In this post, I'll tell you the story of Pieter Levels, who has managed to achieve the dream lifestyle of working just a few hours a day, traveling the world, and creating over 70 projects to get where he is today.
In this article, I'll share Pieter's story, his motivations, and the technologies he uses in most of his projects.
About Pieter Levels
Pieter doesn't hold a degree in programming or computer science; in fact, he has an MBA with a focus on business administration.
Interestingly, Pieter began his journey with a YouTube music channel called "Panda Drum & Bass Mix Show", somewhat akin to lo-fi music channels but with an electronic music twist. However, the channel ran into copyright issues, despite amassing over 100,000 subscribers.
The life Pieter always dreamed of was creating a peaceful life for himself. He's an ordinary person who enjoys going to the gym, cooking, and spending time with friends and family.
Today, he's one of the most influential figures in the tech world, particularly on Twitter, where he openly shares his monthly earnings from his projects. This transparency about finances has made him a highly followed and admired figure.
Pieter is known for his creativity, constantly thinking of new projects. Each of his projects carries his personality, which makes all the difference. I'll explain this in more detail later...
There was a time when Pieter was a "digital nomad," traveling the world and experiencing the difficulties of finding work and accommodation on the go. As a result, he decided to create a "spreadsheet" of places and hostels for digital nomads. When he realized he could make money from it, he created the "Nomad List." From this project, Pieter developed various others related to it.
In 2014, during one of his international trips, he challenged himself to launch 12 startups in 12 months. Yes, you read that right!
Pieter defines a startup as:
"A startup delivers a new product and develops it rapidly."
Many may disagree with him, especially if they've never created a project, but Pieter argues:
"Delivering a new product is the easy part; growing rapidly is the hard part."
I wholeheartedly agree with him. Anyone who has ventured into entrepreneurship knows that coding is the easy part, while selling is much more challenging than it appears.
Pieter faced many difficulties and ended up launching a total of 8 projects that year. However, the challenge he posed attracted many people to follow his growth. He had both motivated supporters and critics, but he never gave up.
With the array of projects Pieter created, he built a sales funnel to see which project gained the most traction and, from there, developed new projects.
One of these projects was "Nomad List," which turned out to be the most successful. In succession, he created a Slack community for digital nomads (initially charging $10), "Nomad Jobs," and finally, "Remote OK." He focused on what worked best for him and created new income streams around it.
How Pieter Manages All These Projects Without Going Crazy
Most of Pieter's projects are automated.
Pieter believes that humans are complex and relatively slow, while robots are simple and fast. He doesn't need to work extensively on them for them to continue running. It's important to note that he doesn't concern himself with constantly creating new features.
Of course, this has a consequence: his sites may appear outdated or face stronger competition. However, for him, as long as the site continues to function, that's not a problem. Many people prefer to use his system because of the personal connection he has with his projects.
Pieter doesn't manage everything alone; he has the support of various people. He hires freelancers to work part-time on his projects, which significantly increases his revenue margin.
Pieter's Strategies / His Choices
Pieter decided to create a blog and began writing about digital nomads, an experience he was undergoing at the time. However, alongside his nomadic journey, he was also building various startups. That's when he decided to write about business and, as a result, began growing organically around 2013 and 2014.
At that time, Pieter had two choices:
- Have a traditional corporate life, where everyone seems the same and faces the same problems.
- Work on his own projects, create content around his life, and hope it works out.
He always made it clear that he couldn't stand corporate life, with its monotony and lack of control over important decisions. Therefore, it wasn't difficult for him to choose the strategy of working hard, creating content around his lifestyle, and, with a bit of luck, achieving success. In 2020, during the pandemic, his digital nomad-related projects like "Nomad" and "Remote OK" finally took off. However, this doesn't diminish the determination and persistence he demonstrated throughout his journey.
The consequence of choosing this strategy is that Pieter is now an authority on projects, startups, and everything related to digital nomads.
How Pieter Builds a Successful Brand
Pieter is known for building random things based on his beliefs and lifestyle. He does this in such a unique way that when looking at a new website, we can immediately recognize that he created it. Most of his projects reflect his personality, making them unique and memorable.
In each project, he defines his identity, develops a unique message, builds an online presence, and tells an engaging story. Of course, this didn't happen overnight; it was a long process.
Ongoing Projects
After creating many projects, Pieter is now focusing on expanding his customer base in established projects. Some of the revenue-generating projects are:
- Remote OK: $51,000 per month.
- Rebase: An immigration agency that helps people migrate to other countries, with monthly revenue of $3,000.
- Nomadlist: $48,000 per month.
- InteriorAI: Annual revenue of $63,000.
- PhotoAI: Monthly revenue of $63,000.
These figures aren't just guesswork; Pieter shares this information monthly on Twitter and in his "profile bio".
Technology
In the early stages of his projects, Pieter used technologies like PHP (WordPress), jQuery, and JavaScript. He believes that the technology used doesn't matter as much, as long as you develop something quickly to gather feedback as soon as possible and make adjustments.
Present Day
Pieter continues to expand his businesses, creating new projects related to artificial intelligence. He's not interested in selling his projects to big companies because he has achieved the life he always dreamed of. He invests most of his money in ETFs, cryptocurrencies, and experiences like food, travel, and places to explore.
Pieter's Philosophy
- The main idea is to launch quickly and provide the minimum viable product.
- Travel is important as it inspires the creation of new things.
- Collect as much feedback as possible.
- Avoid using complex technologies, microservices, microfrontends, Kubernetes, etc.
- Don't get attached to projects.
- The importance of building a community around your product.
If you want to create a project, know that I'm on this journey with you. I know it's a tough and sometimes painful journey, but it also relies on a good dose of luck. However, the secret is not to give up because that increases your chances of success. Leave a comment about your project here, and we can talk more about it.
If you enjoyed this post, please comment on anything here, or follow me on social media (Youtube or IG- @lorenaporphirio.dev) to let me know if you appreciate this kind of content. I can bring more case studies like this. Thank you very much.
Until next time!
