$8K revenue from building a screenshot app in 2022
I could never predict I would build a screenshot app in 2022. There are already so many of them!
Yet, in Jun 2022, I built Xnapper – a screenshot app – and earned $8K revenue from it.
TLDR version:
- I see a huge demand for a tool to make beautiful screenshots from my tweets.
- Existing solutions are not very convenient.
- I build a convenient one. And it's a native macOS app (for maximum convenience). People love it.
- I also build an iOS app. People love it too!
- I offer early-bird purchases with a huge discount.
If you want the longer version...
...Here is the story.
If you know me on Twitter, you know I’m serious about my screenshots on social media.
(I wrote an entire thread on how to take good screenshots)
Most of my screenshots on Twitter/LinkedIn look like this:
Since I started doing this, people keep asking about it again and again…
I could probably find a ton more if I spent the time. But you get the idea.
The trick: there was no trick.
Here is how I made these screenshots:
- Take a screenshot (previously used the CleanShot app)
- Put it on top of my desktop (my desktop has a nice background)
- Take another screenshot 🤷
It took me ~5 seconds every time, and people seem to like it a lot.
I get asked about it too much I have a dedicated page on my notion notes (the page has now been replaced with “I use Xnapper” 😂)
Every time someone asks me about the screenshot, I just share the link.
Why I decided to build the app
One day, after another person asked about the screenshot, I decided to build an app.
Why build an app instead of keeping sending people the link?
Well, there are a few problems with the way I was doing those screenshots:
- It takes ~5 seconds. I can reduce it to 1 second.
- There are similar web apps but zero native macOS apps.
- I like native macOS apps.
Besides reducing the time to 1 second, I also have many ideas to improve the overall experience to create a good screenshot, ready to share on social media.
Things like: redact emails automatically, balance the screenshot automatically, detect background color, and a way to do all of that on mobile!
Many more crazy ideas in my mind waiting to be executed too.
In short, it’s the perfect screenshot app for content creators.
Or at least it is for me 😂
I don’t think there is anything like this in the market (yet!)
That’s right. I think I’m the first one to conquer this niche:
“Native screenshot apps focused on social media creators/influencers, to make beautiful screenshots, but macOS only.” – niche enough 😂
Sure, you can find tons of existing apps to make beautiful screenshots, but none of them is a screenshot app (i.e. can’t take screenshots with a keyboard shortcut).
They are more like photo editors. Very different.
In fact, I’ll share it with you now. Here are some alternatives to Xnapper:
- https://www.twiz.me
- https://brandbird.app
- https://pika.style
- https://iframe.so
- https://beautyshot.rcruz.es
- https://tweet.pics
- https://www.tinykiwi.co
- https://snappify.io
- https://carbon.now.sh
They have mostly similar features. So if you are not on macOS and want something similar to Xnapper, check out the above 😄
Being first in the niche and having an existing audience on Twitter, I think it could be a good chance that Xnapper will be big!
Hopefully!
You can try Xnapper now
As of now, you can use Xnapper for free.
Download it here: https://xnapper.com
When it’s officially released, the license will cost $29 per macOS device.
There is a 30% early bird discount if you purchase today, but totally optional.
Product Hunt launch soon! 🥳
Where are the sales come from?
The sales are solely from 2 sources:
- My Twitter (40K followers). I build and tweet about the app very frequently. This catches people's attention.
- My Newsletter (2K subscribers). I announce the app to my subscribers.
Other than that, I have done no other marketing work.
The app is also not officially released yet, so I feel doing any additional marketing work is a waste, but soon I'll do it 😅
My unfair advantages
It's unfair not to discuss my unfair advantages. Before building this app, here are what I have that I think most people don't:
- An audience of 40K followers on Twitter. I have been building an audience on Twitter for more than a year (from 100 followers).
- A newsletter of 2,000 subscribers. I also built this newsletter audience for more than a year.
- Skills to build native macOS and iOS apps. I learned Swift and macOS/iOS app dev for a few years prior to this.
This is not to brag, but to help people get a context of how I can achieve what I achieve, and by that help them plan/execute better!
Thanks for reading!
I hope my sharing here has been helpful!
If you like to hear more, feel free to comment below. I'll check the comment sections frequently today.
Finally, follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my newsletter!
Thanks! 😊
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Brilliant! Just joined IH and it's already a hit. Love what you and this community have built.
This is a really cool app. I just checked out the website, very concise, appealing design, I know right away what it's about.
Nice work!
Thank you!
I have been seeing that the people who are building a good product are people who are building stuff for very narrow niche, and killing it in it
Good observation!
