26yo mechanical engineer here. I just made my first indie hacking revenue—what goals should I set now to actually reach financial freedom?
Hey everyone, I’m a 26-year-old mechanical engineer who recently dove headfirst into the SaaS/indie hacking world, and I’m buzzing right now because I just made my first actual revenue from a project I built. I’m used to working with physical machines, so getting strangers on the internet to pull out their credit cards and pay for my code feels completely surreal. It’s definitely not "quit my day job" money yet, but getting those first few sales is the ultimate validation that this path is actually viable and not just a pipe dream.
Now that the "zero to one" phase is done, I want to make sure I'm setting the right foundations to eventually reach total financial freedom. For those of you who have successfully transitioned to building SaaS full-time, what goals or KPIs should I be focusing on right now? Everyone talks about revenue and MRR, but what are the hidden metrics (like cost-to-serve, conversion rates, or specific personal milestones) that actually determine if a project can replace a 9-to-5?
I'd love to hear your frameworks for scaling sustainably so I don't screw up this momentum!