
Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month - frits1993
Running a profitable SAAS has been my dream from the moment I wrote my first line of code.<p>Here on HN and IndieHackers I&#x27;ve always looked up to the people who pay their bills with recurring revenue from their tools.<p>I&#x27;ve tried, many times, to do the same, without much success. A couple of rather successful HN pitches, but none of my projects ever even paid me a beer (let alone my rent).<p>Until this month! Last year I built myself and my girlfriend a tool. Even though I did build it for other people to use it, I had never thought someone actually would. Long story short, half a year later I provide my service to more than 5000 (fully organic) users.<p>This month is the first month in which revenue is high enough to pay my rent with it. Disclaimer: I share my rent with my girlfriend, but it does sound cool to say.<p>Looking back at the proces, it does match with a lot of other success stories I read over the years in the HN community. The main lesson which I can now confirm: build something that scratches your own itch.<p>So... Thanks you guys, for keeping me motivated and inspired.
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tckb
congrats! mind sharing your story?

~~~
frits1993
Sure.

Last year June, I built a small online tool for me and my girlfriend to manage
our IPTV playlist. I bought a domain name and put it online because our IPTV
player needed to access it through a URL. A couple of months later, and 7
users found the tool and were actually using it (keep in mind that that's
pretty impressive for a tool as not-user-focused as it was back then).

So I then decided to spend more time refining it. Building more features,
introducing paid plans, and making sure everything worked as user-friendly as
possible.

It basically all started growing organically from there. This month so far I
have a Stripe balance of €620 (roughly 687USD) after fees, which is my 5th
full month of running with pricing plans.

As you can imagine, I'm super excited to see if it can keep growing like this!

~~~
whalesalad
So it’s software people pay for to make managing their pirated tv content
easier to browse?

~~~
michaelmior
IPTV is not necessarily pirated content. Many countries have commercial
offerings although I don't know of any company doing so in North America.

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mduerksen
Pardon my complete speculation, but I bet your success factor is "I built ...
my girlfriend a tool."

My only successful product to this date is an app I built because my wife
asked me to. It is in an non-technical domain which I knew nothing about. I
thought it was rather non-promising, but, since it was a pet-peeve of hers, I
gave it a try.

It was an awesome (and very bonding) experience - she explained me the
problem(s), and I tried to simplify and structure it (didn't think gardening
could be so complicated). Both of us were in their respective element, and
from back and forth an app was forged.

To this day I only half-jokingly call her my product manager. The app has
brought in 5 digits last year and is rising.

Last week, she briefly mentioned another problem, in another hobby domain of
hers...

~~~
wink
Lucky you. I tried to make a game with my (then-girlfriend, now-) wife and it
kinda fizzled out. Sure, took on too much, I'm not the best with bringing
projects to launch, but whatever.

I really can't say who spent more time (she did graphics, I wrote code) but to
this day it's a bit of a sore point to talk about, just that we were both
absolutely not happy with the outcome and see it as completely wasted time.

~~~
mduerksen
Thanks for the sobering counterpoint to my perfect formula for success :)

A game is really a tough one though.

~~~
keithnz
a game seems less about solving a problem though. Educational games can semi
help with solving the problem of learning specific topics, but often hard to
pull off well.

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ohadron
I guess this is the tool, from OPs submission history:
[https://m3u-editor.com/](https://m3u-editor.com/)

~~~
beznet
I might be living under a rock, but what is IPTV? Even a Google search on it
makes me scratch my head. I use Netflix, Hulu, etc but those have always been
referred to as 'Streaming Services' , are those somehow categorized in the
IPTV umbrella?

~~~
jsight
The ones called IPTV are the ones with really questionable sources, in my
experience. I'm not sure how the term IPTV became synonymous with that.

~~~
capableweb
Well, in short, it's "normal" TV over IP, so I think it makes sense. I'm
pretty sure providers around in Europe, when it first launched, also called it
IPTV, and the "pirates" were quick to copy that naming.

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seanwilson
Have you thought about increasing your prices by a lot? I'm not the target
market but $1 per month for the cheapest plan and $5 per month for the most
expensive one sounds insanely cheap to me.

