48 Hours, $2398 in Sales and my story š
I wrote something like this back in 2023. Life was slower then. Fewer people knew me, fewer people used what I built. Now, more people are coming, using my work, trusting it. And sometimes I thinkā¦ should I clean things up, remove old things that donāt move anymore? But I donāt. I just let them stay.
When I started building saas, I didnāt know what would happen. I was just one person, sitting with a laptop, trying to build something simple. I had a job before. Life was okay. But inside, I felt something was missing. So I left that path and started this, not knowing where it would go.
The early days were quiet. I built, I changed things, I made mistakes. Many things didnāt work. Many nights felt very long. Sometimes I forgot why I even started. But still, I kept going, slowly.
Then I launched Slashit App. I didnāt expect much. Maybe a few people would try it, maybe no one would care.
But in last 48 hours, things changed.
-> made $2,398 in sales.
-> 33 people paid for it.
-> 100 people installed it.
-> got featured in the Top 9 deals on AppSumo.
-> 6 people left reviews, and all were 5 stars.
And behind thisā¦ there was a lot happening that people donāt see. In the last 48 hours, I kept showing up. I asked users to leave honest reviews. I sent 100 outreach messages. I posted 2 times on Reddit, and it got 25,000+ views, mostly from the USA. I posted once on IndieHackers. I also started using bizreply to find keyword mentions and shared my thoughts there.
At the same time, I was fixing things. Small bugs, small updates, based on real user feedback. Trying to make it a little better, again and again. And yesā¦ I slept only 4 hours in 48 hours š I knowā¦ not a good idea š¤Ø But when you care about something, you donāt really count time.
These are small numbers for many people. But for me, they feel big. Because behind each number, there is a person. Someone I donāt know. Someone who chose to trust something I made.
Sometimes I look at the user list. I donāt know their stories. I donāt know where they live. But they are there. Quietly using the product. And somehow, they stay in my mind.
Now I understand something very simple. People donāt want too much. They just want something that helps them, saves their time, makes things a little easier. They want to feel that someone cared while building it.
This is not just a tool for me. It holds my time, my fear, my hope. A small part of my life is inside it. I donāt know how big it will become. Maybe it will grow a lot, maybe it wonāt. But I feel something now.
Replies
I really enjoyed reading this. It feels very real, especially the part about building quietly and not knowing what will happen.
Iām at that stage right now with my first app, so this was really motivating to see. Congrats!
This kind of post is what this community is for ā honest reflection, not just the highlight reel. Thank you for sharing it.
The part about not cleaning up old things that still have some life in them resonates. There's a tendency to constantly chase the new and deprecate what 'works but doesn't sparkle,' and you lose compounded trust with the users who still depend on those things.
$2,398 in 48 hours after a quiet, hard start is the kind of proof that matters. Not hype, not a viral tweet ā just real people paying for something that solves a real problem.
We're in a similar early stage with Hello Aria (our AI productivity assistant for WhatsApp/Telegram/iOS, launching on PH April 10th) ā ~3k users, pre-Series A, doing the unglamorous work. Posts like yours are fuel. Keep going.
Slashit App
@sai_tharun_kakiralaĀ Thanks for this man. I will check it out Hello Aria when launch.
@sai_tharun_kakiralaĀ Really appreciate this thoughtful take it means a lot especially coming from someone in the same grind Wishing you all the best with your launch keep going too
Slashit App
@owen_simmonsĀ Thank you so much man, I really appreciate that ā¤ļø
Great story...the best ideas and products I think are often ones you create for yourself and use daily. I started TabNook.com the same way. I'm a bit of a habit junky...I like structure and organization. I used to use iGoogle back in the day before Google took it down. I liked having a starting page where I could organize my favorite websites. I kept things organized by work, personal, hobbies etc.
When it went away I looked around and found Protopage.com which has been around since the mid 2000s I believe. It had a few more features than iGoogle and satisfied my need to organize. But over the years it started feeling dated and there weren't many updates to it. So I started looking for a replacement again.
I found Start.me and that seemed to be an option but I didn't care for the interface and it didn't quite have all the features I wanted. So I began developing my own solution to the need. I was the only user for quite a while. I kept thinking of features because I needed to do something that it couldn't. It was organic growth which is I think the best way to grow.
I shared it with my wife who's who shared it with a few co-workers and then with some friends. Feedback was sporadic but useful. My brother who lives in Mexico City and is a language instructor began using it a few months ago and that helped a lot. He kept his notes and files etc. and provided me with a great amount of insight. Family can be blunt!
I'm just starting to promote it and we'll see where it leads. But we all have to start somewhere :-).
Slashit App
@tabnookĀ Thats a interesting story as well. Your real problem might be a real solution for others as well. And yes we all have to start somewhere š
@tabnookĀ I really relate to this. I also enjoy structure and organization, and I feel like a lot of the things I build come from that same need.
I started building my own app for studying for a similar reason ā I couldnāt find something that felt quite right for how I like to organize things.
Itās interesting how it grows naturally when you build something for yourself first.
This really hit me. I ran a restaurant before getting into tech, and those early days of watching people actually choose to walk through your door felt exactly like what you're describing. Every single person who pays is someone who decided to trust you with their time. The part about sleeping 4 hours and sending 100 outreach messages is the stuff nobody talks about. Building is only half of it. The other half is showing up, over and over, when nobody is watching yet. Rooting for you!!
Slashit App
@ceciliatranĀ Exactly, making product is easy but showing to users is hard ā¤ļø
@mhmanik02 Great work!
Slashit App
@olya_zabalkanskaĀ Thank you so much. Is there any suggestions for me that you experienced already?
$2,398 in 48 hours from 33 customers. That's $72 average ticket. Most founders overcomplicate pricing. You just shipped, priced it, and sold. The 100 outreach messages are the real cheat code ā most people skip the manual grind.