After burning through his savings and going into debt, this founder built a $42k MRR
portfolio
Rashid Khasanov suffered a defeat after his first app crashed and burned. But he picked himself back up and built Angel Match to solve a problem that he had faced with that first app.
Today, it's bringing in $37k MRR. And he has three other profitable products to boot.
Here's Rashid on how he did it. 👇
From epic failure to $37k MRR success
I am a non-technical, bootstrapped founder who's been building SaaS apps for the last six years.
I've always wanted to run my own business. Even as a child, I made kites, built bicycles, bred parrots, and so on to make money. My first app wiped me out completely. I lost almost everything, drained all my savings, maxed out credit cards, and went deep into debt. But I didn't quit. I continued to build small tools on the internet and learned a ton in the process through failures, iterations, small wins, and consistency.
Today, I run angelmatch.io — a fundraising platform that helps startup founders find the right investors, manage outreach, and share updates. It was born out of my personal frustration of struggling to find investors for that first app that failed.
I also run a few other SaaS tools including Investor Hunt, Journalist Hunt, and a social media scheduling tool called Pur Social. I like building SaaS products that solve real painful founder problems, especially database platforms. Building a database product is not easy, but if you get it right, it will have a moat. I see tons of AI wrappers get killed when big LLM players launch new features within their platforms. Curated databases are harder to kill.
Right now, Angel Match is at $37.3K MRR. We dipped from $41K MRR in September after pausing Meta ads for about a month to evaluate how profitable our ads actually are, and also we changed the person who runs ads for us. We will resume ads in November. The goal is to get to $100K MRR. With churn reduction that we are working on and a new ads strategy, I think we have a real shot to scale it.
Investor Hunt is the second app in terms of MRR, and it's at $4557 MRR now. Pur Social is at $491 MRR. And Journalist Hunt, a database of 100,000 journalists for getting media coverage, is at $180 MRR.
Building an MVP database product
Before Angel Match, I teamed up with a few people and built Investor Hunt in 2018. We had cofounder issues, and the app was shut down. The usual story — someone didn't want to share the money, and the others didn't want to do the work. I knew that Investor Hunt could grow, but everyone had to be aligned, and unfortunately, we were not.
So I stepped out and found a remote software developer and built Angel Match from scratch. Soon after launch, it started generating revenue and I never looked back — though I happened to own the investorhunt.co domain, and later restored that as well.
The initial version of Angel Match was very basic. We had tons of bugs. I designed the website and the developer built it. We use Node.js on the front and back end, Digital Ocean for hosting, Figma for design, Stripe for payments, and Klaviyo for marketing.
Aggregating investor data from different platforms into one place was the most difficult part. Over time, we've aggregated 110,000 angels and VCs. We've also built tons of free tools and calculators, a fundraising CRM, email outreach, and other resources.
We operate with a small remote team who help me from design and copywriting to front-end and back-end development.
Learning from failure
If I had to start over, I would not start with a shiny, big app that could potentially become a unicorn. Because your probability of success becomes extremely small. You have to rely heavily on factors like fundraising, compliance, team, speed of growth, etc.
Our first app was an SEC-registered robo-advisor, which was very expensive to run without VC money. So if I could go back, I'd start a simple app that solves one problem and I would test if people were willing to pay for it. I would try to build many of these types of small software solutions and put a paywall behind them to find the ones that stick. Then, after finding the product-market fit, I'd focus on SEO early on or find any distribution channel that works.
In other words, test a lot of things and double down on what works.
I'd be more careful with hiring key people. It's very, very important to find competent people if you want to grow without losing years of your time, money, sleep, and nerves.
A mix of organic and paid channels
We run subscription-based SaaS apps, and we have grown our revenue mainly by working on things that increased our organic traffic, referral traffic, and ads.
We build free tools and launch them on Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, Reddit, Startup directories, and many other platforms.
We publish blog posts consistently.
We schedule posts on social media channels, and the content goes out daily.
We leverage email marketing via onboarding flows, trial nurture sequences, and newsletters.
We ran Meta ads from February 2025 until October 2025, which gave us an average ROAS of 1.6x - not great, but we didn't lose money.
And I tried to build in public many times. Somehow, I quit every time. It's not that easy to stay consistent.
Overall, most of our users come from organic traffic, and we've worked a lot on building this up. SEO takes a lot of time and effort, but eventually, it works on autopilot.
Consider bringing on an SEO expert if you aren't one. Angel Match was stuck at ~$5k MRR for a long time and we didn't know why. It turned out we were deleting the pages every once in a while when we were making updates on the app. So the website couldn't compound in search traffic. This changed when we hired an in-house SEO expert. We've been ranking and growing our web traffic ever since.
