$10K MRRin 1 year

3 milestones

After 11 Failed Products: Open Source DocSend Alternative to $45K MRR

Founder

Iuliia Shnai

Co-Founders•Technical•Germany

Commitment

Full-time

Experience

Experienced

Product

Papermark

Open source DocSend alternative for document sharing.

Type

SaaS

Industry

Productivity

Model

Subscription

Marketing Strategy

How Iuliia acquired customers

Primary Channel

SEO / Content

Tech Stack

Tools used to build Papermark

Next.jsVercelSEO tools

The Full Story

In 2023, Iuliia built 10 products. Her partner Marc launched Papermark - a simple open-source DocSend alternative. The first version took one weekend.

Building for Growth

Both projects reached $500 MRR at the same time, but only Papermark found product-market fit.

Open Source Power

Open source became a powerful distribution channel. Marc's launch tweet went viral.

Products tried: 11 (10 failed)
Time to $45K MRR: ~1 year
Channel: Open source + SEO

Key Takeaways

Build multiple products in parallel to see which gains traction

Open source can be a powerful distribution channel

Building for growth (SEO, tools, content) is as important as building the product

Partnership works when you have distinct goals: product vs growth

Originally published onIndie Hackers

Inspired by Iuliia's journey? Generate a business idea in the Productivity space using AI and real founder data.

Milestone Journey

Iuliia achieved 3 milestones on the path to $10K MRR

First Customer

1 month

July 2023

69% faster

vs avg 3 months

+3 months to next milestone

$1K MRR

$1,000

4 months

September 2023

64% faster

vs avg 11 months

+8 months to next milestone

$10K MRR

$45,000

1 year

June 2024

43% faster

vs avg 1 year

1 year

Total journey time

Milestones achieved

Iuliia's Path to $10K MRRPremium

The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone

Persistence

Projects attempted before finding success

failed projects before this one worked

High persistence — rare trait among founders

Launch Strategy

How they introduced the product to the world

Social Media

Initial go-to-market approach

Validation

How they tested demand before building

MVP

Method used to confirm market interest

Most common approach — build and learn fast

Launch Pricing

Price point when the product first launched

Under $20/mo

Initial pricing strategy

Starting Audience

Whether they had followers before launch

Existing Audience

Leveraged existing followers

Having an audience accelerates early growth

Biggest Challenge

Finding product-market fit across multiple iterations

Unlock Iuliia's Full Journey

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