25-year-old marketer quits his job to launch his MVP: "I can live on any amount as long as I'm doing what I
love."
25-year-old Alex Liu quit his job in June to focus 100% on his new product, AutoAE. It launched in July and now he's at $400 MRR with six months of runway left.
The pressure's on. Let's take a peek at his finances.
Earning that first dollar
Alex earned his first dollar online a few years back during a break from college, when he wanted to travel, but lacked funds. He had some experience in market research, so he started selling in-depth analyses of industries and companies on a local Fiverr-like platform. He earned over $2k in the first month.
This was a big moment for him. Suddenly, he realized that working for others wasn't the only path.
Full time or bust
Since then, he's built a few side projects while working full time. But they all ended with "not enough success".
When he has a job, he tends to get deeply involved in it, aiming to excel, which leads to conflicting priorities and, ultimately, poor performance in both areas.
That, along with a previous employer’s discouragement of side projects, meant that Alex had no interest in splitting his focus. So he quit his job two months ago, and now, he's focusing entirely on AutoAE.
He's happy with that decision because, as he says, "Timing is crucial in the world of marketing." He needs to be prepared to seize every opportunity, even if it means living on minimal savings.
“I can live on any amount as long as I'm doing what I love.”
Splitting equity
Interestingly, Alex's cofounder is not working on AutoAE full time, but they still have a 50-50 equity split. This could cause issues in some partnerships, but not this one.
Alex says it's important to be equally incentivized. And anyway, their time investments are not dictated by whether or not they have full-time jobs. His partner works just as hard.
“With shared belief, money issues become less significant.”
AutoAE revenue
AutoAE was launched in July. He describes it as a bridge between CapCut and Adobe After Effects. It allows you to create viral hooks for your videos in seconds.
Alex offers a free tier, a one-time purchase ($2.90 per video), and subscription tiers ($8.30/mo).
Here's what he's bringing in:
Revenue: $400 MRR
Funding: $1k from personal savings
Founder pay: $0 (will take 20% when they hit roughly $1k MRR)
Business bank account: $1480.27
Personal bank account: Six months of runway
He got his first customers with cold outreach — mostly "super cold", but also a few YouTuber friends. Everything he earns will be reinvested into marketing.
Business expenses
Alex has the view that every single business decision needs to be analyzed.
“Calculate the profits and losses for every product decision — at least roughly.”
Even with something as small as purchasing a SaaS subscription, he calculates the ROI. And, when possible, he borrows access to a friend's account instead.
So, as you might expect, his monthly businesses expenses are low — in fact they're pretty much non-existent:
Vercel - Website Hosting: $0
Supabase - Database / Auth: $0
CloudFlare R2 - Storage / CDN: $0
Self Hosting - Video Rendering: $0
Video editing: $0 (a contractor is working for free because he believes in the product)
Personal expenses
And here are his monthly personal expenses — also very low:
Rent: $200
Food: $250
SaaS subscriptions: $50
Car payment: $300
Ignoring traditional advice
Alex was raised in an "average middle-class East Asian family," and that means his parents placed a huge emphasis on saving money.
“Even now, my mom still reminds me on every call, ‘You must save some money.’ LOL, Asian moms. I never really followed that advice.”
Despite his mother's frequent reminders to save, Alex went another route. He prefers investing in his business and living a life with purpose rather than strictly adhering to traditional saving methods.
His focus is being happy, while being disciplined. And it's working out — he was able to save up over 6 months of runway, after all.
Keeping a tight budget
Alex says that, as a founder and marketer, there are just too many options for spending money — and his resources are very limited. So he has to plan his expenses carefully.
“I budget everything. Missing a coupon for a meal destroys my day!”
He takes the same approach to budgeting his time. Every Sunday, he makes a list of key tasks for the upcoming week and prioritizes them.
That list isn't as detailed now as when he had a job, though. He finds that it's better to focus on fewer tasks as a founder. It allows for more flexibility, and gives him the ability to seize unexpected opportunities.
He also divides his money into three parts.
Spending: Stays in a safe savings account
Risk taking: Goes into marketing and he tracks the ROI
Emergencies: Currently in the form of his car, which he can sell in an emergency
Delaying investments
Currently, Alex is not making financial investments outside of his business — that's where he wants his focus to be.
He hasn't made this decision willy nilly; he has calculated the opportunity cost and decided that, at this stage of life, time is his most valuable asset.
Once he's 28 years old, he thinks this will change, and he'll start investing in stocks or other financial instruments — but only in areas he thoroughly understands.
