SaaS •Entrepreneurship

I cloned 3 apps and now make $35K/month

Starter Story • • 13 min • #79
I cloned 3 apps and now make $35K/month

This is how Samuel Rondot built 3 apps that are making a total $35K per month, by copying already successful projects.

Summary

  • Samuel Rondo

    • Background and Origin Story
      • Worked as an optician before building software businesses.
      • Had zero coding experience when he started.
      • Wanted to rebuild an Instagram tool he was using and decided to build it himself with code.
      • Learned to code from a 15-hour YouTube course.
      • Applied each new lesson directly to the tool he was building, which helped him stay oriented and motivated.
      • Quit his full-time job a few years ago and now runs three SaaS apps.
    • Pivotal Moments and Turning Points
      • Built his first real app, Usimus, without his later validation strategy and found it difficult because it competed with major email-finding tools.
      • Decided after Usimus to build products that were easier to maintain.
      • Found Story Short by seeing another founder’s strong traction with automated faceless video posting.
      • Validated Story Short by confirming demand, checking traffic sources, and seeing that ads could be replicated quickly.

  • Products and Offerings

    • Usimus
      • Built Usimus as a LinkedIn scraping tool.
      • Generated about $15,000 per month.
      • Served around 10,000 customers.
      • Cost about $4,000 per month to run.
    • Story Short
      • Built Story Short as an AI video generator for TikTok and YouTube.
      • Generated about $20,000 per month.
      • Served around 4,000 customers.
      • Cost about $5,000 per month to run.
      • Included a feature that automatically publishes daily UGC-style videos about a product to YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
    • Capacity
      • Built Capacity as a new AI coding tool.
      • Generated about $900 per month.
      • Served around 50 users.
      • Expected costs to be high because the product needs to run instances to deploy websites.

  • Metrics and Financials

    • Revenue
      • Ran three apps making a combined $35,000 per month.
      • Generated about $15,000 per month from Usimus.
      • Generated about $20,000 per month from Story Short.
      • Generated about $900 per month from Capacity.
    • Costs
      • Spent about $4,000 per month to run Usimus.
      • Spent about $5,000 per month to run Story Short.
      • Had not yet finalized Capacity’s costs at the time of the interview.

  • Strategy and Growth

    • Idea Selection
      • Refused to build products that did not already exist and show traction.
      • Looked for ideas on Twitter, especially in solopreneur and build-in-public communities.
      • Prioritized products he would personally use, products already working, products not dependent on large marketing spend, and products simple enough to maintain.
      • Treated founder MRR and Stripe screenshots as strong validation signals.
    • Research and Validation
      • Used Ahrefs to analyze traffic sources.
      • Preferred products that were growing through both ads and SEO because that suggested strong demand and replicable growth.
      • Considered SEO-heavy products harder but still possible if he was patient.
      • Checked whether he could build and maintain the product without losing sleep over complex backend work.
    • Growth Stack
      • Started every product with ads on Google or Meta to validate the market quickly.
      • Added SEO after seeing traction because organic search compounds over time.
      • Used faceless YouTube channels, TikTok, and Instagram to drive attention.
      • Ran affiliate programs to create virality, generate videos and articles, and acquire customers at a fixed cost.

  • Tech Stack and Infrastructure

    • Development
      • Built all apps with NextJS and NodeJS.
      • Recommended AI coding tools over traditional coding education for new builders.
      • Suggested asking ChatGPT what to learn for a specific real project and building step by step through roadblocks.
    • Marketing and Operations
      • Used Ahrefs for SEO analysis.
      • Used AI tools to write articles.
      • Used Seowriting before switching to Outrank.so for automated article creation and blog posting.
      • Used Vercel for deployment.
      • Used Stripe for payments.

  • Lessons and Advice

    • Copying What Works
      • Learned that founders do not need to innovate to make money.
      • Recommended finding working products in communities or forums and building a better alternative.
      • Believed simple, boring tools often make the most money.
    • Founder Advice
      • Advised new builders to use AI coding tools.
      • Recommended learning Google, Meta, and X ads.
      • Encouraged founders to launch as soon as possible and skip nonessential SaaS details at first.
      • Suggested testing demand with ads immediately, then focusing on SEO once traction appears.
      • Recommended automating article creation, posting, and other repetitive work as much as possible.
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