Bill Yang (Rybbit): From “Too Dumb to Code” to $1.6K in 35 Days

Trial to Paid - Journeys to $1K MRR and Beyond

In the very first episode of Trial to Paid, I chat with Bill Yang, the indie hacker behind Rybbit — a privacy-focused, open-source web analytics platform that hit $1.6K in revenue just 35 days after launch.

Bill shares how he went from thinking he was “too dumb to code” in high school to building a high-traffic gaming analytics site (1.5M sessions/month) and then leveraging that experience to launch Rybbit. We dive into his origin story, why he chose open source, how he engineered a viral launch with zero ad spend, and what he’s learned along the way — including smart moves like embedding a live demo directly into his landing page.

If you're into indie hacking, open source, or bootstrapping SaaS from scratch, this one’s packed with real talk and tactical insights.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome to the Trial to Paid Podcast

00:21 Guiding Principles for Building Products

03:45 The Journey to Becoming a Coder

12:30 Early Entrepreneurial Ventures

14:24 Building Tomato.gg

19:10 Introducing Rybbit: A Google Analytics Alternative

23:36 Rybbit's Market Position and Competitors

28:18 Differentiating Through Design

29:18 Building the Marketing Site

30:08 Using AI Tools in Development

30:56 Launching the Product

33:10 Technical Stack and Frameworks

35:14 Open Source Strategy

42:50 Marketing and Promotion

50:12 Reflections and Future Plans

57:31 Advice for Aspiring Developers

Bill's Links

Rybbit: https://rybbit.io
Tomato.gg: https://tomato.gg
X: https://x.com/yang_frog
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-yang-/

Rob's Links

Trial to Paid: https://trialtopaid.io
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rbdmorgan

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Music: "Nightfall" by OlexandrMusic (https://soundcloud.com/olexandrmusic)