How I Built It: $9K/Month Micro-SaaS
Starter Story
Jun 11, 2025
This is how Leandro Zubrezki built a niche app to $9K MRR.
Find the next successful idea → https://go.starterstory.com/mondayleandro
🛠️ Check out Starter Story Build → https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=leandro
Follow Leandro on X: https://x.com/LeanZubrezki
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:44 - Who is Leandro
1:09 - Sync2sheets breakdown
1:43 - How Leandro found an idea
2:42 - How to find great business opportunities
3:24 - Leandro’s backstory
4:29 - How Leandro built Sync2sheets
5:09 - How to find ideas
5:47 - How to validate ideas
6:51 - How to build an MVP
7:32 - The best marketplace to build for
9:01 - Leandro’s launch process
9:49 - Growth & marketing
11:15 - Tech stack
12:02 - Costs & margins
12:34 - Lessons learned
13:14 - Day in the life
13:56 - Advice: make your first $1
14:47 - 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.
My
app
does
one
thing
and
it
makes
9k
a
month
This
is
Leandro
and
he
built
an
app
that
literally
does
just
one
thing
If
you
want
to
build
a
successful
plugin
you
need
to
understand
this
But
before
the
success
he
was
freelancing
and
doing
side
jobs
until
he
came
across
a
framework
that
changed
everything
It
has
hundreds
of
business
ideas
waiting
to
be
built
In
this
video
Leandro
shares
it
all
How
to
quit
freelancing
and
build
for
yourself
How
to
validate
and
build
your
idea
in
two
weeks
And
this
huge
opportunity
hiding
in
plain
sight
All
right
let's
get
into
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
Welcome
Leandro
to
the
channel
Thank
you
for
coming
on
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
My
name
is
Leandro
and
I
built
an
app
that
does
only
one
thing
and
makes
9k
per
month
Scene2Sheets
is
an
add
on
that
runs
on
the
sidebar
of
Google
Sheets
and
allows
users
to
sync
their
Notion
databases
to
Google
Sheets
Sheets
I
built
it
in
two
weeks
and
it
has
been
around
for
four
years
now
All
right
cool
So
you
built
a
plugin
that
makes
9
000
a
month
Tell
me
a
little
bit
more
about
this
business
and
some
of
the
numbers
behind
it
So
Scene2Sheets
runs
on
the
side
of
Google
Sheets
and
it's
kind
of
part
of
the
Google
Workspace
marketplace
We
have
more
than
70k
users
in
the
application
We
have
more
than
450
paying
customers
and
we
get
kind
of
5k
visitors
a
month
And
lifetime
revenue
probably
around
120k
for
the
last
four
years
I
would
say
that
the
last
year
or
two
years
is
where
we
made
most
of
the
money
All
right
So
one
reason
why
I
wanted
to
bring
you
on
the
channel
and
what
I
love
about
your
business
is
it
just
does
one
thing
I
think
that's
super
cool
Tell
me
a
little
bit
about
how
you
found
this
idea
So
what
happened
four
years
ago
I
was
building
an
integration
between
Google
Sheets
and
another
service
I
was
working
with
the
Sheets
API
so
I
gained
a
lot
of
knowledge
about
it
And
at
that
time
Notion
released
their
official
Notion
API
There
was
a
gap
between
what
users
needed
and
what's
available
in
Notion
So
I
said
OK
I
need
to
validate
if
there's
going
to
be
a
need
for
that
kind
of
integration
to
sync
Google
Sheets
with
Notion
So
what
I
did
I
went
to
Reddit
I
checked
the
subreddit
of
Notion
and
searched
for
keywords
like
Sheets
Google
Sheets
Excel
CSV
all
related
keywords
to
what
I
was
trying
to
build
and
validate
And
I
found
a
lot
of
people
like
trying
to
export
the
information
from
Notion
into
Sheets
to
work
with
the
data
I
was
confident
to
build
an
MVP
in
two
weeks
So
I
just
built
the
MVP
and
started
to
find
users
and
beta
