How I Built It: $23K/month micro-saas
Starter Story
Aug 13, 2025
Meet Andy, who started Data Fetcher as a side hustle, and now it's making $23K/month. In this video, Andy will share exactly how he did this.
🛠️ Want to start building with AI? Check out Starter Story Build → https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=andycloke
Follow Andy's journey: https://x.com/clokehead
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🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:40 - Who is Andy
0:58 - From an engineer to an entrepreneur
1:44 - Data Fetcher breakdown
2:18 - Ideation & validation
2:56 - Build YOUR micro-saas
3:42 - Pros & cons of building on platforms
4:39 - Andy's ideation framework
6:05 - Great platforms to build on NOW
6:54 - Growing from 0 to $23K/month
7:44 - Tech stack
8:33 - Costs & margins
9:01 - The power of focus
9:47 - How to increase revenue overnight
10:32 - The final word
This video is an educational case study of one 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
Stack
Transcript
Chapters
Stack
No tools listed for this business.
So
I'm
Andy
Cloak
I'm
the
founder
of
Data
Fetcher
and
I
make
23
000
a
month
in
recurring
revenue
This
is
Andy
He's
a
solo
founder
who
lives
in
London
and
he
built
a
successful
successful
micro
SaaS
with
one
simple
strategy
So
step
one
is
you
want
to
find
I
brought
him
onto
the
channel
to
break
down
exactly
how
he
built
this
23
000
per
month
business
In
this
video
we'll
go
over
the
genius
platform
strategy
hiding
in
plain
sight
His
six
step
framework
for
finding
20
000
per
month
ideas
and
a
few
business
ideas
that
you
can
build
in
2025
All
right
let's
get
into
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
starter
story
All
right
Andy
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Hey
Pat
great
to
be
here
So
I'm
Andy
Cloak
I'm
the
founder
of
Data
Fetcher
It's
now
at
600
paying
customers
and
it
makes
23
000
a
month
in
recurring
revenue
and
I
work
on
it
as
a
solo
founder
All
right
Well
before
we
get
into
what
Data
Fetcher
is
how
it
works
can
you
just
give
me
a
little
bit
of
a
background
on
your
story
and
how
you
got
here
Yeah
sure
So
I
studied
engineering
at
university
but
I
never
loved
it
I
always
wanted
to
launch
my
own
projects
And
so
I
taught
myself
to
code
and
then
I
was
working
as
a
freelance
React
developer
in
London
for
various
startups
kind
of
launching
things
on
the
side
trying
to
get
something
off
the
ground
and
none
of
them
would
go
anywhere
until
the
first
one
that
kind
of
made
some
money
which
was
a
TikTok
influencer
directory
So
scraping
TikTok
selling
that
data
as
a
SaaS
business
and
that
got
to
a
few
thousand
dollars
a
month
in
MRR
and
I
sold
it
And
that
kind
of
bought
me
a
few
months
off
to
come
up
with
the
next
thing
something
a
bit
more
sustainable
And
I
was
kind
of
trying
to
launch
like
an
IPO's
newsletter
I
was
pulling
financial
data
into
Airtable
to
manage
it
all
there
And
that
really
sowed
the
seed
for
what
would
then
become
Data
Fetcher
years
later
Can
you
tell
me
a
little
bit
more
about
Data
Fetcher
what
it
is
and
what
it
actually
does
Yeah
So
Data
Fetcher
is
an
Airtable
extension
that
lets
you
connect
to
any
other
platform
So
rather
than
like
manually
pulling
your
data
into
your
Airtable
database
you
can
connect
it
up
using
APIs
and
then
schedule
that
to
happen
automatically
And
it's
a
super
flexible
tool
So
we
have
people
doing
marketing
data
So
pulling
in
like
Facebook
ads
Google
analytics
we
have
people
doing
operations
type
workflows
So
the
use
cases
honestly
keep
on
surprising
me
like
even
five
years
in
And
that's
honestly
