Introducing Hopp: A New Chapter in My Indie Hacking Journey

Hi there! 👋

After over a year of working on Flightsmeet, I found myself hitting a wall in terms of monetization. While Flightsmeet is still up and running, helping nearly 60 people each week find destinations to meet with their friends and family, I felt it was time for a new challenge.

During the summer of 2024, I had a conversation with my good friend Costa (check out his blog) about starting a side project together. Costa suggested building a desktop app for remote pair programming, and the idea immediately piqued my interest.

At first, I was hesitant. This project didn’t align with my strategy of quickly validating ideas and iterating based on early feedback—it would require significant upfront development. However, I saw the potential and unique value in creating an open-source, high-quality alternative to the closed-source remote pair programming tools currently available.

By August 2024, we decided to take the plunge and start building Hopp. After months of hard work, we’re thrilled to announce that Hopp is ready to welcome beta users! 🚀

What is Hopp?

Hopp is a next-gen screen-sharing tool for programmers that enables you to pair program as if you’re on the same machine—no matter where you are. Both participants get full keyboard and mouse control, making real-time collaboration seamless.

To achieve this, we:

• Fine-tuned libwebrtc for ultra-low latency.
• Built on LiveKit’s network for unmatched speed and reliability.

If you’ve ever been frustrated with tools like Slack Huddles, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams for pairing, Hopp was built for you. You can learn more about the tool on our website: gethopp.app.

Why Hopp?

While excellent tools like Tuple exist, they are closed-source, which limits flexibility and community-driven innovation. We’re building Hopp to address this gap—an open-source, developer-first pairing tool that’s blazing fast, reliable, and gives developers full control.

In the spirit of open source, we’re even allowing users to bring their own LiveKit keys to reduce costs and customize their experience.

What’s Next?

We’re rolling out early access and onboarding beta users in waves to gather feedback and refine the tool. While many features are still missing compared to competitors, we’ve built a solid foundation to create an exceptional alternative to existing solutions.

If you’re interested, you can join the waiting list on our website and help us shape the future of remote pair programming.

Thanks for reading, and I’m excited to share this journey with you. Let’s build something great together!