Also called: Indie Hacker, Bootstrapped Software Founder
Builds and runs a small online software business, often alone, that people pay for monthly.
You fix a bug a customer reported overnight, answer support emails, write a blog post to attract new users and check how many people subscribed this week. Some earn a few hundred dollars a month, some earn millions a year.
Extremely variable; many keep a day job until revenue grows.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
No formal education, about 2 years after high school. No degree required; coding skills (or a technical partner) and business sense.
Ways in: Self-taught, 4-year college. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Computer Science, Business, Entrepreneurship.
Growing faster than average. AI coding tools make it easier than ever to start.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI lets one person build more software, but also spawns many copycat products; finding real customer pain stays human.
Classes: AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, Business elective.
Official data: O*NET occupation 11-1021.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.