Clear Check

Manages paperwork for required background checks

Under 10 Employees
Multiple Founders
Founders Code
SaaS
Sports

Daunted by new regulatory requirements requiring background checks for any adult working around children, we made an app to manage the process.

January 17, 2022 Sold Clear Check

After much debate, we have sold Clear Check. At the time of sale, it was generating approximately $2,500 per year and the selling price was around $5,000. The story of Clear Check and its sale is detailed in this Indie Hackers post.

February 28, 2020 $2,100 ARR: It's a start!

We finally managed to get all three customers to pay for their plans and so we now have $2,100 in annual recurring revenue. Our customers really like the product and want to help us grow it. That means, our next step will be to find a way to mine their networks for additional customers. I believe if we stick to niche groups we can double or triple ClearCheck's revenue in the next twelve months. If we can do that, then I think we can keep it going forever because it will make enough money to be self sufficient.

February 4, 2020 Staying alive, staying alive...

We’ve decided to keep Clear Check alive for another year. And we’ve increased the revenue more than 3x in the process!

We approached our paying customer about shutting it down and he was pleading with us to keep it going. He really values the product and wants to see us succeed. So, we talked it over and decided we could keep it alive if we had 3 customers paying us. We managed to get our original consulting client who paid for some of the build, plus our existing customer, plus one new one, all on board.

And at the same time we raised the price slightly. Assuming all goes as planned, we will have $2,000 in ARR which is a good place to start from in order to recommit to the product.

If we can grow it in the next year, excellent. If not, we’ve at least gotten a few thousand dollars and another year’s life out of Clear Check.

January 21, 2020 Shutting down?

It’s been almost five years since we launched Clear Check. In the intervening years we have done nothing to promote it. It’s really just been collecting its $50 MRR from a single customer which at least pays for the hosting. But we have really zero idea on how to market it so it’s really stagnated.

On top of that, the lone paying customer’s renewal just declined and we are wondering if it’s time to shut it down.

November 14, 2015 First customer!

We launched Clear Check a few months back, somewhat on a whim. It was mostly paid for by a client who agreed to let us sell it to other customers in exchange for a sweet deal. In addition to the work out in to build it, at a reduced rate, I also put 20 to 40 hours of my own time in on top “productizing” it. We’ve been carrying the hosting and maintenance costs since as well.

We have finally got another customer and now are collecting $600 per year in additional revenue. It’s a good start!

May 1, 2015 A product born from a consulting project

One of my consulting clients approached me to build an app for them to manage documents required of organizations in Pennsylvania. New regulatory requirements beginning in 2016 mean that every adult who works around children or even volunteers around children must undergo one or two background checks.

This puts a huge burden on small organizations like sports teams and churches who might have scores or hundreds of volunteers.

I came to an agreement with my client that I could sell the product to other groups in exchange for giving him a reduced hourly rate to build it.

About

Daunted by new regulatory requirements requiring background checks for any adult working around children, we made an app to manage the process.