I Built a Niche App to $9K MRR
Starter Story
Feb 26, 2026
Jonathan Fishner built ChartDB, an open source database visualization tool for developers. This video breaks down how to identify and sell to your ICP, no matter how "small" you think the audience is.
Get our free guide to find a $1M business idea → https://clickhubspot.com/swt
Build your own niche app → https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=chartdb
Follow Jonathan: https://x.com/jonathanfishner
Check out ChartDB: http://chartdb.io/
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:46 - Ideas template
1:04 - Founder background
1:35 - What is ChartDB?
2:25 - How to find developer tool ideas
3:55 - Initial growth and marketing
4:51 - Why the hacker news post worked
5:45 - How to find $1M ideas hiding in plain sight
6:36 - Developer Tools Playbook
9:38 - ChartDB demo
10:41 - Tech stack and costs
11:57 - Advice to founders
13:00 - Pat and Gus reflections
15:10 - Build your own niche app
Chapters
Stack
Transcript
Chapters
Stack
No tools listed for this business.
Everyone
thinks
you
need
a
huge
idea
to
make
money
but
Jonathan
did
the
opposite
His
tiny
open
source
project
makes
9
000
a
month
This
one
post
got
us
thousands
of
users
in
one
day
His
approach
is
genius
He
did
not
build
something
that
works
for
everyone
Instead
he
built
something
with
just
one
type
of
person
in
mind
I
built
this
app
specifically
for
developers
So
I
invited
Jonathan
onto
the
channel
to
break
it
all
down
for
me
And
in
this
episode
we'll
get
into
what
developers
get
wrong
about
building
profitable
products
the
one
piece
of
content
that
got
him
thousands
of
users
overnight
and
the
five
steps
that
you
should
take
if
you're
a
developer
building
stuff
in
2026
All
right
let's
get
into
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
real
quick
before
we
dive
in
Jonathan
is
about
to
break
down
how
he
built
and
found
customers
for
his
SaaS
If
you're
trying
to
figure
out
how
to
find
customers
for
your
app
well
I
have
an
ideas
template
that
I
think
might
help
you
out
You
can
grab
it
right
now
at
the
link
in
the
description
But
more
on
that
later
Let's
get
into
the
episode
All
right
Jonathan
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Hi
I'm
Jonathan
Fischner
I'm
a
developer
and
I'm
the
co
founder
of
Charitybee
Charitybee
is
an
open
source
database
visualization
for
developers
We
launched
the
open
source
16
months
ago
and
lately
we
just
make
about
9
000
in
MRR
And
today
I'm
excited
to
share
more
about
that
with
you
All
right
well
developer
products
I'm
excited
to
talk
about
today
Something
that
I'm
passionate
about
and
I
think
a
lot
of
people
watching
will
enjoy
But
before
we
do
that
can
you
just
explain
a
little
bit
more
about
what
your
product
does
and
how
it
works
Yeah
so
the
core
product
is
an
open
source
self
hosted
The
developers
can
just
install
locally
on
their
machines
and
basically
visualize
their
database
On
top
of
that
we
have
the
paid
cloud
version
The
hosted
version
that
we
provide
in
Charitybee
and
the
cloud
version
is
where
we
basically
monetize
So
developers
find
Charitybee
through
GitHub
as
we
are
an
open
source
and
use
it
for
free
And
once
they
become
to
be
more
streamlined
on
their
workflow
they
decided
to
jump
on
the
paid
plans
So
this
is
our
GitHub
Charitybee
Charitybee
and
we
just
passed
21
000
stars
on
GitHub
Here
is
the
analytics
We
had
passed
in
during
the
year
250
000
developers
that
used
the
product
in
the
revenue
side
and
we
passed
almost
9
400
Okay
cool
Well
one
thing
I'm
curious
about
is
there's
a
lot
of
developers
watching
this
right
now
looking
for
developer
tools
that
maybe
they
could
build
or
just
something
that
they
can
build
I
know
there's
a
ton
of
developer
tools
out
there
that
are
making
millions
of
dollars
Cursor
Cloud
Code
that's
like
the
big
examples