Growth hacks
As far as growth, a few things that have been particularly advantageous:
Programmatic SEO: If you start any database product, this is a growth hack. Creating structured pages at scale brings us consistent high buyer intent organic traffic. We build this for every database product.
Building small and useful free tools around our main product: Nowadays it has become very easy to build free tools compared to pre-LLM times. We've built tons of free tools and launched each of them everywhere we could. This gave us free, consistent lead magnets, backlinks, referral traffic, organic traffic, and paid users on autopilot. Of course, not every free tool worked well, but it was worth building them and adding to the platform.
Listening to users (as cliché as it may sound): Many of our most useful features came from user complaints. We built the CRM, email outreach, database updates, and many other small features through user feedback. Also, the cancellation flow turned out to be very useful because we've collected tons of reasons and fed them to ChatGPT to get the most common reasons users cancel. Through this feedback, we are improving our onboarding, email follow-up flows with investors, and so on.
Choosing the right niche: Databases are boring. The products we run are not flashy, but they solve boring problems. A lot of founders chase hype, which is great, but many of them can be killed when OpenAI comes out with new features, which has been happening a lot lately.
Working with remote people: I live in the US, and hiring local developers here means I most likely can't start a business. Programmers cost 10x more than the ones you can hire overseas who are as talented and can do the same level of work. For starting a business, this approach was a big advantage for me personally.
Not quitting is hard
The biggest challenge was not to give up for years when I was pushing the boulder uphill and it didn't move as I wanted it to move. As my first cofounder used to say: "Healthy and rational thinking people would have quit a long time ago, but we're still pushing this like crazy people."
He was right, there were lots of people who started with us and then quit. Now they are working in corporate jobs. Not saying that's bad — each person has a different risk appetite and career goals. But I don't regret suffering to do this.
What's your advice for indie hackers who are just starting out?
Here's my advice:
Don't chase ideas that sound shiny and cool - I made that mistake back in 2016 building a cool investment app for Millennials. Nobody cares about cool stuff. Chase painful problems. If you find a problem that people are trying to solve with spreadsheets, manual workflows, or tedious tasks, you are already 80% there.
Ship the smallest version of it to deliver value. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to solve that particular problem and you'll find out if someone will pay for it.
Keep talking to users. Don't delegate the customer service tickets to anyone - this will help you understand directly what you should focus on and what problems your users have.
Get your hands dirty. You learn much more from actually doing, but not from listening to podcasts or reading books. Podcasts and books can be helpful, but getting your hands dirty is the best teacher.
Don't quit early and don't go into it for a hobby. Stay consistent and build your app brick by brick. I know a lot of founders who quit too early when they should have kept shipping.
You don't need to be technical or raise VC money to build useful and profitable SaaS products.
What's next?
While there is a phrase: "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plan," I want to run a bootstrapped portfolio of SaaS apps. Hopefully, we can build systems where we'll have tons of apps that run on pretty much auto-pilot.
Andrew Wilkinson's "Never Enough" book inspired me. He runs a publicly traded company called Tiny, which owns tons of profitable software businesses that generate tens of millions, if not hundreds.
To get there, we're working on a few things:
Reducing churn on Angel Match, which is at ~30%. These are the things we are adding:
Onboarding walkthrough and fundraising setup checklist
Email follow-up flows to investors
Demo video
Meta Ads
New onboarding emails and newsletters
Building Autoposts from the ground up (rebranded Pur Social that we acquired). Currently at ~$500 MRR.
Adding another 300k journalists to Journalist Hunt and scaling journalist pages through programmatic SEO. This already is generating ~100 organic clicks daily.
Adding CRM, email outreach, data room, and investor updates to Investor Hunt
If you’re raising capital, you can visit Angel Match. Or follow me on X or LinkedIn — where I build in public on and off.
Leave a Comment
Incredible journey from lack of runway to a $42 k MRR portfolio. Proof that market pain + persistence = results.
With Simplita.ai we’re building a visual builder for AI agents + SaaS apps, so founders can move from idea to product faster (and avoid the nightmare of debt).
For you: what early piece of infrastructure saved you time or money?
Nice product! Have you thought about using a short SaaS video on your homepage to show how it works?
Great insights, Rashid. Especially agree on solving “boring” problems — I’ve noticed the same while working on small utility tools. Simple + consistent > flashy + hype.
Curious, how long did it take before SEO started compounding for Angel Match?
Found this as great inspiration in not giving up on the entrepreneurial as I have failed multiple businesses already. So I decided to finally give building my digital products a go in helping businesses scale using AI.
