How I Built It: $12K/Month Micro SaaS
Starter Story
Nov 22, 2024
This is how Dmytro Krasun quit his 9-5 job and built a screenshot micro saas to over $12,000/month.
📚 Learn how to build with AI → https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_campaign=dmytro&utm_source=youtube
Follow Dmytro's Journey
🔔 My Second Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@thepatwalls
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/starter_story/
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/thepatwalls
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Two
years
ago
I
quit
my
job
I
started
building
trying
experimenting
And
just
recently
I
reached
the
milestone
of
10k
MRR
How
does
this
guy
make
over
10
000
a
month
with
screenshots
Well
it's
because
he
works
within
the
niche
he
knows
best
I
knew
how
to
build
Like
it
was
kind
of
my
super
skill
you
know
Before
becoming
an
indie
hacker
Dimitro
started
his
journey
as
an
employee
employee
I
was
working
most
of
my
life
as
a
developer
writing
code
helping
startups
and
companies
building
products
But
one
day
he
finally
had
enough
and
decided
to
take
the
leap
and
go
all
in
on
his
dream
Even
having
the
best
job
in
the
world
huge
salary
still
I
felt
that
something
pushed
me
into
another
direction
It
was
kind
of
my
childhood
dream
Now
Dimitro
is
a
solopreneur
making
a
great
living
coding
and
building
his
own
products
And
all
of
his
success
comes
down
to
one
thing
You
need
to
be
persistent
enough
to
try
anything
to
just
get
to
this
4
In
this
video
Dimitro
shares
exactly
how
he
went
from
9
to
5
to
solopreneur
and
how
anybody
watching
this
could
do
something
similar
And
spoiler
alert
he
shares
a
lot
of
good
stuff
including
his
framework
for
building
ideas
faster
some
unconventional
marketing
channels
he
uses
to
get
lots
of
paying
customers
and
his
unique
strategy
to
keep
those
customers
for
longer
Now
let's
jump
right
in
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
Hey
man
welcome
Tell
us
a
little
bit
about
who
you
are
and
what
you
built
Let's
try
it
Let's
try
it
Hi
I'm
Dimitro
I'm
building
Screenshot
One
It's
my
main
focus
And
this
is
a
product
that
helps
companies
from
small
to
big
automate
screenshots
So
currently
I
am
at
280
customers
making
around
12
000
of
monthly
revenue
This
is
a
subscription
model
You
subscribe
to
a
product
and
pay
for
example
17
a
month
And
if
you
need
extra
screenshots
extra
features
and
so
on
you
pay
extra
Tell
us
the
story
about
how
you
got
started
out
with
Screenshot
One
Of
course
I
had
like
millions
of
ideas
But
when
I
was
into
this
journey
I
realized
I
need
to
you
know
to
reduce
my
space
of
ideas
to
something
that
I
can
really
build
It
should
be
a
quality
product
And
since
I
was
a
backend
developer
server
side
developer
I
knew
how
to
build
APIs
Like
it
was
kind
of
my
super
skill
I
reduced
my
list
of
ideas
only
to
API
products
One
of
the
ideas
was
and
I
built
it
it
was
email
validation
API
Somehow
it
looked
super
boring
for
me
So
I
just
focused
on
Screenshot
One
I
went
to
Google
and
I
saw
so
many
competitors
It
means
there
are
people
paying
also
That
was
a
good
heuristic
to
evaluate
the
niche
you
know
So
you
realized
that
there
were
similar
tools
to
what
you
wanted
to
build
and
people
were
already
paying
for
these
tools
But
isn't
having
competitors
bad
How
should
others
think
about
this
when
they're
choosing
their
business
idea
Having
some
niche
with
competitors
is
good
You
can
probably
also
find
some
numbers
You
can
see
how
many
customers
they
have
Almost
every
area
you
want
to
build
it's
not
unique
It's
really
hard
to
invent
something
unique
And
even
if
you
invent
this
thing
who
says
people
need
it
you
know
Only
thing
you
need
to
check
there
is
enough
of
these
users
that
will
satisfy
your
goal
For
example
you
want
to
have
10k
MRR
you
probably
need
to
check
if
there
is
enough
of
companies
for
example
which
need
screenshot
software
and
they
will
pay
you
