About 6 months ago, I launched a SaaS platform. From that day until now, I'll share everything with you: my mistakes and more. Until now, I've always been on the development side of things, and I had no idea how hard this could be without a proper distribution plan. You should definitely not get into this business by trusting those course-selling gurus on the internet. As a solo founder, you have to do everything yourself from start to finish. I'll share the numbers below, but I recommend you read what I'm about to write carefully first
- First 4 Months of My SaaS
After completing the MVP, I planned a launch on Product Hunt. Since this was my first launch, I was very inexperienced and made some mistakes. When I did my first launch, my platform only had one feature. I had no social media accounts dedicated to my platform . So I had no additional resources to support my first launch.
During this process, I understood the importance of UX. The message you give to users on your landing page is crucial. What your platform can do, and how you onboard users are the most important key factors because most users who visited my site were leaving after 30-40 seconds without signing up. I made some improvements and was able to explain to visitors what my platform does.
However, despite this, I finished the day as the 11th product in my first Product Hunt launch and gained approximately 200 users from Product Hunt, but none of them purchased a subscription. In the following 2nd and 3rd months, I experienced severe imposter syndrome and even thought about shutting down the platform. But then, after my platform was randomly shared on an AI SaaS directory website in South Korea, one person bought a monthly subscription, and this really motivated me. I continued developing the platform and added 3 new features, but my users only continued to actively use 2 of them. During this period, I made about 9 subscription sales and reached $100 MRR, but I should note that during this time, I took no marketing action other than the Product Hunt launch. As a developer, I was too lazy and incompetent for marketing (I still think I am). After that, my platform stalled when my user count was around 500. While I used to get 100 visitors to my site per day, this number dropped to 4, and imposter syndrome started hitting from within again. I spent $12 on Reddit ads but got no results from that either. I thought I had failed and decided that the project and all my efforts would go to waste. Until something happened.
Last 2 Months of My SaaS
An Instagram account with about 300k followers found my platform on Product Hunt and put my platform in 7th place in a post titled "8 Amazing Sites Google Forgot." I gained visibility. During this period, 2-3 people continued to buy my monthly subscription almost every day. However, at this stage, since the monthly subscription price was low and my resources were limited, I started thinking about creating a lifetime subscription package to generate more revenue. Meanwhile, I continued developing with the data I obtained from my platform and released the new version by putting the lifetime package on sale for $40 temporarily. My users must have loved the new developments because 2 out of every 10 people who signed up for my platform started buying the lifetime package and began using the platform more actively. With 1,200+ users, I reached $962 MRR this week. I guess I can now say I've reached my first $1k MRR .
The process was really tough, and I believe my biggest rival and enemy was myself. I was conflicted within myself until I earned my first $100, but after that, when I could see that I was solving people's problems, I continued developing and didn't give up. Even if I had failed, I would have gained these experiences I'm sharing with you. Even today, it's too early to say I've succeeded, but being able to feel that my hard work has paid off is truly a different feeling.
- First 4 Months of My SaaS
After completing the MVP, I planned a launch on Product Hunt. Since this was my first launch, I was very inexperienced and made some mistakes. When I did my first launch, my platform only had one feature. I had no social media accounts dedicated to my platform . So I had no additional resources to support my first launch.
During this process, I understood the importance of UX. The message you give to users on your landing page is crucial. What your platform can do, and how you onboard users are the most important key factors because most users who visited my site were leaving after 30-40 seconds without signing up. I made some improvements and was able to explain to visitors what my platform does.
However, despite this, I finished the day as the 11th product in my first Product Hunt launch and gained approximately 200 users from Product Hunt, but none of them purchased a subscription. In the following 2nd and 3rd months, I experienced severe imposter syndrome and even thought about shutting down the platform. But then, after my platform was randomly shared on an AI SaaS directory website in South Korea, one person bought a monthly subscription, and this really motivated me. I continued developing the platform and added 3 new features, but my users only continued to actively use 2 of them. During this period, I made about 9 subscription sales and reached $100 MRR, but I should note that during this time, I took no marketing action other than the Product Hunt launch. As a developer, I was too lazy and incompetent for marketing (I still think I am). After that, my platform stalled when my user count was around 500. While I used to get 100 visitors to my site per day, this number dropped to 4, and imposter syndrome started hitting from within again. I spent $12 on Reddit ads but got no results from that either. I thought I had failed and decided that the project and all my efforts would go to waste. Until something happened.
Last 2 Months of My SaaS
An Instagram account with about 300k followers found my platform on Product Hunt and put my platform in 7th place in a post titled "8 Amazing Sites Google Forgot." I gained visibility. During this period, 2-3 people continued to buy my monthly subscription almost every day. However, at this stage, since the monthly subscription price was low and my resources were limited, I started thinking about creating a lifetime subscription package to generate more revenue. Meanwhile, I continued developing with the data I obtained from my platform and released the new version by putting the lifetime package on sale for $40 temporarily. My users must have loved the new developments because 2 out of every 10 people who signed up for my platform started buying the lifetime package and began using the platform more actively. With 1,200+ users, I reached $962 MRR this week. I guess I can now say I've reached my first $1k MRR .
The process was really tough, and I believe my biggest rival and enemy was myself. I was conflicted within myself until I earned my first $100, but after that, when I could see that I was solving people's problems, I continued developing and didn't give up. Even if I had failed, I would have gained these experiences I'm sharing with you. Even today, it's too early to say I've succeeded, but being able to feel that my hard work has paid off is truly a different feeling.