Background
- Mike built vindy, an online marketplace for home development
- That took 5 years to get to 1m ARR
- Built it because everything out there was too expensive
- Found a gap in the market
- Story from Veed → https://www.veed.io/takethebait/vindy
- Also started an agency to $200k ARR
- Wasn't very fulfilling (I can attest to this with agency work)
- Startup With Mike Instagram
- Betalist Profile
- Mike's Website
Intro
Mike Slaats is the founder of Upvoty, an instant feedback software which has recently hit $15k MRR. Mike also runs the SaaS pirates community, where he talks all about running a SaaS company. Previously, he scaled Vindy, an only marketplace for home development to 1m ARR in 5 years.
In this episode we're going to be discussing how he built Upvoty to $15k MRR, how to come up with an idea and then validate it and how you can take advantage of opportunities.
Talking Points
The Upvoty Story
- Where did you come up with the idea?
- How did you validate the idea?
- What did you use to get initial growth and traction?
- Whats your plans for the future?
Finding and validating an idea
- I think this is where a lot of indie hackers struggle
- Often they'll just pick whatever idea is in their head and work on it
- How do you find a problem that needs to be solved? And understand there if there is a market for it?
- How have you approached this for your previous ideas?
Taking advantage of opportunities
- Can you make your own luck?
- A lot of people will sit back and see opportunities pass them by, often overthinking the consequences. It's much easier to take action than to not take action.
- How do you make a jump for an opportunity?
- How do you make the most of them?
Recommendations
- Book - Intercom on Starting up, Rework
- Indie Hacker - Arvid Kahl
- Podcast - NPR How I Built This
Sponsorship