Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month

#1

Post by frits1993 » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 12:51 PM UTC

Running a profitable SAAS has been my dream from the moment I wrote my first line of code.

Here on HN and IndieHackers I've always looked up to the people who pay their bills with recurring revenue from their tools.

I've tried, many times, to do the same, without much success. A couple of rather successful HN pitches, but none of my projects ever even paid me a beer (let alone my rent).

Until this month! Last year I built myself and my girlfriend a tool. Even though I did build it for other people to use it, I had never thought someone actually would. Long story short, half a year later I provide my service to more than 5000 (fully organic) users.

This month is the first month in which revenue is high enough to pay my rent with it. Disclaimer: I share my rent with my girlfriend, but it does sound cool to say.

Looking back at the proces, it does match with a lot of other success stories I read over the years in the HN community. The main lesson which I can now confirm: build something that scratches your own itch.

So... Thanks you guys, for keeping me motivated and inspired.

Re: Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month

#2

Post by tckb » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 1:07 PM UTC

congrats! mind sharing your story?

Re: Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month

#3

Post by FunnyLookinHat » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 1:31 PM UTC

Exciting! Reading these shares are encouraging. :). And yes, share the story (or at least the product!)

Re: Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month

#4

Post by chipz » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 1:31 PM UTC

Wow! I like this kind positive post! If you have the story behind your product and how you build it, we'll definitely wanna read it!

Re: Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month

#5

Post by luxuryballs » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 1:31 PM UTC

So... what’s the tool??

Re: Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month

#6

Post by frits1993 » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 1:31 PM UTC

tckb wrote: post #2

congrats! mind sharing your story?

Sure.

Last year June, I built a small online tool for me and my girlfriend to manage our IPTV playlist. I bought a domain name and put it online because our IPTV player needed to access it through a URL. A couple of months later, and 7 users found the tool and were actually using it (keep in mind that that's pretty impressive for a tool as not-user-focused as it was back then).

So I then decided to spend more time refining it. Building more features, introducing paid plans, and making sure everything worked as user-friendly as possible.

It basically all started growing organically from there. This month so far I have a Stripe balance of €620 (roughly 687USD) after fees, which is my 5th full month of running with pricing plans.

As you can imagine, I'm super excited to see if it can keep growing like this!

Re: Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month

#7

Post by ohadron » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 1:32 PM UTC

I guess this is the tool, from OPs submission history: https://m3u-editor.com/

Re: Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month

#8

Post by frits1993 » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 1:33 PM UTC

luxuryballs wrote: post #5

So... what’s the tool??

It's an IPTV playlist management tool: m3u-editor.com

Posted it on HN a while back as well, but interestingly it is one of my least successful HN posts.

Re: Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month

#9

Post by tmartty » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 1:39 PM UTC

Nice! Congrats!

Pricing is pretty cheap imo, why don't you try doubling prices? You might double income just like that..

Re: Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month

#10

Post by frits1993 » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 1:42 PM UTC

tmartty wrote: post #9

Nice! Congrats! Pricing is pretty cheap imo, why don't you try doubling prices? You might double income just like that..

Cheap indeed it is, but I guess that matches the target audience. IPTV is relatively cheap, and the service my tool offers is really a bonus and not a must.

More importantly, I don't think I would pay more than I am currently charging my users, so I think it's just fair. Also, I prefer a whole lot of small payments than a couple of big ones, and for now that seems to be going in the right direction.