Building, failing, rebuilding, and then hitting $30k MRR in a year

I love the fact that you didn’t give up 🤘👍 keep pushing

The "rebuild from scratch" decision is one of the scariest calls a founder can make — especially when the old version has paying customers. Most people patch forever because the switching cost feels too high. The fact that you came out the other side at $36K MRR and growing validates the decision, but I'm curious how you handled the migration. Did you run both versions in parallel or did you rip the bandaid off?

The monopage stack with Laravel, Vue, and Pusher is refreshingly straightforward. No microservices, no over-engineered infrastructure — just a monolith that works. That's underrated, especially at your stage. The companies that scale past $100K MRR on a monolith before adding complexity are usually the ones that survive.

The personalization angle is interesting. "Show the right content based on what we already know about them" is simple to explain but hard to execute well. What's the biggest lift you've seen a customer get from personalization — like what's the before/after on conversion rates?

Also respect the honesty about the codebase getting messy. Every founder who says their code is clean at year 3 is either lying or hasn't shipped enough features.

The agency/partner channel insight is probably the most underrated part of this whole journey. One good partner really does beat 100 individual users in early-stage SaaS.

Also interesting how much of the scaling came after the painful rebuild most people underestimate how much a clean architecture + clear ICP unlocks growth.

I’ve been tracking similar “pivot → clarity → growth” patterns in tools like freshloopdotai especially around how founders shift from feature-building to distribution-focused thinking. That mindset shift seems to be the real inflection point, not the tech stack.

This was a great read. The part about rebuilding from scratch while still supporting customers really stood out. That’s the kind of decision that looks obvious in hindsight but is incredibly hard in the moment.

Also love the insight about agencies being the highest-leverage growth channel. Feels like one of those things many founders realise late.

Curious, if you had to choose today, would you double down more on AI-led personalisation or the agency partner ecosystem for faster growth?

Yes, the rebuild story hits hard. Most people would have walked away after nearly crashing — the fact that you bought out your partner and started over says everything about founder mentality. I'm currently in my own 'zero users, product is live' stage and reading about the gap between building and growing is both humbling and motivating. The personalization angle is brilliant — showing different messages to different visitors is something most small SaaS founders completely ignore. Thank you for being this transparent about the hard reset.

rebuilding from scratch while still running the business is not easy - respect for pushing through that

also that point about “build for a market you understand” hits hard 👍

This is actually very similar to what we see in gaming audiences. Traditional ads don’t convert as well as creator-driven content.

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Really valuable insights—especially the emphasis on deep customer understanding and the power of personalization.
The journey of rebuilding from scratch and repositioning the ICP is a great reminder that product-market fit is an ongoing process, not a one-time event.
Also, the focus on high-leverage channels like agency partnerships stands out. Thanks for sharing such a candid and practical perspective.

If you started today, would you still prioritize agency partnerships as your main growth channel?

The biggest take in terms of marketing for me was affiliate marketing. Its amazing to let other creators promote your product. Its definitely in my list of to-do and I will implement it for Slotably down the road. Thanks

Love this, especially the rebuild phase.

Curious, when you started scaling again, did you notice any revenue slipping from failed payments?

I’ve been seeing this quietly eat into MRR for a lot of SaaS founders without them realizing.

Really appreciate this read Brennan. I am currently stuck in the early 'failing' stage with my own tool. This kind of transparency keeps me going luckily. However, I do have one question:

• When you were rebuilding, did you have a clear 'this is working' moment? Or was it more of a gradual realisation.

Great read nonetheless.

Really enjoyed this story, especially the part about rebuilding after the initial version didn’t work.

One thing that stood out to me is how much distribution clarity mattered compared to product iteration alone.

A lot of founders (including myself) tend to assume the breakthrough will come from “fixing the product,” but in reality it often comes from finally finding a repeatable channel, like yyour agency/partner motion.

Curious:
when you realized the ICP shift was necessary, what was the first signal that made it undeniable? (churn, sales calls, activation rates, or something else?)

Also interesting how the “rebuild from scratch” phase seems painful short-term but ends up being the only way to reset product direction cleanly.

Feels like the real pattern here is:
most breakthroughs come after you stop optimizing the wrong version of the product.

Really resonated with the rebuild part. I spent months building Glow Journal — an AI skincare app with on-device skin analysis, dermatologist booking, and a full

admin panel. Hit several dead ends along the way (wrong architecture, wrong assumptions about the backend). The version that exists now is basically a rebuild of the first attempt.

