Neo Xue — Indie Founder
Buildto save.
Not for fame. Not for approval. Just to create freedom.
Indie founder, building in public.
I started building software because I needed a way out — out of dependence, out of uncertainty, out of the slow drift that happens when nothing in your life compounds.
I ship small products solo, study distribution obsessively, and write about the work. The goal isn’t a startup. The goal is freedom — the kind that lets you decide how to spend a Tuesday.
Based wherever the wifi is good.
Currently
- · Shipping small products solo
- · Studying distribution and growth
- · Writing about the work in public
Previously
- · University student, mechanical engineering → self-taught software
- · First product shipped at 19 — broke even within a year
- · Cycle of learning → building → shipping → repeating
Things that shipped.
Solo or small-team. Mostly B2B. Mostly in production.
What I learned lately.
A running changelog of small wins, mistakes, and re-readings. Latest first.
Diagnosed and fixed a journey shader that was rendering pure black — density threshold was too restrictive, FBM was hitting the floor.
Rewrote the personal site from a cinematic showcase into a conventional layout. Less theatre, more signal.
Closed Image2 v0 launch loop. ~3k users in the first week, mostly organic from two Reddit posts.
Started writing in public weekly. Distribution beats product iteration speed at this stage.
Read "Working in Public" by Nadia Eghbal. Connected several dots about solo-founder sustainability.
Dropped a side project I'd been pushing for 6 weeks. Wasted motion. Back to Image2.
Switched to weekly releases instead of daily iteration. Felt slower, shipped more.
Reached first $1k MRR on a small B2B tool. Quiet milestone.
Things I wrote down.
Longer-form notes about the work. Most are short. Some might be useful.
- 2026-07
Build to Save
Why shipping small products beats waiting for the big one — and how to keep your hands moving when motivation fails.
- 2026-06
Distribution Is the Product
Six months in, what mattered more than the thing I built was the half-dozen channels I built it for.
- 2026-04
Solo Founder Math
When the runway is short and the team is one, every hour has to do real work. A short list of what I cut and what I kept.
- 2026-02
Notes on Compounding
Three years of trying things. The ones that compounded all looked boring on day one.
A few things I keep coming back to.
- 01
Build to save.
The reason isn't a launch, it's a Tuesday.
- 02
Focus creates freedom.
Fewer projects, finished. More projects, abandoned.
- 03
Escape through creation.
Make the thing, then make the next thing.
- 04
Distribution is part of the work.
Shipping without an audience is whispering into a void.
- 05
Compound, don't repeat.
Pick the things that stack. Reject the ones that don't.
What I'm doing right now.
A snapshot of the current focus. Updated when it changes.
Shipping
- · Polishing Image2 based on real user feedback
- · A new small tool — too early to talk about
Reading
- · Show Your Work — Austin Kleon
- · Working in Public — Nadia Eghbal
- · Various essays from the distribution rabbit hole
Thinking
- · How to make writing a habit, not an event
- · What changes when MRR is the only metric
- · Where to put attention when nothing is on fire
Three years, four phases.
- 2023
Learning
Nights spent studying the craft. No shortcuts.
- 2024
Building
First real products. First real failures.
- 2025
Shipping
Consistent releases. Momentum over motivation.
- 2026
Compounding
The road out is getting visible.
Say hello.
Open to conversations about products, distribution, and the kind of work that compounds. No pitch decks — just signal.