I Taught Myself To Code And Now Make $5K/Mo

Nicolas Jeanne

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Published: April 4th, 2024

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Nicolas Jeanne

Founder, Talknotes

$5K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Talknotes

talknotes.io

from Bangkok

started August 2023

$5,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools Nicolas recommends to grow your business!

platform

Heroku

social media

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

YouTube

productivity tool-icon

Google Suite tool-icon

Notion

payments

Stripe

advertising

Facebook Ads tool-icon

Instagram Ads tool-icon

Google Adwords tool-icon

Bing Ads

Twitter Ads tool-icon

LinkedIn Ads tool-icon

Google ads

design

Canva

Figma

freelance

Fiverr

Upwork

seo

Ahrefs

education

Udemy

Discover what books Nicolas recommends to grow your business!

Want more updates on Talknotes? Check out these stories:

Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

Hey! I’m Nico! I learned to code in 2 months in July 2022, shipped 17 apps in a year, sold one for $65,000, and am now working on Talknotes!

It’s an app to turn voice notes into structured content. Customers are mainly content creators and entrepreneurs who have lots of ideas and want an easy way to turn them into actionable content.

Right now, Talknotes generates ~$5,000 per month in total revenues and reached 5,000 users (Which is $4000 MRR + Some yearly subscriptions that generate immediate cashflow)

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

I started entrepreneurship right after high school, I dropped out of college after a month. I tried a bunch of things but ended up sticking for eCommerce (dropshipping) + Freelancing for a bunch of years. That was until 2022, when my store was not doing well and my main client told me we would stop working together.

I had one year of savings, so I needed to get something going fast.

I learned my lesson in e-commerce and did not want to start something which I did not have full control over (in e-commerce your whole business can be destroyed if your supplier makes mistakes).

The only option I saw was to learn to code and make apps. So I locked myself in a hotel room for 2 months, took a few courses, and learned how to make apps from scratch.

I then ended up shipping 17 apps in over a year, since I still had the dropshipping mindset of testing lots of products and seeing what sticks. Eventually, one worked, and I sold it for $65,000 a couple of months later. That gave me some room to breathe and try new things.

A couple of months later, I wanted to write a Twitter post but I was too lazy to type. So I tried Google Docs transcription too to see if I could just speak and have my word turned into proper content, but it was really bad.

I knew it was doable using Whisper, and I immediately thought that could be an idea for an app. I made a prototype with code, and the results were pretty good.

I didn't know that would be the “right” idea, but I thought it was worth a try. I made 17 apps in the span of 12 months, so I’m used to trying lots of things quickly, and moving on if the idea doesn't work.

Back then I didn't have income, but had some savings after I sold a previous app for 5 figures, so I had some room to breathe and experiment a bit.

I got over 1000 free users and 7 yearly subscriptions in a week, so I knew there was potential. That’s when I decided to work on it full time.

Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.

In general, I aim for a maximum of one week to code a new app. Anything above that is a waste of time unless you already have people who pre-ordered the product.

I opened VSCode, created a new index.js, and started typing characters that would end up being the code of my app. I made some tests to see if I could manually turn a recording into a summarized version, and once I figured it out, I made a user interface to do it. It probably cost me under $10 in total, the only cost being the OpenAI API calls.

Anyone can code an app, but what matters is getting users. So I want to reach that stage as soon as possible.

I focused on the core features:

recording voice note
and using AI to convert them into formats like blog posts bullet point lists, etc.

I think this took me 3 or 4 days, and the rest was dedicated to making a landing page and polishing things a bit.

Describe the process of launching the business.

I ended up launching on some directories + Twitter.

I got over 1000 free users and 7 yearly subscriptions in a week, so I knew there was potential. That’s when I decided to work on it full time.

There is always a stressful period when you click the “post” button on Twitter or other channels.

This is the decisive moment, everything you’ve worked for is now going to unroll in front of your eyes. It might work, or it might be a complete failure. But in both cases, it’s not up to you anymore, you can only watch and hope for the best!

The initial strategy was to only ask for the email, give access to a free but limited version, and offer to upgrade if users wanted more. The “subscription” was a one-time payment to get access for a year, since lots of people don’t like a subscription model.

My #1 goal was to see if people would not just use it but also pay for it, so I gradually added more friction by asking users to pay upfront and then adding actual subscriptions.

2 months later, I launched on ProductHunt and it ended up as the product of the day and reached $1,000 MRR!

The only costs for this part were some paid directories, but I made the money back quickly after with the sales generated from it.

