I Built 3 SaaS Apps to $200K MRR: Here's My Exact Playbook — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Right now, we have five apps and we're
2. 0:01doing just over [music] 200 grand MRR.
3. 0:04This is Mike, a founder from Australia
4. 0:06who built five different SaaS apps that
5. 0:08make a combined $200,000 MRR. But,
6. 0:12here's what's interesting. Each
7. 0:13successful app he's created follows the
8. 0:16same repeatable framework. And this
9. 0:18framework works so well that he
10. 0:20guarantees every app he puts through it
11. 0:22becomes successful. I like to build
12. 0:24ideas that can't fail. I asked Mike to
13. 0:27come on to the channel and he shared
14. 0:29everything, including his five apps that
15. 0:32make $200,000 a month, how he picks
16. 0:35ideas that cannot fail, and his exact
17. 0:3810-step playbook that he uses over and
18. 0:40over. This episode you cannot miss, so
19. 0:44let's get into it. I'm Pat Walls and
20. 0:46this is Starter Story.
21. 0:52All right, Mike. Welcome to the channel.
22. 0:54Tell me about who you are, what you
23. 0:55built, and what's your story. Hey Pat,
24. 0:57my name's Mike. I've currently got three
25. 0:59SaaS businesses doing over 200 grand a
26. 1:02month and we've got two more on the way.
27. 1:04Current businesses are curator.io,
28. 1:06juno.co, thrill.co, fluke.co, and soon
29. 1:10smile.co. Our aim over the next five
30. 1:12years is to get to about a million
31. 1:13dollars MRR and we want to do that with
32. 1:15the smallest team possible and without
33. 1:17raising any [music] capital. All right,
34. 1:19amazing. You have a bunch of different
35. 1:21apps making a ton of money. Can you
36. 1:23share a little bit more about what your
37. 1:24businesses do and what your holding
38. 1:26company does as a whole? Our current
39. 1:27businesses are curator.io, which is a
40. 1:30social media aggregator for websites and
41. 1:32events. thrill.co, which is a customer
42. 1:34feedback tool which allows you to
43. 1:36collect customer feedback, plot it to a
44. 1:38road map, and announce new features.
45. 1:40juno.co, which is a digital signage
46. 1:42business
47. 1:43aimed at cafes, gyms, schools,
48. 1:46>> [music]
49. 1:46>> and shops. And fluke.co, which is a
50. 1:49no-code tours platform that allows you
51. 1:51to build onboarding tours [music] for
52. 1:53SaaS businesses, tooltips, pop-ups,
53. 1:56things like that without having to
54. 1:57bother the developers. And our final
55. 1:59business which we're launching in the
56. 2:00next two weeks is smile, which is an
57. 2:02[music] innovative way at doing group
58. 2:04e-cards for B2B businesses. And all
59. 2:06together, these five apps make just over
60. 2:09200 grand a month. We're fully
61. 2:12bootstrapped and we've used exactly the
62. 2:13same playbook to launch all of them.
63. 2:15Okay, I'm excited to get into the
64. 2:16playbook of how you did this. Clearly,
65. 2:18it's working. You've done it with three,
66. 2:19about to be five, companies. Before I
67. 2:21get into that, I want to understand a
68. 2:23little bit about your background. How
69. 2:24did you get to the point where you own
70. 2:25multiple SaaS businesses? Well, I used
71. 2:27to be a developer, one of the world's
72. 2:29worst developers. I was a flash
73. 2:30developer and ended up running an
74. 2:32agency, a digital advertising agency,
75. 2:35and sold that a number of years ago. I
76. 2:37somehow fell into advertising,
77. 2:39ironically, [music] realized I was
78. 2:40rubbish at advertising, and what I
79. 2:42really loved was building products. And
80. 2:44[music] that's how I got back into
81. 2:46building products. Okay, Mike, one of
82. 2:48the big reasons I wanted to bring you on
83. 2:49the channel is you have this sort of
84. 2:51strict and meticulous way of looking at
85. 2:54building apps, choosing ideas of what to
86. 2:56build, and I really like your approach.
87. 2:58So, could you break that down for me?
88. 3:00What is your approach to building apps?
89. 3:02So, our entire approach is about
90. 3:04minimizing risk. I expect every single
91. 3:06one of our businesses to be successful.
92. 3:08We have a much higher rate of success.
93. 3:10We haven't had a failure. So, our model
94. 3:12is like this. We go and find the idea.
