I Made $65K From My MVP Development Service
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
I am Manoj, I have been building products for a long time now. Built my first product back in 2015 when I was still in college. I have launched more than 40 products so far (web apps, mobile apps), some of them did not work but some got users from around the world.
I am now running UniqueSide.io, a founder-friendly MVP-focused software development service.
My primary customers are people who have ideas and want to start with their idea but don’t know how to do that or they just don’t have time to do that.
In the last 8 months, I left my job in Singapore and Registered my business UniqueSide in Singapore. Now UniqueSide crossed $65K in revenue. I have worked with 9 founders from the US, UK, Mexico, and Singapore.
Sep 2023 to Nov 2023 Revenue graph:
Nov 2023 to Mid March 2024 revenue graph:
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
In the past when I was building and launching products apart from my 9-5, I met with many people who had the ideas but they did not know how to actually get it to life. For some, they used to have a call with me and I used to tell them how and what to do for their product. I had a similar experience many times.
When I started taking Twitter seriously in Jan 2023, I got to know so many founders, and entrepreneurs who were building and launching products but also saw many people who were not technical and did not have that confidence in launching the products just because they don’t know how to do it themselves.
When I started working for other companies in 2017, To be honest, I never wanted to work for someone else but didn't have any choice because of certain situations in my life. and decided to continue working full-time for companies, learn new things and also earn money as well. But this time it was different.
My last company was the 4th company I joined in my career and I did not like the work culture at all. I thought to myself, Is it worth working for a company that I don't like and keep building products on the side? But this time I thought to “F*ck it” and went on full-time because life is too short to work for others instead of doing something on my own.
Because I have built so many products in the past, I thought I would take this biggest risk of my life and would go all in and see what happens. If nothing works, I will just join another company. It's been 8 months since I quit my job and went full time on UniqueSide and Now I think it was the best decision that I took. Yes, it was a tough decision but it worked out fine till now.
This was the tweet that started everything:
Because I have worked with multiple companies (Big corporations as well as small startups) and have built a lot of products with multiple tech stacks, Building something in 7 days does not feel complicated to me. I have built many complex side projects in less time than that.
From this tweet, I got 2 customers and delivered them their product. And that’s how it all begins.
Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.
Not gonna lie, getting customers is the toughest part, I got all of my customers from Twitter and LinkedIn (the majority of the customers are from Twitter). I publicly share what I am building, how it's going, and what I can do. That adds trust in me for people.
I had the idea of UniqueSide for quite a long time but I was not sure to fully work on it until I validated the idea from my tweet.
I have experience with multiple tech stacks and already built and launched multiple products. Choosing the tech was not a difficult choice for me. In my first project for UniqueSide, My Customer requested to use Java and Python, and I already had experience with this tech stack.
When choosing the tech stack, I normally decide based on the requirements. For some projects, Customers might have a preference on what tech stack to choose and in that case, I go with that tech stack. In other cases, I choose what works best for those specific requirements.
Current landing page
Describe the process of launching the business.
I had an idea for UniqueSide for quite some time now even before I decided to quit my job. In my career, I met with many founders and people who wanted to launch their ideas but did not know how to do that. Some lacked the tech skills and some didn't have the time.
In July, I quit my job and did not get any customers for a month. I was sharing about what I do and what I am building in public on Twitter. People had an idea about me on what I do but my Twitter following was still very low, around 1,000 followers at that time.
In August, I decided to post about a challenge that I will build MVP for others in just 7 days and that tweet got some traction. I got a lot of support, but also got negative comments from people who thought building something in 7 days was not possible. To be honest, I feel confident when building products. I even launched some of my products in 2-4 days.
From that tweet, I got 2 interested customers. For my first customer, we only talked on Twitter DM about the requirements and went on to close the deal for building that MVP.
I guess the trust came because of twitter activity on what I am doing and especially about my recent action which was quitting my job in Singapore. I might have created the initial trust for initial customers.
