I made $300 MRR in 5 months on a boring product with no AI
I started making Refgrow about 9 months ago, since then I tried to launch it 3 times under different positioning and even a name and it worked only on the 3rd try.
Perhaps the growth is quite slow, especially when compared to all sorts of viral AI tools, but I think this is normal for this kind of product like mine.
I am still looking for a stable channel for growth and trying different marketing channels. The market is quite competitive and it is difficult to gain trust.
I am also still trying to find my ideal customer, so far I have completely different customers, these are SaaS and digital products and service sites.
I emphasize that my product is the most affordable in price (from $9 per month), has a built-in solution and offers something that no one else has - the functionality of exchanging referrals with other products.
Perhaps you have some ideas for the development of a product like Refgrow, I will be glad to listen to your recommendations for its development.
What are your future plans? What's your MRR goal?
The first short-term goal is $1k MRR by the end of the year, then $10k MRR by the end of 2026.
nice work sticking through 3 launches ....that alone filters out 90% of builders.
i am sure you are testing marketing angles already, but here are a few worth exploring:
founder-to-founder swaps – partner with other b2b saas for newsletter mentions or in-app referrals. works well when both have a small but aligned user base.
directory seeding – list refgrow on b2b directories (saashub, startupbase, betalist) and pitch a referral-swap in your description.
embedded growth loops – nudge users to add refgrow to their tech stack pages, notion hubs, or community toolkits, especially for indie founders.
the referral-exchange positioning is strong ... have you played with any partnerships or co-marketing loops yet?
Thanks! I have added to some b2b directories.
Founder-to-founder swaps are also an interesting idea, I think it's worth trying!
I haven't tried co-marketing cycles, how can I encourage users to add Refgrow to such toolkits?
make the ask feel like a win-win instead of can you add refgrow to your stack, try if you’re curating a referral tools list, happy to give you lifetime access to refgrow in exchange for including it and i’ll reshare your post too.
piggyback on existing lists .... look for notion hubs, blog posts, github readmes where people list their tools. offer a quick blurb or visual badge to help them upgrade it.
create your own referral stack curate 5–10 tools (include a few competitors), publish it as top referral tools for indie saas and make it genuinely helpful. others will clone or share it .... refgrow gets visibility by default.
Thanks, I'll try this!
All the best :)
Great job on the $300 MRR! Focus on a niche and highlight your unique features. Keep up the good work!
Thank you!
I think it's an evergreen product; there's going to be a need for it in the foreseeable future and require little changes to it to upkeep. Keep going, it might be slow, but it's going go go up.
Thanks!
Launching it 3 different times instead of giving up is super smart, most people give up the first time but you just proved that you can make it, as long as you try! Congrats mate, best of wishes!
What were you first 3 launch strategies, if you don't mind me asking?
Interested your iteration process.
I like your site btw
nice, keep going forward
Congrats on finding product-market fit through persistence! We've been exploring similar growth challenges at Accio - especially how to expand functionality without overwhelming core users.
This month we implemented a 'smart layering' approach that might inspire you: keeping the simple interface intact while automatically adapting to complex requests. For example, a basic query like 'find printers under $500' gets quick results, while 'outfit 3 regional offices with IT equipment' triggers advanced sourcing logic.
We shared some lessons here: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/all-tasks-in-one-ask-how-we-scaled-our-ai-product-without-losing-core-users-yceHz9s5nWokSVwVWJNW. Not sure if it directly applies to referral systems, but the principle of serving diverse users through intelligent scaling might be useful. Keep up the great work!
Good going . Wish you the best !