The part about doubling down after buying out the cofounder is interesting — solo building has its own version of that moment where you decide to stop hedging and

just commit fully to shipping something production-quality.

Congrats on the $30k MRR — what was the biggest thing that changed between the flopped version and the one that worked?

I think most people underestimate how hard support scaling becomes.
We faced the same issue where responses started to slow down as users increased.

Congrats on rebuilding the company. Your story resonated with me because I am currently in the process of rebuilding mine. I enjoyed reading about the challenges that you overcame while building a company, raising kids, and working out. One of the lessons that I learned from you is the importance of staying small at the beginning because it provides the opportunity to ship out products faster, which is where I am currently. Although I haven't used the platform that you created yet, I understand the importance of delivering the right message to the Right audience without having it feel broad. The key is to make it personal. A question that I have for you is, how did you build your email list? Another question that I have for you is, when you are building a company like yours, how can you make sure that the product that you are preparing for the customer isn't going to be something that will be easily replicated by AI?

Spending an entire year rebuilding from scratch with zero new features for paying customers while burning through savings is the part most people would never have the guts to do. And it's exactly what got him to $30K MRR solo.

The agency channel insight is underrated too. Having partners who handle implementation and client support is basically building a sales team without hiring one. Most indie founders never think about this because they're too focused on direct-to-customer.

The whole story is a good reminder that the path to $30K/mo rarely looks like a straight line. It usually looks like a year of pain that nobody sees.

Feels like most of these issues come from figuring things out while building instead of before.

Did you define your flow clearly upfront or did it evolve during development?

The line 'The business exists to support life, not the other way around' is a great reminder for all of us in the SaaS grind. It’s rare to see someone talk so openly about the emotional toll of a total rewrite while supporting existing users. Hope you hit that $40k MRR goal soon.

VERY VERY INTERESTING SO MUCH LOVE IT

What impacted me most is how much iteration happened before things clicked. ~

You did not see the first version working; you kept rebuilding until something fit.

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The agency partner insight landed hard. I'm building a Google Ads tool solo and have been doing one-to-one outreach to individual PPC freelancers. Reading this, I realize the math is completely different with agencies: one relationship, multiple accounts, and they handle the client interaction. That reframes my entire outreach strategy. The other line I'm taking with me: "the business exists to support life, not the other way around." Easy to forget when you're deep in launch mode...

Shift from “build features” to “understand the user deeply” is the real win here💯

This is very inspiring....

The "build for a market you understand" point hits close to home. I built ValetVault after speaking with hundreds of barbers across Australia — the frustration was real and firsthand. Most barbershop software was built for salons, not barbers, so we started from scratch. The validation came from the conversations, not the code. The rebuild discipline you described is something I'm keeping in mind as we grow.

Really inspiring story—what stood out most is how the turnaround didn’t come from adding more features, but from deeply understanding the customer and rebuilding around that insight. The emphasis on audience, distribution, and agency partnerships feels like a big takeaway most indie hackers overlook. Also refreshing to see the honest take on how brutal a full rewrite can be, yet how necessary it sometimes is to unlock growth.

The rewrite year hit different — zero new features for paying

customers while burning savings. That's the kind of honest

cost that most rebuild stories skip over.

I'm a non-developer building a solo app right now, and the

"don't build features before validating demand" line is

something I needed to read today.

One question: during the rebuild year, how did you keep

existing customers from churning while the product was

essentially frozen?

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The agency partner channel insight is the one I'm taking with me. "They handle the client, you get the MRR" is such a clean model that I think a lot of builders overlook because it feels like giving up control early on.

The part about building for a market you already understand hit differently too. I'm building something in real estate right now specifically because I watched my co-founder (a real estate agent) work. Seeing the problem firsthand before writing a line of code changes everything about what you actually build.

How long did it take before the agency channel started producing meaningful MRR vs. the direct channel?

The rebuild decision is brutal but sometimes necessary. At $30k MRR, you're probably looking at $3-5k/month just in billing/payment processing costs depending on your stack (we can help with this). The technical debt from a failing first version can eat up so much development time that starting fresh actually accelerates growth. Easier said than done though when you take into account the mental toll.

