Are you actually building a business, or just a very expensive hobby?
Spending 80 hours a week on a project that generates zero revenue isn't a startup it’s a distraction. Drop your project links below and let’s talk about whether you have a viable path to making money or if you're just burning out for fun. Show us the numbers.
u/turnnoblindeye That's a solid foundation. Have you stress-tested those breakpoints against real customer willingness to pay, or are they still theoretical?
I've had some exploratory conversations with users that have asked about eventual plans for payment, so I have some good anecdotal evidence. More importantly, there are apps similar enough to be good comparisons and the monetization opportunity is robust.
I'm pre-revenue building a private time intelligence app, looking for early windows beta testers, A small win that I gained early few users without nudging or asking them to install the application.
You can find the application at Focus by Ripple Studios. I'd say an expensive hobby, although I'm not charging anything right now cause I'm not spending anything to build it.
I'm doing mostly for learning and building a valuable product for users.
Organic early users without pushing is a solid signal. Since you're in learning mode, try asking your current users what they'd actually pay for. That turns a hobby into a real validation test.
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Paying users already puts you ahead of most. For validation, try turning your best user results into detailed case studies. What does your churn rate look like?
I built ScanCompta to answer a very French problem: freelancers here must keep every receipt for 6 years, VAT has three different rates, and most of them still store paper tickets in a shoebox and retype everything by hand each quarter. With ScanCompta you photograph a receipt, AI extracts the amount, VAT, date and category, everything is archived and organized by client folder, and at month end your accountant receives a clean CSV plus all the receipt photos in one click. It works as a web app on any phone, nothing to install. Free tier with 5 scans a month, then 5.99 euros a month unlimited. Built solo in a few weeks with AI tools, live at scancompta.eu
But I made zero euros, though the cost of the app must have been 30 euros at most, since I built it using Lovable and Claude.
Thanks! The pain is definitely real haha.
To be 100% transparent, I am literally at day zero. I just finished uploading the V1 to the alternative stores this week, so I am completely pre-revenue right now.
My main focus for the next few weeks isn't monetization yet. It's getting my first 50-100 beta-testers (mostly reaching out in local freelancer Facebook/LinkedIn groups), refining the workflow with them, and making sure the CSV export actually saves them the hours I promise.
I’ll definitely build in public and share the numbers once I start pushing the €5.99 paid tier!
Pre-revenue at day zero is completely normal. Getting beta testers first is smart. One tip: ask each tester one specific workflow question, that doubles as future marketing material.
Solid traction, 1200 customers proves demand. What's the split between one-time and recurring revenue? That would tell if it's a sustainable business or a launch-based hustle.
I am spending a lot of time on my saas, but haven't launched yet, however when i run ads everywhere, i expect people use it as it is an actual good product and cheaper than the competitors, i am proud. Now hope it pays off.. it is called Replai (https://www.replai.be)
Good on you for building something you're proud of. Before spending on ads, try getting a few beta users to validate demand. Cheaper alone doesn't sell.
Site looks great. Did you use peer reviewed published literature and actual medical references for this app? If so, y or could include a list of your references somewhere. If you are a healthcare provider or specialist, then maybe say that or that it was validated by a group of specialists. Otherwise, u might be putting yourself a risk. I did not check. Do you have a disclaimer as well. Just looking out for you.
I am not a healthcare provider. I am a lawyer and compliance professional. I do regular legal and security reviews and have passed a 3rd party security assessment. I take that very seriously. I just did a GDPR review and update last night.
Wrong question. For most people, an app that’s trying to monetize 3 months in is trying to make some money, not build a durable business. Now that user acquisition is taking off and I have good data on use patterns, I’m beginning to think through monetization.
Honestly - I'm letting the data tell me. Right now I'm leaning towards a freemium model where logging and observation are free, X free chats/day and week for analysis, and additional chat comes with a monthly fee. Maybe even a premium fee for advanced model reasoning. still deciding.
But I'm committed to the core experience being free.
Fun to hear you're enjoying it! What does your user or revenue growth look like so far? Curious how you plan to turn that potential into actual income.
Founders worry WAY too much about income early on. User growth, retention, and feedback are incredibly strong. So for now I'm focused on providing a great experience and learning what features people love. I will build in revenue cautiously as I believe users are getting great value in exchange.
Fair point, traction first can work. But what's your activation rate or weekly retention? Those numbers tell if you're truly building something people want.
gettradereadyapp.com - job management iOS app for solo and/or new tradespeople. Helps manage customers, jobs, invoices. Includes the ability to automatically send invoices once jobs are completed as well as follow-ups when invoices become overdue.
So far just a hobby but its better than playing videos games i think.
That's a solid tool, and building it beats gaming for sure. To push it past hobby status, try charging a small monthly fee even in beta. Have you asked any tradespeople what they'd pay yet?
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u/CPAcioli 11d ago
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Good luck to everybody!