How a saas i didn't build made $3,000+ in 48h

Progress and learnings from May 2023.

This month was crazy.

I shipped 2 new projects. The 1st made a perfect $0 in two weeks, and the 2nd one made $3,292 in less than 48 hours. And spoiler: I used the exact same strategy 🤯

1. Saw a problem: producing eye-catching marketing videos is painful.

2. Searched for a technical solution.

3. Crafted a landing page with a buy button.

Check it out here.

This was 24h after the announcement.

Ridiculous, huh?

It was my first time experiencing so much traction so quickly. And to be honest, it scared me a little bit. That’s part of the reason why I closed the pre-sales after 30h.

As it’s a video product, it will have rendering costs. So lifetime deals were definitely not a sustainable pricing model; although it was perfect for pre-validation.

Time to build now!

I’ll elaborate more on what comes next for Typeframes later in this issue. But first, let me share some thoughts on validation.

The secret sauce

You don’t know until you ship.

I know, you’ve heard that 1,000 times. But now there’s a much more *underrated* part: listening to the market’s response - rigorously. With humility.

If I hadn’t decided to kill the 1st project, I would never have tried the 2nd one. Or, to put it another way:

If you can’t sink your old bark, you can’t get the speedboat.

Me having a perfect day-off in Annecy, France. Shippers gotta ship!

Detect failure

I suck at poker. 🃏

But there’s something I keep hearing from good players over and over again: the hardest move is to fold. Experts know when to give up.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a magic formula for that. But here’s a simple framework to avoid wasting months on the wrong horse:

1. Define “success“ before you start.

2. Set a clear deadline for every single experiment, date on which you’ll check the results to see what’s the market saying.

3. Check the results. Really do it.

Cattle no pet, Daniel Vassalo.

What’s next?

As you read this, I’m furiously building Typeframes with a hoodie in my bedroom.

The goal is to launch by mid June, but I want to take my time to over-deliver. So please don’t mind me if it takes a little bit longer. I already started getting feedback, and I think it’s headed in the right direction!

Btw: if you want to get notified on the launch, please click here to join the waiting list.

✌️ That’s it for now

Hope you enjoyed this issue.

If you liked it, feel free to share with your friends 😁

I’m always happy to hear your thoughts. Hit me up on Twitter @_justlilian and let's connect.

See you for the next issue!

Keep shipping, stay indie — Lilian