Hey Tony, congrats on your success! How long did it take you from first line of code to first license sale?
In less than a week, if I consider the early bird licenses are "real sales".
The reason I say "real sales" is because before I open the early bird license for sales, I give away the beta app for free on Gumroad.
Some people still decided to pay me (some up to $40!) just to download the free beta.
However, I'd like to call those donations and not sales 😄
(After that, I also gave each one of those donators a free license key, no matter what amount they donated!)
The biggest takeaway I took from Xnapper was how early it was released. It did its job but it was also clearly an MVP. Most of us wait way too long to reach out to potential users.
With my current project I also decided to push to production from day one, even when it wasn't functional yet. I wanted to be able to tell people:
If you build something just start showing it to people!
This is exactly right!
Just download your app. Looks great! I will use it for my work and sharing some reports insights
😱🏄🏻♂️🚀
Happy for you that you found this niche and that it is working so well for you. It is the way to go to create when people are asking you for this solution. Also, love the unfair advantages part. Great post, very concise and explaining very well the reality. Keep it up Tony!
Great story and execution.
Wow this is awesome!
From the website to the app the entire experience is extremely well done.
@tonydinh, you are a true indie hacker!
Love it. Why not charge monthly?
Congrats Tony 🙏
Big fan of how frictionless it works, and I was also always wondering why there was no one/two click solution for this.
Minor nit: I found the default keyboard shortcut a bit awkward to use.
Otherwise 💪
Hi @tonydinh, that's a great story and congrats with the revenue generated so far. I used the native MacOS screenshot tool all that time 😂
What a great product again Tony!
Just shows that the "Gap" in the market means different things to different people!
Nice work 👍
Epic Work!
It's been amazing to use instead of all the broken tools I tried before!
Excited for what you add next!
Hey, it's a really cool app. Loved it!
Just curious about your thought process/strategy behind providing free beta access and paid early bird offer together?
Also, did you code the website yourself or used something like Webflow??
nice work
Congrats Tony! Been following you for a while now :)
Absolutely amazing work!
Salute from the author of Handysnap - a screenshot app built, sold and abandoned back in 2008! A tiny suggestion: since you are focusing on style of the screenshots, I'd add button(s) for applying dimensions recommended by social media platforms, in addition to aspect ratios. A bit of nostalgia: https://web.archive.org/web/20080206065153/http://www.wisepixel.com/ 🙂
This is really cool. I also like that you acknowledge the advantage you have. Kudos!
This is super impressive, Tony. You've always done black magic with your products 😄
Been seeing your journey on Twitter as well. You're killing it!
Great idea and execution.
Hey, congrats!
What do you feel the next UX evolution of screenshots should look like?
I feel we need to come up with a new protocol, some extension of the <iframe>, that will allow us to edit or comment over the screenshots directly.
With instant sharing possibility and collaborative tools. Snap -> share -> discuss/work on it
I'm probably the wrong person to ask about "UX evolution" 😂
I just solve my own problem, I don't care much about the rest really 😅
Tony, this is so great! Congrats on the numbers, you did an amazing job 🔥
Thank you, Sikira!
Such an inspiring story! I started to dev my own software recently. But I stilll desiging my self, not yet learn how to code. For a starter like me, is it even possible to get a revenue with MVP?
Thanks, Erwin!
As soon as your product provides value to people, they'll start paying, and you'll get revenue. It doesn't matter if you call it "MVP" or whatever. Good luck! 😄
Such a nice little tool, congrats on the success 😊 I'm also interested in how you went from 100-40k followers, do you have a post on that? haha.
It's right here: https://twitter.com/tdinh_me/status/1501067978296946692 😄
thanks!
Tony well done and thanks for this post!
Thank you!
Always fun to see Tony pull off this kind of madness. Tbh, at first I thought it was a bit crazy, since like you said Tony, there is a bunch of good screenshot apps. And for me, I use CleanShot every day, and I don't have any need for another Cleanshot app. Apparently, I was wrong, after using Xnapper a few times.
I'm still using both CleanShot and Xnapper, but I now see more potential from Xnapper 💪.
Keep it up bro!
Thanks for the support! ❤️
Hey Tony congrats on another cool idea. How did you setup the license + update subscription - does gumroad offer some simple solution for this?
Gumroad has an API for you, very convenience :)
yes thank you . nice software
❤️
Impressive!
Have alook at Techtrendsinfo.com
Impressive one...
I hope you like this too
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This is incredible Tony! Thanks for sharing your story. Would you be interested to launch Xnapper on my website for early adopters Userdome ?
Thanks, Jacob! I'll consider it 😄
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