r/scrapingtheweb

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.