like
this
amount
of
money
All
right
so
you
validated
the
niche
but
how
did
you
go
about
validating
the
actual
product
Did
you
ask
for
people's
opinions
The
problem
is
people
are
really
nice
Some
of
the
people
can
just
pay
you
you
know
even
for
non
existing
product
but
you
still
don't
know
will
they
use
it
or
not
Will
it
help
them
or
not
until
you
build
it
until
you
see
this
kind
of
companies
that
don't
know
you
using
your
product
yes
But
once
you
have
at
least
10
paying
customers
from
outside
network
and
you
didn't
know
them
they
just
came
and
bought
your
product
and
use
it
that's
for
me
like
an
ultimate
validation
Okay
so
to
validate
the
product
we
got
to
build
it
but
we
also
got
to
make
sure
people
want
to
pay
for
it
Tell
us
how
this
happened
with
Screenshot
One
It
took
me
five
months
to
build
it
and
launch
it
It
was
my
first
time
I
was
launched
I
wanted
to
be
everything
perfect
and
so
on
It's
a
mistake
because
your
first
version
will
be
anyway
not
good
let's
say
Today
I
launch
much
much
faster
like
I
try
to
launch
in
one
month
or
less
I
quickly
build
something
really
small
and
one
feature
I
don't
build
authentication
I
don't
build
payments
anything
And
then
I
share
it
with
my
close
friends
for
clicking
and
testing
that
it
just
works
like
nothing
is
breaking
you
know
know
Then
I
launch
it
on
Twitter
and
so
on
yes
And
if
I
can
get
access
to
my
potential
paying
customers
directly
I
would
just
go
to
them
just
reach
out
to
people
And
then
probably
it
will
be
payments
and
then
it
will
be
authentication
And
then
I
will
start
iterating
getting
feedback
and
so
on
Dimitro
is
the
perfect
example
of
how
a
software
engineer
can
turn
his
coding
skills
and
a
simple
idea
into
a
side
project
that
makes
thousands
of
dollars
a
month
But
that
comes
with
working
on
the
right
idea
and
knowing
the
best
methods
to
get
those
first
paying
users
This
is
why
I
created
Starter
Story
Academy
a
place
that
helps
you
find
an
idea
validate
that
idea
with
real
feedback
and
help
you
execute
on
that
idea
so
you
can
turn
it
into
a
profitable
side
project
that
might
just
change
your
life
So
if
you're
curious
about
building
a
profitable
side
project
like
Dimitro
and
hundreds
of
other
founders
just
like
him
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
learn
a
bit
more
about
the
Academy
and
see
if
it's
a
fit
for
you
Now
let's
get
back
to
our
interview
with
Dimitro
Okay
now
we
have
a
working
product
but
how
do
we
get
customers
Which
marketing
channels
work
for
you
the
best
Okay
okay
So
when
I
started
it
was
like
I
was
trying
almost
everything
And
then
I
saw
for
me
Twitter
worked
Google
worked
These
are
currently
major
channels
for
me
Then
you
have
a
lot
of
unobvious
channels
like
Zapier
Make
A
lot
of
people
are
using
these
tools
for
their
businesses
automating
And
if
you
can
put
your
products
onto
these
platforms
you
know
people
will
find
you
Also
of
course
it
was
product
hunt
launch
It
helped
me
with
the
awareness
and
it
helped
me
with
the
boosting
my
SEO
Some
unobvious
channel
for
me
I
probably
will
invest
more
in
it
It's
YouTube
Somebody
posted
tutorial
how
to
send
cold
emails
with
my
product
and
I
saw
like
paying
customer
coming
from
YouTube
And
I
thought
wow
I
can
also
publish
tutorials
on
YouTube
for
this
kind
of
technical
product
and
people
still
can
find
me
In
SEO
and
Google
it's
pretty
hard
to
get
to
the
first
position
But
for
some
keywords
Google
also
shows
videos
you
know
like
YouTube
videos
So
you
can
post
YouTube
video
and
you
can
be
ranked
pretty
high
You
know
it's
kind
of
hack
I
would
say
Okay
cool
You
got
customers
but
how
about
keeping
them
How
do
you
deal
with
churn
Of
course
I'm
asking
customers
when
they
cancel
subscription
they
have
pop
up
and
they
can
choose
reason
and
write
their
reason
But
it
didn't
help
because
somebody
answers
we
don't
need
this
product
anymore
something
like
that
you
know
know
So
I
started
reaching
out
through
emails
I
was
checking
