How Should an Indie Founder Show Sold, Acquired, Active, and Shut-Down Products?

An indie founder should label every product by its present relationship to them—active, sold, acquired, or shut down—state the role they played, and link only a current public source they are still allowed to reference.

A sold product may keep running under a new owner, a shutdown may retain only a launch page, and a domain may no longer be safe. The portfolio must preserve your work without suggesting current ownership, support, revenue, or deal details that are no longer yours to claim.

Where should sold and shut-down products appear?

Keep products you still operate under Shipped or Building as appropriate, and move sold or closed products to Archived with a clear description of your former role and the transition.

Archived does not mean failed; it means the project is no longer part of your active operating set. Write ‘founded and sold’ or ‘built and closed’ only when accurate, and do not imply that you run the product after transfer.

For an acquisition, follow the agreement and buyer permission. Do not publish price, revenue, customer counts, or private transition details merely to make the card stronger.

Active: current canonical product page.
Sold: buyer-approved public source or acquisition announcement.
Closed: stable retrospective or honest no-link entry.
Lost domain: remove the destination immediately.

What is the fast way to organise the founder record with IndieShow?

The fast way is to create one IndieShow card per product, assign its current status, and rewrite the description around your exact historical or ongoing role.

Use the project tag for the product category and the optional metric only for information you still have the right to disclose. Choose a destination controlled by the current owner or a stable public record.

Lead with active work when the page is for customers and with the most relevant founder outcomes when it is for investors, partners, or a new venture.

Build your IndieShow pageClaim your handle, organise the projects in the editor, then review the $15 one-year and $30 lifetime publishing options in the dashboard.

Should an acquired product still link to its live website?

Only link the live website when it remains a valid public product, the reference is permitted, and your description makes the ownership change unambiguous.

A live site proves the product exists today but may no longer represent the version you built. Add the period or role in your description and prefer an acquisition announcement or retrospective when it provides clearer attribution.

Remove domains that expire, redirect unexpectedly, or become unrelated. A no-link archived record is safer than sending your reputation to a destination you no longer control.

How do you describe shutdowns without damaging credibility?

Describe what you built, what was learned or delivered, and that the product closed, without inventing traction or turning the entry into an apology.

Keep only shutdowns that add relevant evidence. A concise honest description can prove you shipped; a broken checkout, fake waitlist, or unexplained dead link makes the record less trustworthy.

The related IndieShow guides cover archived projects in depth and the active multi-product founder format.

Why does IndieShow fit a changing founder portfolio?

IndieShow lets a founder move products between active and archived sections while keeping one personal URL and accurate descriptions of ownership and status.

Update cards immediately after a sale, transfer, closure, or domain change. Keep external product pages as proof only while they remain safe and relevant.

IndieShow closes the founder record as a maintained history of what you built, not a frozen list that quietly misrepresents who owns each product today.