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Rashid, this is proof that real traction often starts in the ashes of a failed build. Angel Match wasn’t just created — it was earned.
From failure to $37k MRR ! an incredible example of resilience and smart execution. Truly motivating
Amazing journey, Rashid! 👏 Going from rock bottom to building multiple successful SaaS products takes serious grit. Love how you stayed focused on solving real problems and kept pushing through the hard times — super motivating!
I like the advise of chasing painful problems instead of shiny ideas — the “solved with spreadsheets” line might be one of the most practical filters for idea validation:)
I also love how you highlight staying close to users and handling support yourself - I try do this in my side projects as checking every single user feedback/complaint/advise/result of test. Probably the most teaching part.
Thanks Tony! Doing customer support yourself is such an underrated way to collect real feedback and quickly improve the product.
This is such a powerful story. Love how you turned failure into momentum and kept going when most people would’ve quit. Huge respect for the persistence and grit.
Thank you! Appreciate the kind words!
absolutely a great
Really inspiring journey. It’s a strong reminder that consistent execution beats perfect timing. Building a 42K MRR portfolio after hitting financial lows takes serious resilience and clarity of focus. The way you iterated, validated, and doubled down on what actually worked is something many founders overlook. Thanks for sharing the transparent breakdown — it’s a great motivator for anyone bootstrapping in tough conditions.
Going from rock bottom to building multiple successful SaaS products shows incredible resilience. The way you stayed focused on solving real problems and kept pushing through the tough phases is seriously inspiring. Thanks for sharing this.
This was such a grounding read – thank you for sharing the messy parts as well as the wins. The contrast between the first “shiny” robo-advisor and the later, more focused database products really hit me.
I’m bootstrapping in the mental health space, and it’s so tempting to chase big, complex ideas that look impressive from the outside. Your point about solving “boring, painful problems” and letting SEO compound over time feels like a much healthier (and saner) path.
I’m curious: when you were stuck around ~$5k MRR, what kept you from giving up on Angel Match and deciding “this one just isn’t it”?
Incredible turnaround! Building a $42k MRR portfolio after debt shows resilience, determination, and smart execution—proof that persistence pays off in entrepreneurship.
From rock-bottom debt after the first app failed to a $42k MRR portfolio is one of the most inspiring comeback stories I’ve read here. The pivot to multiple smaller tools instead of one big swing clearly paid off. What changed in your validation process the second (and third/fourth) time around?
I think the biggest value you can take from this is to never give up. If you don't give up, you don't lose. And if you don't lose, you're still in the game. And if you're still in the game, you can still win - it's just a matter of time. Every failure is actually a lesson that brings you closer to winning. Good luck with your continued growth Rashid.
This is one of the most transparent and grounded founder journeys I’ve read in a while. I love how you highlight the reality of building — the failures, the cofounder challenges, the grind of organic growth, and the discipline it takes not to quit. The lesson about chasing painful problems instead of shiny ideas really hit home. Your emphasis on compounding through SEO, listening to users, and programmatic content is gold. Huge respect for staying consistent through the ups and downs — Angel Match’s growth is proof that persistence and focus beat hype every time.
After draining savings and maxing out credit cards, founder Rashid Khasanov built a portfolio of SaaS/database products — today at ~$42K MRR using organic channels, user feedback, and paid ads.
I really respect how you pushed through after losing everything on your first app. That kind of resilience is rare.
Your journey perfectly captures what most founders don't talk about, the years of iteration, small wins, and brutal lessons before something finally clicks. The shift from chasing a shiny idea to solving a painful problem (like fundraising chaos) is such a powerful mindset change.
Congrats on hitting $37K MRR and for being so transparent about churn, ads, and what’s next. Following your journey to $100K MRR, rooting for you!
This is such a masterclass in persistence and practical SaaS thinking.
Loved how you turned failure into clarity — starting small, staying focused, and compounding through SEO and user feedback.
Your point about boring problems having strong moats really resonates.
Flashy tools fade fast, but painful problems stay.
Congrats on crossing $37K MRR — and more importantly, on proving that resilience beats hype every time.
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thank you.
Seems like a cool product indeed. Definitely would use it
perseverance pays off!! i will definetely use AngelMatch for my next project
What was the single biggest shift (mindset / product / team) that moved things from “survival mode” into real traction?
The not quitting parts hits deep. I released my first web app recently, and though it was only more of a project to test myself, and I knew I wouldn't get any users at start, I still felt a huge hole in my chest when after about one week no one even visited the website.