testers
to
do
the
job
Cool
Well
I
mean
I
think
that's
super
cool
If
you're
starting
today
where
would
you
go
looking
for
more
opportunities
for
this
type
of
business
I
believe
Zapier
is
a
good
place
to
go
and
find
those
kind
of
opportunities
So
if
you
go
to
Zapier
and
you
check
for
example
the
most
common
subs
you
will
see
that
pair
of
two
applications
For
example
QuickBooks
and
Sheets
There's
a
lot
of
companies
and
small
businesses
using
QuickBooks
for
accounting
and
they
need
to
move
that
information
to
check
the
invoices
the
payment
orders
and
everything
and
work
with
that
data
And
doing
that
in
Zapier
is
kind
of
messy
You
need
to
create
different
subs
for
updates
for
creates
deletes
and
everything
So
if
you're
able
to
build
that
in
just
one
piece
of
software
that
does
everything
you're
going
to
be
solving
a
huge
pain
point
for
customers
That's
perfect
I
love
that
Let's
take
a
step
back
I
know
that
you
have
an
interesting
background
You
live
in
Buenos
Aires
Argentina
Tell
me
about
your
background
and
how
you
got
into
building
apps
So
I
first
studied
electronics
engineering
I
really
love
like
taking
things
apart
and
investigating
everything
I
went
to
college
College
made
me
literally
hate
electronics
So
that
way
I
said
OK
I
need
to
learn
by
myself
I
chose
JavaScript
because
in
JavaScript
you
can
build
mobile
apps
web
apps
and
everything
So
it
took
me
kind
of
a
year
Life
got
in
the
way
I
did
freelance
in
eight
years
It's
kind
of
hard
You
have
an
entrepreneur
spirit
You
want
to
make
the
decisions
and
sometimes
you
are
not
in
charge
So
yeah
I
was
kind
of
tired
of
that
kind
of
work
I
wanted
to
create
my
own
schedule
for
the
day
Just
be
able
to
build
things
be
with
a
computer
solve
problems
I
said
OK
I
already
have
some
savings
I
already
know
how
to
go
I
have
experience
Now
I
want
to
give
it
a
shot
It
was
during
COVID
that
I
decided
to
take
that
step
I
quit
everything
no
more
clients
no
more
anything
I
just
decided
to
build
my
own
thing
OK
let's
get
a
little
bit
more
technical
here
I
want
to
know
about
how
you
actually
built
this
thing
how
long
it
took
to
build
and
how
you
launched
it
So
the
add
on
is
built
using
Apps
Script
Apps
Script
is
a
language
from
Google
services
that
allows
you
to
extend
Google
Docs
Sheets
Slides
and
all
Google
services
So
that's
what
I
used
to
build
the
UI
and
everything
of
the
add
on
Then
I
used
VS
Code
as
my
coding
editor
To
build
MVP
as
I
mentioned
before
I
had
some
experience
using
the
Sheets
API
So
that
really
helped
at
the
beginning
to
create
the
first
version
And
it
took
me
two
weeks
no
AI
just
Stack
Overflow
Google
and
searching
for
everything
there
I
love
that
Let's
talk
about
ideas
How
do
you
go
about
finding
ideas
that
can
make
money
Yeah
I'm
not
the
kind
of
guy
that
go
looking
for
ideas
I
usually
read
a
lot
blog
posts
eggs
YouTube
videos
Ideas
spark
in
my
mind
and
I
just
write
them
down
I
have
a
huge
list
of
ideas
And
it's
funny
when
the
same
idea
pops
up
different
times
Those
are
the
kind
of
ideas
that
you
work
on
But
if
I
were
to
look
for
ideas
I
would
use
I
think
Upwork
would
be
a
great
place
to
find
ideas
because
you
can
go
there
and
see
what
people
are
looking
for
to
build
And
maybe
if
you
can
translate
that
into
a
known
solution
to
offer
to
other
users
I
think
there
could
be
some
really
good
insights
in
there
On
that
same
note
let's
talk
about
validating
those
ideas
Once
you've
come
up
with
an
idea
and
even
potentially
launched
it
or
thinking
about
launching
it
how
do
you
know
if
that
idea
is
validated
What's
your
approach
to
that
Yeah
for