but
there's
tons
and
tons
of
stuff
out
there
doing
well
For
developers
who
are
watching
this
right
now
my
question
to
you
is
how
did
you
come
up
with
this
idea
How
did
you
come
across
something
that
had
the
potential
to
have
hundreds
of
thousands
of
downloads
by
developers
How
did
it
start
In
the
beginning
Charitybee
we
started
with
a
different
idea
and
we
thought
about
trying
to
build
database
clients
that
incubate
AI
into
that
So
we
started
that
direction
and
we
had
a
big
stop
because
people
don't
really
adopt
that
That
product
needed
to
provide
access
they
needed
credentials
to
connect
to
your
database
to
run
all
those
queries
and
you
need
to
install
something
on
your
machine
And
without
any
credibility
and
trust
from
the
engineers
we
said
all
right
it's
too
tough
So
that
way
we
thought
about
all
right
I
think
let's
start
Charitybee
It's
going
to
take
your
database
and
make
it
into
a
chart
Simple
as
that
The
two
things
that
I
think
made
it
work
is
one
the
product
Charitybee
It's
much
more
visual
and
easy
for
people
to
see
the
value
right
away
and
it's
giving
a
better
wow
effect
And
the
second
thing
is
reduction
of
the
friction
So
let's
say
you
don't
need
to
provide
any
access
and
you
don't
need
to
install
a
new
software
on
your
machine
So
reducing
that
friction
really
helped
to
provide
engagement
from
developers
Okay
cool
So
the
idea
took
a
little
bit
of
a
pivot
and
you
found
some
things
that
clearly
resonated
or
you
came
up
with
some
ideas
on
what
was
going
to
resonate
more
with
developers
The
next
thing
that
I
want
to
talk
about
is
growth
Anybody
can
release
a
code
repository
or
a
package
on
GitHub
or
online
It
costs
nothing
to
do
that
There
are
thousands
if
not
millions
of
unused
software
online
Clearly
that
wasn't
the
case
for
yours
So
how
did
you
get
visibility
and
how
did
you
grow
Charitybee
I
would
say
that
the
growth
for
Charitybee
started
with
a
launch
on
Archer
News
that
got
us
for
the
front
page
So
we
started
developing
Charitybee
and
after
three
weeks
of
development
development
we
decided
to
go
for
lunch
and
we
did
some
preparation
And
then
we
decided
all
right
let's
choose
a
day
and
put
ourselves
as
a
show
HM
This
show
HM
got
working
and
blow
up
to
get
to
the
front
page
what
gave
us
thousands
of
engineers
on
the
same
day
landing
on
our
product
I
think
it's
just
amazing
that
one
post
on
one
platform
can
essentially
catapult
your
business
It's
not
going
to
make
a
million
dollars
overnight
but
it
can
be
the
one
thing
that
can
change
your
life
essentially
What
do
you
think
worked
about
that
Hacker
News
post
If
you
were
to
do
it
again
what
would
advice
would
you
give
someone
who's
launching
on
Hacker
News
Yeah
so
I
think
a
few
things
So
developers
really
appreciate
open
source
because
they
can
test
it
with
no
sign
up
and
things
that
they
don't
like
And
I
think
the
second
thing
is
if
you
provide
something
unique
they
never
saw
before
I
think
that's
something
that
if
you
have
a
wedge
wedge
that
it's
very
unique
to
what
you're
trying
to
solve
they
will
provide
appreciation
with
their
upvote
and
those
upvotes
will
bring
you
to
their
homepage
And
the
homepage
is
where
so
many
developers
every
day
going
and
checking
those
launches
Before
we
get
back
into
the
episode
I
want
to
talk
to
those
of
you
who
want
to
build
something
but
don't
know
what
yet
My
best
advice
is
don't
start
coding
just
yet
The
best
businesses
actually
solve
problems
that
are
hiding
in
plain
sight
right
in
front
of
you
right
now
And
this
is
why
I
created
the
free
business
idea
template
It's
our
guide
that
walks
you
through
the
seven
proven
methods
to
find
real
problems
that
real
people
will
actually
pay
you
to
solve
Inside
you
will
learn
how
to
spot
21
different
problems
in
your
daily
life
how
to
validate
how
painful
those
problems
actually
are
and
finally
how
to
pick
the
one