In the meantime, though, he does make one other kind of investment. He buys clothes for his girlfriend.
“It's an investment in our good life. She is my muse.”
Irresponsible investing
Alex has no issue with seeking external funding. Heck, he wants to be an angel investor one day himself. But he says it's irresponsible to raise funds before achieving at least $1k MRR.
That milestone, in his mind, is an indicator of product-market fit. And raising or borrowing money before reaching it often carries a higher cost than anticipated.
Parting advice
His advice to fellow indie hackers is this: Don't just build in public. Market your product beyond X.
Write posts for Reddit, Medium, and IH. Create images for Pinterest and Instagram. Make videos for YouTube and TikTok.
“You are both the maker and the seller. Try innovative ways to market your product — it will work!”
That's what he's doing. You can follow along on X and YouTube. And he'd love your feedback on AutoAE as he tries to grow it.
Please note that the above are opinions. This is meant for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be financial advice.
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Incredible focus and discipline, Alex. Your philosophy of 'I can live on any amount as long as I'm doing what I love' hits the core of why we build.
Your meticulous bootstrapping—calculating every ROI, leveraging free tiers—is exactly how I built Abubyte POS into an offline-first system for emerging markets. That grind creates real, transferable assets.
It also brings a founder to a key juncture: committing fully to the next thing you love. For me, that's GoGram AI. To fund that future 100%, I'm passing on this $287k tech stack via a 7-day acquisition window at an $85k OBO. It’s a chance for another founder to acquire a serious head start without the multi-year build, just as you’ve built a foundation to run with.
Wishing you massive success as you seize every opportunity. The focus pays off.
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I'm currently bootstrapping my startup like you. I have a website over 650 email signups. Currently, no-one has yet converted to registered users. Any advice on getting user's 'over the hump' and turning them into paying customers ?
I think your idea must be great— but maybe it’s all about making life better. But with the economy struggling in 2024, people are really only willing to pay for things that either help them make or save money. If your product doesn’t do that directly, it should at least make them feel like it can. You can send me your product, and maybe I can give more detailed help.
Sure, here's the website. Please take a tour and be sure to watch the demo. If you want the product please sign up to get early access. If you could put your IH username in brackets so I know its you. https://idearify.com
There were thoughts to do the same. I'm just afraid of the risks. But I think it's worth a try anyway.
kk
Where does this guy live to pay $200 rent lol? I need to reconsider my place of living
Anyway love his passion and comitment. Can relate a lot, as I made the same decision to go full-time at some point and had only 6 months of runway. Went back to employment for now as I run out of cash. Wishing him all the best!
I'm in a similar situation, working on TapRefer.com. I'm exploring various marketing channels.
It's an inspiration to go towards the business instead of always staying stuck with the job... Great Initiative.
Thanks!
Alex Liu's bold leap into entrepreneurship is truly inspiring! From quitting his job to launching AutoAE and hitting $400 MRR in just a month—this is what passion and grit look like. With six months of runway left, the pressure may be on, but Alex is proving that when you take risks and fully commit, the possibilities are endless. Can't wait to see how far he'll go!
Hey Jamie! I’m also really excited to see how far I can go—it feels like a real-life game to me. I’m currently putting in about 14 hours a day and looking to push that even further!
If AutoAE doesn't work out for some reason, it sounds like he should go back to this! It's possible to rapidly scale up a business selling market analysis, and it's probably less crowded than SaaS, and easier to make sales.
If you follow up with your customers, find out who they are, why they're buying, and what they desire, then you can make better reports and increase sales. Then re-invest profits to hire additional researchers on a contractual basis for $2k/mo, maybe less. Produce more reports, make more sales, hire more researchers, repeat.
I'll consider it, but I hope AutoAE succeeds! It's a great side hustle, though I've noticed that my small business customers have significantly lower budgets in 2024. I believe the key is to find more quality buyers. Currently, I'm sharing my insights on Medium, Reddit and IH for more views. More views mean more audience, anyway.
Do you have any suggestions for someone looking to start this business and attract the right customers, aside from platforms like Fiverr or Freelancer?
Kudos to Alex for taking the leap! I'm inspired but also anxious about leaving my stable job. How do you manage the stress of uncertainty?
I truly believe that AutoAE can change the way people create content. As a YouTuber, I understand the significant demand in this niche, and whenever I talk to my editor friends, they all love this product. Perhaps it’s just appealing to the younger crowd, haha
Super inspiring Alex! Keep up with the work - you are the pro.
Huge thanks, Hanna! Starting a business with just $1k in the bank was definitely a nerve-wracking decision, but so far, the results have been great!