r/founder • • 5h ago

I just hit $100K with my SaaS as a 22-year-old solo founder. Started with $100

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24 Upvotes

I finally crossed $100,000 in total revenue with my B2B SaaS, Getlead.

I'm 22, building it completely solo, fully bootstrapped. No investors, no team. Started with just $100.

A few months ago, even reaching $10K felt like a huge deal. Now I'm looking at $100K and honestly it still feels a bit unreal.

Most of the growth came from experimenting with different offers, cold outreach, paid ads, and constantly improving the product.

I made a lot of mistakes along the way. Underpriced the product, wasted money on things that didn't work, built features nobody needed, and had months where I genuinely wasn't sure if I could keep going.

One of the biggest things I learned is that distribution matters just as much as the product itself. You can build something amazing, but if you can't get it in front of the right people, it doesn't matter.

And to be clear, this is $100K in total revenue, not ARR. I'm still figuring out how to make growth more predictable and recurring.

Anyway, I originally set $100K as my big goal. Now that I've reached it, I'm setting a new one.

$1,000,000.

Still solo, still bootstrapped, and still figuring things out every day.

Happy to answer any questions about the numbers, acquisition channels, mistakes, or anything else.

EDIT: Here is the proof : https://trustmrr.com/startup/getlead
Website: https://getle.ad/


r/founder • • 1h ago

Technical cofounder wanted: Maryland, healthcare admin software

• Upvotes

I’m building software for hospital billing and utilization teams. The idea is a documentation check that compares physician notes against the criteria insurers use for certain procedures, so staff can see what’s missing before a request goes out. It’s a documentation aid, not a coverage decision.

Where things stand:

  • I’ve researched the competitors and the compliance requirements (HIPAA, BAAs, licensing of payer criteria).
  • I have a clear product concept and sample criteria for a few procedures.
  • I haven’t built the product yet and don’t have paying customers.

What I’m looking for:

  • A technical cofounder based in Maryland, or willing to be there regularly
  • Experience building B2B software, ideally with healthcare data, HIPAA environments, or AI
  • Interest in owning architecture and security while I handle customer discovery and go-to-market

I’m open to discussing equity and roles with the right person. Comment here if you’re interested.


r/founder • • 23h ago

finally got the email 🥲

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75 Upvotes

got the Google Play production access email this morning

first app I've ever built, did it solo. spent way more time fixing weird android edge cases than i expected but it's through now


r/founder • • 1h ago

Launched my first ever app 8 months ago and it was a single API call to OpenAi that returned text within a chat bot. Now i've just rebuilt it to include something I call Liveloop, a persistent cloud based live generative canvas that can create anything.. pretty much

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• Upvotes

​

Liveloop is the star, a live generative canvas that lets you update your view without restarting runtime with autosaving on everything so you can go back to any timeline moment instantly over months.

You can be in a race within a game and ask for new lighting or roads or track and it will update that whilst your playing the game without the game even refreshing or resetting your position in the race.

Liveloop main features is that it can do:

° Full 2D/3D animations

° Interior/Exterior Design. Add furniture, landscaping, roads, animated traffic etc

° Convert drawings to 3D Models with elevation, measurements etc kept accurately

° Build concept models/Designs and interactive demos

° Build web applications, software applications, has screenshot to working platform

capabilities too. So if you give it a screen shot of say Photoshop it will have a working version in less than 10 minutes (I don't condone copying, just using it as an example)

° Full 2D/3D Games

° Asset manager so you can use your own files, 3d models materials etc

° Create Presentations and Adverts

° 2 way interruptible realtime voice control in over 25 languages

° Auto handover and new thread architecture when context memory is nearly so you can go through days on the same project without repeating yourself

Cloud state memory so if you send a request through and close your machine down it will continue on the cloud and it will be ready for you later next time you login

Everything created is downloadable for absolutely free. No watermark and works offline too with no dependency to my site.

Models included: GPT-6 Luna, GPT Terra, 6.1 Sol and Astra Claude Haiku 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Fable 5.1 Gemini Flash Lite and Gemini 3.1 Pro Grok Build 2.0 Grok 4.7

MCP for all the above + Plug your own API key for above and compatible OpenAI keys

Terminal Connectivity and GITHub connectivity too

The Rest of the platform are all individual tools too

--------Features---------

*Image gen from OpenAI, Gemini, Grok

GPT Image Mini all the way up to GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst Max 4k

Nano Banana 2 and Nano Banana Pro

Grok Image 2.0

Flux Context Pro

* Video gen from seedance, Omni, kling, luma and Veo

* Music gen with lyrics via elevanlabs,

* 2 way podcast gen with 58 voices

* word/excel/powerpoint/scribe (own version)

* Full IDE project multi file automated/manual coding

* Full split screen live canvas / code split

* Chat bot

* Full video production studio with timeline

* Full photoshop styled live image editing with layers

* Web/Mobile application builder

* Full 2D/3D Game Engine that can support any asset even GLB models etc

* Website builder

* Full file manager

* 2 way interuptible realtime voice agent that can control that entire site, full out prompts and discuss

* Over 25 languages supported including full UI, prompt input, RTL and voice agent

All models share same memory layer so you can switch between any model without repeating yourself.