95. 3:14We work out how well they're doing
96. 3:16despite of a bad UX. We then go and
97. 3:18assemble the team. We like to have it
98. 3:20tech-heavy, so we'll have a front-end
99. 3:22developer, a back-end developer, ideally
100. 3:25a designer as well, and then somebody
101. 3:27like myself who who does everything else
102. 3:29around the product. We always start with
103. 3:31four co-founders. What that does is
104. 3:32minimize founder fallout, which is one
105. 3:34of the key reasons most businesses
106. 3:36[music] fail. We prioritize design quite
107. 3:39heavily. We believe that good [music]
108. 3:40design sells, which is why we like to
109. 3:42have a designer on on the team. We like
110. 3:45people [music] that can do a little bit
111. 3:46of everything. We like every single
112. 3:48person on the team to be thinking about
113. 3:50the UX of the product. That's really,
114. 3:52really crucial to who we get on board.
115. 3:55With those four co-founders, we always
116. 3:58split the company equally, 25% each. We
117. 4:00then grow the company to about $10,000
118. 4:03[music]
119. 4:03MRR, which covers costs there or
120. 4:06thereabouts, depending on which company
121. 4:08it is. Then after $10,000 MRR, we split
122. 4:12[music] the profits between the founders
123. 4:14and that's when we start to pay
124. 4:15ourselves. These businesses are about
125. 4:17bigger salaries, not big exits. We don't
126. 4:20invest as much money back into
127. 4:22advertising. We don't invest as much
128. 4:24money back into staff. We stay super,
129. 4:27super lean, so that all the profits
130. 4:29[music] come come out to the founders.
131. 4:30What I love about Mike's story is his
132. 4:33approach to building. He doesn't just
133. 4:35build apps randomly. [music] He actually
134. 4:37knows what separates successful SaaS
135. 4:40businesses from failures. And HubSpot
136. 4:42for Startups, who I'm partnering with
137. 4:44for today's video, also knows a few
138. 4:46things about successful companies, too.
139. 4:48Over 35,000 [music] customers rely on
140. 4:50them to grow their startups, and they
141. 4:52just put together an insane resource
142. 4:55called How to Build a Unicorn in 2025.
143. 4:57It's a free, high-signal guide packed
144. 5:00with the sharpest data and founder
145. 5:02insights shaping billion-dollar
146. 5:03businesses today. Inside, you'll
147. 5:05discover what kinds of companies are
148. 5:07actually winning, hot industries,
149. 5:10fast-rising topics, and how you can
150. 5:12build something [music] around these
151. 5:13ideas. My favorite part about this is
152. 5:15that they removed all the fluff and made
153. 5:17it as quick and actionable as possible,
154. 5:20so you can walk away and start executing
155. 5:22on these ideas [music] immediately. So,
156. 5:24if you're building anything in 2025 and
157. 5:27want to understand what separates
158. 5:28winners from everyone else, just
159. 5:30download HubSpot for Startups free guide
160. 5:32at the first link in the description
161. 5:34below. Thanks again to HubSpot for
162. 5:36Startups for sponsoring this video.
163. 5:38Let's get back into it. Okay, I think
164. 5:40this is amazing. You sort of have this
165. 5:41framework for how to find ideas and how
166. 5:44to build an idea that's almost
167. 5:45impossible to fail, as you sort of
168. 5:47explained. I want you to get more
169. 5:48detailed, though. Can you break down
170. 5:51this playbook step by step so anybody
171. 5:53watching can do the same? Sure. We have
172. 5:55a 10-step playbook and we follow this to
173. 5:58the letter every single time [music] we
174. 5:59launch a business. First and foremost,
175. 6:02pick an idea that's been done before.
176. 6:03New ideas are risky. New ideas need
177. 6:06validation. If you pick an idea that's
178. 6:08been done before, you know that people
179. 6:10want it. You know that it works. Number
180. 6:12two, decide what is a good enough MVP.
181. 6:15You need to work out from your
182. 6:16competitors what are the things that
183. 6:18their customers want the most. Build the
184. 6:20MVP, get it out there as quickly as
185. 6:22possible, get people using it. Core to
186. 6:24how we make money early on is the third
187. 6:27point in our playbook. Offer a lifetime
188. 6:29deal. Offer away your product for $59,
189. 6:33$100, whatever it is for a single time
190. 6:35payment. Number four, never give away an
191. 6:37account for free. Always charge people.
192. 6:40If people [music] pay for it, they'll
193. 6:41use it. That's key to what you want at
194. 6:43this stage in the playbook. You want
195. 6:45people using your product. You want
196. 6:46people telling you why it's crap. You
197. 6:48want people giving you as much feedback
198. 6:50[music] as possible. Number five, do as
199. 6:52much work as possible to sell a private
200. 6:55LTD. Work in Reddit groups. Work in
201. 6:57private Facebook groups. Get onto X.