new
ideas
I
usually
first
look
if
there
is
something
that
already
exists
that
is
similar
or
the
same
Is
this
an
enterprise
solution
Is
this
for
small
businesses
Is
this
for
individuals
You
can
check
the
existing
pricings
to
see
what's
the
potential
for
that
idea
That's
kind
of
the
first
step
Then
if
I'm
going
to
continue
building
I
need
to
know
that
I'm
going
to
be
able
to
have
something
that
differentiates
me
from
the
rest
of
the
products
that
already
exist
If
I
can't
find
that
angle
I
maybe
look
for
something
else
Because
if
you
are
not
able
to
differentiate
yourself
it's
going
to
be
hard
to
enter
into
the
market
And
then
yeah
try
to
find
your
first
five
users
willing
to
try
it
out
right
Use
Reddit
use
X
use
Facebook
groups
LinkedIn
groups
as
well
Having
those
users
using
the
app
while
you're
building
it
is
amazing
It's
really
like
the
insights
and
all
the
validation
that
you
get
that
you're
building
exactly
what
they
need
is
super
important
So
let's
talk
about
MVP
I
think
a
lot
of
people
watching
this
may
have
tried
to
build
stuff
And
sometimes
when
you
get
towards
the
end
you're
not
sure
what
features
to
include
and
what
not
to
include
Tell
me
about
how
you
approach
that
with
your
plugin
First
I
need
to
be
able
to
transfer
the
information
from
one
place
to
the
other
No
formatting
no
anything
I
just
wanted
the
data
to
be
there
in
sheets
And
then
I
started
to
think
about
the
user
experience
and
what
users
could
want
the
data
to
look
like
And
I
realized
they
could
want
the
data
to
look
like
similar
to
how
it
looks
in
Notion
So
that's
when
I
added
conditional
formatting
data
validation
for
select
for
dropdowns
and
everything
I
also
wanted
the
thing
to
work
and
allow
users
to
move
columns
hide
columns
So
I
focus
in
those
little
details
that
make
the
difference
right
All
right
right
Well
before
we
get
into
how
Leandro
turned
this
simple
idea
into
a
9
000
per
month
micro
SaaS
let's
talk
about
where
the
next
big
solo
apps
are
being
built
If
you're
a
solo
dev
or
SaaS
builder
like
Leandro
you
know
that
marketplaces
are
one
of
the
smartest
ways
to
grow
and
build
a
business
You
don't
need
an
audience
You
don't
need
to
run
ads
You
just
need
to
build
something
people
already
need
where
they
already
are
And
one
marketplace
that's
flying
under
the
radar
right
now
is
monday
com
It's
a
multi
product
platform
with
products
for
project
management
CRM
service
management
and
more
They've
got
over
245
000
customers
across
over
200
industries
and
over
90
of
their
enterprise
customers
use
apps
on
the
marketplace
That
is
massive
built
in
demand
And
what's
great
is
that
the
monday
com
marketplace
isn't
saturated
yet
So
this
is
a
good
chance
to
get
in
early
and
stand
out
while
the
opportunity
is
wide
open
They've
made
it
super
dev
friendly
with
robust
APIs
MCP
support
flexible
SDKs
and
a
team
that's
actually
invested
in
helping
your
app
succeed
Plus
monetization
is
native
You
set
the
pricing
and
they
handle
the
billing
and
payments
We
worked
with
them
to
put
together
this
free
ebook
that
breaks
down
the
exact
type
of
users
on
monday
com
what
they
need
and
where
the
biggest
opportunities
are
Click
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
grab
it
brainstorm
your
next
idea
and
start
building
Thanks
to
monday
com
for
supporting
the
channel
Now
let's
get
back
to
Leandro's
story
Let's
talk
about
the
launch
of
this
So
you
built
it
and
then
what
happened
Did
you
put
it
on
the
marketplace
and
how
many
users
did
you
get
Tell
me
about
what
the
launch
process
was
like
Yeah
so
the
first
step
was
to
publish
