Pieter Levels (Part 2): Nomad List & Remote OK — The Original Audience Engine
Before Photo AI, Levels built the remote-work and digital-nomad data platforms that still fund and feed his later products.
- MRR
- Part of larger portfolio
- Users
- Large remote-work community
- Founded
- 2014–2015 era
- Team
- Solo
- Stack
- PHP, simple stack
Why start with Nomad List?
I was living as a digital nomad and the information about cities was scattered, outdated, or wrong. Cost of living, internet speed, safety, weather, community — every source had a different opinion and almost none of it was structured. I started collecting and crowdsourcing the data, then put the useful version behind a membership.
People paid because the data was better than free lists and because the community aspect added signal. Nomad List became both a product and a gathering place for people who cared about the same lifestyle questions.
Remote OK came from the same world. Remote job boards existed, but many were slow, cluttered, or full of listings that were not truly remote. I built a fast, simple board that focused on clarity. It grew into a significant traffic and revenue asset in its own right.
How did these products become the foundation for later work?
Audience and data. The people who followed Nomad List and Remote OK already trusted the way I shipped and the way I talked about numbers. When AI image tools became practical, that existing distribution made it possible to launch Photo AI and Interior AI to an audience that was ready to try them.
The data itself also has ongoing value. City-level information, job-market signals, and community behaviour are assets that can be productized in new ways — APIs, reports, or new interfaces — without starting from zero attention.
What did the early years teach you about building in public?
Consistency compounds. Posting regularly, sharing experiments, and being honest about what worked and what did not created a long-term relationship with readers. That relationship is more valuable than any single viral post.
It also taught me that simple products with clear value can outlast more ambitious ones. Nomad List and Remote OK are not complicated technically. They solve specific information problems and they keep solving them year after year.
How do you maintain products that are already “done” in some sense?
Nothing is ever fully done. Data needs updating. Spam and low-quality listings need filtering. Interfaces need occasional clarity improvements. The key is to keep the maintenance cost low enough that the products remain profitable without constant heroic effort. That is another argument for simple stacks and clear scope.
I also use the older products as distribution for newer ones. A mention, a cross-link, or a shared audience segment can give a new experiment its first users without paid acquisition.
Broader lesson for indie founders
Own something that accumulates — data, community, or reputation. Features can be copied. A living dataset and a trusted list of cities or jobs are harder to replicate overnight. Build the audience while you are still figuring out the products. The audience will still be there when the next product idea arrives.
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