My last company was the 4th company I joined in my career and I did not like the work culture at all. I thought to myself, “is it worth working for a company that I don't like and keep building products on the side?” I decided to go full-time on UniqueSide because life is too short to work for others instead of doing something on my own.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
In December 2022, I decided to take Twitter seriously. Before Twitter, I was only posting on LinkedIn but didn't get many engagements on LinkedIn. I saw a lot of Indie Hackers on Twitter which definitely gave me motivation to be on Twitter.
I had a Twitter account which I created around 10 years ago but didn't use it. I had 38 followers in 10 years. In the beginning, it was quite tough to build an audience. I would say getting to 100 followers is the toughest part. You have to remember that people might not see your tweets when you are just starting out, you have to reply to other people's posts and build connections.
Once you reach 100 followers, pat yourself on the back and you just achieve the most difficult part of Twitter growth. Now you have to focus on creating your own content that keeps engaging with others. Be authentic about your post. Don't fake it. Remember that you will interact with people who are at the same stage as you.
If you are building products or working on something, do share on Twitter. When you share your progress, people get interested in your journey and most people will be able to relate to that.
I kept sharing about how UniqueSide is doing in terms of business and revenue. And at the end of the month, I also share the revenue stats on Twitter and LinkedIn. I think numbers and stats are powerful ways to tell that you are doing something right.
Also, I am now focusing on getting testimony from my customers as well. Especially video testimony, I feel like video testimony is just very powerful compared to simple text-based testimony.
I have also tried with Twitter ads but it didn’t work so far, but my goal is to build my strong personal brand which will boost UniqueSide as well.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
Till now UniqueSide is doing well and crossed $65K in revenue with 9 customers from 4 countries.
I also have customer retention on 3 projects where after launching the product I am working with the customer to add more features.
As I mentioned before, the current main channel of customer acquisition is Twitter, I am now working toward extending it. I am focusing on SEO and content marketing as well.
I also have plans to bring in a sales person who can do outreach to potential customers. Till now I have not done any outreach, all the customers come to me and that is the best thing for my business.
The long-term goal of UniqueSide is to expand it and grow. I want to make sure I have a powerful pipeline of projects coming in.
One other piece of advice I can give is, don’t worry if you fail, it's part of life. Most people won’t get what they want without a proper fight. Just keep pushing and you will get somewhere.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Leaving my full-time job was probably one of the biggest risks I have taken so far. It was scary for sure but I was not thinking about giving up anytime soon even if I had to fail at this.
I have been thinking of doing something on my own for a long time now and it feels great to have done it finally. For me, I learned that building personal branding is the most powerful and important thing anyone can do.
I had my Twitter account for 10 years and I didn’t even open Twitter for a long time but I am glad that I decided to take Twitter seriously in Jan 2023.
Consistency is also one of the important things in personal branding. In my opinion, once you start building personal branding and have skills for what you are offering, everything will fall into the right place.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
Slack and Notion are my main platforms, I communicate with my customers on Slack and manage all the tasks on Notion.
For payments, I am using the Aspire App, As UniqueSide is a Singapore-registered business, Aspire makes it seamless to accept payments from international customers.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Honestly, I have not read any business books or listened to podcasts. I don’t believe in the temporary motivation that you get from reading those books, listening to podcasts, and watching movies based on founders.
However, I was influenced by reading about some of the startup founders and watching people on Twitter grow from zero.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
My main advice and this advice I give to everyone, start focusing on your personal brand. In the beginning, it might not feel worthwhile but trust me, it will be the most important asset that you will have in your life.
I failed so many times till now and launched so many products that didn’t work out. In 2020, I was trying to raise funds for one of my startups and failed again. But the one thing that I know for sure is I don’t care about failure. If I fail, I will just start again and will keep doing it until it works.
One other piece of advice I can give is, don’t worry if you fail, it's part of life. Most people won’t get what they want without a proper fight. Just keep pushing and you will get somewhere.
Also always compare yourself with your past self, and also thank your past self. For me personally, all the things that happened are because of the hard work of my past self. And it will be the same feeling in future as well.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Currently not looking to hire, I want to make sure UniqueSide can stand on its own in getting customers and have a sustained business before I bring in full time people with me.
Where can we go to learn more?
- Website
- Twitter, I am just one DM away for any questions.
- You can also checkout UniqueSide twitter account
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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