~~~
skrebbel
Seconded. Just make sure you increase them for new customers but not existing
ones. You can even try A/B testing price levels and the likes!

~~~
tgtweak
Price elasticity experiments are the lowest hanging fruits for optimizing
revenue!

We found doing it per country had a huge impact on rest-of-world LTVs.

~~~
vytautask
Please bear in mind that there is a regulation in EU that prices of the same
product should not differ based on the country you are coming from (source:
[https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/unfair-
treat...](https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/unfair-
treatment/unfair-pricing/index_en.htm), "Price discrimination is not allowed"
section).

~~~
stagas
In Poland almost everything is 1/3 of the price compared to the rest of the EU
for the same "stuff", arguably most have Polish branding but there are common
products(Nestle, Coca Cola, etc) that are significantly cheaper.

~~~
penagwin
Disclaim: I'm American and I'm mostly guessing here,

I know that sometimes companies create multiple SKUs of products to get around
certain restrictions. For example, if the Coca-Cola in Poland is only sold in
Poland, and is different from what's sold in France (let's pretend your flag
is on the can) - then they're technically "different products" and don't have
to follow the same regulations.

I know the WD easy stores sold at best buy are best buy specific so that they
don't have to price match them with competitors, even though what the
competitors sell have identical internals.

~~~
cosmodisk
Oh yes,the famous brand products with less good stuff in them.
Essentially,there are 3 unofficial markets in Europe: local market, western
countries and the rest... Obviously the rest get it worse. European commission
were investigating this couple of years ago,not sure where they are with it
now.
[http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/60884...](http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/608840/IPOL_STU\(2018\)608840_EN.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwium4_6_ZLnAhUsUBUIHUyHCUUQFjAAegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw3S9Wa9o8n_onUTAn9qTmIN)

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sinni800
First thing I thought when reading "M3U Editor" was music playlists for local
music... Man, definitions sure changed. I don't personally like conflating
terms very much, but that happens a lot nowadays.

The following isn't feedback, just personal rambling: Also I can't feel but
somehow I would be unable to make a software that has that kind of "playlist
protection" as a feature that needs a higher tier of monthly payment. I seem
to come from times where things like this sure warranted a one time payment
but not an ongoing one. Though it might be that I have my head stuck up my,
well, you know and I need to get with the times of SAAS

~~~
tracker1
It's the same list format from back in the WinAmp days afaik, but the
reference points are video streams instead of audio.

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jwr
Fellow solo SaaS founder here. Congratulations! This is a fantastic milestone
to reach, and not an easy one, in spite what many people think.

I am doubly impressed, because your product is B2C. I honestly don't know how
to make money on B2C, it always turns out to be a money-losing proposition
unless you have a huge market. I hope you will be able to make it work!

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bflesch
Congrats for getting from zero to one! It seems like you have some product
market fit, that's really great.

As others have pointed out, I'd recommend:

\- please rename "amateur" to something more positive. no customer wants to be
called an amateur

\- Increase prices for the pro tier

\- Improve your "pricing plan" page, take a look at other (more successful)
SaaS products and change button labels accordingly. Just take the best things
from their landing pages!

\- create a proper comparison matrix / table for all the plans

\- visually de-emphasize the free tier, and focus on the 3 paid plans in your
comparison table. people will always buy the middle option, so you can
increase the price of the "best" option by a lot in order to anchor your value

\- add features which are available only in "pro" and "pro plus", e.g.
support, direct email to developer, etc!

\- maybe build a mobile app for this? it seems like something that could be
nicely integrated into a mobile-first experience. you could make it exclusive
for pro users

~~~
LeifCarrotson
Amateur has no negative connotations to me (as a native English speaker from
the Midwest US). It's comparable to "hobbyist" or "enthusiast", basically
meaning "someone who can do X but doesn't get paid for it". I think a lot of
people would be proud to be amateur musicians or amateur athletes, for
example, and would have said that no (non-professional) customer would not
want to be called an amateur. Just shows you have to be careful!

And the pricing page
([https://m3u-editor.com/#pricing](https://m3u-editor.com/#pricing)) looks
pretty good to me - nice horizontal feature matrix, easy to locate
buttons...not sure OP wants to use dark patterns like de-emphasizing the free
tier. I do agree that the top plan should probably be more than $5/mo.

