
Talk More, Code Less: Users Shape Your Roadmap
Unpopular opinion. Most indie hackers spend too much time building and not enough time talking. I spent 3 hours last week on calls with 4 users. Zero lines of code written. It was the most productive week I've had in months. The...
Future-Proof Careers Need Product Sense, Not Just Code
Controversial opinion. Most coding bootcamps are preparing people for jobs that AI will automate in 3 years. The skill that matters now is not writing code. It's knowing what to build and for whom. Learn to talk to users. The rest is...
Your Vision Drives Product; AI and Users Handle Execution
AI writes your code. Users write your roadmap. The only thing you need to write yourself is the vision.
Organic Threads Buzz Drives 534 Monthly Visits
A number that keeps me up at night: 534. That's how many people visit BlackTwist from Threads every month. Not from ads. Not from SEO. From Threads itself. People on Threads are talking about us — without us asking. That's the kind of...
All‑in‑One Free Scheduler & Growth Engine for Threads
BlackTwist is the scheduling and growth tool built specifically for Threads. What we do: - Schedule and queue posts - AI Post Generator (write posts in your voice — beta) - Analytics and engagement tracking - Engager (reply to your audience faster) - Threads100 Challenge (100...
Bootstrapped Founders: Validate, Then Cut 9 of 10 Features
Being a bootstrapped founder is writing down 10 features users might want, then talking to actual customers and deleting 9 of them.
Never Too Late: Success Can Start at 40
Shipped my first SaaS at 36. Sold it at 38. Failed 3 projects at 39. Found product-market fit at 40. At 40 - I'm finally building something I love. You are NEVER too late to start.
Side Projects Overpromise Hours, End Up Endless Refactoring
Having a day job while building is promising yourself you'll code for 2 focused hours after work, then opening your laptop and refactoring variable names for 90 minutes.
Consistent Shipping Beats Quitting, Long Hours, and VC
You DON'T need to: • Quit your job • Work 80 hours/week • Raise VC funding You DO need to: • Ship consistently • Talk to users • Build in public 6 months of focused side-project work can change everything. You'll be ahead of most builders.
Side Hustle SaaS Success Comes With Brutal Realities
I'm 40, I've built 7 SaaS products since 2022. Hivoe, Inboxs, Userdesk, Shipped, BlackTwist, and 2 that flopped hard. And I still have my 9-5. Here are 8 brutal truths about indie hacking on the side:
Redefine Success: Sustainable Income Over VC Scaling
After 2 years of indie hacking, my definition of success needed a full reboot. The Old Code: → Quit the 9-5 → Scale to $100k MRR → Raise VC funding The New Code: → Keep my stable income → Build to $2k MRR sustainably → Own my mornings...
Stop Overplanning, Ship a Broken Product This Weekend
How to stay at $0 MRR: - Wake up with an idea - Spend 3 hours on the logo - Research competitors all day - Plan the perfect tech stack - Watch startup YouTube - Redesign the landing page - Tell yourself "next week" - Repeat. Instead: Ship something broken...
Founder-Product Fit: Solve Your Own Problem
I was building products nobody wanted, burning money on APIs, and watching SaaS after SaaS stall out. So yeah, not my finest chapter. And when you're stuck in that loop, you start asking different questions. The one that changed everything: "Am I solving MY...
Iterate, Launch, Pivot: My Personal Success Formula
I started Twitter in 2021 as JavaScript content creator. Grew to 20k followers Launched an MVP SaaS end 2021 hivoe.com $3k MRR in 12 months Launched another SaaS inboxs.io $1k MRR in 8 months Elon changed API pricing to $42k/month - I had to sell...
Freedom Beats Titles: New Status Is Time and Ownership
Old status symbols: - Senior Engineer title - FAANG on LinkedIn - €100k salary - Corner office New status symbols: - Time freedom - Side income streams - Building what you want - Owning your code Freedom is the ultimate flex.