What worked in 3 years of SaaS and $500k of sales.

It’s been 3 years since I started learning to code. Since then, I have made over $500,000 in sales from all my apps combined

It came at a cost, though: I burned out multiple times, and my health is not the best it was.

“But Nico, I don’t care about that, I thought this was about tips on how I can make money!”

It is! Let me finish my story, damnit!

So, I was saying, I got burned out, and I finally decided to take a break two weeks ago.

I didn’t go out much during the trip (cause bad weather, lucky me!), but I took some time to reflect on those 3 years.

Particularly, about what worked and what did not work, for each "big" project I launched. I skipped most projects that didn’t make at least $1

So, here is the list sorted by project, and a compilation at the end

PhotoRestore

Old photo restoration using AI. - Total: Around $100

• ✅ I made the app after someone asked for it in Twitter comments

• ❌ Bad market, was saturated = No distribution

• ❌ Very cheap product, low margin

Make Logo AI:

AI-Generated logos - Total: $85k (~$20k of sales + $65k exit)

• ✅ I was the first one to make AI-generated logos

• ✅ AI was new, and people were curious

• ❌ But I had no idea how to grow it (not fit for ads, no SEO knowledge back then)

CoworkMaps:

Interactive list of co-working, included for context about the next project - Total: $0

• It was more of a fun project than anything

• But the tech behind it was cool and people asked for a product

• I was basically using AI to scrape websites and make a list of co-working in each city

Scrap:

AI web scraper - Total: Over $20k

• ✅ People asked me to create the product (from CoworkMaps)

• ✅ I was the first to create it

• ✅ I had a big promise, and I was the first to do it back then (AI Scraping)

• ✅ I did pre-orders and validated the idea upfront

• ❌ The promise was not perfectly fulfilled for all users

• ❌ Some users experienced bugs, and had to refund them

• ❌ The project was above my technical skills, ended up moving on and refunding users who had issues

Talknotes:

AI voice notes - Total: Over $270k ($200k exit + $70k of sales)

• ✅ The idea already had validation (competition)

• ✅ I launched it into an untapped distribution channel (Facebook ads)

• ❌ Hit a plateau, burned out, got scared of competition (Apple releasing their AI features), and more reasons. Happy that I sold tho, the money is nice

Test It:

A/B testing app - Total: Under $200

• ✅ I use the app a lot myself, and I love working on it

• ❌ I made it for indie makers/Twitter audience… but people following me have no interest in AB testing

• ❌ I had no big and interesting case studies about AB testing to share (= education about the product)

• ❌ I didn't market it much (not a good fit for ads, saturated SEO)

Scribvet:

Clone of Talknotes for veterinarians - Total: $30k ($5k of sales + $25k exit)

• ✅ I built it because a user of Talknotes told me this would be a fantastic tool for veterinarians

• ❌ I didn't know anything about the audience (= Can't do organic content, have credibility, etc)

• ✅ …but I tried doing calls with users, and I learned a lot about them from that

• ✅ ...and I solved a very painful problem for the audience

• ✅ There was competitors doing well, but no one was using ads

• ❌ I tried to talk to everyone in the vet clinic industry. I didn't dare (and thought of) niching down for small practices

Problem: Medium and large-sized clinics require calls and proper sales processes. Small ones can self-serve and enjoy the lower pricing. → I assumed everyone was the same, should have focused specifically on small practices → Bad positioning

Maker Ads:

Facebook Ads for SaaS & Infoproducts - Total: Over $150k

• ✅ I saw people asking for a course about ads on Twitter, so I made one

• ✅ It worked because I had a great case study with ads (Talknotes growth) and 7 years of experience, so people trusted me

• ✅ Many people bought it "for when they will need it"

• ✅ I did pre-order,s so I validated the idea upfront

• ✅ I was the first to

Ads Templates:

Proven ads templates for SaaS & Infoproducts - Total: Over $25k

• ✅ I had an audience of buyers (MakerAds) and asked them what problem they had related to ads

• ✅ Most answered finding inspiration for ads, so I made the product based on that

• ✅ I did pre-orders, so I validated the idea upfront

• ✅ Selling it as a bundle with MakerAds works well (same audience)

Generate Ads:

AI Ads Generator / Ads Cloner - Total: Over $18k

• ✅ I had a great limited-time launch offer

• ✅ It solves the same problem as Ads Template, in a different way, so I had the audience already

• ❌ The product is great, but only for a very niche audience (non-ecommerce static ads)

• ❌ I haven't marketed it much yet

👉 Youtube

My YouTube channel - Total: $0

• ✅ I went the extra mile to make high-quality videos

• ✅ I got lots of views from it

• ✅ I love seeing the end result (but I HATE editing)

• ❌ But I got no sales from it (I have no products adapted for the audience)

• ❌ My channel is banned from monetisation for no reason (thanks, Google), so I can’t make $ from ads

Damn, what a list!

Before reading the list below of what has been working across all projects, can you already find patterns?

✅ What worked overall:

• Being the first to launch (3: MakeLogo, Scrap, MakerAds)

• Launching things people explicitly expressed demand for (6: PhotoRestore, Scrap, MakerAds, AdsTemplate)

• Talking with existing users to figure out what they want (2: Scribvet, AdsTemplate)

• Validating via pre-launch (3: Scrap, MakerAds, AdsTemplate)

• Having a proven product and launching it with ads (2: Talknotes, Scribvet)

As you can see, what worked the best by far is to validate the demand somehow. Either from scouting the internet (X, forums, etc), finding competitors with untapped distribution channels, or talking with users directly.

Now, only 2 of those are the result of me talking with users, because I started doing it very recently, but I learned an insane number of things every time.

And both projects ended up making decent money.

And I think this is what I should focus on.

I need to get better at interviewing people to figure out what they want and how I can solve their problems.

I hate calls. Most people do. And that’s why I should do it

Because in the end, the one who knows the customer better wins.

This is how you make great products people love, and how you make great marketing. Not by relying on your gut feeling, but by making bets backed by real-world data

That’s it for this post. Let me know if you have any questions!

Regards,
Nico

—

P.S. Side Note about education: 

In the case of Test It, I didn’t have a killer study case to share, and this is a big reason it did not work on Twitter: I couldn’t “educate” the audience. So people didn’t understand why they should do A/B testing.

But it doesn’t mean education does not work. For example, Jack Friks from Postbridge (social media scheduler app) is great at it. He shared exactly how he posted organic content to grow his apps (case study), so people naturally want to try organic content, and end up buying Post Bridge (because it solves a frequent and annoying problem)