one
of
the
best
parts
of
running
the
business
is
seeing
what
people
build
with
it
That's
awesome
You
built
your
app
on
top
of
a
platform
Airtable
How
did
you
find
the
opportunity
to
build
on
this
platform
and
why
did
you
decide
to
build
a
business
on
top
So
I
saw
a
very
similar
add
on
for
Google
Sheets
called
API
connector
and
they
were
doing
super
well
They
had
like
a
hundred
thousand
users
and
seemed
to
be
like
smashing
it
kind
of
of
the
perfect
lifestyle
business
And
having
run
into
this
problem
on
Airtable
before
I
thought
could
I
build
this
for
this
new
platform
that's
taken
off
Airtable
was
just
growing
super
fast
and
they
just
launched
this
marketplace
and
I
kind
of
validated
it
by
looking
at
their
forums
to
see
what
problems
people
are
running
into
And
there
seemed
to
be
this
need
for
like
a
really
flexible
tool
That
was
kind
of
the
validation
stage
All
right
right
Well
before
we
get
back
into
how
Andy
built
this
23
000
per
month
micro
SaaS
let's
talk
about
what
made
this
possible
He
didn't
try
to
create
the
next
unicorn
He
just
built
a
simple
tool
to
solve
his
own
problem
And
what
started
as
a
small
side
project
completely
changed
his
life
This
is
exactly
why
we
launched
Starter
Story
Build
It's
your
place
to
build
and
launch
your
side
project
using
AI
tools
like
Lovable
and
Cursor
And
in
just
a
few
days
you'll
learn
how
to
use
AI
to
build
fully
working
apps
and
actually
launch
your
project
to
the
world
We've
had
hundreds
of
people
go
through
the
program
and
launch
their
first
side
project
So
if
you're
serious
about
launching
something
this
year
this
is
where
to
start
just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
All
right
let's
get
back
to
Andy's
story
When
it
comes
to
building
on
platforms
like
Airtable
what
are
the
pros
and
cons
of
building
on
top
of
a
growing
platform
like
Airtable
Yeah
So
the
main
benefit
I
guess
is
distribution
right
So
being
on
the
marketplace
especially
being
early
to
a
marketplace
like
that
on
a
growing
platform
you've
just
got
this
steady
stream
of
super
qualified
leads
and
they
trust
you
because
you've
been
approved
by
the
platform
themselves
So
the
other
benefit
of
it
is
just
it's
big
enough
to
kind
of
of
change
my
life
financially
But
it's
not
such
a
big
opportunity
that
there's
loads
of
people
raising
loads
of
money
to
come
and
build
like
a
hundred
million
dollar
business
So
it's
kind
of
in
this
perfect
indie
hacker
opportunity
space
where
it
just
like
sits
in
that
sweet
spot
I
guess
the
main
downside
is
the
platform
risk
So
like
your
tool
becoming
kind
of
redundant
overnight
Airtable
have
been
pretty
good
so
far
They've
been
a
great
kind
of
platform
to
build
on
And
I
look
at
it
as
data
fetcher
sits
in
the
sweet
spot
between
they
have
scripting
and
they
have
no
code
imports
but
they're
unlikely
to
build
something
that
like
goes
completely
in
between
the
two
of
them
And
so
I
think
it's
safe
for
now
touch
wood
Cool
You
mentioned
to
me
that
you
have
kind
of
a
framework
for
finding
ideas
to
build
on
growing
platforms
Could
you
break
that
down
a
little
bit
for
us
Yeah
of
course
So
the
first
step
is
obviously
finding
that
platform
And
there's
a
tool
I
love
for
this
which
is
Exploding
Topics
Step
two
you
then
want
to
find
a
pain
point
on
that
platform
And
you
can
look
in
their
forums
on
Reddit
on
Twitter
You
just
want
to
find
that
use
case
Step
three
is
you
want
to
borrow
a
proven
add
on
or
pattern
from
like
a
more
established
platform
So
for
me
that
was
obviously
Google
Sheets
and
Airtable
and
borrow
all
the
kind
of
like
UX
from
that
as
well
as
making
it
native
or
feel
native
to
the
platform