The rebuild story is real. One thing that comes up after auditing SaaS products that went through rewrites: the new codebase gets reviewed carefully, but the infrastructure surface often does not. Headers, DNS, TLS, exposed endpoints stay from the old setup or get misconfigured in the new one. Especially relevant now that you are leaning into AI features, which tend to add new attack surface fast. If you want a quick black-box check on any RightMessage domain, scan.mosai.com.br runs 78 checks in 60 seconds. No code access needed.

The buyout-and-rebuild story is the part most founders skip over when they talk about their journey. The decision to buy out a partner when the product is failing takes a very specific kind of conviction — you're doubling down precisely when the evidence says you shouldn't. What made you confident enough in the core idea to do that rather than shut it down entirely? Also curious how you handled the psychological reset after the hard year — rebuilding from scratch technically is one thing, but rebuilding your own belief in the product after near-failure seems like the harder problem.

The segmentation insight is powerful. Different users can have completely different problems. Goog job!

very impressive - this is the dream

The part about rebuilding while still supporting existing customers sounds brutal.Feels like one of those decisions that looks obviously right in hindsight, but is incredibly hard to commit to when you’re in it.

Curious — was there a clear moment where you knew the rewrite was unavoidable, or was it more of a gradual realization?

The failing→rebuilding loop is underrated.

Most people quit there.

That’s usually where the real lessons are.

woww, thats nice

What stood out most is that the breakthrough wasn’t just personalization, but realizing most companies lacked the audience data that they need. I also thought that rebuilding in the moment was a big factor too.

$1k/mo expenses on $30k MRR is wild unit economics but the ICP migration from creators to SaaS/DTC feels like the real story here. How fast is the creator segment churning vs. new enterprise signups ramping? Because if the old base erodes faster than the new one grows, that $30k number might be hiding a problem.

Feels like the biggest insight here isn’t just personalization, but that most companies don’t even have the data to make it work. That kind of “missing layer” is probably where a lot of SaaS opportunities are.

The reset part stands out — most people would’ve tried to patch instead of rebuilding while revenue was at risk.

Also interesting how the real unlock wasn’t just personalization tech, but realizing most companies lacked the data in the first place. Feels like that insight shaped the whole product direction more than anything else.

Curious how far the agency channel can take it — sounds like the real growth lever here.

Congrats on the Grit. Currently going through something similar.

Rebuilding while supporting users sounds brutal, but worth it. The agency partner angle is a smart growth move.

I'm wondering from an email marketing perspective; operational wise, deliverability etc. how does RighMessage differentiates quality of recipients?

Also love the mindset at the end—building a business to support life, not consume it. That’s something more founders need to hear.

Really enjoyed this — especially the “build → fail → rebuild” loop. That part felt way more real than the usual overnight success stories.

What stood out to me is how the turning point wasn’t just a better product, but better distribution + learning from earlier attempts. That pattern shows up again and again—people fail multiple times, then suddenly something clicks because they’ve built taste, audience, and context.

Curious about one thing:

If you had to start again from zero today, would you still go through multiple product attempts… or focus on one idea earlier and iterate faster?

Would love to hear how others here think about this too.

wow....that's good

That part about starting from scratch and still pushing forward really hits home.

I think a lot of founders go through this cycle like build something, realize it needs to pivot, and then start over again. But the real challenge isn’t just the ups and downs, it’s not knowing which decisions actually moved the needle.

It’s easy to look back and say, “Yeah, that thing worked,” but without proper tracking, most of it is just hindsight bias. Like, we’re guessing what made a difference instead of knowing for sure.

It feels like there’s a big gap here how founders can capture what they’ve tried, what’s worked, and learn from it over time. If they had a clear way to see what really made an impact, it’d make their journey a lot less guesswork and a lot more about making smarter decisions.

The 'year of rebuilding from scratch' part really resonates. It’s emotionally brutal to ship zero new features while burning through savings, but it clearly paid off. At what point did you realize that a refactor wouldn't cut it and a total rewrite was the only way forward?

This is one of the most honest founder posts I have read here.

The rebuild year sounds brutal. Zero new features. Burning savings. Supporting old customers. I am just starting a solo blog, and that kind of discipline feels far away right now.

The line that stuck with me: "the business exists to support life, not the other way around." Saving that.

One question — you presold to your email list before building anything. How did you structure that? Lifetime deals? Early discount? Or just asked people to trust you?

Thanks for sharing this, Brennan.

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This was a great read, especially the “rebuild while still running the business” phase.

I feel like that part is massively under-discussed. Everyone talks about whether to rewrite or not, but very few talk about what it actually feels like to maintain two versions at once with no visible progress.

