Taking the leap and building a 6-figure-ARR portfolio

Pauline Clavelloux always wanted to build a business, but she couldn't quite get herself to start. Then, after nearly ten years at IBM, she took the leap.

She had a few failures and an exit, and she now has a portfolio of SaaS products bringing in over $100k ARR.

Here's Pauline on how she did it. 👇

Failures and exits

I’m Pauline Clavelloux, a French tech entrepreneur. I worked for 9.5 years at IBM before becoming a full-time indie hacker.

I started indie hacking during COVID and built several SaaS products from scratch; some failed, one sold, and four others serve clients:

• IACrea, an AI-powered real estate marketing suite that transforms property photos into virtually staged images, videos, and ready-to-post social media content.

• Feedbask, a customer feedback and support widget with different actionable modules (live chat, feedback collection, bug reports, feature requests ...) directly inside their app.

• Subclip, a web app that automatically adds subtitles to videos, translates and dubs into other languages, etc.

• Refindie, an affiliate management tool for SaaS creators without upfront cost.

I reached €100K+ ARR back in 2024, and revenue increased in 2025.

The first taste of indie hacking

I’ve always wanted to start a business, ever since I was a kid.

I constantly had new ideas, but before COVID, I never started anything. The main reason was fear: I didn’t know where to start, and the administrative side of running a business felt overwhelming.

During COVID, I saw some friends launching their own online projects. They already knew how to handle the business setup, and that gave me the push I needed. I teamed up with a friend and built my first product: a crypto trading bot. It was a complete business failure... but also a personal success, because it worked and traded automatically for me!

I eventually stopped it, but that experience changed everything.

I realized how much I love building things, working for myself, and having the freedom to work from anywhere. That sense of independence is something I never felt while working a 9-to-5 job. I love working from home.

A lean mindset

When I built my first real product, I had a technical background in web development, but I learned how to run a business through experience.

The first versions of my SaaS products were extremely simple. I didn’t focus on design or scalability; I just wanted to see if people would use it.

For IACrea, for instance, the very first version only supported uploading one photo at a time and returning one AI-generated image. But it was enough to get the first paying users.

I keep my process lean:

• Build fast, even if it’s ugly.

• Launch early, get feedback.

• Improve only what matters.

• Quit if no traction.

That mindset helped me ship multiple products quickly. Each one taught me something new about tech, about users, and about what drives revenue.

A simple stack for every project

My tech stack is quite simple:

• Frontend + Backend: Next.js + Tailwind CSS

• Auth + Database + Storage: Supabase

• Payments: Stripe mainly, and Polar for Subclip

• Hosting: Vercel & AWSGrowing four products

Building is easy, distribution is hard

Building the product was the easy part; making people aware of its existence was hard.

I tested many approaches: social media, video content, SEO, physical events, direct conversations with users... and over time, I learned that distribution is key.

For IACrea, we initially grew by staying close to the market: Facebook groups, in-person networking events, and partnerships with industry players. Direct conversations and trust were crucial early on.

For Feedbask, Refindie, and Subclip, we have mostly driven growth through social media. Regularly posting about the product, sharing real use cases, and building in public helped attract early users who understood the value.

Overall, adapting the distribution strategy to each product and audience made the biggest difference. Each channel compounds differently over time, and what works for a SaaS might not work for another SaaS.

I'll also say that building in public is extremely helpful. Sharing what I’m working on, what’s not working, and why lets me get early feedback and stay close to real user needs.

Solve your own problems

Start by solving a real problem you personally experience; it makes the problem clearer and the motivation stronger.

For example, customers kept asking the same questions, and answering them manually was time-consuming and unproductive. Frustration led me to build Feedbask: a centralized inbox accessible to the whole team that included context. Soon, it will also pre-fill replies based on past conversations to avoid rewriting the same answers repeatedly. Can't wait for that!

Turning internal pain points into a product was a huge advantage. When you build something you personally need, you know what's needed, and what's not working well with other solutions. And if you fail to monetize it, at least it's useful to you!

Parting advice

Here's my advice:

• Don’t wait to be “ready” or to get the perfect product to share your work.

• Build in public early, talk to users as soon as possible, and let feedback guide the product. People especially love to see the journey and your product evolve.

• Systematize repetitive tasks instead of handling them manually.

• Focus on learning fast rather than trying to get everything perfect.

• Be resilient, and be prepared to fail. Founders who are successful on their first attempt are VERY rare. You see many successful people online, but usually, it took them a few years to get revenue.

What's next?

My main goal is to keep building useful, simple products that solve real problems for the real estate area and business owners, the two audiences I can reach. I want to grow all my SaaS sustainably to at least $30k MRR each.

And I want to continue sharing my journey openly, building in public, and showing that you don’t need a huge team or massive funding to build profitable, meaningful products.

Lastly, I recently started creating videos (find my YouTube profile here) and I'd like to growth that channel

You can follow along on my newsletter and on social media: X profile, YouTube, and LinkedIn. And here's my portfolio.