$3500 MRR so far...
Hey IndieHackers,
My name is Tony and I'm the creator of the website called DevDojo at https://devdojo.com.
I've recently released a new project called Tails, which is a TailwindCSS page builder.
I've been working on the DevDojo for the last 5 years and it finally feels like I'm starting to gain some traction 🚀
It's been a bit of a roller coaster recently with the amount of paid monthly users on my site. One day I will be excited that I just got 10 new customers and the next it will be discouraging to see that I only had 2 new customers and that 5 have churned from the last month. I'm not complaining because when I look at the overall graph of active paying users, it seems to be climbing.
Anyway, my current MRR is not enough to sustain me and my family of 5 just yet. I still have a full-time job and I feel that I'll need to double the amount of MRR that I'm currently getting in order to compensate for my full-time job.
Looking for any kind of encouragement or advice from all the other indie hackers out there.
Really grateful for how far I've gotten, I guess I just have to keep riding this roller coaster to see if it leads to an online business that I can pay attention to full-time.
Any words of encouragement or advice, greatly appreciated 😉
hey Tony, that's great, but how!? I have searched for pricing and can't find anything - even on the Go Pro page. I am intrigued??
But maybe that is the problem and something that could help increase your MRR and help you go fulltime on it all.
Perhaps a revamp and rejig to encourage more paid upgrades (I am assuming it is freemium). I'm also encouraged by other posts on IH about people doubling their costs and seeing no drop-off. So maybe a full pricing review, including which bits are free and which are in the Go Pro?
Happy to chuck more idea in.
There is a "pro" section. Don't know more about it, I couldn't access the pricing without signing in.
This is what I love in such stories. Keep going!! As for the advice... I see the devdojo is rather an ecosystem than a product. Maybe you would better focus on some specific, the strongest part of it?
Hi Tony, 3 months of customer and MRR growth, even at the $3.5k a month level can often be enough to interest angel investors. Keep at it, as building a business in the early days is often more about direction than it is about speed. It's a game of inches. It's great that you seem to be focusing on the customer as a key metric. Too many people assume they know what the market needs vs continually validating by checking in with the customer. It sounds like you're on to something meaningful! Keep at it.
Hey Tony, you are doing great man! Keep pushing on. Your family and many of us indie hackers are proud of your achievement so far.
Would love to help in any way that I can. I curate case studies of business strategies posted by founders so if you're interested in any type of strategy for your business (Eg: launching a Lifetime deal, conducting a giveaway etc) let me know. I'll be happy to help you out.
You are doing amazing! One next step to think about is finding the primary reason why people pay you - is it for the ebooks, to use tails, the community, etc? Once you know that you'll know where to focus to make your next 5k in MRR.
I wanted to try Tails but it required me to sign up, so I closed the tab.
Suggestion: Let users play with the editor and only after they have already seen the value of the product ask them to sign up, e.g. when they want to save and publish their sites.
I'd also love to have a non-social signup option.
Tails looking good 🎉
Awesome to see that you have been going for 5 years and keep pushing on! You're an inspiration.
Using TailwindCSS and TailwindUI a lot in my projects and really liked Tails. Didn't go too deep in but are you exporting the HTML when you are done in tails to load up on your own site? Not building a landing page right now but I'm going to give it a spin the next time I do!
Impressive work. Saas starter kit are everywhere now. I like the "wave" landing page, very clear and to the point. How many hours did you spent on this ?
That's so awesome, man! I've been working on Skillthrive for several years now. I just recently changed how I create tutorials by putting them into large guides that students can easily navigate, read examples, and view code examples. In the process I got rid of almost all the other content I created and focused on these guides. They take me a lot of time to create, and since creating my first one several months back I haven't sold a single one, despite having a decent audience on YouTube.
It makes me always question if I'm working on the right thing and if I should try something new. It's nice to hear you've started to gain some traction, though.
So by now you know the issue: giving your time to an employer is forcing this to be a side-hustle indefinitely. It's not a popular opinion, but if you are truly looking for answers... I would say work on "self awareness". I cannot determine "why" you choose to continue this cycle... And can only imagine how much extra time and effort is spent to accumulate these gains while tricking yourself into believing without the full time job, none of it would be possible. Just do yourself a favor: sit your "other half" down and see if you both agree that it is a possibility your "job" could be restricting $7000 income (has society fooled you into thinking you don't have enough skill to generate the same amount of income while adding an extra 40+ hours a week that you currently give to your boss with no actual vested interest?!?) Maybe I am wrong, but I hope at least I gave you some clarity on what you believe the future of your company is. Good luck.