# @levelsio (Pieter Levels)

> Bootstrapping startups while traveling the world. Personal blog of Pieter Levels (@levelsio): 950 published posts on building bootstrapped internet startups solo, AI, travel and living as a digital nomad since 2013.

All content here is public. Posts are @levelsio's own writing — please link back if you quote them.

Last updated: 2026-11-10 (most recent post). This file is generated live, so it always reflects what is published right now.

## About

Hi. I’m @levelsio and you’ve found my blog!

I build internet startups by myself: Nomads.com, Remote OK, Hoodmaps, Photo AI and Interior AI. All bootstrapped without funding and just me coding everything on my laptop.

Since 2013 I write here about building businesses, traveling the world, AI and whatever else is on my mind.

Recurring themes: bootstrapping over fundraising, shipping fast and in public, remote work and visas, AI as a tool for solo builders, Europe vs Asia and the US, air conditioning and degrowth politics, health and training, and living deliberately with few possessions. I post opinions with radical honesty and publish revenue numbers openly.

## Machine-readable access

- [JSON API index](https://levels.io/api): what the API offers
- [All posts](https://levels.io/api/posts): every post as JSON, newest first. Filters: `?tag=`, `?since=YYYY-MM-DD`, `?q=` (title search), `?limit=` & `?offset=`
- [One post](https://levels.io/api/posts/{slug}): metadata plus markdown, html and text
- Plain formats: `/api/posts/{slug}.md`, `.txt`, `.html`
- [Tags](https://levels.io/api/tags): every tag with a post count
- [MCP server](https://levels.io/mcp): Model Context Protocol over HTTP (JSON-RPC 2.0). Read-only tools: `search_posts`, `get_post`, `list_tags`
- [RSS](https://levels.io/rss) and [long-form RSS](https://levels.io/rss/longform)

## Other MCP servers by @levelsio

- [Nomads.com](https://nomads.com/mcp): Best cities to live and work remotely: cost of living, internet speed, weather, safety, air quality, plus nomad meetups. Signed in, it can also create, edit and cancel meetups, and manage your favorite cities and trips. Access: Searching works without login. Sign in with your Nomads.com account (OAuth) for meetups, favorites and trips.
- [Hoodmaps](https://hoodmaps.com/mcp): Neighborhood vibes for cities worldwide: where the tourists, locals, students, rich and sketchy areas are, and what a spot is like from its coordinates. Access: Read-only, no login.
- [Hotelist](https://hotelist.com/mcp): Hotel search with AI ratings, nightly prices, measured WiFi speed, amenities and ready-made booking links. Signed in, it can also add, edit and delete your hotel reviews. Access: Searching works without login. Sign in with your Hotelist account (OAuth) for reviews.
- [Vibe Jam](https://vibejam.com/mcp): Every game from every Vibe Jam, the yearly vibe coding game jam (at least 90% AI-coded): search, browse, per-year stats. Access: Read-only, no login.
- [MAKE](https://readmake.com/mcp): MAKE, the book on bootstrapping startups, as a SKILL.md for coding agents: validate, build, launch, charge, automate, sell. Access: Book buyers only: sign in (OAuth) with the email you bought MAKE with. Buy at https://readmake.com

All use streamable HTTP.

Please be gentle: the API is rate limited and uncached. Prefer `/api/posts` once over fetching every slug individually.

## Pages

- [Home — every post, newest first](https://levels.io/)
- [Projects — everything @levelsio has built since 1996](https://levels.io/projects)
- [Stats — posting history, tags, followers, subscribers](https://levels.io/stats)
- [All tags](https://levels.io/tags)
- [Ask me anything — AI chat over the blog](https://levels.io/ama)
- [levels.vc — angel investments and AI fund](https://levels.vc)

## Main topics

Tech, Society, Entrepreneurship, Travel, Analysis, Europe, AI, Stuff I made, eu/acc, Future, Politics, Economics

## Recent posts

- [Moving from expensive PaaS platforms to your own VPS is usually 100x to 1,000x cheaper](https://levels.io/cheap-vps-instead-of-paas) — 2026-11-10
- [To a childless woman everything looks like a child](https://levels.io/childless-woman-everything-looks-like-child) — 2026-11-10
- [It's never been this easy to build software and never this hard to make money with it](https://levels.io/easy-to-build-hard-to-monetize) — 2026-11-09
- [Designing your own furniture with Claude Code can save 85% versus premium brands like Poliform](https://levels.io/claude-code-design-own-furniture) — 2026-11-07
- [I will publish my full list of 10,000+ blocked AI spammer accounts so everyone can block them](https://levels.io/publish-blocked-ai-spammer-accounts) — 2026-11-06
- [I dropped my total biz expenses to just $300 per month](https://levels.io/biz-expenses-dropped-to-300) — 2026-11-03
- [I decompiled Battlefield 1942 and put it on the web with multiplayer](https://levels.io/decompiled-battlefield-1942-web-multiplayer) — 2026-11-02
- [The Learjet 60 was already 40x less safe than commercial airliners like Delta](https://levels.io/learjet-60-less-safe-than-commercial) — 2026-11-02
- [Ubuntu still hasn't patched an open hole so we might switch our servers to Debian](https://levels.io/ubuntu-unpatched-switch-to-debian) — 2026-11-02
- [Claude Code with Opus 5.5 fully edited my vlog from a single prompt](https://levels.io/claude-code-edited-my-vlog) — 2026-11-01
- [This is why I want all VPS ports closed and only Tailscale and Cloudflare Tunnel open](https://levels.io/close-vps-ports-tailscale-cloudflare) — 2026-11-01
- [What's left to do when AI can build everything?](https://levels.io/whats-left-when-ai-builds-everything) — 2026-11-01
- [ChatGPT in Germany in 2027 charges €0.05 per answer and taxes you again for being polite](https://levels.io/chatgpt-germany-2027-answer-tax) — 2026-10-31
- [After France's Gigabyte tax and Germany's AI tax, Italy is proposing an exit tax because Europe is out of money](https://levels.io/europe-out-of-money-taxes) — 2026-10-31
- [European countries will keep clawing money from foreign companies as Europe runs out of money](https://levels.io/europe-running-out-of-money) — 2026-10-31