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46 Comments

I quit my job to go full time on my SaaS! 🥳

I've been working on my SaaS, potion.so, for the last year. I started it on the side while I had a full time job as a software engineer.

After a year I've gotten the business to over $4k MRR and I think it has a lot of potential. So I quit my day job to work on it full time.

I didn't take quitting my day job lightly. I thought a lot about my financial situation to make sure I'm making the right choice. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself and my family to where it makes life stressful and I don't enjoy building the business.

Thankfully I've been blessed to have a good amount of saving and my day job company went public this year so I have some good stock options that will give me some more money.

Potion is really close to paying for all of my expenses but not quite. That did make me feel a lot better about making the leap.

I think starting on the side is a great way to go for an Indiehacker. I'm very blessed to be in the position I am now!

I talked more about this in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXJfkFv1KiI

  1. 5

    Congrats on making the leap! I'm just starting my IH journey, hope to be where you are in the not-too-distant-future!

    1. 3

      Thanks and good luck!

  2. 4

    That's so cool! You said after a year you reached $4K MRR, may I know how long since you launched until you got your first customer?

    1. 4

      I launched early access 2 months after I started, and then launched officially about a month and a half. So it's been about 9 months.

  3. 3

    Congrats!

    One question, how did you solve marketing? Did you already have an audience or did you have to acquire all your customers cold?

    If yes what was your approach?

    As a SW engineer, I struggle with that part the most...

    1. 2

      I grew my audience as I started building Potion. I did a lot of building in public. I had around 1000 followers on twitter when I started. Now I have about 10k. I documented the whole journey on Twitter and YouTube. some links to the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMt9wkBcwq0gc2k63i_k28n2TNqRpwVab

  4. 3

    Good job on taking the plunge.

    I've been full-time on Zlappo for almost 2 years now, it's like living the dream every single day.

    I hope you find the same fulfillment and freedom that I found after finally quitting your day job!

    1. 1

      Thanks, I hope so! Sounds like a dream.

  5. 3

    Congrats on the growth with Potion! I'm also in the Notion space with Engine.so and hoping to reach that milestone as-well!

    What's the best part so far?? 😆

    1. 2

      Best part is getting to choose what things you want to work on each day.

      1. 2

        Yep I love that. That freedom to create based off your own imagination all day is what makes it worth it. Well congrats, and hopefully you can grow Potion to be even more successful!

  6. 3

    I hope you're not "bragg"-ing :). Jokes aside, good luck!

    1. 1

      Haha, never heard of that one before. ;)

  7. 2

    Hi Noah, nice jobs. You are an insperation for all Indies :-)

  8. 2

    Matrixspeed! Make it rain! 💰

  9. 2

    Congrats! 🥂

  10. 2

    Congratulations, Noah!

  11. 2

    Big congratulations! Living the dream! 🎉

  12. 2

    Congrats and good luck!

  13. 2

    That's great Noah!

    How are you planning to allocate the additional time you have now wrt Notion?

    1. 1

      Starting out about 70% time on product and 30% of marketing. Eventually I'll try to balance it out to 50/50%.
      Lots of stuff to do!

  14. 2

    Congratulation! 🎊🎉 I followed your journey on Twitter :)

    I am also trying to build a SaaS in meantime having a full-time job. Any advice on how to manage your time and avoid burnout?

    1. 1

      Thanks! Main thing I think is to really enjoy the process and find something you enjoy building. If you can enjoy it you can persist to hopefully make it happen. It takes time.

  15. 2

    Welcome to the dark side 🤠
    I've been following you for a while now, thanks for sharing about your journey, I find it super interesting!

    1. 1

      Thanks I appreciate yoour support!

  16. 2

    Congrats! Wish you the best!

  17. 2

    Your story is very inspiring and cool! Congratulations and best of luck for the future ahead.

    1. 1

      Thanks! I appreciate it.

  18. 2

    Congratulations 🎉

  19. 1

    I quit my job 2 months ago to work full time on my startup, and I currently going on a business roller coaster ... Seeing what you've built so far is cheering me up!

  20. 1

    I am interested to know how you have achieved this and how you have captured the attention of so many customers or if you were already starting from an audience base.
    What advice would you give to someone starting out in this world?

  21. 1

    Keep it up! So excited for you going full time on Potion!

  22. 1

    Nice! One tip: Maybe you could add Google login.. Signing up by having to enter all that info is a bit of a bummer. Or what about trying your product as an anonymous user?

  23. 1

    All the very best, Noah.

  24. 2

    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

    1. 2

      Thanks! I like the name alot. I think it has at least helped since it might be something a Notion lover can remember easily. But not sure really how much it has helped.

  25. 1

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 1

      $4k doesn't quite cover my personal expenses. So I'm not quite there yet.

      1. 0

        This comment was deleted a year ago.

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