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$1k MRR in 19 days!

What an amazing ride. What set out as a way to help pay for my own software idea research has grown faster than I could have imagined. In 19 days, SoftwareIdeas.io has grown from exactly $0 in MRR to $1,000!

Here are some of the things I did right that helped me accomplish this so fast:

What's equally as important as choosing this idea was not choosing another idea

While I was exploring what opportunity I wanted to tackle next, I looked at multiple options. By invalidating some early ideas before SoftwareIdeas.io, I was able to move on and not waste time on them.

If you want to learn how I validate/invalidate ideas, I shared my Notion template and a case study of actual customer interviews on Indie Hackers here

I priced my product aggressively from the jump, which helped me focus on my best-fit customer.

One of the earliest goals I had with SoftwareIdeas.io was to find the best-fit customer, and identify what attributes they had which made them a best-fit.

By pricing at the high-end of what newsletter subscriptions cost, it's been clear to me what type of customer is willing to buy: people who are actively looking for their next software or business idea.

If I had priced low because the product was early, I would have received interest from multiple customer segments, and it would have been confusing on how I should position the product and what features to add.

Relied on channels I knew I had

All of my previous projects have had issues with channels that I assumed would work, that ended up failing. This time around, I made sure to test the channels before committing to the idea.

I found that Reddit didn't work well, but free twitter did (paid twitter did not). And of course IH has been great as well.

Knowing this, I've been able to narrow down my focus to channels that work, which has kept a steady supply of sales rolling in.

There are also a ton of other channels I have left to explore, such as referrals and affiliates, but to get started wasn't about finding all the channels, it was about finding at least one channel that worked consistently.

Thanks to everyone who has made SoftwareIdeas.io a success!

  1. 2

    Wow congratulations that's really impressive. Love how you used pricing to identify your target audience.

    So you basically don't have a free tier, right? Are all of your subscribers coming from Twitter and IH?

    1. 2

      Thanks!

      No official free tier, but people who have put in their email in exchange for the free issue also get a weekly preview of the premium newsletter. It includes all three companies I researched, the market background, and competition analysis.

      The premium member’s version gets that plus the downmarket opportunity, unique selling point of the software idea, how to build the mvp, and the product/market/channel risks of the product.

      1. 1

        Got it, I like this idea of having a free and a premium newsletter much more than making 1 issue free and 3 paid like many people do. It’s a model I could consider doing myself for my own newsletter.

        1. 1

          Yep, I definitely prefer this format!

    2. 1

      And not all, there's quite a bit of word-of-mouth, but from a direct marketing perspective I focus on providing free content/value in those two places

  2. 1

    Great work. Smart pricing strategy and more validation that people are willing to pay for exclusive information and deep analysis.

  3. 1

    Congrats!

    After I saw your first 2 posts on IH, I had to jump ship. Not just for the ideas themselves, but I'm seeing a lot of value in learning how to look for opportunities.

    A behind the scenes on how you dissect one of the businesses would be very cool!

    PS: I started pursuing one of the ideas. Beta coming soon!

    1. 1

      Thanks for the kind words! I have a case study coming soon to premium subscribers, so you'll be seeing how I go about analyzing these companies shortly.

      Let's chat 1-1 about which one you're pursuing! Happy to give thoughts on validation and talk deeper about anything that didn't make it into the newsletter! [email protected]

    1. 1

      Awesome! Thanks for supporting the project! Looking forward to getting to show you the members-only site in the coming weeks!

      1. 1

        Just a thought. I'd love to know a bit more about who you are. I don't really see it on the site, nor in the email.

        1. 1

          Thanks Andrew! Good thought - I should put a small blurb up there.

  4. 1

    I read this post while trying to wake up this morning, decided to sign up to grab the free newsletter and was so impressed after only reading the first company write up that I decided to sign up.

    It's the first time I've ever paid for a newsletter, it's a really insightful read. Thanks for doing the hard work!

    1. 2

      Wow, that's awesome praise, thanks a ton! Looking forward to getting Issue #7 in your hands this coming Thursday!

    2. 1

      It's a similar story with me, couldn't resist. Great work, Kevin, don't stop and keep improving!

  5. 1

    Where did you get these ideas?

    1. 1

      I spend 10-20 hours per week researching, writing, and editing each post. A lot of it comes from industry reports, venture funding news, and my own research

  6. 1

    Congrats! that was real fast

  7. 1

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 1

      Hey Omkar,

      Sorry to hear it didn't come. It should come right away. Some email providers automatically send it to spam because of the amount of links (references to industry reports, news articles, etc) that are in it.

      Here's a direct link for you: https://mailchi.mp/92e05e5c45cf/software-ideas-newsletter-free-issue

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