their
profile
their
company
what
was
their
use
case
what
was
the
reason
they
specified
And
then
I
was
like
trying
to
guess
why
they
churned
And
then
I
was
like
saying
you
know
one
yes
no
question
Did
you
churn
because
of
let's
say
pricing
And
people
started
to
answer
you
know
like
yes
yes
I
did
it
because
of
that
and
so
on
And
I
almost
got
100
success
rate
of
getting
these
answers
It's
a
lot
of
manual
work
But
it's
good
because
it
was
building
mental
model
in
me
why
how
people
use
my
product
why
they
churn
and
what
happens
You
need
to
talk
in
support
to
people
You
need
to
talk
after
churn
because
sometimes
you
just
realize
somebody
came
and
they're
not
your
customer
And
one
of
the
ways
to
fix
this
is
to
change
your
marketing
you
know
to
change
your
copy
For
example
I
was
getting
some
people
who
were
expecting
my
product
to
be
like
no
quote
So
I
emphasized
that
it's
for
developers
you
know
know
it's
like
you
need
to
write
code
to
integrate
my
product
For
me
it
was
like
it's
11
per
month
Now
it's
close
to
seven
I
want
to
get
it
down
less
than
5
of
customers
be
churning
you
know
per
month
All
right
So
talking
to
customers
and
testing
your
assumption
is
how
you've
reduced
churn
Let's
talk
about
monetization
now
Tell
us
how
you
made
your
first
dollar
with
Screenshot
One
I
was
promoting
for
one
month
my
product
everywhere
like
on
every
possible
platform
Twitter
Reddit
IndieHackers
everywhere
And
just
one
person
saw
it
found
it
valuable
They
paid
7
per
month
for
my
product
But
for
me
it
was
a
huge
win
It
felt
like
a
million
dollars
you
know
you
need
to
be
persistent
enough
to
try
anything
to
just
get
to
this
first
dollar
That's
awesome
Tell
us
now
how
you
decided
on
the
pricing
for
your
product
In
the
beginning
it
was
pretty
simple
5
felt
super
cheap
7
felt
okay
it's
the
simplest
But
my
margins
were
almost
zero
So
I
decided
to
reduce
the
free
plan
And
I
raised
prices
for
next
plans
When
you
raise
prices
it
really
helps
It's
a
much
stronger
signal
to
get
people
who
really
want
to
use
your
product
My
current
pricing
is
kind
of
an
intuition
like
how
much
customers
still
can
pay
And
it
will
be
valuable
for
them
And
it
will
be
a
good
profit
margin
for
me
And
we
can
still
grow
Something
like
that
you
know
it's
like
kind
of
an
intuition
Cool
Now
let's
talk
tech
stack
What
are
the
different
tools
software
software
and
languages
you
use
to
run
this
100
000
per
year
SaaS
product
I
use
TypeScript
for
managing
headless
browsers
and
Puppeteer
library
I
use
Go
language
for
rate
limiting
managing
API
keys
and
so
on
I
use
Cloudflare
for
storing
screenshots
as
an
API
gateway
to
my
product
From
the
business
perspective
I
use
Google
Search
Console
for
analyzing
Google
keywords
CTR
and
positions
I
use
Google
Keyword
Planner
for
predicting
volumes
for
keywords
when
I
want
to
write
some
content
I
use
PostHoc
Analytics
for
product
like
you
know
for
building
funnels
And
if
I
see
somebody
paid
for
the
product
I
want
to
know
from
which
marketing
channel
they
came
Yes
I
use
PostHoc
for
that
And
then
I
use
CrispChat
for
live
chat
support
and
answering
quick
questions
to
customers
I
have
like
my
phone
attached
to
it
And
if
I
see
a
message
I
try
to
answer
immediately
to
it
And
if
I
can
solve
it
I
also
try
to
solve
it
immediately
I
think
that's
probably
most
of
the
tools
I
use
daily
All
right
And
if
you
don't
mind
me
asking
what
do
the
profit
margins
look
like
for
your
product
It's
around
from
40
to
60
profit
margins
Most
of
my
costs
are
servers
It's
pretty
expensive
Currently
I
render
around
let's
say
2
million
screenshots
And
I
pay
from
3
000
to
4
000
per
month
for
servers
Total
expenses
should
be
around
4
500
I
think
like
in
total
That's
awesome
So
we
already
kind
of
talked
about
how
having
competitors
is
a
good
sign
that
you're
building
something
lucrative
But
once
we're
in
business
how
do
we
actually
deal
with
those
competitors
And
how
do
you
go
about
it
I
think
the
moment
you
