118
65 Comments

I built a payments platform that's now processed more than $1.3M at 17yo

https://superpayit.com

SuperPay is the fastest and simplest way to take one-time and recurring payments with zero technical knowledge.

We serve more than 1,000 customers across the spectrum. From powering thousands of recurring payments for the oldest rugby clubs in Ireland to the hottest new no-code products to large enterprise accountancy firms SuperPay has proved to be an extremely robust and flexible platform for payments.

Currently I'm a one-man-band. Support, dev, ops, etc. But when required I occasionally bring in a few experienced consultants/contractors to advise on certain topics and assist in some minor parts of the platform.

But overall it's just me for now. You may be thinking how I run a platform at this scale with just one person, the secret is.... automation, automation, automation! Everything from deployment, testing, support, billing, marketing funnels, engagement funnels, is automated. That lets me focus on the product and when I do speak to customers I'm able to be extremely responsive and offer 10/10 support.

This is what our startup stack looks like:

Backend/frontend - Django

  • Queueing/caching - Redis/memcache
  • Hosting - Heroku
  • Support/engagement - Intercom
  • Monitoring - New Relic/Statuspage
  • Bug reporting - Sentry
  • Email - GSuite
  • Feedback - Canny
  • Reviews - Capterra
  • Git - Github

Overall I would describe this tech stack as "boring". I consider that a good thing in this case! By using tried and battle testing frameworks/platforms like Django and Heroku it means that I can spend my time focusing on my customers and building features that they actually want!

I decide on the product roadmap based on the feedback and requests I get from customers on our feedback portal where they can see upcoming features, propose new ones and vote for ones that they like the most. No more guesswork on what to improve or add next. You can find ours over at feedback.superpayit.com.

I highly recommend that you implement a feedback cycle into your own product, I was sceptical at first but after implementing it for more than 3-4 months I'll never go back. Here are some options that I can recommend:

I'm sure you can tell, but this is my first type of post like this. I'll be writing more over the coming months showing how I run things and what I've learnt works for me and what really does not.

Hope you enjoyed it, follow me on Twitter for more - https://twitter.com/@che_sampat

Thanks!

  1. 5

    Che! This is an awesome milestone! We're so pleased to be working with such a young and talented individual.

    We're looking forward to pushing you further over the next few months 📈🤲

    💜 from https://consultily.com

    1. 2

      Thanks! Look forward to it too!!

  2. 4

    I've been working in the financial industry for more than 17 years now, and in payments specifically for 13, and I've seen a lot in these years. But every time I read news about SuperPay on IH, I am impressed! You identified an unsolved problem and kept executing upon it. Keep up the good work! Has Stripe already knocked for acquisition? ;)

    Could you share a bit more about your automated marketing and engagement funnels?

    Edit: I just saw you also posted on Reddit... don't let the haters get you, just enjoy the attention and make the best out of it. 🤞

    1. 1

      thanks! we're definitely come a long way. they've not coming knocking (yet!).

      sure, we leverage Intercom a lot. and we use a lot of event driven/trigger automation. for example, if the account creates their first payment request but we see they haven't sent it or shared it with anyone we'll send them an email reminding them of it. this means that they are only getting emails that are specific and relate to them.

      we have dozens of those automation emails setup for many different scenarios. it took time to set them up and make sure all of the correct data points were showing in intercom

      regarding reddit: yeah I try not to let is get to me, thanks!

  3. 4

    Thanks for adding Upvoty.com to the list. Appreciate it 🙌

    1. 1

      Hey Mike, great work with Upvoty. I just checked out Upvoty's product page on IH that says "no employees" and "founders don't code".

      I was curious about how you made such an awesome product happen? By just outsourcing it to freelancers?

      Cheers.

      1. 1

        I work with freelancers, indeed. We have a fully remote team of them. I don’t code myself, I just draw the lines and they color it :)

        1. 1

          NICE! Pretty stunning outcome from a team of remote freelancers. Apparently, you did a great job managing them.

          Thanks for replying! :)

    2. 1

      I just found about Upvoty and loved it, well done, @mikeslaats! Will give it a shot once I launch.

      1. 1

        Woohoo! That would be awesome! Good luck with the launch 💪

    3. 1

      Happy to! Looks like a great service, I use Canny because it's what I found first

      1. 1

        Canny is great! Hope it works for you 💪

  4. 3

    How does this compare to Stripe?

    1. 11

      I believe his platform is powered by Stripe to take payments. However, it makes things easier for non-technical founders to setup a one-time and/or recurring payments.

