> Levels has been greatly inspiring to me

Thank you! <3

> I've decided to quit my job to boostrap my projects à la IndieHackers

To anyone else: DON'T DO THIS.

First get enough cashflow from your side project to sustain yourself (e.g. $1k/m to $2k/m if you're single, without kids, in an average city). You will burn yourself out if you don't have cashflow. Savings is nice but cashflow is better, because if it runs, it probably keeps running. Savings, you run out.

It took me YEARS to get anything substantial off the ground on the internet. You can't just quit your job and expect to get money within months. It's not smart. Consider going back to your job or getting another job and keeping the cashflow from that. Then work on side projects in your own time and quit when it makes enough money.

Seeing all these product makers on Twitter etc. they make it seem easy but you don't see the intense battle they had to go through for years to get where they are now. It takes time and lots of it! I was making sites since I was 10 and my first site that made money was after 10 years! Not that money was my goal when I was 10yo, but still. You don't realize people's histories.

I bankrolled Nomad List (https://nomadlist.com) in 2014 with my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/pandadnb) that made $2-8k/m from 2010-2014. When Nomad List started making $5k/m, I stopped working on the YouTube. I bankrolled my YouTube channel in 2010 with a a terrible blog about ASUS tablets (http://asustablet.com, see screenshot @ http://dig.do/screenshot-hires/201310/asustablet.com-transfo...) that made $500/m. I bankrolled that tablet blog in 2009 with being in university and getting $200/m college subsidy from the government since 2007.

My point is, you can keep stepping up and bankrolling the next project with cashflow from your previous project. That way I've never had to do ANY freelance work or get a normal job EVER.

> My plan is to build everything myself, using a stack such as Python/Django + HTML/CSS/JavaScript + eventually iOS, and the initial goal after validating my MVPs is to become "ramen profitable."

Great choice! Avoid frameworks like Meteor, React etc. they're a rabbit hole that will paralyze you from shipping and getting to revenue.

My simple stack is:

Client: HTML, CSS, JS with jQuery (JS talks to server API via basic AJAX requests), CodeKit (to compile + minify my JS and CSS)

Server: API written in PHP that connects to SQLite and Postgres databases (just a better version of MySQL)

The client stack (HTML, CSS, JS) is mostly same for everyone, the server stack you can also do in JS, Python, Ruby or whatever server language you like best.

> + eventually iOS

This stack has the benefit you can easily build an iOS app that just connects to your server API. Now your iOS app is simply another client app.

I'd recommend AGAINST learning iOS in your first year, as your time is limited. And even with Swift, it's a rabbit hole.

You want to get to cashflow as fast as possible to avoid burning out and running out of cash, so focus on revenue. The web (vs. native) is I think fastest way to quickly acquire money from customers.

For payments, use Stripe.

Good luck!