I barely knew how to code when I started making apps. The main thing I learned is to ship fast and move on fast if it doesn't work.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

After I launched on directories, the #1 acquisition channel has been advertising. I tried to make SEO work, but it just didn't take off for me.

I think I only made 3 sales from the blog posts I wrote. I also tried free tools that generate plenty of traffic but don’t convert at all.

It costs me $50 or so to get a customer. It might seem a lot, but I know that I’ll make the money back after a couple of months since it’s a subscription and the churn is under 10%

Today, Talknotes has more than 900 customers and the MRR grows at around 10% per month.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

The app is profitable, but I don’t know the actual profit and costs. I grow it with a paid acquisition-first mindset. As long as my acquisition cost is under my target number, I know it’s profitable.

I managed to break break-even with the ads thanks to the yearly subscription offer. I give a massive discount if users take the yearly option, which allows me to generate cash flow to reinvest in ads.

January and February have been super slow, and I tested lots of things with ads so I think this would be the main expense after OpenAI. I also bought the .com domain and decided to pay it monthly over a year to make it easier, so that also takes a bit of the profit.

For the short/medium term, I want to find a way to make SEO work. I hate relying on only one channel, so I would say this is the #2 priority, after lowering the acquisition cost.

Working with AI is stressful because things move very fast. It would be impossible to launch the same app today since the novelty effect is wearing off. I saw many people launching similar apps recently and I doubt most of them didn't even generate $1.

In the future, I would love to work on projects related to technical marketing, since this is something I love doing.

So who knows, I might sell Talknotes if I get a good offer and just do that (Someone already offered to buy it for $150k cash when it was at $3000 MRR so I think I can get a good price for it now)

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

I think this app is everything I learned over one year and failing most of the 17 apps I shipped.

I barely knew how to code when I started making apps. The main thing I learned is to ship fast and move on fast if it doesn't work.

If you tried everything you can to grow a project and it’s not enough, chances are it won't work for you right now. You can always go back to it later when you’re more skilled.

I see tons of indie hackers who are stuck on the same project for one year and barely making $100 MRR. It’s fine when you have a job, but for people who were in my situation of having no income and only one year of savings, you can’t afford that.

And obviously, learning how to make good landing pages and copy is probably the #1 skill you can get. I pre-launched a guide about advertising for SaaS recently and made $25,000 in sales in a month with just words.

The guide did not exist, but the copy was compelling enough so people wanted to pay me before I released it.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

In terms of code, I use Cursor, ChatGPT, and Copilot.

For the tech stack, I recently switched to Nuxt, but before that, all my projects were written in vanilla Javascript, HTML, and CSS.

Don’t over-complicate things, just pick what works for you and offer a solution to your customers.

For other tools, I use Plausible Analytics (and Simple Analytics too) and Bento for email marketing. Those are my 2 go-to marketing apps. For the rest, I like to code my solutions.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

I think the #1 book for me was Unscripted by MJ Demarco (author of The Millionaire Fastlane).

The author already made enough money so he doesn't care if people buy his book or not, unlike 99% of books about business and finance.

He just explains his theories and experiences related to business in a super valuable way.

Bonus: It’s written casually, making it an easy read

Another one is Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz. This book was written in the 60’s by one of the best (if not the best) advertisers of his time. The book contains tons of information about advertising and marketing in general. It’s a very hard read though, it's very technical.

The only edition available book costs between $150 and $400 depending on where you get it from. 100% worth it tho, this is my bible when it comes to advertising.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Learn marketing before you learn to make good products. You can sell a mediocre product with good marketing but you can’t sell an excellent product with mediocre marketing.

I also see lots of people who “go all in” and leave their jobs to go full-time indie.

If you’re starting from zero, you’re probably going to be a year or two without income.

Make sure you and your family (if any) can bear it.

Don’t fall into the “I’m smarter than them” trap. You’re not. I saw so many dudes starting and claiming “I’m going to make 10k MRR by the end of the year” end up disappearing because they completely failed.

I was one of them when I started. It took me 30 failures over 7 years to live from my projects. Be humble, accept that you know nothing, and be ready to give up at least 2 years of your life for (maybe) a nice profit.

Not having lots of savings or a backup plan is a super risky and stressful move. I did it and I started getting white hair because of the stress (I’m 26!).

Ultimately the decision is up to you, but make sure you have the guts for it. It will likely be 10x harder than anything you can imagine.

Having a job when you’re starting out might slow you down, but it will avoid lots of stress.

Where can we go to learn more?

My guide on Facebook Ads for SaaS where I write everything I do
My blog where I write everything I do
Blog post of I how I learned to code in 2 months
My Twitter account

If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!