  5. 2

    Hey sweet! I just went through sign up and got hung up on your form validation for the required field of organization website. It made me type the full https://www. prefix and gave no formatting tip that I had to do so. Guaranteed this will hang up those in your target audience who are tech newbies of course :)

    1. 1

      ah, yes didn't even think of that. as a dev I know that it's required but completely agree with you there that it might throw some people of. I'll definitely make some modifications there. thanks! 🙏

  6. 2

    Tech stack "boring"? Why? Django is simply the best framework in python (IMO).
    Huge congrats on your achievements so far man, it's amazing what you've done so far, wish you the best!!

    1. 2

      😂 I agree Django is the best! I meant boring as in I didn't choose the "hotest" languages out there right now like a Golang + React stack. Massive thanks!

  7. 1

    Congrats on your first successful product. How much MRR you had now?

  8. 1

    Congrats! This might be a good option for me. I use PayFunnels now with some frustration.

    Just to clarify, can you send payment requests to clients through Messenger/Text, etc?

    1. 1

      We'd love to have you! Not directly from the app (yet) but we give you a simple link e.g pay.superpayit.com/r/328532 that you can share any way you want.

  9. 1

    Truly inspiring and informative. I'm building similar kind of platform to help SaaS owners/hobbyists/students to collect effective feedback.

    1. 1

      nice! do you have a landing site up?

  10. 1

    Site looks great! What was the process to get that stripe verified partner badge?

    1. 1

      thanks! just search "stripe verified partners" there is an annual fee and verification but it's 100% worth it.

  11. 1

    This is great! Can anyone from countries that are not supported by stripe still use it for their app/site?

    1. 2

      we're tightly integrated with Stripe so you would need an account with them to sign up.

  12. 1

    Hello Che, you are really talented person, I just learn a lot about this post!!, I want to follow you to learn much more, did you create products before or is the first time? how was the launch of the product? where did you learn so much? I just have so many questions. Thanks!!!

  13. 1

    Impressive, especially for your age! Congrats, keep rocking!

    1. 1

      thanks! will do 😂

  14. 1

    I like the theme, built from scratch?

    1. 1

      Honestly don't think I have the CSS knowledge to build a theme like this from scratch (yet). It's bootstrap, check out there themes pages - it's awesome!

  15. 1

    Wow : really impressed. All of this just at 17? Would love to know the time-line of the app 😊

    1. 1

      thanks! I started building this Dec 2018, I was 15 at the time.

      1. 1

        OMG : that is so impressive :)

  16. 1

    Congrats dude this is epic! 🥳

  17. 1

    Congrats, this is a fantastic milestone! Even more impressive at your age :)

  18. 1

    Wow! Inspiring story, congrats!

  19. 1

    Hey Che! Wonderful product and congratulations 🌟🚀

    Quick question which I couldn't get an answer to on the website, maybe I didn't look at the right place.

    => Do I need my own Stripe account to use SuperPay?

    1. 1

      Thanks! Yes you do need your own Stripe account and we simply connect to it through API's.

      1. 1

        Awesome. Keep doing great work :)

  20. 1

    You are such an inspiration 👍

  21. 1

    That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing. This is rarely inspiring.

    1. 1

      That honestly makes me so happy to hear!

  22. 1

    Keep the posts coming, this was a great post!

    1. 1

      thanks, I'll post anything I write onto my twitter so follow me at twitter.com/che_sampat for more

  23. 1

    Nice work Che! Fellow Django builder 🤜 I also run a payments/subscription platform with a very similar stack!

    Looks like you've built a solid product and I love the branding.

    How have you been marketing this?

    1. 2

      let's go django 🙌 your product looks awesome! various channels: linkedin, fb groups, PH, IH, but we aren't doing and pay per click ads (yet)

      We also get a ton of traffic from our partner page with Stripe

  24. 1

    It's amazing that you built all this at only 17 yo. Congrats! 🥳🎉🎊

  25. 1

    Nice how did you get your customers?

    1. 2

      Various channels: reddit, linkedin, partnerships, referrals. we haven't done any pay per click ads yet...

  26. 1

    Congratulations! Real accomplishment if you ask me, job well done. Any future plans for scaling?

    1. 1

      We've got a long list of features to add (feedback.superpayit.com) and we're constantly growing organically.

      Do we plan to raise capital and grow faster? not for now.

      1. 1

        Okay cool! I can't help but noticing you're saying "we" while it is mainly just you. I also do this a lot without really knowing why. Good luck!

        1. 2

          Royal "we". Plus I have support and get advise from friends/family. Couldn't really get where I am without them.

          Also I think just saying "I" everywhere sounds strange?

          1. 1

            I do the same for my product, I usually say "we" or "our company", even though I am the only one working on it. Saying "my company" doesn't sound professional and even sounds a bit narcissistic.

  27. 5

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 47 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 27 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments How I Launched FrontendEase 13 comments