$4.7k MRR: First Product, in 37 Days

Hey all! I wanted to give an update on my company, StealthGPT, since I started my journey on March 1st.

Here's StealthGPT by the numbers:

2,500+ users
Hundreds of subscribers and API clients
$4.7k MRR in 37 days

I'm very proud of these numbers, especially given my background as a self-taught dev and this being my first public product. I wrote a blog post here a week or two ago about the company when we were around $500+ MRR, and I wanted to offer some retrospective for indie devs to help them grow and share what has led to our rapid success.

Our focus with StealthGPT:

Some of this advice might come off as common sense or cliché, but often the best advice is something you have heard before.

Speed + Power: I am known to run at a million miles an hour; my brain is non-stop, full of ideas. I am always coming up with new feature and marketing ideas. But I also have to stop myself to build these tools out to be 'powerful' and not half-baked. You need a balance in these sectors.

Discoverability (aka marketing): Yes, I also 'hate' marketing. It is frustrating and on the soft side of the business, with way more variables, very hard to predict, and can get expensive/time-consuming quickly. However, it is probably just as, if not more important than the product itself. I can't tell you how many amazing products I've seen broadcasted on Twitter that look amazing and are affordably priced but can't get more than a few followers or a few paying subscribers. Make sure you give adequate time to think about your marketing: who is your target demographic, where do they congregate, and what do they respond/react to? In this day and age, it's never been easier or more affordable to reach out to people. Take advantage of free social media and low-cost advertisements. You do not need a marketing person; be your own marketing (I am).

Design (UI/UX): What I'm focused on with Stealth is not having the BEST tech or the latest features implemented. I am far more concerned about design for the users, making sure they understand what's going on, how to use the tools, and building for MOBILE. Out of 30k users who hit our site in 30 days, nearly 19k (2/3) were using a mobile phone. If you aren't designing for mobile, you will lose to someone who does. The reason we focus so heavily on UI/UX for most of our dev time is this: think of ChatGPT and GPT-3. GPT-3 was released in June of 2020, it's been out for over three years now, but when did the golden age of AI boom for indie devs? That followed shortly after ChatGPT, which was in late 2022. GPT-3 was over TWO years mature before ChatGPT came out, which ushered in this boom. What was ChatGPT? A simple, noise-free interface to engage with GPT-3 tech in a way that a user could grasp. In short, it was a simple-to-use tool. This attracted hundreds of millions to AI technology in a migration never seen before in tech. UI/UX, I would argue, is what brought on the golden age and what has contributed tremendously to our success.

Versatility and Overcoming Obstacles: This is a simple one. In anything you set out to do, you will run into issues; it's how you respond to those issues that will separate you from the rest. How long does it take you to solve a minor or major problem? When we have any issues, from basic customer service to an update to our site, it takes anywhere from about 5 minutes to 4 hours maximum.

Also, on the subject of versatility, I've spoken with founders who are cash-strapped but do not want to wear different hats: i.e., marketing, PM, engineering, data analysis, etc. to grow their business. If you're starting off with very low resources, as I did ($0 in funding), it is ABSOLUTELY critical to be able to do multiple tasks, even if you're not strong in them, to see your business succeed.

I hope this helps, and if you have any questions, please drop a comment. You can also DM me on Twitter (@gptjozef). I am open to helping out any founders. I have even helped out my own competition before. I really do not mind, and I would love to build more relationships in the space! As I learn more and Stealth/other products grow I'll share more of my analysis. I greatly appreciate everyone else's post and the sharing of wisdom on this site!