Independent shouldn’t mean alone
Every indie business is different, but there’s plenty we all share. Our strength is in our numbers—we’re independent, together.
About indie.biz
Work is going independent. Tens of millions of Americans already work for themselves—and almost none of the support systems were built for them.
indie.biz exists to change that—a place to learn how business actually works, find other independents, and put the humanity back at the center of the work.
Why we exist
Most people who start a business don’t see themselves as “businesspeople”—they’re just people with a passion, an idea, a need, a dream. Starting is one thing; doing business well is another, and those tools have always been hard to find—locked behind jargon, expensive programs, or networks most people never had.
So we’re building what we wish existed: a place where independents can learn the fundamentals, find each other, and build a good living on their own terms.
Articles 01—06
Independents always change the world. These principles guide the way we do it.
Every indie business is different, but there’s plenty we all share. Our strength is in our numbers—we’re independent, together.
There’s more to life than just money. Unless you don’t have enough. Independent businesses build prosperity while also making life richer and sweeter.
When the product is free, you’re usually the one being sold. Getting the tools you need shouldn’t cost you your privacy. When it comes to your data, you’re the boss.
Power isn’t just for the powerful. The right knowledge at the right time is the real power you need to run your own show.
Too often business ideas are cloaked in jargon—complex, technical, exclusive. We translate the “secret knowledge” of enterprise into plain language anyone can understand.
Some businesses think it’s time to replace human labor with machines. We believe the best tools are designed to augment people’s work, not replace it.
Where we’re headed
The first thing we built is a course in the fundamentals—because business literacy is where independence begins. But it’s only the first piece of something larger.
We’re working toward a fuller kind of support: practical learning, guidance grounded in real market data, and ways for independents to find each other. Knowledge and tools that, until now, only large companies could afford.
The goal is simple: make independence something you can learn, plan for, and never have to do alone.
Who we are
Learning to think like a businessperson is a superpower.
Michael Megalli has spent twenty-five years across the full range of business—from the biggest companies to the smallest. That arc left him with a deep conviction that independent work is where the economy is heading, and an obsession with making business literacy accessible to everyone, not just MBA candidates.
He teaches at the UW Foster School of Business and is the author of Unfinished Business: A New Story for a New Era of Human Flourishing.
The bigger story
Unfinished Business: A New Story for a New Era of Human Flourishing is founder Michael Megalli’s case for why work is changing—why it’s going independent, what that means for how we live, and why the old story about business no longer fits the world we’re in.
Buy nowIndependent—not alone
Sign up for early access to new courses, the indie.biz book group, and the occasional letter from Michael on independent work and the economics of going it alone.