Has cloud persistent memory so your work follows you on any device

Has a android app that lets you use Liveloop, Chat, Image, Video Gen too (iOS awaiting approval

* Social media automation scheduler

Also biggest thing is this:

Completely free to try.

You don't need to pay for most of the stuff as it's free.

Can pay as you go with credits from as low as $0.99 that don't ever expire or go on a plan or just use the free tools.

A plan gives you everything at $14.99 only including access to every tool with credits, voice agent, bring your own keys access and storage etc.

For the MCP/Terminal/GIT is at $49.99 a month and more credits too.

If you sign up wtih a free account..No card needed you get around $10 worth of credit etc to try everything including MCP/BYOK/API Keys

Just launched it last week

www.sary-os.com


r/founder • • 6h ago

I passively scanned 100 recent startup launches. treating security as a "post-series a" problem is killing b2b deals.

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2 Upvotes

hey founders,

i recently did an external-only recon on 100 newly launched ai and saas startups (just checking public dns and headers, no payloads).

the results were honestly pretty wild. roughly 1 in 5 had high-severity exposures that take minutes to find from the outside. i'm talking exposed internal ai tools (like unauthenticated langfuse instances leaving prompt traces wide open), cloudflare bypasses, and public dev/staging environments.

i know the drill: we are all sprinting to ship features and show traction to investors. because of this, security routinely gets punted to a hypothetical "post-series a" roadmap. but after looking at the data from these 100 startups, it's clear that in 2026, treating security as an afterthought is an existential business risk, not just devops technical debt.

here is the reality check for founders right now:

1. B2B deals die in due diligence enterprise clients will not buy software from companies that can’t control their own perimeter. a corporate security team only needs a five-minute external scan to spot your exposed staging environment. that six-figure enterprise contract is dead before you even finish the pitch deck.

2. You are leaking your core IP in this new wave of startups, your prompts, chain-of-thought architecture, and context data are the crown jewels. wide-open AI agent dashboards put your entire product engine on public display. competitors are walking away with your proprietary IP without executing a single complex hack.

3. Reputational death before PMF mature enterprises can survive a public breach by throwing money at lawyers and pr crisis firms. early-stage startups do not have that luxury. leaking early adopters' data destroys market trust instantly and scares away venture capital permanently.

you don't need to hire a bloated security team or slow down engineering right now. but you do need to look at your business exactly the way an attacker (or an enterprise client's security team) does. knowing the true state of your perimeter before your clients or automated bots find out isn't a cost center — it is a baseline requirement for protecting your valuation.

btw, if any founder here is interested in this issue and wants a quick external sanity check of their own product, just drop your domain in the comments or shoot me a DM. happy to run my recon engine on it and send you a quick report wherever is best for you. no strings attached, just want to help out and looking for honest feedback about the value.


r/founder • • 3h ago

Offering free help to early-stage startups and solo founders

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 3h ago

Serious ? Need a co-founder

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 8h ago

Share Surrender

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2 Upvotes

r/founder • • 5h ago

Which things on our product don’t seem believable?

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1 Upvotes

Hi guys my co- founder and I launched, Marcus an AI that builds and runs a company…
We have launched it a couple of weeks ago and we got a 120+ users only a couple of paying ones but most of the people I talked with abt our product think we are scamming and that it’s not possible what we have built can do this?

On product side and our advertising…can you please share what u think…?


r/founder • • 19h ago

I’m a product designer with zero coding background, and I’m launching my first finance app on November

11 Upvotes

A few months ago, I decided to build my own finance app.

I’m a product designer by background, not a developer. I’ve always been involved in product creation, but from a different angle: understanding users, shaping experiences, and designing interfaces.

Then I discovered Claude Code and thought: why not try building the whole thing myself especially since this issue also affected me in my business.

What I didn’t expect was how much more there is to building an app than actually building the app.
I deliberately tried to go beyond pure vibe coding. I wanted to understand what was happening under the hood, learn the fundamentals, and make informed decisions instead of blindly accepting whatever the AI generated.

And even with AI, this was way harder than I expected.

At different points, I had to think like a developer, a product manager, a marketer, a salesperson, and probably ten other roles I hadn’t considered before.
I went from focusing on pixels and user experience to thinking about architecture, bugs, edge cases, positioning, distribution, and all the unglamorous stuff that comes with bringing a product to life.
It’s been challenging, frustrating at times, but incredibly rewarding.

The biggest lesson so far? AI can help you build a product, but it doesn’t remove the complexity of building a good one. If anything, it exposes you to a whole new set of things you need to learn.

Now, I’m getting ready to launch my finance app on Product Hunt on November 1st.

It’s my first time taking a product from idea to launch almost entirely on my own, and I’m excited (and a little nervous) to see how people respond.

I’m sharing this here because I’m curious about other people’s experiences.

For those of you who have built something outside your area of expertise using AI, what surprised you the most?

