From computer science dropout to getting fired to €10K MRR
I studied computer science, and I dropped out.
Building for people wasn't new to me. All through high school and uni I earned some extra money doing small jobs for clients. Nothing big, but I liked it more than lectures.
After I quit, I got a job at a local dev agency. Real clients, real deadlines, a steady salary. In the evenings I kept building for my own clients, like I always had.
That turned out to be the end of that job. They fired me for working on my own, and they withheld my salary because I'd made money outside my contract with them. One day I had a job, the next I had neither a job nor the pay for work I'd already done.
The days after weren't inspiring, they were desperate. I needed clients, and fast. So I went everywhere: Upwork, LinkedIn, Discord servers, forums. Proposals, messages, posts about what I could build.
Three months in, I landed my first long-term client. A year in, I hit €10K MRR.
What helped me most was putting myself out there.
Not a funnel, not a perfect website. Talking to people. Being human. Answering questions in Discord servers, commenting on forum posts, asking people what they're working on and telling them what I do. Most of those conversations went nowhere. A few turned into work, and a few of those turned into clients who stayed.
You can be good at what you do, but if nobody knows you exist, it doesn't matter. Letting the world know you exist is the most important part.
One other thing I'd tell myself back then: the first client who comes back matters more than the first client. One project pays this month. A client who stays is what lets you plan.
If you're at the desperate stage right now: go where people talk, be a human there, and let them know you exist.
The line about the first client who comes back is the one I'd underline. A returning client tells you what you're actually good at, which is rarely exactly what you pitched.
Did the long-term ones come from one particular room (Upwork, Discord, forums), or was it spread evenly? I ask because the conversations that went nowhere are where the real cost of "be human everywhere" sits, and knowing which room converted would let someone at the desperate stage spend those hours better.
The part I like here is that “putting yourself out there” wasn’t treated as personal branding theatre. It sounds more like repeated useful conversations until a few of them naturally became work.
I reckon that’s the bit many devs struggle with. They either stay invisible, or they swing too far into pitching themselves everywhere. The middle ground is harder: answer well, be easy to talk to, and make it obvious what kind of problems you can take off someone’s plate.
Curious how you handled the transition from helpful conversation to paid work. Did you wait for people to ask, or did you have a simple line you used when it looked like there was a real project behind the question?
The €10K MRR is strong evidence, but the recurring-client point is more interesting. What have you noticed separates clients who stay from one-off projects?
"Most of those conversations went nowhere" is the line I would keep. A few turning into work is the only count that matters.
I do the same thing on a small X account: I look for a thread where someone already asked a question I can answer, write the first draft in the reply box, and press send myself. Tonight the signup table says 39. Thirteen of the 39 have used it at least once. There is still no indiehackers row. Putting myself on this site has not yet named a person.
You wrote that the first client who comes back matters more than the first client. I am using the same cut.
Which Discord or forum thread this week named a job you could take, not just a hello?