Turning My SaaS Failures into a Fun Game
Hello Indie Hackers!
After spending years building SaaS products and getting too caught up in polishing every little detail, I realized I kept making the same mistake: I avoided marketing like the plague. The result? MRR stayed at zero.
Instead of being crushed by it, I decided to do something fun (and a bit ironic) with my lessons learned. Enter 0MRR—a game designed to teach you what not to do as a SaaS founder.
The Hustle
After picking up the domain name 0mrr.com, I brainstormed ideas and settled on the concept of a game where players actively avoid success. Using Cursor AI, I built the MVP in just 3 hours and then spent another 4 days refining it. 134 commits later, I decided it was time to ship.
I’ve always been the type of developer who spends too much time on the product itself and not enough on marketing. This project, in a way, is a reflection of that—but it’s also my way of having a bit of fun with the situation and sharing the lessons I learned along the way.
What’s Next?
There’s a lot I still want to improve, but I decided to stop waiting for “perfect” and just launch. I’m now focused on getting feedback from people like you—other founders who understand the grind of SaaS development and the constant balancing act between building and marketing.
Why Indie Hackers Will Relate
If you’ve ever spent hours perfecting a feature and skipped marketing, this game will hit close to home. It’s a lighthearted way to look back at the common pitfalls we face as solo developers and founders.
Check it out here: 0mrr.com
I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback! 💪
Thanks for reading, and happy hustling!
This is such a fun way to turn lessons learned into something interactive! I love the idea of gamifying mistakes, it makes reflecting on failures a lot less stressful. I’ve had a similar experience where I’d get too focused on the details of a game and forget to just enjoy it, which is why I sometimes play quick browser games like https://playeggycar.com/ to unwind and reset my mindset.
Just the post image itself got me laughing. You have good humor, may help with marketing.
This is such a creative approach to the common challenges we face as SaaS founders! I love the idea of turning lessons into a game—definitely relatable. Looking forward to checking out 0MRR! For more insights,
Hahaha, that's a fun idea. Upvoted on PH!
Thank You for your kind support.
This was really fun indeed.
I liked the tongue-in-cheek jokes about the indie journey. I ignored in the game everything that I normally do IRL. 😆
Thank You Juan for your support.
Fun!
Thank You Vienn for the support.
I had a good laugh. Looking forward to not receiving your newsletter :'D
Thank You François, I will not send it this friday :-)
Nice to see someone shedding light on their fails, many devs arent beware getting caught up in the process, forgetting there are many many different aspects to having a 'successful' project. Nice piece!
Thank You Martin, I hope you had fun.
haha, games are so to the point. can i get your email? im from india and im connecting with indian indiemakers
Awesome, nice one man.
We need more games in this industry.
Who knows, maybe you turn it into a card game like Exploding Kittens.
Oh boy, can I ever relate. Building makes me feel like I'm generating value, marketing makes me feel like pond scum. But marketing is also how literally anyone will ever know I've built something. 😜
What a cute idea, and I love the illustration & overall design! Also am definitely using this game for marketing ideas.
Love your sense of humour! Remind me of the website "Do Nothing for 2 Minutes". This has the potential to build something viral. At the end of the quiz (or when people finish the it), include a short promotion of your product.
Thank you for the tip, I will add that soon.
If you are on product hunt, Please upvote this on product hunt, launched now- https://www.producthunt.com/posts/0mrr
True educational resource! You do it well, man!
Thank You! I wish I had this knowledge before starting my SaaS journey.
That was fun! The game you wanna keep playing but don't wanna win )
Yeah, you nailed it.
That's a wonderful thing to do.
Thank you for your comment, hope you enjoyed it and subscribed for Friday's newsletter.
Good game especially for tech entreprenuers.
Thank You MoJo !