Happy Sunday Techtopians.
Since joining Bluesky, I've discovered a community of passionate builders dedicated to crafting exceptional products. Today, we're featuring one such innovator who's making waves in our ecosystem.

Meet Lars, a Swiss-based indie maker who's revolutionizing how Bluesky users track their engagement and how social media managers capture content. By day, he navigates corporate IT, but by night, he builds tools that thousands of users love. From turning a midnight inspiration into his first sale to creating Realtime.blue and PostCapture.com, his journey shows how building in public can transform both products and their creators.

But enough for now, over to Lars!

From Corporate IT to Indie Success: Building Profitable Side Projects While Working Full-Time

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your business or product? 

I’m based in Switzerland and manage a bunch of side projects on top of my full-time job.

My latest project, Realtime.blue, helps Bluesky users easily track their stats, with features like sharable image and dynamic link preview that keep their engagement high. PostCapture.com, currently in beta, makes it easy for social media managers and creators to create high-quality, shareable screenshots of X.com and Bluesky posts

What was your main inspiration for getting into it? 

I’ve been in IT for my entire career, and before I started my side projects, I felt a bit down because of all the organizational stuff that’s not always straightforward in Corporate IT.  But with my side projects, I get to work on what I love: building solutions and interacting with an awesome community of indie makers. It’s incredibly rewarding to see people using something I created. It’s what keeps me going!

How do you define success in your niche? 

For now, success means seeing people use and enjoy my projects. Of course, building revenue streams is an ultimate goal, but user satisfaction is my first priority.

If you were to start again from scratch, what would you do differently? 

I would start earlier! Haha :D

I really wish I had started building Side Projects in Public sooner. I always coded random stuff for myself, but I never thought about building things in public and getting so much (mostly very nice) feedback would be so rewarding!

What advice would you give to someone just starting out with a similar product or niche? 

My advice is to seek feedback as early as possible. This can be challenging because sometimes you won’t get much feedback at all, but that’s often the point where you need to assess if the idea truly resonates with your audience. Sometimes, a lack of feedback means reassessing whether you’re targeting the right audience or working on the right idea.

What was the most challenging aspect of Building in Public or Indie Hacking? 

As an introvert, staying active daily is a challenge. I’ve started a habit where I schedule posts and dedicate time in the evenings to engage with replies, which helps me stay consistent without feeling overwhelmed.

What problem are you solving that most people don't see or understand? 

I focus on two key areas: marketing to attract new users and maintaining consistent quality to retain them. By tackling these, I ensure my projects not only draw attention but also keep people engaged long-term. I’ve been able to build a solid user base with repeat engagement on Realtime.blue by focusing on these two key areas.

Share a moment when you almost gave up, and what kept you going? 

Before my first revenue-generating project, I felt disheartened. I had spent months on an AI image project, which gained over 80 signups but no paying subscribers. Then, inspiration struck, and I built a script overnight to create a list of deprecated Chrome Extensions. To my surprise, I made my first sale the very next morning! That experience taught me the value of persistence and trying new ideas until something clicks.

How has building this product changed you as a person or a professional? 

While building all the projects I did so far helped me gain a lot skills! Especially in using AI efficiently and shipping projects fast. I also learned a ton about marketing which is an awesome skill to have when you come from the technical side.

Where can people find you? 

My website including all my projects: https://hilars.dev Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/builditn0w.bsky.social X.com: https://x.com/buildItN0w