Entrepreneurs - what do we call ourselves?
Starting your own business but don't know what to call yourself? Indie hacker, bootstrapper, solopreneur and more. Let's break them down.
Entrepreneurs can refer to themselves in various ways, depending on their personal preference, the type of business they are operating, and the stage of their entrepreneurial journey.
When we're starting out we'll likely pick a term that relates to us so to help you decide we've defined a few of the most common titles below.
Entrepreneurs are the broadest category that encompasses anyone who identifies an idea and starts a business. Regardless of the size of the company, if it's bootstrapped or internal to an existing enterprise we are all entrepreneurs.
Indie hackers (short for "independent hacker") are often individuals - with some computer programming experience - who work on projects either full time or in their spare time. They typically work alone or in small teams but may look to grow their projects into full scale businesses in the future.
Bootstrappers are entrepreneurs who do not take external investment and instead fund their projects themselves. This can be from savings, wages from part-time jobs or supported by a partner or family member.
Solopreneurs or Solo founders are similar to indie hackers, starting their projects on their own without a team. Despite criticism in VC circles (who often promote that having multiple co-founders increases success), solo founders can still build successful software businesses to support their lifestyle.
Micropreneurs run companies with very small teams.
Digital nomads do not have to be entrepreneurs as this term refers to the lifestyle, rather than the entrepreneurial journey. A digital nomad typically works primarily on their computer (developer, designer, online marketing etc.) and chooses to travel the world without a fixed base - hence the term "nomad".
Founder a very generic term to anyone on the founding team and represents the broad set of skills required for starting a business. Rather than focusing on a specific title, "Founder" means a little development, marketing, sales, accounting, HR, design and more, all wrapped up into one. In our opinion this the best job title (better than CEO/CTO etc.) to describe entrepreneurs in the early stages.
Intrapreneurs work with existing companies or corporates to bring innovation into their ranks. These people have the finances, support and network of the businesses that sponsor them and may also be referred to as "entrepreneurs in residence".