have
10
paying
customers
like
real
customers
who
are
not
from
your
network
not
just
for
supporting
you
and
using
your
product
for
their
business
and
extract
value
from
it
you
just
can
focus
on
them
and
deploy
a
feature
for
them
optimize
all
your
marketing
for
this
kind
of
people
and
search
for
them
For
most
solo
founders
who
want
to
build
a
simple
business
and
to
just
cover
their
current
life
expenses
and
to
leave
of
that
business
you
probably
don't
need
to
be
harsh
enough
and
to
be
bad
You
can
be
just
nice
kind
build
relationships
with
people
and
still
get
enough
customers
to
pay
your
bills
you
know
Got
it
Okay
You've
given
us
some
great
insights
into
what
it
takes
to
build
a
SaaS
business
But
now
let's
get
a
little
bit
more
personal
What
does
a
day
in
a
life
look
like
for
you
It's
pretty
simple
I
wake
up
I
help
my
wife
to
send
kids
to
school
to
kindergarten
Then
I
just
go
home
and
drink
a
cup
of
coffee
coffee
or
I
just
go
to
some
local
cafe
and
drink
a
cup
of
coffee
And
I
always
always
every
morning
I
read
at
least
one
hour
of
some
book
So
then
I
work
till
the
evening
till
the
kids
come
And
for
example
today
we'll
go
to
play
football
soccer
with
friends
yes
On
weekends
I
do
some
fun
stuff
traveling
having
time
with
my
friends
with
my
wife
kids
and
so
on
If
you're
a
solopreneur
especially
you
need
to
take
care
of
your
mental
health
because
it's
your
only
tool
that
you
use
every
day
And
if
you
feel
bad
your
quality
of
decisions
are
also
much
much
worse
you
know
Having
a
clear
mind
and
thinking
is
one
of
the
most
leveraged
things
you
can
do
in
your
business
I
think
Okay
cool
Now
the
last
question
that
we
ask
all
founders
that
we
interview
what
would
be
your
advice
for
entrepreneurs
just
starting
out
I
want
to
say
don't
listen
to
anybody
including
me
and
any
advice
Consume
everything
everything
you
can
Try
to
find
the
most
quality
content
you
can
But
at
the
end
of
the
day
don't
outsource
your
decision
to
anybody
You
need
to
own
it
you
need
to
have
intuition
with
what
are
you
going
to
build
to
market
to
do
with
your
business
what
kind
of
journey
you
want
to
have
yes
Try
to
act
from
your
own
mind
If
you
base
your
decisions
don't
outsource
them
Don't
ask
people
let's
say
tell
me
what
to
do
or
I
want
to
quit
my
job
what
do
you
think
Should
I
quit
it
or
not
No
you
decide
If
you
want
to
quit
it
quit
it
If
not
then
not
It's
pretty
hard
to
generalize
any
lessons
For
example
I
had
a
good
runaway
but
somebody
quitting
their
job
they
don't
have
a
good
runaway
And
it
makes
a
huge
difference
Some
people
treat
money
seriously
and
some
people
don't
care
For
example
I
was
poor
So
for
me
losing
all
money
it's
not
a
big
deal
I
feel
I
can
be
destroyed
and
start
again
But
for
somebody
for
example
who
was
growing
in
a
good
family
it
can
be
pretty
scary
So
it's
pretty
hard
to
give
advice
for
example
just
quit
your
job
burn
all
the
bridges
and
so
on
It's
a
pretty
contextual
thing
to
do
All
right
Thank
you
Dimitri
for
coming
on
I
love
the
business
that
you
built
Good
luck
with
everything
and
have
a
great
day
Thank
you
Yo
guys
I
really
hope
you
enjoyed
the
video
and
got
some
actionable
advice
that
you
can
take
from
Dimitri
But
I
want
to
say
something
real
quick
At
the
end
of
the
day
the
point
of
these
videos
is
to
teach
you
guys
how
to
find
ideas
how
to
build
them
so
hopefully
you
can
start
a
profitable
project
on
your
own
While
learning
is
important
action
is
the
thing
that's
going
to
get
you
that
dream
outcome
And
if
you're
still
struggling
to
take
action
no
matter
what
then
I
highly
recommend
you
check
out
The
Academy
It's
the
community
I
wish
that
I
had
when
I
first
started
It's
got
a
bunch
of
resources
to
help
you
get
those
first
users
with
your
idea
Just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
if
you're
ready
to
commit
and
you're
ready
to
take
action
Much
love
and
I'll
see
you
guys
in
the
next
one
Peace
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