r/Startup_Ideas

tldr: My first AI SaaS failed because I built blindly, outsourced marketing, and had no clear ICP. My second product hit $5k/mo in 3 months because I built an audience first, obsessed over SEO and distribution, and targeted a specific niche.

I launched my first AI SaaS last year, kept it alive for about a year now. It's making less than $50 mrr and i'm thinking of closing it.

Here's what went wrong:

• I just built what I thought was cool and useful without confirming any traction.
• Biggest regret is outsourcing marketing and distribution. I wasn't an expert and thought outsourcing was the best way.
• The product didn't have a clear ICP at all. I kept adding more and more features, hoping to get more users but it just led to confusion and reaching absolutely no one.
• Didn't solve my own problem. I wasn't using it daily, which made me lose motivation, and that carelessness was reflected in the product.
• I didn't prioritise SEO and GEO. Never really studied how it works, didn't think it was important.

For the second one, I changed everything.

SocialCrawl launched in April this year and it's already making $5k a month in revenue and en route to $10K this July.

Here is what actually worked this time around:

• I figured out distribution and marketing before I even decided what to build.
• I built an audience first, growing to 5,000+ followers on Threads and 1,500+ on X.
• Being a developer myself, I chose to build an API dev tool that I could easily market to my own community.
• I built something that solves my own problem and was also validated by talking to my ICPs and researching communities.
• My ICP was specific (developers building something based on social media data) and I knew where they were hanging around
• I focused heavily on SEO, posting blogs and building backlinks from day one.

Overall, failing the first time taught me you have to know who you're selling to, show up where your users hang out and be obsessed with distribution.

This is just so incredible... another huge milestone reached. I honestly never thought this was possible for me. But I did the thing...

I JUST STARTED!

I put together a working MVP. Just the bare minimum functionality. Bought a domain and put it out there. I posted about it here on Reddit and got in contact with the people who commented and started using it.

Payments have become a bit more frequent but still no viral, exponential growth, which is totally fine. Slow and steady growth is the key.

I followed a simple concept that just came to me naturally:

• put out what you have
• post about it
• listen to feedback in the comments
• implement the feedback and adapt quickly
• start the loop over again

And after some time your product becomes so good that it no longer sounds absurd to charge money for some features.

Anyways... I'm super grateful that this is working out so well and I really think I've built a community that is actually useful to many people.

About the product:

I've built IndieAppCircle, a platform where small app developers can upload their apps and other people can give them feedback in exchange for credits. I grew it by posting about it here on Reddit. It didn't explode or something but I managed to get some slow but steady growth.

For those of you who never heard about IndieAppCircle, it works like this:

• You can earn credits by testing indie apps (fun + you help other makers)
• You can use credits to get your own app tested by real people
• No fake accounts -> all testers are real users
• Test more apps -> earn more credits -> your app will rank higher -> you get more visibility and more testers/users

Since many people suggested it to me in the comments, I have also created a community for IndieAppCircle: r/IndieAppCircle (you can ask questions or just post relevant stuff there).

Currently, there are 4284 users, 4551 tests done and 1209 apps uploaded!

You can check it out here (it's totally free): https://www.indieappcircle.com/

I'm glad for any feedback/suggestions/roasts in the comments.