that
makes
sense
for
you
to
build
right
now
In
less
than
30
minutes
this
might
completely
change
how
you
think
about
business
ideas
So
if
you're
ready
just
head
to
that
link
right
down
there
in
the
description
to
grab
the
template
for
free
All
right
let's
get
back
to
the
episode
I
mean
this
space
of
building
for
developers
I
just
think
there's
so
much
opportunity
here
You
know
there's
a
recent
obviously
the
big
one
in
the
space
right
now
is
ClaudeBot
It
got
hundreds
of
thousands
of
stars
within
a
week
This
is
what's
possible
with
building
developer
tools
I
just
think
it's
an
amazing
space
So
I'm
curious
if
you
were
to
start
over
you
obviously
have
a
business
that
you're
going
to
run
now
and
you're
going
to
start
a
new
developer
tool
What
would
be
your
like
playbook
for
finding
an
idea
building
it
getting
validation
and
turning
it
into
a
business
Yeah
so
start
with
like
be
the
user
or
ideally
it's
for
yourself
So
if
it's
for
yourself
something
that
you
see
the
value
right
away
you
really
understand
how
to
do
it
because
you
got
experience
around
what
you
do
For
example
in
CharityBee
we
find
out
that
you
want
to
visualize
something
very
simple
Like
I
want
an
ERD
and
I
want
to
look
good
that
I
can
interact
with
that
That's
something
that
just
like
very
specific
thing
about
that
specific
value
that
I
can
start
from
and
get
something
super
cool
out
of
it
So
step
two
I
think
design
for
constraint
not
for
ideal
Every
persona
have
their
constraints
For
example
developers
they
really
prefer
self
hosted
tools
that
they
can
test
and
check
on
their
local
environment
instead
of
going
through
any
kind
of
sign
up
wall
So
I
think
like
reducing
that
friction
as
we
talked
before
that's
why
CharityBee
had
no
sign
up
no
sales
calls
You
don't
need
to
provide
any
credentials
Step
three
I
would
say
start
with
the
wedge
and
not
from
the
full
vision
Starting
from
something
that
like
people
will
appreciate
and
see
the
value
out
of
it
right
away
and
then
evolve
that
based
on
their
feedback
That's
the
right
path
like
how
to
go
and
continue
to
build
in
small
iterations
Okay
so
the
next
step
is
going
to
be
let
usage
to
lead
you
what
to
monetize
So
in
the
beginning
we
didn't
monetize
at
all
Just
like
providing
the
tool
with
the
utility
in
a
way
that
you
can
do
it
by
yourself
Then
like
people
started
to
ask
to
work
with
their
team
and
then
we
needed
to
provide
a
more
complex
real
time
collaboration
and
we
understood
there
is
like
something
very
complex
to
support
So
that's
probably
how
we
gonna
start
to
monetize
So
monetization
should
not
be
a
guess
and
should
be
response
to
your
behavior
And
we
watched
our
users
and
how
people
using
CharityBee
over
the
time
and
based
on
their
patterns
and
how
they
emerge
their
patterns
we
started
like
to
understand
how
to
take
it
from
there
and
how
to
charge
for
it
And
the
last
thing
is
like
you
want
to
market
where
the
ICP
lives
So
distribution
should
feel
natural
and
we
didn't
look
for
invent
any
new
channels
and
we
show
out
where
developers
already
are
So
Github
and
Accordews
and
also
Reddit
in
self
hosted
and
subreddits
that
where
the
developer
used
to
be
and
internal
teams
sharing
between
them
So
the
final
takeaway
I
would
say
the
pick
the
persona
and
remove
aggressively
all
the
friction
as
much
as
possible
and
be
obsessed
with
one
core
value
until
you
really
see
the
adoption
and
it
feels
effortless
Okay
thanks
for
sharing
the
playbook
That's
amazing
I
think
there's
so
much
opportunity
to
build
in
developer
tools
If
you
can
just
build
something
that's
useful
for
developers
there's
often
a
business
behind
it
which
I
think
is
super
cool
One
thing
that
I
wanted
to
understand
from
you
a
little
bit
more
is
how
your
product
even
works
I
know
it's
like
a
visualization
tool
for
charts
ChartDB
but
would
you
be
able
to
just
show
a
quick
demo
of
how
