I Made $1 Million Building and Selling Apps with This 5-Step Strategy
TL;DR: Dominic (Dom) Zijlstra set himself a challenge to build, validate, and sell a new micro SaaS every 30 days while working full-time as an analyst. Over 3 years, he shipped 7 different apps—from pitch deck generators to Excel formula tools—selling them for between $2,500 and $34,000. His biggest success was Softgen.ai, an AI coding app that he grew from $20K ARR to $500K ARR in 3 months before exiting for nearly 3x ARR. His process: validate with a landing page on X/Twitter, build one key feature, ship to early email subscribers, iterate based on feedback, grow organically with 'build in public', and package the business with key metrics (ARR, margins, LTV, CAC, churn) for sale. He used the Pomodoro technique to balance side projects with his full-time job, only quitting when Softgen showed clear traction. All products were validated by spotting trends on X/Twitter and using no-code tools like Bubble for speed.
Key Insights
- 30-day build-validate-sell cycles create fast learning loops and reduce risk of over-investing in wrong ideas
- Validating with a landing page on X/Twitter (15% email conversion = good signal) before writing code prevents wasted development effort
- All successful products started from trend-spotting on X/Twitter—timing and riding emerging trends mattered more than the idea itself
- Building in public on X/Twitter drove organic growth without paid ads across multiple products
- Packaging a business for sale requires tracking ARR, gross margins, ARPU, LTV, CAC, and churn from day one
Actionable Takeaways
- Set a 30-day deadline for each project to force prioritization and prevent feature creep
- Use a simple landing page builder (like yep.so) to validate demand before building—aim for 15% email signup conversion
- Monitor X/Twitter trends daily to spot emerging opportunities and validate timing before committing to an idea
- Ship one key feature to early email subscribers, collect feedback, and iterate in tight loops rather than building in isolation
- Track key business metrics (ARR, margins, LTV, CAC, churn) from day one to make the business sellable as an asset
Principles Validated (10)
Trust intuition during early decision-making when you lack complete information
Dominic Zijlstra (Softgen.ai)
Full commitment beats half-commitment
Dominic Zijlstra (Softgen.ai)
Use time-blocking techniques to balance full-time work with side projects
Dominic Zijlstra (Softgen.ai (and 6 other micro SaaS products))