$0 MRR or no sales yet? Read this then
I get it.
You have been indie hacking for a while now and investing all your effort, time and money into your incredible product/service.
But not a single sale yet.
Everybody else seems to be making a tonne of money. Founders with millions in the bank are doing an AMA every day on Indie hackers.
... and, you are almost on the verge of giving up.
Hold on to that thought for now.
Instead of aiming for a $5k MRR and a comfortable retirement in Hawaii, focus all your energy on making that first sale.
Yes, all you need to get the ball rolling is that elusive first sale.
I can tell you from my experience, everything changes after that. It gives you a sense of validation of your product and the direction you are heading.
The fact that someone is willing to pay you money for the thing you love doing will boost your confidence. There is a huge difference between $0MRR and $10MRR.
You now have a purpose for your work.
I was like you at $0MRR for Blanq in Jan 2021 and, when I got my first paying customer in Feb, things completely changed.
Google started to take me more seriously. People started referring to my product and I was busy handling support - none of which could have happened without the first sale.
Don't be too hard on yourself. Find that first person willing to pay you money.
It gets better after that. Trust me.
This resonated. I got my first few users for my product Lifelog and that spurred me on to keep going for the first 6 months. Now I'm stuck at $60 MRR just trying to get to $100 MRR. I think in the beginning every single users that comes along really helps keep things going..
This is inspiring. Was the growth linear for you? Or do you have ups and downs?
Never saw my story as inspiring but thank you!
Growth was not linear at all. It has a bit of spurt initially during the soft beta launch. But had since stagnated, hovering at $60 MRR for some months now. It's all my fault actually - I focused too much on development and too little on marketing and distribution. Now trying to correct that!
@start123
This is inspiring. Was the growth linear for you at Blanq? Or do you have ups and downs?
In your graph, what changed from Dec 31st? It seems to be cumulative after that?
Since Jan 2021, I started being more active in communities and sent cold emails to potential customers. It has been a combination of inbound and outbound channels. I have had no churn post-Jan since I found the right customers.
Thanks Shashank, it strikes a chord here. As a dev I tend to spend 'maybe' too much time on developing, but having that first sale as a milestone sure is a better milestone.
Glad the post helped. The first sale is really a game-changer.
What you says to those who still have no product for sale to that first user
The first 10 retained users will have somewhat equivalent effect