it
works
and
what
it
does
Okay
yeah
absolutely
So
let's
start
Even
in
the
homepage
we
see
the
visualization
and
it's
live
and
you
can
embed
it
Once
you're
going
to
the
tool
itself
let's
say
that
you
want
to
bring
your
database
you
choose
your
platform
you're
taking
one
query
that
is
the
smart
query
running
into
one
of
your
database
clients
I'm
connecting
here
to
the
database
called
PokemonDB
running
the
query
that
got
from
ChartDB
copy
the
JSON
paste
it
over
here
and
just
click
on
import
Basically
that's
going
to
show
me
the
entire
database
already
how
it
looks
connecting
between
the
tables
and
everything
Once
I
click
I
can
see
all
the
relationship
how
they
got
connected
between
tables
like
types
move
Pokemon
moves
whatever
etc
And
start
to
iterate
in
it
Like
let's
say
I
want
to
add
a
field
or
anything
I
can
see
the
differences
between
the
database
and
my
development
Okay
cool
Well
thanks
for
sharing
that
super
cool
looking
tool
Very
visual
I
love
that
On
a
similar
note
I'm
curious
how
you
built
it
What's
your
tech
stack
What
are
all
the
open
source
languages
that
you
used
to
build
this
and
maintain
it
Yeah
so
everything
is
React
We're
using
React
byte
and
Node
js
Tailwind
and
React
flow
for
the
canvas
and
all
the
entities
That's
for
the
development
side
From
what
we
use
to
build
it
with
so
using
all
the
time
cloud
code
we're
using
the
max
200
per
month
We
started
to
use
a
Tricom
account
It's
providing
a
compliance
for
big
clients
that
starting
to
come
up
and
ask
for
SOC2
It
costs
500
a
month
ChatGPT
and
the
API
for
our
AI
assistant
it
costs
20
bucks
for
the
subscription
and
50
bucks
around
that
in
the
API
tokens
Resend
for
sending
the
transactional
emails
that
we
send
for
people
that
sign
up
AWS
is
where
we
have
the
cloud
hosting
So
it
costs
600
a
month
ChartMogul
is
free
Fathom
Analytics
is
for
analytics
and
it's
called
25
per
month
And
Framer
is
30
bucks
per
month
for
the
marketing
website
We're
using
Stripe
so
transactional
fee
based
on
the
subscriptions
And
Chris
for
interaction
with
the
users
and
having
the
chat
to
communicate
quickly
with
them
We're
using
href
for
SEO
and
getting
keywords
and
how
to
increase
our
marketing
and
organic
marketing
Thanks
for
sharing
that
Last
question
that
we
ask
every
founder
who
comes
on
Jonathan
if
you
could
stand
on
young
Jonathan's
shoulders
before
you
got
started
you
could
give
him
some
advice
or
advice
for
anyone
watching
this
who's
a
developer
developer
who
wants
to
have
their
own
projects
and
earn
money
from
their
own
projects
What
would
it
be
Yeah
so
I
would
tell
myself
to
pick
one
core
value
and
defend
it
aggressively
Everything
starts
working
when
we
double
down
on
once
we
focus
entirely
on
making
database
visualization
obvious
And
ignore
everything
else
That's
what
I
would
say
Double
down
on
what
you
really
feel
it's
working
and
you
see
the
traction
coming
up
I
think
there's
a
lot
to
learn
from
that
A
lot
of
developers
who
want
to
build
they
want
to
build
everything
And
it
has
the
SaaS
and
it
has
all
these
elements
but
you
can
start
with
one
wedge
and
do
one
thing
really
well
Like
database
visualization
which
is
not
something
that
I
even
knew
was
a
product
before
This
is
super
cool
and
shows
you
if
you
can
narrow
down
like
you
said
do
one
thing
and
do
it
really
really
well
you
can
have
a
business
So
thanks
for
coming
on
and
sharing
and
looking
forward
to
seeing
the
growth
Thank
you
so
much
Appreciate
it
All
right
producer
Gus
what
did
you
think
Yeah
I
think
my
first
takeaway
is
I
think
it's
really
cool
how
you
built
this
tool
that's
like
just
for
like
developers
That's
kind
of
my
takeaway
right
I'm
not
a
developer
so
I'm
not
like
really
in
that
world
But
my
takeaway
is
like
he
knew
that
so
well
that
he
could
like
almost
predict
like
what
issues
they
would
face
or
like
what
they
would
complain
about
