In the summer of 2014, Pieter Levels popped open a Google Spreadsheet to rank cities for digital nomads. He had zero backers, no partner, and no master plan. Just Wi-Fi, a backpack, and a habit of making things and shipping them fast.

That list grew into Nomad List, the tool that turned into his ticket.

Over the next ten years, he shipped 70+ products—most of them flops. A small handful finally hit and now spin off $3.6 million a year, all crafted by his hands only.

Here’s a fast trip through his journey. 👇

📅 Pieter Levels’ Indie Empire Timeline

💼 2014 – Nomad List and the Surprise Hit

➡︎ Summary: the year of yes.

Pieter hit the red button on Nomad List on July 29, 2014. He took the same city comparison list, tweaked a few formulas, and added a map.

He dropped the link on Product Hunt and Hacker News—just a quiet share. Traffic exploded when he wasn’t looking.

50,000 visitors from HN, 12,000 from Product Hunt.

At the time he was in a beach bungalow in Thailand, seeing how tiny tools could take on big problems.

The money: a few thousand dollars in $25 signups. But he wasn’t counting dollars then; he was counting people.

🧠 Insight: Ship the simplest version fast and sometimes it solves the problem better than a fancy app.

💼 2015 – Remote OK Enters the Game

➡︎ The year the network grew.

Pieter noticed that the people using Nomad List needed more than a new city—they needed steady remote paychecks. So he threw together Remote OK in a few weeks. It went live in February and shot to the top of Product Hunt the same day.

Jobs posts from companies at $199 each became the first cash flow. Pieter coded from beach cafés in Vietnam, rice terraces in Malaysia, and crowded coworking spots in Jakarta.

🧠 Insight: Listen to the folks you already have. They will tell you where to go next.

🌍 2017 – Nomad List Grows Up

➡︎ The year nobody felt like a stranger.

Pieter layered on forums, city reviews, and user profiles. Suddenly the site had a pulse. Travelers began to swap stories in threads and show off their home desk views.

Pieter flew to Chiang Mai and Amsterdam to hug the people he’d only met in pixels. On X (Twitter), he started posting behind-the-scenes posts and gained a little indie army.

Subscriptions brought in about $120,000 a year.

🧠 Insight: Numbers grab eyeballs. People stick around when they feel at home. Home means you stay.

💸 2018 – Hit $50,000/Month

➡︎ The year he declared financial freedom.

Pieter tweeted he was clearing $50,000 each month:

• Nomad List: $30K

• Remote OK: $20K

At first, he thought of hiring a small team, then he picked automation.

He poured energy into SEO, chasing terms like “digital nomad cities” and “remote jobs” and added live chats so users could connect while browsing.

🧠 Lesson: Hand the heavy lifting to systems and let people shine.

🎉 2019 – Nomad List Hits Five

➡︎ The year he paused to admire the view.

To mark five years, Pieter unveiled a fresh design and thanked the users who landed jobs, friendships, and partners through the list.

He tried a nomad gear shop and a couple of side projects—most fell flat.

Yearly take: probably $200,000.

🧠 Lesson: Not every gamble pays. One enduring idea pays for 50 that don’t.

🧨 2020 – Pandemic → Remote Work Soars → $1,000,000+

➡︎ The year the planet finally noticed.

Travel locked down, but work went remote and the inbox rang.

Pieter added a new feature to Nomad List showing which countries felt ‘pandemic-safe’ and turned Remote OK into the favorite job board for a wave of companies that just went remote overnight.

Revenue lit up: we hit the million-dollar mark in a year for the very first time.

• Nomad List pulled in $310,000

• Remote OK and a few smaller sites pulled in the rest

🧠 Thought bubble: Spending ten years quietly chasing remote work now felt like I had the fast-pass.

🏗️ 2021 – $1.5M Revenue, $100K for a Domain

➡︎ The year everything got locked in.

Pieter spent $100K on remoteok.com. First bold reinvestment.

He rolled out premium tiers on Nomad List, tested Google Ads for Remote OK.

Result: around $1.5 million in fresh annual revenue.

From Spain, he tuned in on structure and on getting big.

🧠 Lesson: Your brand is the jet fuel for growth. A name that sticks counts more than you think.

🤖 2022 – Avatar AI and a $100K 10-Day Rocket

➡︎ The year the AI door swung wide.

Pieter dropped Avatar AI in October 2022. $100K popped in the first ten days.

Deep Learning, a hot UI, hustled—thin margins, high speed, just on schedule.
Nomad List also climbed to $700K that same year.

🧠 Lesson: You don’t have to be first to the tech. You just have to be the first who makes it pop for people.

📦 2023 – AI Stabilizes, Ads Skyrocket

➡︎ The year everything went pro.

Remote OK locked in $25K a month just from sponsors.

Photo AI leveled off and got sharper, custom-tuned models kept the edges clean.

Pieter dropped revenue shots on X every month—trust and buzz just keep spreading.

Revenue: ~$1M+ across projects

🧠 Insight: When a product clicks, your new job is to polish it, not to toss it for a new idea.

🧠 2024 – $300K/Month and AI Empire Mode

➡︎ Year of maximum leverage.

Photo AI and Interior AI shot to the moon. Nomad List dropped smart city planners; Remote OK added AI job-match.

Pieter rode it to $300,000+/month—$3.6M/year—while hopping between Europe and Asia, mentoring indie hackers live on X Spaces.

🧠 Insight: 95% of projects flop. One or two that don’t? You’re golden.

📣 Pieter Levels’ Top Growth Hacks

How Pieter grew without ads or a squad:

🧵 1. Built in Public
Poured out revenue, crashes, code, burnout, and launches. Truth made a loyal crowd.

🐦 2. X as the Front Door
Every tweet was a soft launch. His 500K+ crew blasted it to the world.

🔁 3. Feed the Web
Nomad List steered traffic to Remote OK, then to AI tools—each product pumped the next.

🌍 4. He Surfed Trends Early
Remote work in 2015. AI in 2022. He caught each wave before the crowd showed up.

🔍 5. Straightforward, No-Nonsense Design
No clutter. Every landing page had one mission and loaded in a heartbeat.

🧠 6. Automate, Don’t Hire
Chat support, data crunching—Pieter built tiny scripts, not HR paperwork.

💬 Wrap-Up

Pieter Levels didn’t win because he was the brightest or had the shiniest toys. He won because he pressed “go,” stayed in the game, and shared every misstep.

He showed us:

✅ You don’t need cash.
✅ You don’t need a crew.
✅ You don’t even need a killer idea.

You need a problem to fix, a habit of moving, and the grit to tweak and tweak until the lights come on.

From 10 rows of numbers to a one-person dynasty—Pieter’s ride is a textbook for anyone who wants to ship solo.