Hitting $25k+ MRR by making his goals less ambitious

Dmytro Krasun failed over and over until he started focusing on goals that were more achievable. Then, he built ScreenshotOne and grew it to $25K+ MRR in four years.

Here's Dymytro on how he did it. 👇

Smaller goals

I had been a software engineer for 10+ years before I quit my job. I had a degree in computer science and all that. But I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur.

I prefer to have autonomy and independence — especially about the areas I want to work in.

So, I kept trying to start something, but failed each time. My goals were to big. I only started seeing results when I downgraded my ambition and focused on achieving small things in easy steps.

Now, I am working on ScreenshotOne, a screenshot API for developers and AI agents. It is my passion and my only focus. We have over 800 paying customers, and we're making over $25k MRR.

From simple to "exploded" stack

I spent five months building it, from January to May 2022. There weren't any AI coding agents back then. Plus, I took breaks because it was really, really hard.

The stack started as one simple server, Go for everything, and JavaScript for managing browsers in the beginning.

But later, my stack exploded. Now it is:

• Next.js for our dashboard

• Astro for my marketing website

• Go for managing rate limits and API keys

• TypeScript for managing browsers

• Cloudflare for cache, API gateway, and storage

• Kubernetes for hosting browsers

• And plenty more...

Know your market

In the beginning, I grew by posting about my product everywhere. I also did paid ads.

The channel that really started working for me was Reddit. But I don't think that would work for everybody.

You need to experiment a lot and double down on what works.

Outside of finding the right channels, the thing that changed my growth trajectory most was realizing who I was selling to.

I know it might sound dumb, but it took me two years to realize that. And it changed everything. How I market things, what I write, what I build, pricing — everything.

If I started over, I would build for myself. Or I would really, really invest in knowing who I build my application for.

Tweaking revenue

I use a subscription model, and I charge for extra requests — think "pay as you go."

I recommend setting up product analytics like PostHog, and tracking how many people convert from visitors to users to paying customers — and from what sources.

Then, try to change things to grow these numbers. Don't have visitors? Work on attracting them. Have visitors, but they don't sign up? Improve your signup flow.

It sounds simple, but it is not.

Tuning the funnel consistently is what helped me grow my revenue.

Ignore my advice

Don't listen to any advice.

Most people — myself included — don't know how to extract lessons and advice from their experiences. And even if they extract it, it is usually outdated.

Read the classics on economics, business, history, and biology. Fundamentals.

What's next?

From here, I want to automate my current product so that I can go on a hiking trip for a week without access to the internet.

I also want to grow to $50k MRR.

You can follow along on my personal website and newsletter. I am active on X too. And check out ScreenshotOne!