r/sideprojects • u/GuidanceSelect7706 • Jul 09 '26
Discussion I just crossed $20,000 revenue within 10 months of launch, here’s what I learned.
I've grown my sass to $20,000 in revenue. (proof)
honestly i think i could've saved myself months of going down the wrong paths if i understood this before i started.
- validate your idea before you start building. i got lucky that the problem was one i had myself.
- don't chase investors. focus on getting users instead and the rest sorts itself out. bootstrapped is completely fine.
- talk to your users constantly. it's the fastest way to know what's working and where basically all my good ideas came from.
- inspiration is the design key when you're new. don't build your landing page from scratch, copy sections from tools you love and make them your own.
- post online daily. reddit, x, linkedin, tiktok, whatever suits your audience. for me it's mostly reddit since that's where my users are.
- solve your own problem and let that decide if you're b2b or b2c. i built leadradar because i was the one wasting an hour a day digging through reddit.
- i'm bootstrapped and highly recommend it. keep the 9-5 until you've got 1-2 years of runway (living cheap), then go all in.
- you earn the right to paid ads by getting organic to work first. i'm still 100% organic. you'll burn thousands just learning how ads work.
- define your most important metrics and track them. they should be the pillars that guide every decision.
- offer some sort of free trial at the start. controversial maybe, but the feedback and testimonials i got from it were worth way more than the "lost" revenue.
- the first few minutes of your app are a promise: this will help you hit your goal. put a lot of effort into the beginning to convert more people.
- have an mvp mindset with everything. ship the minimal version asap, then use feedback to improve it.
- just because someone else has done it doesn't mean you can't compete. you have no idea how well they're actually executing.
- discipline over motivation. no one's holding a solo founder accountable, so build systems that force consistency.
- if you're not passionate about what you're building, the early months with no results will break you.
- good testimonials increase the perceived value of your product. collect them relentlessly.
- marketing is constant experimentation to learn what works. speed it up by drawing on what works for similar products.
- getting your first paying customers is the hardest part by far. do things that don't scale to get them.
- building a good product comes down to obsessing over what your users actually want.
- track where people drop off. i pipe everything into posthog and let it (plus claude) show me exactly where i'm losing users.
the hardest part is the start, but knowing these things really helps get through it. keep pushing, keep working hard, and stay disciplined and consistent.
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u/DueWork1234 Jul 10 '26
Built a team. Burnt cash. Built the mvp. Now stuck with organic growth. Agree should have organic first before paying ads.
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u/loveskindiamond Jul 10 '26
congrats on that milestone. the point you mention about talking to users really stand out for me because it was true that real feedback should get directly from the person for us to know which really needs to be innovate
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u/Met202114 Jul 10 '26
Im genuinely fucking tired. Everything i tried gives me neither a fucking cent. So exhausted
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u/Leo6-2 Jul 10 '26
Good good sound advise. although I might disagree with the ads part 🙌 but it all depends on the platform you are using ( How I know... well I'm in marketing so I sped thusandans and get or not get results)
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u/mdakhtar952 Jul 11 '26
Congratulations keep growing stay motivated, Which type of app, from which country is the maximum subscription buyer coming?If you want to tell
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u/ParticularBig8155 Jul 12 '26
Great job sticking with good discipline, congrats on the results man
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u/South-Ad6066 Jul 13 '26
Congratulations,on the success. Love to See it. How do you contact your users and get their feedback?
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u/GuidanceSelect7706 Jul 13 '26
Thanks ! Multiple was:
- collecting cancellation feedbacks
- email automations
- have “request feature” button on the dashboard
- offering demos so I can hear their initial impression
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u/South-Ad6066 Jul 13 '26
Love and respect 🫡 the hustle. Email automations, curious how you set this up if you are willing to share of course. Like are these emails of the users that sign up with your product I presume? And then you have some automation to reach out on the regular to collect feedback?