That depressing feeling almost led me to quite and give up, thinking I was not built for this. But again, I never planned for it to be a hit and was still disappointed, which I knew wasn't right. Right now I'm continuing to try my best and grow it, since I know the feeling I will have when I get my first real paying user will be endlessly more rewarding than the relief of giving up now.
I love how your journey shows the human side behind SaaS numbers. As someone who writes about SaaS growth, seeing the lessons from failure, real user feedback, and the grind behind $42K MRR makes me want to share these stories morebecause the struggles are where the real insights live.
Incredible journey—turning setbacks into a sustainable business is truly inspiring. The resilience and focus on solving real problems, even through tough times, are what make indie hacking so rewarding. Thanks for sharing your story and motivating others to keep pushing forward.
This is a very valuable post, thanks for sharing. I resonate with the idea of finding a problem people are solving manually using spreadsheets, etc. This is how I validated my problem I'm working on solving right now.
Thanks again and cheers!
That’s a solid approach finding those spreadsheet solutions is one of the clearest signals of a real, painful problem worth solving. When people are already hacking together manual systems, it shows genuine demand. It’s great that you validated your idea that way that’s the foundation of a strong product. Curious to know how your validation process went and what you’re building around it!
I just read a little part of this article, couldn't wait to post my first comment. Exciting story~
Not many things are as motivating as being short on funds.
I'm leaning towards the bootstrapping side due to a couple of factors, but then again, I can see reasons behind someone going in the opposite direction.
That's really great. Your story was so inspiring.
That so nice
I agree
Really inspiring journey!
I follow you too. And I apply the same for myself.
Really inspiring journey! I love how you highlight learning from failure and iterating small, practical solutions instead of chasing a shiny unicorn idea from the start. Your emphasis on programmatic SEO, free tools as lead magnets, and listening closely to users really shows how thoughtful, consistent execution beats hype. Also, the point about hiring remote talent is so relevant—smart resourcing can make or break bootstrapped founders. Lots of actionable lessons here for anyone building SaaS from scratch.
Incredible journey, Rashid 👏 , this is one of those stories that reminds indie founders that consistency really is the biggest growth hack.
I love how you leaned into solving your own pain point and turned it into something scalable. The part about compounding SEO and programmatic pages really stood out ,not enough builders talk about that side of growth.
I’ve helped SaaS founders grow similar products organically through Reddit and community-driven storytelling , would love to exchange ideas on how Angel Match could tap deeper into those channels for visibility and user trust. 🚀
Loved this story, it’s the perfect mix of grit and focus. Turning debt and burnout into a calm, diversified $42K MRR portfolio shows what happens when you stop chasing “one big win” and start stacking small, validated bets. The through-line felt clear: consistent shipping, owning distribution, and compounding through audience trust instead of ads.
Curious; across your portfolio, what single leading indicator best predicts a winner early on: user activation speed, organic traffic growth, or repeat usage within week one?
P.S. I’m with Buzz; we design conversion-focused Webflow sites and pragmatic SEO for product launches. Happy to share a quick 10-point GTM checklist if useful.
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This was a great read, the idea of solving "boring problems" is something that I can definitely pay more attention to. It's easy to get distracted by shiny objects.
best article, i loved it
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Such an inspiring turnaround...
Incredible turnaround, Rashid ,the consistency and focus really show through. I love that you doubled down on organic growth instead of just chasing ad metrics.
I work closely with SaaS founders who are in a similar stage , helping them build traction through community-driven growth on platforms like Reddit and Indie Hackers (no ads, just real conversations that lead to paying users).
What you’ve built with Angel Match is a great example of solving a real founder pain point. Would love to connect or even share a few frameworks that can bring consistent inbound traffic without increasing ad spend.
I agree
We’re building a solution right now — wanna hear about it?
Ok, I'll add it
A lightweight AI research tool
Ok, I'll add it
Agreed, that’s something we’ve been meaning to solve.
Yes, I'm done.
Sure, I can send you the link
So, do you have any thoughts?
Got it
Your journey from failure to success is truly inspiring. It’s a great reminder that persistence, learning from mistakes, and focusing on real user problems are key to building sustainable businesses. At Sentino, we believe in the power of combining AI with psychological insights to solve real-world problems – whether it's improving team dynamics, e-learning, or mental health support. Your approach to building small, focused tools and iterating based on feedback resonates deeply with how we aim to empower developers and companies with actionable insights. Keep building and sharing your journey. I am looking forward to seeing where Angel Match and your other ventures go next!
looks good!
wuaw man, thanks for your sharing it really touch me and make me energic again
Hello Rashid,
Thanks for sharing your journey. How long did it take to get to $20K MRR, and at what MRR did you make your first hire, and why?