202. 7:00Find out where your customers are
203. 7:02living. Work with the LTD groups, of
204. 7:04which there are many, to get your
205. 7:05product bought by as many people as
206. 7:07possible. For Thrill, we launched a
207. 7:11private LTD and raised about 30 grand
208. 7:13from our private LTD. Number six, start
209. 7:16writing content. It is never, ever,
210. 7:18ever, ever too early to start writing
211. 7:21content. Start writing landing pages.
212. 7:22Start writing blog posts. Use that money
213. 7:25that you got from the private LTD to
214. 7:26start writing content. Write competitor
215. 7:28pages, alternative [music]
216. 7:30two pages. Get it out there as early as
217. 7:32humanly possible. The longer it's up
218. 7:34there, the longer ChatGPT, the longer
219. 7:36Google will start indexing [music]
220. 7:38it and start sending you traffic. Once
221. 7:40you've started writing content, launch
222. 7:42on AppSumo or one of the other
223. 7:44marketplaces. AppSumo is great because
224. 7:46they have huge, huge reach. You can do
225. 7:49two different things on AppSumo. You can
226. 7:50launch on their marketplace, which has a
227. 7:53lower fee, or you can work with their
228. 7:55sales team and work on their select
229. 7:58offering. Both work. Do your own
230. 8:00research there, but they have a huge,
231. 8:02huge database of people that they can
232. 8:04mail out [music] to. This can get you,
233. 8:06again, way more users and have a lot
234. 8:08more capital. Your aim should be to
235. 8:10close your LTD with 100 grand in your
236. 8:14pocket that you can use for a year or
237. 8:16two year to write more content. Once
238. 8:18you've done an AppSumo LTD, move to
239. 8:20stage eight, which which is do one last
240. 8:22private LTD. Many people don't want to
241. 8:25miss out on a deal, so this is where
242. 8:26you're closing off your LTD, your
243. 8:28lifetime deal, for life. It will never,
244. 8:30ever be available again. Put your prices
245. 8:33up a little bit and offer one last
246. 8:35private LTD. Send it out to your mailing
247. 8:37list and then close it and ideally close
248. 8:40it forever. [music] Stage nine is
249. 8:42crucial. This is live or die moment.
250. 8:44You've got 100 grand or however much you
251. 8:45raised from your LTD in the bank. This
252. 8:47is where you get your customers to
253. 8:49write, your current LTD customers to
254. 8:51help you get an honest review on
255. 8:53Trustpilot, [music] on G2, wherever
256. 8:55they're willing to write your reviews.
257. 8:57It's so incredibly important. It will
258. 9:00boost your domain ranking and get honest
259. 9:02reviews for you. You'll find that the
260. 9:03LTD community are willing to do that
261. 9:06[music] because they really, really want
262. 9:07you to succeed. They're your early
263. 9:09ambassadors. It used to be Quora that we
264. 9:12would go out and answer questions on,
265. 9:15but more and more we're seeing Reddit as
266. 9:18an important place to go and answer
267. 9:20questions about your product. Scan
268. 9:22Reddit. See who's asking for one of your
269. 9:24competitors. Answer honestly,
270. 9:26authentically, on Reddit posts. You
271. 9:29know, look for subreddits where your
272. 9:30customers are hanging out. This is such
273. 9:31a crucial stage because you've now moved
274. 9:34to MRR. Money's depleting, but hopefully
275. 9:37you're starting to get MRR and by the
276. 9:39time your money runs out, hopefully
277. 9:40you've got enough MRR to stay alive.
278. 9:42That's it. That's the 10-step process.
279. 9:44This has worked for us on three
280. 9:45companies. We're halfway through the
281. 9:48playbook on a fourth company. We're
282. 9:49about to start it on the fifth company.
283. 9:51Okay, thank you for sharing that
284. 9:53playbook. That's amazing, super
285. 9:54tactical, super step by step, and I can
286. 9:56see how that works. I want to jump back
287. 9:58to the earlier steps of the playbook,
288. 10:00which is finding ideas. Specifically,
289. 10:02you really focus on finding ideas that
290. 10:04can't fail. Can you go a little bit
291. 10:06deeper on that? What is an example of an
292. 10:07idea that can't fail? And then what is
293. 10:09an example of an idea that could
294. 10:11potentially fail that you wouldn't
295. 10:13touch? So, one of what I will tell you
296. 10:15is is one idea that or an area that we
297. 10:17will never go after. We will never go
298. 10:19after an AI-focused
299. 10:20>> [music]
300. 10:21>> business. Too many times you have an
301. 10:22idea that relies on something, an API
302. 10:25that you do not control, something that
303. 10:27you are not in control of, which puts
304. 10:29you at massive, [music] massive risk.
