I just sold my app for $200,000 after 11 months.

Hey hey, Nico here!

Last August, I was looking for a startup idea I could grow and made a MVP in a week then launched it. I received the $200,000 wire from the buyer a couple of days ago

Idea

I got the idea when trying to write a tweet using Google Doc's transcription tool, which was terrible. I was pretty sure I wasn't the only one too lazy to type, I made my own solution using AI to transcribe and reformat voice notes into any kind of content. I called it Talknotes, mainly because it was the only domain available lol

Validation:

My rule is to only reinvest what the project generates. After listing on startup directories and posting on Twitter, I generated $700 in 10 days. It wasn't much, but enough to show interest and keep me motivated.

I added user-requested features, but the launch effect wore off, and daily revenues dropped to $0 after a few weeks. I almost gave up, but friends encouraged me to continue.

In October, I launched on ProductHunt and it blew up. It became Product of the Day and reached $1500 MRR thanks to media coverage.

I initially built everything using vanilla JS/CSS/HTML + Node for backend. But it's pretty limited for apps with lots of interactivity so, I rebuilt the app using Nuxt.js to make it easier to ship new features.

Then, I launched ads on Facebook and I implemented a feedback loop:

1. Get new users 👥
2. Learn about them through onboarding 💬💬
3. Make more ads based on onboarding data 🎯

This doubled MRR in just a few months.

**Burnout and Sale: **
In May, I had a bad burnout after emergency bug fixes. This made it hard to work on the app after. At this point MRR was around $7000 and total revenues around $70,0000

I listed it on Acquire.com for $200,000, a very good price for the buyer considering revenues and growth. I could've gotten $300,000 with buyer financing or earn-outs, but I wanted cash, $200,000 today is better than $300,000 in a year.

Everything was smooth until we tried using Escrow, which almost fucked up the deal (details here). Long story short, had to threaten them to make a sponsored post on Twitter explaining what they did + legal action. They sent the refund the very next day, and we completed the transfer directly.

Now, this isn't an overnight success. It's the result of 7 years of grind. I launched over 40 projects since I started, and most of them failed. I often work 100 hours per week, and I don't go out or meet many people. It's not for everyone, but I'm fine with it