$1K MRRin 10 months

Starter Story Founder Builds SaaS: $1K MRR Harder Than Expected

Founder

Pat Walls

Solo Founder•Technical•USA

Commitment

Side Project

Experience

Experienced

Product

Pigeon

CRM built for Gmail.

Type

SaaS

Industry

Marketing

Model

Subscription

Marketing Strategy

How Pat acquired customers

Primary Channel

Communities

Tech Stack

Tools used to build Pigeon

ReactNode.jsStripe

The Full Story

Pat Walls, founder of Starter Story, worked on Pigeon for over a year as a side project.

Different Challenge

Reaching $1K MRR was significant because building a SaaS was a new type of challenge compared to his content business.

Slow Progress

The $1K MRR equated to about 40 paying customers. It took 10 months to reach this milestone.

Time to $1K MRR: 10 months
Paying customers: 40
Experience: Already had successful content business

Key Takeaways

SaaS revenue is different from content revenue - harder to scale

Having success in one business doesn't guarantee success in another

Slow, steady progress is normal - 10 months to $1K MRR is realistic

40 paying customers is a significant milestone worth celebrating

Originally published onIndie Hackers

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

Pat's Path to $1K MRRPremium

The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone

Persistence

Projects attempted before finding success

failed projects before this one worked

Learned from a previous attempt

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

Time Investment

Average weekly hours during building phase

40 hrs

per week on average

Full-time dedication

Initial Investment

Capital required to get started

$500

in startup costs

Minimal investment — software and domains

Biggest Challenge

Scaling while maintaining quality

Unlock Pat's Full Journey

See the complete breakdown: launch strategy, validation methods, startup costs, expert analysis, replication playbook, and more actionable insights.

Upgrade to Premium

Instant access to all founder journeys

Share this story:

Enjoyed this story?

Get more founder journeys like this delivered to your inbox every week.

Join founders learning from real success stories

Founder stories

Starter Story Founder Builds SaaS: $1K MRR Harder Than Expected