My Saas Templates Make $40K/Month
TL;DR: Ajay Patel and co-founder Vrushank founded ThemeSelection (under parent company Clevision) in 2018 after observing that almost every app needs an admin panel but few good solutions existed. They started by selling templates on the Envato marketplace (as Pixinvent) with products like Vuexy and Materialize, which validated demand. They then launched their own platform (ThemeSelection) offering premium templates with seamless backend integrations—combining HTML with Laravel, Django, or .NET, which competitors didn't offer. Their differentiation comes from four pillars: design, development, documentation, and support. They also launched complementary products like JetShip (a SaaS boilerplate) and FlyonUI (an open-source Tailwind component library). The business now generates $40K/month with a team of 20 employees serving developers, startups, agencies, and freelancers.
Key Insights
- Identified market gap by observing that every app needs an admin panel but few ready-to-use solutions existed
- Started on Envato marketplace to validate demand before launching own platform
- Differentiated through backend integrations (HTML+Laravel, Vue+Django) that competitors didn't offer
- Used freemium and open-source products as top-of-funnel to attract customers to premium offerings
Actionable Takeaways
- Observe repetitive problems in your current job to identify product opportunities
- Validate demand on established marketplaces before building your own platform
- Identify what competitors skip (like backend integration) and make it your core differentiator
- Offer yearly or lifetime pricing to reduce customer friction around recurring payments
- Launch with MVP and iterate based on user feedback rather than pursuing perfection