305. 10:31Having said that, one idea that we, you
306. 10:33know, we almost went after,
307. 10:35um we still may go after. We we love the
308. 10:37idea of some sort of documentation tool.
309. 10:39I don't feel like the documentation
310. 10:40tools that are out there at the moment
311. 10:42are doing a really good job, or the ones
312. 10:43that are doing a really good job are
313. 10:45severely overpriced. And good
314. 10:47documentation, especially today, is
315. 10:50going to be the key to success because
316. 10:52AI needs good good documentation
317. 10:55>> [music]
318. 10:55>> to recommend your product well, to know
319. 10:57about your product. So, that's something
320. 10:58that um I think may work well. We just
321. 11:01won't rely on AI to build or [music] be
322. 11:03an integral part of the business. Okay,
323. 11:06cool. I like that. Not going after sexy
324. 11:08ideas that may not exist in 6 months,
325. 11:12avoiding platform risk. I want to switch
326. 11:14gears a little bit and talk about tech
327. 11:16stack. I know you come from a bit of a
328. 11:17development background. How do you
329. 11:19actually build these apps and what tech
330. 11:20stack you have them built on? The tech
331. 11:22stack varies depending on the founding
332. 11:25team and what they're comfortable using,
333. 11:27whether it's Vue, whether it's React on
334. 11:29the front end. Our back end still
335. 11:31predominantly sits in PHP uh and
336. 11:33Laravel, uh but again, that changes all
337. 11:35the time. Some of the tools I'm loving
338. 11:37at the moment, uh Willow Voice. I can
339. 11:39barely type anymore. You just press the
340. 11:40function key and you can talk at your
341. 11:42computer. We're using Granola for
342. 11:44meeting notes. I absolutely love it.
343. 11:45Obviously, Slack and things like that.
344. 11:47We use Framer for websites. We've just
345. 11:49moved over to Framer, actually. [music]
346. 11:50All of a sudden, websites are no longer
347. 11:52the job of the tech team. And more
348. 11:54recently, Vyo for prototyping. We
349. 11:56prototype everything in Vyo, and then we
350. 11:58take it into design and Figma, and then
351. 12:00we build it. Okay, cool. Thanks for
352. 12:02sharing that. The last question that I
353. 12:04have for all founders who come on
354. 12:05Starter Story, if you could go back in
355. 12:07time and give advice to young Mike
356. 12:09before you got started building apps and
357. 12:11software and SaaS, for anybody who's
358. 12:13watching this, what would be your advice
359. 12:14to get started and build awesome
360. 12:16companies like you're doing? [music]
361. 12:17Really simply, just work with people you
362. 12:20enjoy working with. Work with people
363. 12:22that you are quite happy to go and have
364. 12:24a drink at the pub with. It's actually
365. 12:26the main reason I do all of this. I feel
366. 12:27like I go to work every day and I go to
367. 12:29work with my mates. It's it's, you know,
368. 12:30it's brilliant fun. We spend [music] a
369. 12:32lot of time uh working on the details
370. 12:35because we love doing that. Don't just
371. 12:37create something that customers want.
372. 12:38Create something that you love building
373. 12:40as well. That's super, super important.
374. 12:42Well, I love that, Mike. What's the
375. 12:43point of building businesses if it's not
376. 12:45fun? Thank you for sharing everything
377. 12:46about all the companies you're building.
378. 12:47I think it's going to inspire a lot of
379. 12:48people. Thanks for coming on and
380. 12:50sharing. Right. Thanks a lot. Have a
381. 12:51good day. Thank you, Mike, for coming on
382. 12:53the channel and sharing all the
383. 12:54different apps that you built.
384. 12:55Personally, what I love about Mike's
385. 12:57apps is that they're all boring. [music]
386. 12:59They're boring businesses, but they
387. 13:01crush it and they make a whole lot of
388. 13:02money. I think there's something to
389. 13:04learn there about not chasing shiny,
390. 13:06sexy ideas. On that same note, this is
391. 13:09exactly why we launched Starter Story
392. 13:11Build. We will help you take your idea,
393. 13:12which it's okay if it's boring, and turn
394. 13:15it into a real app using only AI tools.
395. 13:18So, if you are ready to get off the
396. 13:19sidelines and ready to actually launch
397. 13:22your project, then definitely head to
398. 13:23the link in the description to check out
399. 13:25Starter Story Build. We are running one
400. 13:27of our new cohorts this week, so click
401. 13:28that link and save your spot. All right,
402. 13:30[music] that's it for this episode.
403. 13:32Thank you guys for watching. We will see
404. 13:33you in the next one. Peace.