And
so
that's
my
takeaway
is
like
building
stuff
in
spaces
that
you
know
about
Yeah
I
mean
not
to
get
too
technical
He
basically
what
he
knew
was
this
like
really
kind
of
niche
SQL
query
where
you
could
get
the
whole
schema
of
the
database
and
then
they
turned
it
into
something
visual
It's
too
niche
to
even
talk
about
right
now
It's
just
so
but
as
you're
saying
it's
crazy
You
can
take
one
tiny
idea
which
is
so
niche
and
that
can
be
a
business
that
makes
10
000
a
month
right
And
his
business
is
going
to
grow
He's
going
to
launch
other
products
That's
the
power
of
you
know
you
see
this
the
Claude
bot
you
know
that's
been
taken
off
right
now
that
was
downloaded
And
that
was
downloaded
millions
and
millions
of
times
in
a
matter
of
weeks
That
is
how
huge
developer
tools
are
because
they're
free
to
download
They're
free
to
try
That's
what
he
basically
did
And
then
he
built
a
little
monetization
back
on
the
back
end
of
it
This
costs
no
money
to
do
There's
a
lot
of
developers
watching
this
It's
just
it
blows
my
mind
how
much
what
you
can
do
with
one
tiny
idea
Totally
And
I
think
sometimes
the
developer
stuff
like
I
said
because
I'm
not
one
I'm
kind
of
like
why
would
people
pay
for
something
they
can
download
for
free
But
he
did
a
good
job
explaining
like
the
developers
in
this
case
for
like
the
entry
point
to
people
that
would
pay
for
it
And
so
I
think
yeah
underestimating
the
size
of
like
how
many
developers
out
there
are
like
I
don't
know
really
interested
in
finding
new
and
interesting
tools
that
solve
one
problem
kind
of
thing
I
think
it's
interesting
what
he
said
which
is
that
the
idea
he
had
before
the
developer
tool
was
the
SQL
AI
wrapper
thing
that
didn't
work
out
It's
funny
because
I
see
that
a
lot
of
developers
try
to
build
that
idea
That
doesn't
mean
it
was
necessarily
bad
It
was
necessary
to
build
that
thing
that
didn't
work
And
then
they
pivoted
So
my
shameless
plug
is
for
you
to
join
Starter
Story
Build
and
build
something
even
if
you
know
it's
not
going
to
be
successful
like
the
AI
database
wrapper
that
clearly
didn't
work
for
him
Still
get
it
out
there
Join
Starter
Story
Build
Click
that
link
below
to
build
something
and
launch
in
a
couple
of
days
and
get
that
validation
Now
what
are
you
waiting
for
All
right
guys
I'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
Get Access To All Startup Data Right Now (it's free)
Join our free newsletter to get unlimited access to all startup data. We just need your email:
S
Starter Story
Want to discover ideas that
actually
make money?
Get our 5-minute email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
It's free and read by 200,000+ founders
Please sign in.
Create A Password
Check your email for a link to sign in
Check your email
We've sent you an email with a link to sign in. Click the link in the email to access your account.
If there's a Starter Story account associated with that email you'll get an email with a link to automatically log in. The link will expire in 24 hours.
Your existing password still works, should you want to log in with it later.
S
Starter Story
Unlock the secrets to 7-figure online businesses
With Starter Story, you can see exactly how online businesses get to millions in revenue.
Dive into our database of 4,418 case studies & join our community of thousands of successful founders.
S
Starter Story
Get The Report
S
Starter Story
Build a business that changes your life, in less than 5 weeks.
Discover a proven system to find, validate, and build your $1M business idea—alongside a community that won't let you fail.
Our next sprint starts soon...
S
Starter Story
Build
With AI, you can build
anything
Come up with an idea, build it, and ship an app that gets users and payments—in just a few days.
Join thousands of builders who are turning their ideas into real products.