you're
on
Step
four
is
you
want
to
check
you
can
integrate
with
your
growing
platform
So
you
want
to
look
for
is
there
a
public
API
Is
there
a
marketplace
an
extension
SDK
Step
five
is
you
want
to
do
some
napkin
maths
to
find
the
size
of
the
the
opportunity
and
work
out
how
many
users
does
this
platform
have
How
common
is
this
problem
And
then
how
much
are
people
willing
to
pay
for
it
So
again
you
can
use
that
established
platform
to
look
at
price
points
on
there
and
assume
there'll
be
roughly
similar
on
the
growing
platform
And
step
six
you
want
to
work
out
will
the
platform
crush
you
How
likely
is
this
platform
to
build
this
into
their
feature
set
And
so
you
can
look
at
their
roadmap
you
can
look
at
their
support
forums
and
things
like
that
and
work
out
what
kind
of
noises
are
they
putting
out
about
this
feature
that
you're
trying
to
build
as
well
as
how
native
does
it
feel
Like
how
likely
are
they
to
add
this
as
a
native
feature
And
that's
the
hardest
one
to
do
right
Because
how
can
we
see
into
the
future
but
you
can
use
all
of
the
data
that
you
you
can
find
on
the
internet
and
just
kind
of
like
back
into
does
this
feel
like
an
opportunity
and
then
you
just
have
to
go
for
it
All
right
So
that
framework's
awesome
Based
on
your
framework
and
kind
of
what's
hot
right
now
what
are
some
great
platforms
to
be
building
on
right
now
that
the
audience
watching
could
potentially
build
something
Yeah
So
I
think
Notion
is
a
great
platform
to
build
on
So
it's
not
the
newest
tool
but
it's
still
growing
like
crazy
and
their
API
is
relatively
new
So
I
think
there's
a
bunch
of
opportunities
around
automation
around
reporting
and
getting
data
in
and
out
of
Notion
Another
one
that
I
love
is
Figma
So
I
think
there's
loads
of
little
opportunities
with
things
like
exporting
Figma
to
Webflow
to
Framer
to
whatever
kind
of
CMS
or
web
design
tool
that
you
want
to
use
or
hosting
tool
The
last
thing
I'd
say
is
probably
not
building
on
like
ChatGPT
or
Claude
So
although
there's
like
huge
growth
in
those
tools
everyone
and
their
dog
is
building
for
ChatGPT
and
Claude
just
because
there's
so
much
competition
I
think
you're
better
off
trying
to
use
those
tools
to
superpower
your
business
and
your
tool
That's
great
How
did
you
grow
this
app
from
basically
zero
to
23
000
a
month
Yeah
So
I
got
the
first
customer
after
a
few
days
as
I
said
earlier
just
benefit
of
being
on
a
platform
so
early
And
then
I
found
that
I
could
see
certain
use
cases
coming
up
again
and
again
certain
APIs
that
people
connecting
to
So
I
started
doing
content
marketing
around
those
use
cases
So
writing
blog
posts
creating
YouTube
videos
on
the
most
popular
integrations
And
then
that
just
drove
it
through
to
like
1K
in
MRR
after
a
few
few
months
and
then
3K
after
a
year
And
then
I
realized
that
I
could
make
it
even
easier
for
people
So
I
started
building
these
no
code
integrations
So
for
even
less
technical
people
to
use
DataFetcher
and
that
drove
it
through
to
10
000
in
MRR
after
the
first
year
And
then
it
was
just
that
rinse
and
repeat
for
a
couple
of
years
So
talking
to
customers
getting
the
feedback
building
it
in
and
then
telling
people
about
it
through
content
marketing
went
to
20K
after
three
years
Well
thank
you
for
sharing
that
Let's
switch
topics
a
little
bit
and
let's
talk
about
TechStack
How
did
you
build
this
What
tech
did
you
use
and
kind
of
what
tools
do
you
use
on
a
daily
basis
Yeah
So
the
extension
itself
is
TypeScript
and
React
and
Airtable's
own
extension
SDK
And
then
the
backend
is
also
TypeScript
and
Postgres
GraphQL
and
Node
obviously
The
frontends
like
the
web
app
the
