Turning a simple B2B solution into a $15k MRR SaaS by exploiting a market niche

Lukas Hermann knew his first SaaS was going to fail. So, he picked the simplest thing he could think of to start with — a remote countdown timer for live events. 

It may have been simple, but it didn’t fail. He’s grown his user base to more than 13,000 accounts and nets $20,000 a month in subscriptions and one-time payments.

Here’s how he did it.

An itch to build

I was a full stack developer at a startup and I got the itch to make something of my own. I wanted to do more than answer tickets. I wanted to be involved in the whole process.

But I was realistic about my first project, which I started on the side of my work. I knew from reading about other indie hackers that my first project was going to fail. So, I made a long list of ideas and picked the simplest one.

By pure luck, it turned out people wanted the product. They paid more money than I expected, so it became my actual project.

Simple idea, simple stack

If you’ve ever seen a TED talk, you’ll have noticed there’s a clock on stage telling the speaker how much time they have to go.

A friend of mine does video recording and he would run to physically start that timer, then run back to his recording equipment. You’d have similar issues everywhere from video production to sports events and even gym sessions.

I thought, surely you could do this remotely.

So I used the tools I knew best to build my solution, Stagetimer. That’s JavaScript and a Node.js backend. I used Vue.js as a frontend. I used really vanilla stuff. 

An unfamiliar market

In the beginning, it was literally just a countdown. You open it on a computer, copy the link and view it on another computer.

I went to Reddit for advice on what businesses in this area need. I found out that video production at live events involves a whole team. You’ve got a director, someone that does lights, someone that does audio.

There’s so many screens where you can use my countdown timer. By seeing how customers used it, I was able to improve the product.

Now, people can communicate other things through the same system. Lunch is going to be 5 minutes late. This talk has been cancelled.

SEO is a superpower

Growth has been a very gradual journey. Most of the traditional growth hacking channels aren’t available to business products.

But SEO growth is possible. It brings in at least 40% of Stagetimer’s volume. It’s lower than a typical consumer product would have. But there’s intent when someone searches for a product like this.

It’s kind of a superpower when you have a niche solution. You target these very specific low-volume keywords and you have very high conversion because there's nothing else there.

We also get a lot of customers via word of mouth. Someone recommended the product, or they saw it at an event.

Indie hacker myths

There’s a bit of an indie hacker myth that you need to hustle 24/7 in the beginning because your business is growing and getting more complex. People think, ‘I hustle for a couple of years, get to $10k MRR then move to Bali and work on features.’

The truth is, it's the opposite—especially in the B2B world. In the beginning, the features are relatively chill and easy to do. But three years in and they’re super complex. 

I’m doing all kinds of complex things to make sure users can connect with the push of a button. I’m connecting my tool to hardware and devices I’ve had to buy to test out.

Shifting the revenue model

In the beginning, Stagetimer was priced like every SaaS business. Monthly pricing, yearly pricing. But this didn’t really fit our customers’ needs.

So, we introduced one-time pricing for people who only use the product occasionally. It was a bit of an experiment, but it worked out very well. Our real revenue is roughly 50% higher than our $15,000 MRR. 

The elusive $1m ARR

I always thought this is going to be a short project. One year then I’d be done with it. But this wasn't the case.

I don’t think all that many products run by themselves. They take on a life of their own and they grow, so you need to keep on working on them. I’m definitely planning to invest another two or three years into the product.

My hope is that it will reach this elusive $1 million ARR, at which point I’d find someone to be a CEO. Someone who is good at the skills I’m not. Sales. I’m awful at sales. I hate everything to do with sales.

Having someone actually reach out and tell people to use our product would probably lead to a lot of growth.

Opportunity is everywhere

While looking for ways to market the product, I got into a Discord server for video production and made friends with the hosts.

We started building another product together last year that’s geared towards the event planning phase.

It’s called Rundown Studio and it’s going very well. We’re at $4,000 MRR now and we’ve already hired a developer to work on it. The money goes right back into the product.

I think there’s a lot of potential in video production software. You see this amazing hardware with this awful software that looks like it was written in 1999. And someone pays like $10,000 per year for this.

I’m convinced there are opportunities all over the place. Hard to do and boring, possibly. But worth it.

Hydrogen cells and heat pumps

For my next project, I think I’ll stick with B2B but move sectors. I’ve been looking a lot into energy, but this is really spitballing at this point.

I’m really interested in established but growing technologies — hydrogen cells, heat pumps, even defence tech like Anduril.

Air conditioning is a bit taboo here in Europe because people think it uses a lot of energy. But we’re far enough along with technology that we can build something really cool.

Starting next year, I’ll probably go to different industry trade shows to try and understand what problems are there. What could be fixed.

The hardest things

You might not expect it, but indie hacking can be really lonely. You're often sitting there on your own, just hacking away at your tool. X can help, but it’s not a real replacement.

It’s really important to find people who feel like teammates. Maybe a Telegram channel or a weekly call with other founders. Even just playing soccer once a week with local friends.

Indie hacking gives you a flexibility that’s both a blessing and a curse. It sabotages your private life and your emotions. But it also gives you the freedom to do whatever you want, at any time. It’s 100% worth it if you’re the right kind of person. 

To do entrepreneurship well, you need to have a certain sense of product and a desire to do this whole business game.

If you have it, then you should do it, sooner rather than later.