His "MVP Template" Is Now A $76K ARR Solo Business

Hello! Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your business?

I'm Alexandro Martínez, 28 years old and I'm from (and live in) Guadalajara, Mexico 🇲🇽

I've been a full-stack dev since 2012, starting with the .NET ecosystem migrating my dad's ERP, built-in 4GL, to Winforms.

When we ended the migration we started having clients that required webdev apps, so I learned Vue, Svelte, and React.

I made 5 boilerplates in that process (Saasfrontends.com). The last one I built clicked (Remix), so I created SaasRock and it's been my focus since April of last year, 2022.�

My customers are full-stack developers and low-code engineers looking to build SaaS applications quickly with a powerful starter codebase.

How did you start this business? Take us through the process.

--- Why I built SaaS starter kits ---

I always loved creating tools for myself, hence for developers. When I started my web dev journey, I realized I could create starter templates to reuse them for future SaaS products, but I was too broad, I was trying to target .NET users (C#, Winforms), Svelte devs, Vue2 & Vue3 devs, React devs... and the numbers spoke, it wasn't working so I decided two things: 1) I closed the open-source door and started to sell them instead, and 2) focus on React.

--- Moving away from .NET ---

C# was fun to code on, but there was too much boilerplate code for a one-man team. For example, I implemented the Clean Architecture pattern, which requires multiple layers (that could be separate projects within a solution) for the Domain models, Application DTOs, Repository layer, Controller methods, Testing...

• Pros: Structured Codebase, Separation of Concerns, Testability, Reusability.

• Cons: Complexity, Overhead, Development Speed, Resource Intensive.

So I decided to move away from .NET for my MVPs.

--- Finding a full-stack framework ---

I've talked about how I tried to migrate to Next.js and I couldn't, but tried Remix and migrated my SaaS kit under a week of work. Maybe if I tried Next.js today I'd had a different experience, but Remix just clicked with my way of coding.

I created the first version of Saasrock (Remix SaaS kit) and made it free for 24 hours. Although a year later I made v0.0.1 open-source (I'm at v0.9), you can see it in my GitHub in AlexandroMtzG/remix-saas-kit. I basically used my React SaaS kit but adapted the .NET backend to a Remix one.

How did you get your first initial customers?

I tweeted that the Remix SaaS kit would be free for 24 hours. It got +500 likes and that got me +1000 downloads on Gumroad.

The tweet got popular because the Remix team retweeted it and I got more than 1,000 downloads:

At this point, I decided to open source the other SaaS kits and focus 100% on SaasRock.

I bootstrapped all of it. I paid around $300 for Saasrock’s domain, $250 for the logo (which I didn’t use), and $70/month for hosting + database.

I also started a YouTube channel that I abandoned, that I want to revive.

For email marketing I use Gumroad (using my own built-with Saasrock tool https://gumcrm.io), and ConvertKit.

Here’s a sample post:

Since launch, what are your marketing strategies or channels to get new customers?

I've done zero marketing. Other than my changelog and some blog posts, I decided to start marketing until V1.0.

There are a few things missing to get to v1.0: Help Desk, Affiliate Marketing, and Workflows.

But I've tweeted from time to time, here are some of my tweets that explain the process with a wider scope:

• [Jun, 2023] Knowledge Base starter kit open-source project

• [Apr, 2023] DataLang, MVP built with SaasRock

• [Jan, 2023] 1,000 dev hours

• [Dec, 2022] v0.8 - Onboarding

• [Nov, 2022] Remix Page Blocks open-source project

• [Oct, 2022] v0.7 - Entity Builder, Low-code CRUD

• [Oct, 2022] 7 months update

• [Oct, 2022] v0.6 - Stripe Pricing Models

How does your business make money?

I mostly have yearly subscribers, that's $1,399/y (core edition) and $2,099/y (enterprise edition). That ensures the long-term development of SaasRock.

This is my current MRR:

• Gumroad: $36,142 from 110 customers.

• Stripe: $39,880 from 53 customers.

Before you go, what advice would you give to another who wants to start a business like yours?

As a solopreneur, my biggest friend and my biggest enemy is motivation.

Too much effort and too little reward lead to burnout. As long as you enjoy what you do, and prepare for unmet expectations, you can avoid burnout (but you're not invincible, nor you're alone).

Where can we go to lean more about you and your business?

Work:

• GitHub: https://github.com/AlexandroMtzG

• Gumroad: https://alexandromg.gumroad.com

• Blog: https://alexandromtzg.medium.com

• SaasRock: http://saasrock.com

• Twitter: https://x.com/AlexandroMtzG

Personal:

• https://instagram.com/alexandromg