I was tickled to see you mention Rashid's PR media database, Journalist Hunt, is at $180 MRR. Years ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, I would have KILLED for something like this.
I helped a few small startups get media coverage first by thumbing through always out-of-date paper media directories and then—after throwing them across the room in frustration—going over to Dartmouth's Baker library and leafing through dozens of magazines to find journalists who might actually care about my subject.
One of my clients was a crazy guy from New Hampshire who had lashed his neighbors to computers night and day to digitize every street in the US. WHO KNEW he would go on to invent the entire freakin' computer mapping industry! Geographic Data Technology was sold to TeleAtlas for $100,000,000 and then TeleAtlas was gobbled up like a throat lozenge by TomTom for $4.3 billion.
Keep building, Rashid. Crazy things happen!
great
Love this story, James— especially the part about focusing on “boring” problems that actually hurt.
I think a lot of founders (myself included) get caught chasing shiny ideas or building features no one asked for. Your reminder to stay close to user pain and compound organic channels instead of relying only on ads really hits home.
Curious — when Angel Match was still at ~$5k MRR and stuck, what made you realize SEO was the main bottleneck? Did you have a specific metric or “aha” moment that made it clear?
Good story to read.
Good points. Totally agree about the free tools , they keep bringing traffic long after launch. Simple but powerful strategy.
What sticks most is his honesty about the "boring" stuff that worked: fixing SEO mistakes to unlock growth, using remote teams to cut costs, and actually listening to why users canceled. Way more relatable than the usual "overnight success" stories for anyone building solo.
Love this story. The mindset shift from chasing shiny “unicorn” ideas to solving boring but painful problems is such an underrated lesson. Also appreciate how honest you are about failing, rebuilding, and focusing on distribution + SEO early. Super inspiring thanks for sharing
Really inspiring story — it’s amazing how persistence and creativity can turn things around even after tough setbacks. For anyone in business or prepping for big purchases, there's a helpful guide here on timing and savings — some smart prep ahead of major Black Friday deals blackfridaydealsx can turn an investment into a win.
Really inspiring story — it’s amazing how persistence and creativity can turn things around even after tough setbacks. For anyone in business or prepping for big purchases, there's a helpful guide here on timing and savings — some smart prep ahead of major Black Friday deals can turn an investment into a win.
This was super inspiring to read 🙌 Love how you turned failure into momentum instead of quitting. The database-first approach really stood out — boring problems with recurring value are where the real opportunities are. Congrats on $37k MRR and the persistence it took to get there! 💪
I hate failing but succeeding due to the failure is inspiring. Thank you for sharing, helps in terms of making some decisions ourselves
Where did you get the list of 110,000 investors?
We've aggregated investors data from different platforms and brought them into one place. It all started with the initial list of 600-700 investors that we collected manually just by googling. Over the years, that list kept growing and now we have 110,000 investors.
Rashid, your journey is truly inspiring! From failure to $37K MRR is a perfect example of how important it is to keep going and learn from mistakes. Your focus on solving real problems, like building Angel Match out of your own frustration, is amazing. I especially appreciate your emphasis on focusing on user pain points rather than chasing "shiny" ideas. That mindset really helps indie hackers push through and find success. Thanks for the valuable advice — it’s really helpful! Wishing you continued growth!
Thank you and I appreciate it! It’s definitely been a journey with lots of ups and downs. Still learning and improving every day.
Such an inspiring story, Rashid! Your honesty about the ups and downs makes it even more powerful. Building multiple SaaS wins after losing everything shows real perseverance and passion — huge respect!
Thank you for the kind words
Wow, Immersive
Thank you!
Incredible story, Rashid! 👏 Thanks for sharing such a transparent journey — from losing everything to building multiple profitable SaaS products is truly inspiring. The focus on solving real founder problems and sticking through the tough years really hits home. Respect for the perseverance!
Thank you!
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i think SEO really do matter more, and influencer marketing (if you have $10k to spare)
I've never tried influencer marketing, but I've seen others reach really great results with it. We should give it a shot and see how it works for us
I really like the idea of focusing on painful problems rather than chasing cool or trendy ideas.
The part about users solving things with spreadsheets really resonated — it’s such a strong signal that there’s a real workflow pain worth automating.
Also appreciate how you mentioned handling customer support yourself. I’ve found the same thing in my own projects — direct user conversations often reveal the most valuable insights for product improvements.
Thanks!
Going from rock bottom to building multiple successful SaaS products shows incredible resilience. The way you stayed focused on solving real problems and kept pushing through the tough phases is seriously inspiring. Thanks for sharing this.
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