Failing 6 times before hitting a 7-figure ARR in 10 months with no code - Indie Hackers
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CompanyFaceless.videoFounderJacob SeegerRevenue>$83K a month
Jacob Seeger is a songwriter and producer who loves tech but never thought he'd be successful in it. Then, he tried Bubble. Seven products later, he built a product that went viral. Now, Faceless.video is bringing in a 6-figure MRR.<br>Here's Jacob on how he did it. 👇
The first end-to-end faceless video platform<br>I started as a music artist, songwriter, and producer! With no technical background, I built a 7-figure, bootstrapped, and profitable SaaS called Faceless.video. It was the first platform ever to run faceless channels autonomously, from writing and editing videos to posting them on social platforms entirely on autopilot.<br>It started with posting basic Minecraft gameplay videos, reading Reddit stories aloud as the MVP. And it grew into full-scale AI short videos. We went from $0 to $1M ARR within 10 months, completely bootstrapped. Over 2.5M users have signed up.<br>We’re currently at 6-figures in MRR.
A long path to SaaS<br>I graduated from college with a music business major in 2019 and pursued a career as a successful music artist. I moved back in with my mom to pursue this goal without income.<br>The marketing options available to artists like me repeatedly disappointed me. I learned everything I could online about digital marketing for businesses and applied those methodologies to my artist career, growing my project from virtually nothing to close to 1M streams and thousands of highly engaged fans. After this, I began helping friends in music, charging next-to-nothing for the service. This eventually built my connections in music, leading to my first business, Domno, a music marketing agency.<br>On the side, I had always loved tech, but never felt I could pursue tech ideas due to my lack of experience. But eventually, I built a mobile game as my introduction to no-code building. I used the no-code game-building platform, Buildbox. The game allowed me to engage with fans because it included easter eggs of my unreleased music.<br>Over the next two years, I grew Domno, working with artists such as Journey, Weezer, Future, Sean Paul, Lizzy McAlpine, and many more. However, I soon realized it didn't satisfy me as I had expected. I thought working with bigger artists would lead to explosive business growth. Instead, I noticed a natural ceiling to its scalability, given the music industry's payment constraints and my inability to take on many clients at once.<br>I then started looking into dev agencies to build an MVP for my first SaaS idea. At this time, Domno generated high five-figures in ARR, and I had supplemental income from songwriting royalties. This was enough for me to move out of my mom’s basement and in with my now-fiancée in Los Angeles.<br>The dev agencies I spoke with quoted $30k to build my SaaS idea's MVP — money I didn't have, especially for something I didn't know would succeed. Remembering the process of building games on Buildbox, I began exploring Bubble. However, when I first signed up, I didn't log back in for half a year, completely overwhelmed by the idea of building a full app. But after building the courage to watch tutorials and try it myself, I began building my first SaaS ideas.
Building the product with no code<br>I then spent 2.5 years building and launching six apps on Bubble; all failed. At this point, I felt completely disheartened and doubted I could build a successful SaaS. But one of my highest-leverage decisions at the time was letting everyone in my network know I was building apps. This “outsourced” the app ideation process to others, allowing me to receive ideas and choose the best ones to build.<br>That process eventually led to my 7th app, Faceless.video.<br>I spent roughly $250 on infrastructure and building the app, and the other $250 on our first Twitter thread promotion, which drove our first users and validated the product.<br>I had spent 2.5 years before Faceless.video building app ideas on Bubble. Despite the failures, each project taught me something new and important about building scalable apps and problem-solving. By my seventh idea, Faceless.video, my sharpened skills allowed me to overcome initial product hurdles and challenges, enabling a successful app launch.<br>I initially built the MVP entirely on Bubble, balancing my time with servicing clients for my other business, Domno. I spent practically all my free time building on Bubble, motivated by the idea of creating a successful app that would grant me financial freedom while innovating and creating something valuable for others. I thank my fiancée, Shannon, for giving me the time and enthusiasm to relentlessly focus on getting something off the ground.<br>As our app scaled, I migrated some features off Bubble and toward custom code for more control and cost-efficiency, but the product still remains largely on Bubble to this day. When we launched as an MVP, our product was...