"MVP Template": A Solo Business with $76K in Annual Recurring Revenue

"MVP Template" of Alexandro Martinez has become a solo business with a $76K ARR.

Alexandro Martínez, a 28-year-old full-stack developer from Guadalajara, Mexico, has successfully transformed his passion into a solo business, achieving an impressive $76K in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). Martínez, who began his career in 2012, initially worked within the .NET ecosystem. He first tackled the migration of his father’s ERP system from 4GL to Winforms. Following the completion of this project, he began receiving requests for web development applications, which led him to expand his skill set to include Vue, Svelte, and React.

During this process, Martínez created five boilerplates (Saasfrontends.com). The last one he built, using Remix, resonated well, leading him to create SaasRock, which has been his focus since April 2022. His customers are primarily full-stack developers and low-code engineers looking to build SaaS applications quickly with a powerful starter codebase.

How was the business started?

Why He Built SaaS Starter Kits

The inception of Martínez's business can be traced back to his desire to create tools for himself and his fellow developers. As he delved deeper into web development, he saw the potential in developing reusable starter templates for SaaS products. His initial approach targeted a broad audience, encompassing developers using .NET (C#, Winforms), Svelte, Vue2, Vue3, and React. However, this wide net didn’t yield the desired results. Consequently, Martínez made two strategic decisions: he closed the open-source door and shifted to a paid model, while also narrowing his focus exclusively to React.

Moving Away from .NET

Although Martínez enjoyed coding in C#, the extensive boilerplate code required for implementing the Clean Architecture pattern proved cumbersome for a solo developer. The complexity of managing multiple layers, including domain models, application DTOs, repository layers, and controller methods, slowed down his development speed. Despite its advantages, such as structured codebases and separation of concerns, Martínez decided to pivot away from .NET in favor of more streamlined solutions for his Minimum Viable Products (MVPs).

Finding a Full-Stack Framework

Martínez’s journey to find a suitable full-stack framework included an attempt to migrate to Next.js, which he found challenging. However, Remix proved to be a better fit for his coding style. Within a week, he had migrated his SaaS kit to Remix and released the first version of SaasRock, offering it for free for 24 hours. This strategic move resulted in over 1,000 downloads, thanks in part to a retweet from the Remix team. The success of this release motivated Martínez to open-source his other SaaS kits and concentrate his efforts entirely on SaasRock.

Initial Client Acquisition

Martínez’s initial customers came from a tweet announcing that the Remix SaaS kit would be free for 24 hours. The tweet gained popularity, receiving over 500 likes and more than 1,000 downloads on Gumroad. This success led him to open-source his other SaaS kits and concentrate fully on SaasRock.

Martínez bootstrapped his business, investing around $300 for SaasRock’s domain, $250 for a logo (which he didn’t use), and $70/month for hosting and database. He also started a YouTube channel, which he later abandoned but plans to revive. For email marketing, he uses Gumroad (using his own built-in SaasRock tool, GumCRM) and ConvertKit.

Marketing Strategies

Since the launch, Martínez has done minimal marketing, relying primarily on his changelog and blog posts. He plans to start more extensive marketing efforts once SaasRock reaches version 1.0. A few features are missing to reach version 1.0, including a Help Desk, Affiliate Marketing, and Workflows. In the meantime, he occasionally tweets about his progress, highlighting key milestones, including updates to his starter kits and open-source projects.

Approach to Revenue Generation

SaasRock generates revenue primarily through yearly subscriptions, with the core edition priced at $1,399 per year and the enterprise edition at $2,099 per year. This subscription model ensures the ongoing development of SaasRock, and as of now, his monthly recurring revenue (MRR) stands at $36,142 from 110 customers on Gumroad and $39,880 from 53 customers on Stripe.

Motivation and Avoiding Burnout

Reflecting on his journey, Martínez acknowledges that motivation is both a crucial ally and a potential adversary. He advises aspiring solopreneurs to balance their efforts with rewards to avoid burnout, emphasizing the importance of enjoying the work and managing expectations. Martínez stresses that while the entrepreneurial path can be demanding, no one is entirely alone in the process.

Learn More

Alexandro’s work can be found across several platforms, including his GitHub, Gumroad, Medium blog, and Twitter, as well as his main business site, SaasRock.