I just made my first my first internet dollars and it feels great

I want to start from the beginning, as I feel a lot of people will relate.

Eight months ago, I was stuck. I wanted to do something beyond my job, but I had no idea what. It got so bad I even considered selling merchandise on Etsy.

Then, by pure luck, I started listening to Indie Hackers.
Courtland’s voice and guests were the right people at the right time. I got hooked and probably listened to half the podcast episodes in a month.

I knew I needed to build something, but I had to many ideas to work on all at once.
So, I applied a method of choosing the best idea and the winner was an interview preparation app.

I didn’t expect to make any money, especially after hearing so many Indie Hackers talk about how it took them 10+ products to find success.
But what’s the worst that could happen? At the very least, it would make me a better developer and teach me a lot along the way.

Six months later, the Mockmaster MVP was ready to launch.

It’s powered by a strong LLM and based on my own interview experience, along with insights from friends in big tech. I’ve never failed an interview, and with tech interviews being harder than the Bar exam, I thought I could help others succeed.

Then the nightmare.

I reached out to friends for feedback, but none of them tried it.
I offered it for free to some users on X, and while they seemed interested, they never actually gave it a go.

Naturally, I felt disheartened.
My gut told me to take this one on the chin and move on.

Still, I carved out a marketing plan and decided to give it 2 months before pivoting to the next idea.

Then I was checking my email at night, and saw I got my first purchase.
I couldn’t sleep that night.

In the first week, 24 people signed up, and 2 became paying users.

It might not seem like much, but to me, it’s everything.
It’s my first app. And it made money.

Mockmaster started gaining momentum faster than I anticipated. So, I paused marketing for now.
Why? I don’t want users to feel underwhelmed by the UX. The engine behind it is solid, but the experience still needs work.

Right now, Mockmaster has 34 users (still 2 paying).

What’s next?

I’m improving the UX, doubling down on the LLM, and mentioning the app here and there.
Once it’s at a level I’m comfortable with (a few weeks away), I’ll dive back into marketing.

Hopefully, this will grow into something profitable—and help a lot of people along the way.

If you’re curious to follow the journey, you can find me on X.