MicroFounder - 14 months to $5,000 MRR

MicroFounder

Yes, it is possible for a solo developer to build a profitable Micro-SaaS and quit their job. But how much time it usually takes?

I picked a random set of 20 startups built by solo founders in the range of $5,000-$100,000 MRR and looked at how quickly they reached the initial $5k/mo.

Why $5,000/month?

While it depends on the circumstances (where you live, do you have a family to support, etc), I think this amount of MRR lets you at least buy food and pay rent.

But this is revenue, not profit!

Yes, but the only expense for a solo founder is often the server rent, which is not a significant amount (in most cases revenue ~= profit.)

14 months!

We see that it took a median of 14 months to reach $5,000 MRR. Not too bad, isn’t it? If you could know that it takes the next 14 months to reach $5k MRR, would you do it?

Founders in the making

When we see solo founders reaching $5,000/month in 7 months or so, we usually don’t see what was happening before starting this particular SaaS.

Founders were often working on their previous projects that didn’t work out but eventually led to a startup that did.

I asked some of these microfounders about their first independent project:

"If, by ’first indie project’, you mean my all time first project, I’d say around ... 2005, but it’s hard to say which month." – Cyril from 🕊 PDFShift (12 months to $5,000/mo, currently $7,100/mo)

"I started my first indie business in Dec 2012 and I still own/run it. I actually originally built Lasso because my existing business needed it." – Andrew from 🌵 Lasso (9 months to $5,000/mo, currently $9,500/mo)

"Hypefury was my first. :)" – Samy from 🐦 Hypefury (8 months to $5,000/mo, currently $22,000/mo)

Work on something you like

When we see that it usually takes years to make the founder that reaches $5,000/mo in a year, what is there left to do right now?

There’s only one thing left to do right now – to work on something that you like.

$5,000/month
Yesterday's microstartups

Plutio

One app to manage your entire small business

$16k/mo

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Older messages

Start with the audience, not the idea 👥

Monday, August 8, 2022

MicroFounder It can be hard to start a new startup without funding as a solo developer when you don't know if it succeeds or not. How can you increase your chances? One way is to start with the

"I have no idea" 💡

Sunday, August 7, 2022

MicroFounder Many developers wanting to become microfounders say that they just don't have any idea what to build. Our suggestion has been to just start. Developers often don't end up with the

180 microfounders reached 1.3 million USD per month 🤑

Sunday, July 31, 2022

MicroFounder Yes, it's possible for a solo developer to build a profitable microstartup to pay the bills and live life on their own terms. In the beginning, it can feel impossible: 😩 Full-time job

Feel good and your microstartup succeeds ✨

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

MicroFounder "Try to avoid convincing yourself that you know exactly what you should be doing. Nothing that I'm doing now I could have imagined to be doing just a year or two ago." – 🎰

Don't start by writing code 💻

Monday, July 18, 2022

MicroFounder We, developers, are good at writing code and we enjoy doing it. So it's natural for us wanting to start microstartups (or side projects) by writing code first. But we all know how many

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