~~~
JshWright
Agreed, "amateur" has pretty positive connotations for me in this context
(native English speaker from New York).

~~~
herohamp
As a native english speaker from Maryland while it doesnt have any negative
connotations, I do feel a word like hobbyist would be better

~~~
emesis31
"Hobbyist" doesn't really make sense, as it's not my _hobby_ to make MP3
playlists.

"Amateur" is good as an antonym to "Pro".

~~~
atomize
I agree with Amateur as well. The Olympics (until the 90s [think USA Dream
Team]) were only open to AMATEUR athletes. No one would argue that Olympians
weren't skilled, and Olympians never felt slighted by this category. It simply
implied that athletes trained and participated in a sport out of love for the
game rather than for profit. Amateur literally describes: 'pursuing an
activity independently of their source of income', that's all.

~~~
crtlaltdel
one could a/b test the plan label and put some teeth behind the many useful
assertions in this thread, if one were so inclined

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esch89
That's so exciting and encouraging! Congratulations :)

Looking forward to your future update that says, "My SaaS paid for my yacht."

~~~
dgellow
I hope he would do something more interesting than spending his money on a
yacht.

~~~
abraae
There are yachts and then there are yachts.

I assume you're negative towards yachts like Larry Ellison's - giant fuel
chugging beasts that the owner flies in to port to go on once or twice a year
and that requires a crew the size of a small company to operate.

Then there are small craft with a sail that are completely environmentally
guiltless to operate, and that can introduce kids to the joy of sailing and to
the wonders of the ocean.

The second kind are awesome.

~~~
esch89
The second one sounds amazing!

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mathdev
Congrats, these micro (or nano ;) business success stories are the most
inspiring.

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lebaux
> The main lesson which I can now confirm: build something that scratches your
> own itch.

Honestly, can we agree it is 50/50? The "Mom test" is a good way to make sure
you are not wasting your time.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hla1jzhan78](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hla1jzhan78)
(3:16)

------
armstrong
Can I show off a bit about my project too? We make a huge database of user
manuals you can check it here
[https://manualsbrain.com/en/](https://manualsbrain.com/en/)

~~~
dordoka
Honest suggestion: you should submit your own Show HN post for that. I reckon
you are being downvoted for "hijacking" another post, not based on the merits
of your project.

~~~
rutthenut
Should be down-voted doubly then - for hijacking another post and also for
promoting copyright abuse...

~~~
dordoka
I never said that had to be downvoted or upvoted. I was just advising him/her
to create his own Show HN post to follow this site's rules first, and to maybe
get real feedback about the site.

Regarding "copyright abuse", it depends on multiple factors IMHO, but that was
not the point of my comment at all.

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stef25
Congratulations!

Two small comments

\- Adjust your pricing. The difference between 1, 2.5 and 5$ is almost
nothing. I'd suggest free - 5 - 20, or something along those lines. \- The
buttons in the screenshot below: the ones on the second row should have some
spacing above them. It's a typical responsive layout thing.

[https://m3u-editor.com/img-new/playlists.jpg](https://m3u-editor.com/img-
new/playlists.jpg)

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niemyjski
Congrats! I wish we could do the same but with full time employee(s) being
covered. But I'm terrible at marketing and just want to build the oss
products. We have over 1k stars in multiple projects for .NET but the
developer market is hard to get paying customers (we all want everything for
free ;-)). It also doesn't help we have massively funded companies competing
against us...

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DiviDragon
Thanks for sharing. I love these stories. Very inspirational. And your public
webpage looks very clean and professional.

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manicksurya
I have always been planning to do something like this. Can you share your
timeline ( from inception to prod).

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war1025
Based on your landing page, you default to yearly subscriptions.

Does that mean you would need to get an equivalent number of new users to pay
your rent next month? Or is your monthly recurring revenue now high enough to
cover your rent?

Either way, an exciting day for you I'm sure. Good luck going forward!

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gldev3
I love reading these stories, it kinda boosts my productivity. Glad life is
going great for you OP.

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starpilot
"Build something you would use" is going to be replaced by "build something a
non-technical person has requested." The latter has a higher likelihood of not
already existing and a proven appeal outside of the tech monoculture.