it
to
the
Google
Workspace
marketplace
And
then
I
started
to
spam
a
lot
of
famous
groups
related
to
Notion
and
Reddit
as
well
So
I
searched
keywords
related
to
the
product
and
I
started
to
have
conversations
with
users
both
in
the
groups
and
in
personal
DMs
So
that
way
I
got
some
first
users
to
try
the
application
And
the
same
with
the
marketplace
Once
the
application
is
in
the
marketplace
if
there's
someone
looking
for
something
Notion
related
they're
going
to
find
it
and
they're
going
to
try
it
Also
something
that
really
helped
was
having
a
chat
interface
in
the
landing
page
at
the
beginning
Because
that
way
you
can
have
real
conversations
with
customers
and
with
users
and
try
to
understand
what
they
need
All
right
so
let's
talk
about
growth
After
you
kind
of
launched
this
thing
you're
posting
it
on
a
bunch
of
forums
What
did
you
do
after
that
to
actually
start
growing
as
a
business
business
and
distribute
and
get
your
product
in
front
of
more
people
Yeah
so
the
first
source
of
installs
was
of
course
in
the
marketplace
That
was
super
important
I
realized
I
needed
to
do
SEO
stuff
So
I
started
to
think
about
what
kind
of
blog
posts
I
could
write
that
users
could
find
interesting
and
related
to
Notion
and
Google
Sheets
So
that's
right
now
one
of
our
main
traffic
channels
And
I
also
use
Reddit
a
lot
I
have
a
service
called
F5bot
that
is
free
that
lets
you
track
different
keywords
on
Reddit
So
I
set
up
some
keyword
tracking
related
to
CSV
WordSheets
Sheets
in
that
subreddit
And
every
time
I
get
an
email
with
a
notification
that
a
new
post
or
comment
was
added
I
just
go
there
and
reply
Of
course
you
need
to
try
to
be
not
spammy
and
really
give
value
to
the
users
And
if
your
product
can
be
a
solution
for
their
problems
then
you
recommend
your
product
You
say
you
are
the
founder
I
also
did
a
launch
on
Product
Hunt
a
year
and
a
half
a
half
after
launching
the
product
for
the
first
time
So
that
also
was
a
really
nice
source
of
traffic
Not
paying
customers
but
yes
traffic
and
visibility
And
I
remember
I
also
posted
on
Hacker
News
I
got
to
the
front
page
I
was
crazy
The
spike
you
get
in
traffic
is
amazing
But
again
the
same
It
doesn't
translate
into
paying
customers
It's
just
visibility
backlinks
that
improve
domain
writing
but
that's
it
That's
great
All
right
well
let's
get
a
little
more
technical
here
I'd
love
to
hear
about
your
tech
stack
What
kind
of
tools
and
languages
do
you
use
and
have
you
used
to
build
these
products
So
TypeScript
is
my
language
DS
Code
I
use
it
as
my
editor
I
have
now
started
to
use
Cursor
a
little
bit
All
my
infrastructure
is
in
Google
Cloud
and
Firebase
I
use
SendGrid
for
transactional
emails
and
marketing
emails
as
well
Mixpanel
Analytics
I
really
love
Mixpanel
because
you
are
able
to
know
exactly
what
each
user
is
doing
with
the
application
I
use
Paddle
as
my
payment
processor
instead
of
Stripe
because
Stripe
is
not
available
in
Argentina
And
I
use
TDO
as
a
customer
support
tool
to
have
the
chat
in
the
landing
page
It
takes
time
but
it
gives
you
a
lot
of
insights
and
direct
communication
with
your
customers
And
I
think
that
even
at
the
beginning
is
super
important
That's
awesome
On
that
same
note
can
you
actually
share
with
me
the
costs
and
the
margin
of
a
business
like
this
Yeah
of
course
So
I
guess
in
terms
of
percentage
of
margin
is
90
percent
My
main
expense
right
now
is
cloud
infrastructure
because
again
you
are
kind
of
syncing
between
two
services
and
you
are
doing
that
all
the
time
in
real
time
So
there's
a
lot
of
compute
going
on
But
apart
from
that
the