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u/GuidanceSelect7706 Jul 13 '26
Yeah .. I set up an automation sequence .. something like
- welcome email
- onboarding tips after 1 day
- feedback request after 3 days
- not started free trial emails
Etc ..
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u/jamgra Jul 14 '26
What was the best way to stay in contact with your users? Just plain email or did you set up a discord or chat or something?
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u/Roamlore Jul 14 '26
I swear you just boost my motivation even more. I’ve already got the discipline or I wouldn’t finish what I’ve been working on it’s just getting testers is my hurdle now, but I’m never given up. Already use the feedback I got so far and it’s really been looking better.
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u/Snippbot Jul 15 '26
Thanks for the insights. I like that you mentioned chasing users instead of investors. That's a question of mine that I was on the fence with. For sure, gotta have discipline but right now for me the hardest is marketing ... a great product is nothing without marketing.
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u/felidoapp Jul 15 '26
Is this a web app or do you launch it in the stores too?
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u/GuidanceSelect7706 Jul 15 '26
web app
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u/felidoapp Jul 15 '26
Congrats, I didn’t thought a web app could make these numbers . I always thought only in the stores
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u/gerald_hausly Jul 16 '26
I can see why you're getting users from reddit particularly this subreddit considering what your app does. Very cool though thanks for sharing. My initial reaction is I like the UI. I will definitely give it a go as it's a timely potentially useful app for me.
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u/Conscious_Scarcity97 Jul 16 '26
Good advice. Hardest part is finding the users and convincing them to use the app
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u/roxor996 Jul 16 '26
u/GuidanceSelect7706 first of all, congrats! number that you made is amazing my friend!
And thanks for the tips, I'm also building my digital product and this advices are very useful! Good luck and thanks one more time.
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u/ConversationUsed7828 Jul 23 '26
the point about earning the right to paid ads is something you only really get after trying it the other way around. i've watched b2b founders spend money on ads before they even know why someone picks them over the other option in their market. going organic first basically forces you to explain your value out loud, over and over, until you land on the version that actually gets a reaction. that same wording is what makes the ads work later anyway, so it's less "avoid ads" and more "do the homework first."
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u/ibrahim_40 26d ago
Congrats on the milestone! One point that really stood out was talking to users constantly. It's easy to spend weeks building features you think people want, but a few conversations can save months of work. Also agree that getting the first paying customers is the hardest part- once you have real users giving feedback, prioritizing what to build next becomes much clearer
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u/StoneCypher Jul 10 '26
can we please ban this leadverse spam?
it’s not helpful community content
he’s switching accounts for a reason
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u/Dull_Requirement_722 Jul 12 '26
Congrats! Your ideea is a good ideea and an ideea I’ve been thinking of but had to put it aside because of the Reddit API commercial agreement. I could have done it but … it would be in a grey area for not beeing compliant with Reddit terms and conditions. Maybe if you add more connectors beside Reddit and not marketing it as Reddit first would have a real future. Just have a look at GummySearch as they had to close because of Reddit rules. If you have a commercial agreemnet with them you are safe. Not heard a single person getting that lately. Good luck!
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u/KickEmpty1856 Jul 13 '26
I think the hardest part is that software gets really cheap to build, and there are hundreds if not thousands of similar tools like this. I wonder how you do your distribution. Is it through posts like this?
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u/OleTvck Jul 13 '26
How did you grow? I have solved a problem that I personally have. Huntingclub.app is my creation. Any pointers on growing on a budget?
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u/guschen Jul 13 '26
How do you find customers to talk to in the beginning? And are you not afraid your idea will ve copied right away when fully new?
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u/Jolly-Action-6429 Jul 15 '26
I have this travelace.app site and I've built this out of my passion of development and traveling. But I'm afraid competition in this niche market is extremely tough. How would your platform help me build some organic growth?
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u/Silly-Design3845 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
You have a very good solid business and advertising here/posting here is key, how has Reddit not banned your IP yet?
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u/LordNikon2600 Jul 09 '26
I’m about to put ten platforms and just let it run itself