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DonnyV
You just sent me down a rabbit hole of what is IPTV....LOL! Thanks

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chipz
Wow! I like this kind positive post! If you have the story behind your product
and how you build it, we'll definitely wanna read it!

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shaktalles
Thank you for the post!!! It made me feel like pursuing again a personal
project left aside for over an year now.

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tmartty
Nice! Congrats!

Pricing is pretty cheap imo, why don't you try doubling prices? You might
double income just like that..

~~~
frits1993
Cheap indeed it is, but I guess that matches the target audience. IPTV is
relatively cheap, and the service my tool offers is really a bonus and not a
must.

More importantly, I don't think I would pay more than I am currently charging
my users, so I think it's just fair. Also, I prefer a whole lot of small
payments than a couple of big ones, and for now that seems to be going in the
right direction.

~~~
lerchmo
I would consider not trusting your intuition when it comes to pricing.

~~~
natch
I think this is good advice, but then I also think the current pricing is fair
for what it does. If it did a lot more, then it could be priced higher.

I mean compare to say Spotify. Up to six people in a household can listen in
their cars and any phone and any computer to any music pretty much, in
fantastic quality with lots of features, for what $15 a month. Now that is
worth $15 a month, as it's delivering actual content. That is a lot more value
than an (admittedly compelling) editor that I just use to edit some
preferences essentially.

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FunnyLookinHat
Exciting! Reading these shares are encouraging. :). And yes, share the story
(or at least the product!)

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chiscript
Which project is this so that the rest of us can check it out and get inspired
properly?

~~~
darekkay
Here it is: [https://m3u-editor.com/](https://m3u-editor.com/)

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zupa-hu
Congrats! Nice website! Wondering - are people actually using the chat to get
in touch?

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inson
Great post! How many projects have you done before actually getting paid for
your SAAS?

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vsolanki20
Congratulations on your milestone!

If you don't mind then can you please share your tech stack?

Thanks

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nestorherre
Grats, sure this will motivate more than one on their path. Keep it up!

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luxuryballs
So... what’s the tool??

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frits1993
It's an IPTV playlist management tool: m3u-editor.com

Posted it on HN a while back as well, but interestingly it is one of my least
successful HN posts.

~~~
jodrellblank
“ _Are you an IPTV enthusiast, or simply a user which is not fully happy with
the playlist given to you.._ ”

Nitpick: A user _who_ is not happy; users are people, not things.

~~~
ISO-morphism
To the author - congratulations on the success so far!

Additional nits from a native US English speaker, hope they're helpful:

* "$5.00 / Per Month" \- the "/" is read as "per," so it reads as "five dollars per per month." Should drop either the slash or the "per."

* "...Billed annually. Or..." \- these are dependent clauses, should be "...Billed annually, or..."

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DBYCZ
"build something that scratches your own itch."

Awesome advice.

~~~
amelius
I'm not sure this is solid advice. As a programmer it would mean I'd have to
build my own compiler and editor, but the low-hanging fruit has already been
taken in this area, so perhaps it's better to scratch someone else's itch in
some niche area that nobody has explored yet.

~~~
shanecleveland
The implication here is that the best way to know that someone else has an
itch to scratch is to have that same itch yourself.

And "itch" is to "problem" as "scratch" is to "solve." The fact that you know
or use something doesn't make it a problem to solve. But if you think you can
do it better or different, then maybe someone else agrees.

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thelookingglass
Way to go, hopefully you'll see continued success!

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hopia
Congratulations!

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codesternews
How you got your customers? channels?

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ashilfarahmand
Great job!

Your splash page looks pro.

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davidw
> 5000 (fully organic) users.

It'd be more newsworthy if they were like half organic, half machine. Cyborgs
are an up and coming niche market!

Kidding aside, congratulations, that's impressive!

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mambojumbo
Very nice! I think i will write a free open source alternative to this.

~~~
dang
Please don't be a jerk on HN. We're trying to be kind to each other here.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
mambojumbo
Is there something wrong with open source? I think it would be pretty cool to
take this idea and turn it into a foss tool.

~~~
dang
I've banned this account for trolling. If I got that wrong, please take it up
with us at hn@ycombinator.com and we'll fix it. Otherwise please stop creating
accounts to break HN's guidelines with.