marketing
site
is
Next
js
and
Tailwind
Shad
CN
it's
all
hosted
on
Heroku
So
the
API
and
the
database
and
stuff
like
that
For
the
kind
of
scheduled
stuff
the
workers
that's
on
Hetzner
which
is
like
a
super
low
cost
hosting
provider
HelpScout
for
support
tickets
It's
Fastmail
for
email
Causable
for
analytics
MailerLite
for
the
email
newsletter
ChartMogul
for
analytics
And
then
obviously
Airtable
itself
for
like
product
roadmap
content
pipeline
everything
like
that
Cool
That's
awesome
On
the
same
note
let's
talk
about
costs
You're
making
23
000
a
month
What
are
the
costs
and
margins
look
like
for
a
business
like
this
Yeah
So
the
biggest
cost
by
far
is
hosting
So
the
hosting
is
like
2
500
a
month
The
tools
that
I
just
mentioned
all
those
SaaS
tools
come
to
about
1
000
000
The
office
that
I
go
to
the
coworking
is
150
So
the
total
margin
is
85
The
default
state
is
super
lean
which
is
the
perks
of
SaaS
business
Cool
Well
thank
you
for
sharing
that
Have
there
been
any
lessons
that
you've
learned
going
from
you
know
trying
to
figure
out
what
idea
to
build
to
actually
being
a
really
successful
indie
hacker
in
the
space
The
biggest
lesson
has
been
the
power
of
focus
over
chasing
shiny
objects
So
over
the
few
years
I've
wasted
probably
six
months
trying
to
launch
side
businesses
And
each
time
that
I
was
working
on
them
the
thing
that
I
tell
myself
is
that
it
was
because
of
platform
risk
or
the
market
saturation
or
whatever
it
was
But
really
it
was
because
growth
had
slowed
and
I
was
getting
bored
and
losing
motivation
What
I
do
now
it's
a
bit
weird
but
I
use
Claude
as
kind
of
like
a
business
coach
So
every
time
I
start
to
get
distracted
or
I'm
not
working
hard
enough
I
literally
go
to
Claude
and
I
say
be
my
business
coach
and
make
me
focus
on
the
thing
that's
working
and
talk
me
out
of
trying
to
launch
something
new
And
I'm
embarrassed
to
say
that
it
actually
works
pretty
well
And
so
it's
almost
like
having
a
co
founder
having
that
accountability
That's
amazing
Last
question
that
we
ask
everyone
who
comes
on
the
channel
if
you
could
stand
on
Andy's
shoulder
you
know
before
you
had
a
successful
business
what
would
be
your
advice
to
young
Andy
So
I
tell
young
Andy
to
do
proper
user
testing
do
it
early
and
do
it
often
because
I
wasted
almost
an
entire
year
without
ever
speaking
to
the
people
that
are
using
what
I'd
built
And
in
one
afternoon
I
found
all
of
these
UX
issues
and
solving
those
you
know
increased
the
revenue
increased
the
usage
increased
everything
almost
overnight
You
learn
why
they
actually
like
your
tool
over
other
tools
as
easy
as
it
is
not
to
do
speak
to
the
people
that
are
using
what
you've
built
Well
that's
great
advice
Talk
to
your
customers
Thank
you
Andy
for
coming
on
the
channel
and
your
business
is
awesome
Excited
to
see
you
hopefully
come
back
sometime
again
Thank
you
man
Thanks
so
much
That
was
great
All
right
right
I
want
to
thank
Andy
for
coming
onto
the
channel
I
love
his
story
because
he
launched
this
thing
as
just
a
simple
side
project
and
eventually
he
grew
it
into
a
business
that
changed
his
life
I
think
anyone
can
launch
apps
like
these
and
start
to
work
toward
their
dream
business
And
again
this
is
why
we
created
Starter
Story
Build
It's
a
program
where
we
teach
you
how
to
use
AI
to
build
your
next
project
And
in
just
a
few
days
we'll
take
you
from
idea
to
a
working
app
ready
to
ship
to
the
world
Just
head
to
the
link
in
the
description
to
learn
more
about
how
to
join
Starter
Story
Build
Thank
you
guys
for
watching
We'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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