The other thing that stood out to me is how the growth seems to come after clarity, not just effort. It is easy to keep building, but much harder to step back, rethink, and rebuild with better understanding. I have noticed that overbuilding (trying to fix everything at once) is what usually kills momentum during rewrites.

Curious about one thing: During the rebuilding phase, how did you decide what NOT to rebuild?

Very interesting - good luck with hitting your goal! Claude Code with monorepo is also just 👌 Building MemberLane doing this currently with seperate frontend and backend and it works great as long as you have a good AGENTS/CLAUDE md file.

Really enjoyed this, especially the honesty around the rewrite. A year of rebuilding from scratch while still supporting the old product sounds financially brutal, but it is interesting that the reset seems to have created a much stronger business on the other side.

"Build for a market you already understand" is the part that sticks with me most. I'm building a training load tracker for triathletes and the only reason the product makes sense is because I've spent years frustrated by the same problem — juggling Strava, Garmin, and spreadsheets to figure out if I'm overtraining.

The point about the agency/partner channel is interesting too. In fitness tech there's a similar dynamic with coaches — if a coach recommends your tool to their athletes, that's way more credible and scalable than any ad. Haven't acted on that yet but this post makes me think I should prioritize it.

Also really appreciate the honesty about the rewrite year. The "opportunity cost feeling" is real — every day spent rebuilding feels like a day not spent on growth, even when you know the old foundation won't hold.

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Exactly! knowing about your audience and identify a true problem is real gem.
If you have a partner with same intentions and complimentary skills that's a blessing :)
Who else is facing difficulty in finding a like minded partner?

That’s an incredibly strong mix of experience and perspective. A decade of writing for Indie Hackers, hundreds of founder interviews, and building products at the same time gives you a rare angle that most people simply don’t have. Also love the contrast between SaaS Watch and Ancient Beat — that’s a genuinely unique combination.

The year of rebuilding while supporting existing customers really stood out to me. Most advice on rewrites focuses on the technical decision but glosses over what it actually costs emotionally and financially to run two codebases at once with no new features shipping. What kept you going during that year? I'm in the middle of a fairly significant refactor on my own project and the opportunity cost feeling is real — every day rebuilding something that already works feels like a day not spent on growth. Would love to hear what your mental framing was for that period.

Hi Brennan,

We’re a team of experienced full-stack developers specializing in SaaS products. We’re impressed with RightMessage and would love to help scale its AI-powered personalization and multi-app platform.

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We can start with a small high-impact feature set and discuss long-term collaboration, either contract or equity-based, to accelerate RightMessage’s growth.

Looking forward to exploring this with you.

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We generally do not consider "marketing" as a big thing until we need to market our own product. It really is a underlying beast in itself.

Knowing what to do when you have this "How do I stop treating every lead the same?" is a great thing. Congratulations on your idea! Hope you get more success!

This really stands out — especially the “build for a market you understand” part.

I’ve noticed the same thing while building. The ideas that come from personal frustration are much easier to validate compared to something you “think” people might need.

Also interesting how personalization played a big role here. Feels like a lot of everyday workflows still have untapped potential if we look closely enough.

Really relatable post. We’re actually navigating similar hurdles right now with our project (a Stripe Billing replacement). Since we’re both targeting the SaaS and E-commerce space, I’m curious—which channel gave you the best response from your ICP? We hit #2 on Product Hunt recently, but turning that buzz into actual paying customers has been a challenge for us.

You mentioned rebuilding from scratch was the best decision long-term — how do you personally decide when to refactor vs. rebuild in a SaaS?

Hey, I saw your post about ecommerce. I’m building a Shopify store too. I’d like to connect and maybe collaborate.”

Very cool, currently working through some of the same issues you guys faced early on at ChaChing (Stripe Billing Replacement) was there any particular channel or platform that you felt your ICP responded to best, we are also targeting SaaS/Commerce etc. We launched #2 on Product Hunt but have not been able to convert these into paying customers.

The segmentation insight is powerful. Different users can have completely different problems even when they land on the same page.

Great story, Brennan. "Build for a market you already understand" really resonates. I spent 25 years in video production before building NexClip AI — I was the customer first too.

The rewrite decision also hits close to home. I started building a Next.js SaaS last July, then pivoted to a native macOS app in January. Financially brutal, but the right call — zero cloud infrastructure costs now.

Curious about your agency partner channel. How did you find your first few agency partners?