My tool reached $300 MRR! Here's how I did it (no audience, no ads)

$300 MRR is actually surprisingly hard to reach if you don't have an existing distribution built. It took me 6 (quite difficult) months to get here.

Here's how I did it:

1) Your tool needs to solve a REAL, recurring problem.

I built many tools before that were "interesting". This one is the only that managed to go from "a couple of $ here and there" to consistent revenue because it solves a real, recurring problem people can easily measure ROI.

This single reason mattered more than any tech, UI or features.

Recurring problems also means recurring revenue. Unless you already have large distribution, it's REALLY hard to bootstrap without recurring revenue. So if there is only 1 thing you take away from this post it's this: build a recurring painkiller, not a nice-to-have.

2) You MUST have a customer acquisition strategy

Launching on Product Hunt is not an acquisition strategy. You must know where your target audience hangs out and how you'll consistently reach them. Before you build anything, you must test this strategy.

For me my main acquisition channels are Reddit and X, and before I shipped my tool I had a landing page with a waitlist. I was sending cold DMs to my target audience to see if I could get signups to my waitlist. If this could work (which it did) it meant I can continue doing the same once I launch to get customers.

3) TALK to users (especially the ones who leave)

It's really hard to get PMF on your first launch. So I've talked to users as much as possible so I can iterate like crazy and reach a stage where I have steady growth.

I talked to users that:

• signed up but never paid

• paid but churned quickly

• stayed for 2+ months

I used these conversations to:

• improve onboarding

• improve my core offer

• get testimonials

These are the 3 core reasons why I managed to get to this stage.

My Timeline (for context)

• 3 months → ~$100 MRR

• Churn hit

• Big iteration phase

• Another 3 months → ~$300 MRR

For anyone wondering, here's proof.

If you've got questions happy to go deep so you can apply what I learned to your SaaS!