rest
of
the
tools
are
cheap
It's
not
a
huge
expense
Cool
All
right
OK
so
you
built
this
successful
business
It's
making
9
000
a
month
somewhat
on
autopilot
What
have
you
learned
through
this
process
that
surprised
you
It
was
crazy
to
realize
how
small
changes
affect
the
business
Moving
a
button
changing
a
text
or
just
moving
things
around
in
the
UI
can
have
such
a
profound
impact
Sometimes
just
small
decisions
make
a
lot
of
difference
At
the
beginning
we
had
a
free
plan
and
I
realized
that
a
lot
of
users
were
just
using
the
free
plan
and
that
was
enough
for
them
They
didn't
need
to
pay
So
I
made
a
decision
to
remove
the
free
plan
It
was
risky
There
was
a
lot
of
people
angry
about
that
But
basically
in
that
moment
we
went
from
5
000
to
8
000
in
two
months
I
think
So
yeah
just
a
small
decision
that
makes
a
huge
difference
to
the
business
That's
amazing
insight
I'd
love
to
hear
about
what
your
typical
day
in
life
looks
like
You're
running
an
app
that
makes
9
000
a
month
What
does
a
typical
day
look
like
for
you
in
Argentina
So
I
have
a
two
year
old
child
We
usually
wake
up
at
7
7
30
prepare
some
mates
breakfast
I
go
with
him
to
the
kindergarten
After
that
I'm
ready
to
start
working
I
usually
work
in
spikes
So
when
I
have
to
do
development
I
kind
of
put
together
a
lot
of
tasks
do
a
huge
spike
of
work
And
then
I
chill
spike
chill
That's
kind
of
my
way
of
working
And
I
try
to
do
things
that
are
going
to
make
a
difference
If
I
see
that
a
task
or
something
is
not
going
to
move
the
needle
I
just
don't
do
it
and
focus
my
time
on
something
else
Cool
Last
question
that
we
ask
all
founders
who
come
on
Starter
Story
If
you
could
stand
on
Leandro's
shoulders
when
you
are
a
freelancer
trying
to
find
that
business
idea
what
advice
would
you
give
him
Yeah
I
think
it's
super
important
to
at
least
find
your
first
user
that
is
willing
to
pay
for
your
application
What
happened
to
me
with
some
other
products
is
that
you
build
it
for
free
First
you
have
a
lot
of
usage
And
as
soon
as
you
start
charging
then
they
don't
use
the
application
anymore
So
that's
the
moment
when
you
realize
that
there
was
not
enough
value
for
them
So
charging
from
the
beginning
I
think
it's
super
important
to
not
waste
time
building
something
that
no
one
is
going
to
be
willing
to
pay
for
And
then
when
you
realize
that
it's
going
to
work
just
go
for
it
All
right
Well
that
was
great
Thanks
for
coming
on
Leandro
I
love
your
story
I
love
the
business
that
you
built
Hopefully
you'll
be
building
a
bunch
more
cool
plugins
and
grow
to
100K
MRR
And
we'll
see
you
next
time
Thanks
for
coming
on
Thank
you
for
having
me
It
It
was
super
fun
I
wanted
to
thank
Leandro
again
for
coming
on
the
channel
I
love
his
story
because
he's
proof
that
you
can
take
a
simple
idea
and
turn
it
into
a
really
solid
business
My
favorite
part
about
his
business
is
that
although
it's
not
a
massive
huge
million
dollar
business
it's
a
super
cool
business
that
kind
of
works
on
autopilot
It's
great
for
developers
And
again
like
we
said
it
just
does
one
thing
If
you're
interested
in
building
something
similar
and
you're
serious
about
actually
doing
this
I'd
encourage
you
to
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
In
two
weeks
you'll
come
up
with
an
idea
You'll
build
it
and
you'll
launch
it
and
come
out
the
other
side
with
a
real
live
production
app
I'll
put
the
link
in
the
description
if
you
want
to
check
that
out
But
otherwise
thank
you
guys
for
watching
I'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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