I Got My First Paid Subscription 3 Months Into My Side Project
It's a small SaaS tool I've been building little by little after work since last year, and yesterday I got my first annual subscription.
The amount is only enough for a few cups of coffee, but it took a really long time. For the first two months, I just kept adding features, but since nobody used it, I scrapped it and eventually kept only three features and cut everything else.
I didn't know getting paid could be this scary and this good. My next goal is an MRR of 500,000 won.
8 answers
Congrats congrats — you really do remember your first paid purchase for the rest of your life
Honestly, the most impressive part is that you made the call to cut features in just 3 months. I spent a whole year just adding features and eventually gave up lol
They say once you get one payment through, the rest come faster than you'd expect. You got this!
Hold on—if it's just a few cups of coffee for an annual subscription, isn't that only about a thousand won a month? For that amount, it could just be a one-off accidental purchase, so I'm not sure this counts as validation. The evidence seems a bit weak. When the next payment comes in will be the real indicator.
If you're targeting 500,000 won in MRR, how many paying customers are you aiming for? I'm curious because the difficulty varies completely depending on the price point.
Wow, I'm jealous. I'm also building something after work, but nobody's using it so I'm in the middle of rebuilding it ㅠㅠ By any chance, where did you get your initial traffic from?
The part about cutting everything down to just three features resonated with me the most. I had 12 myself, but once I finally reduced it to 2, that’s when the inquiries started coming in. Knowing what to cut really seems to be the real skill.
I agree, but where does your confidence that those three are the key come from? I can't tell if it's just that three were left after deleting everything, or if those three are actually the answer.
What did you use to set up your payment page? I was going to use Stripe, but I'm concerned about domestic payments, so I'd appreciate some feedback. Oh, and I'm also curious how you handle the tax invoice issue.