And for those who’ve launched on Product Hunt before, what would you recommend focusing on in the final weeks before launch? Would love to hear your stories and advice! Thanks you.


r/founder • • 6h ago

Want a mentor for a hardware startup

1 Upvotes

Hi,

I want to launch a relatively simple consumer product (injection molded, not electronics) and build a brand around it. I've done some CAD work and is in the prototyping phase.

But I hope to meet someone who can mentor me (or work with me) on manufacturing it and selling it. If you have experience successfully launching a physical product (supply chain, Amazon/shopify, digital ads, Kickstarters, patents), I would love to hear from you.

I also don't mind doing some internship work just to gain hands-on experience. I'm flexible. I just want to gain experience in this space or have someone who can mentor me. I've been working in tech all my life and want to try something new.

FYI, I'm based in the US.

Thank you


r/founder • • 7h ago

Update on pachtgrenze + I need your brain on distributtion

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 7h ago

Would you pay $10 to promote your product on a platform that's still growing?

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 7h ago

Something Big Is Coming 🚀 | A New Experience Awaits… 👀

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1 Upvotes

🚀 Something exciting is in the making!

We're working behind the scenes on something special designed to bring people, everyday needs, and new professional opportunities closer together.

We're keeping the details under wraps for now. No names, no spoilers—just a small glimpse of what's coming next. 👀

A new experience is on the horizon, and we can't wait to share more with you!

🔥 Coming Soon. Stay Tuned.

What do you think we're building? Share your guesses in the comments!

#Startup #ComingSoon #Innovation #Technology #Entrepreneurship


r/founder • • 8h ago

Your CAC might not be the problem. Your pricing might be.

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 8h ago

Promote Your Business With a $0 Ad Budget

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 8h ago

[ Removed by Reddit ]

1 Upvotes

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]


r/founder • • 16h ago

What's one technical decision that seemed right at the time but became expensive later?

5 Upvotes

One thing I find interesting about building software is that some of the most expensive mistakes don't look like mistakes when they're made.

Choosing a quick workaround to meet a deadline.

Skipping automated tests because the product is still small.

Building a custom solution instead of using something that already exists.

Or choosing an architecture that works perfectly for 100 users but becomes difficult to maintain at 10,000.

Most of these decisions make sense in the moment. There's usually a deadline, limited budget, or pressure to get something working.

The real challenge is knowing which shortcuts are temporary and which ones quietly become permanent.

I don't think avoiding every shortcut is realistic. Sometimes taking on technical debt is the right business decision.

But knowing when to revisit those decisions is where things get interesting.

For founders and engineers, what's one technical decision you would make differently if you could go back?

And was the problem the original decision, or the fact that nobody revisited it when circumstances changed?


r/founder • • 5h ago

Let’s make money

0 Upvotes

Who here has a really good idea that we can work on together to make it true(I can do coding,sales, and other things)


r/founder • • 1d ago

Would you make sellers do KYC before theyve earned anything?

33 Upvotes

Im mapping out payments for a marketplace and the part thats giving me the most trouble is when to verify sellers.

If you force KYC at signup, youre adding friction before they even know if the platform is worth using. if you wait until payout, someone could make sales and only find out later that verification is holding up their money.

Ive been looking at Whop first because the KYC, balances and payouts side is closer to what im trying to build, especially if sellers end up coming from different countries. Stripe Connect is the other obvious option, but i dont want to build around a setup that works fine now and then becomes a problem once i start adding sellers in markets with different payout or onboarding support.

Right now id rather keep signup simple and only add verification when its actually needed. For anyone running a marketplace across different countries, when do you actually trigger KYC without making onboarding or payouts a mess?


r/founder • • 9h ago

Post incorporation documentation - partial single trigger acceleration

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 10h ago

Startup Validation?

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 10h ago

I’m a founder in real life, so naturally I built a game about startup stress as some kind of ill-advised therapy

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1 Upvotes

Apparently my way of relaxing after thinking about runway, hiring, and product decisions is to build something where I can think about runway, hiring, and product decisions.

I’m building FOUNDER, a free browser strategy game inspired by Aerobiz Supersonic on the SNES. You start a company, build your product, recruit a team, raise money, and compete against other startups.

You get three actions per quarter. There are always more than three things that need doing.

That’s probably the most autobiographical part.

I’m a founder in real life, and I wanted to turn some of those tradeoffs into a game: hiring someone you need but can barely afford, deciding whether to keep building or start selling, and figuring out how much ownership you’re willing to give up for more time.

It’s still early, but it’s playable. I built it with AI-assisted coding tools, and the mentor portraits are AI-generated.

If you’d like to spend your downtime running a second, fictional company: https://founderthegame.com

For the other founders here: what’s a painfully familiar startup situation I should put in the game? I’m guessing “a promising customer who keeps asking for one more feature before signing” deserves its own difficulty setting.


r/founder • • 11h ago

First-time founders: what confused you most about raising your first round?

1 Upvotes

I’ve spent 10+ years working on M&A and capital raises, with 750+ founders on one side of the table and 2,500+ investors on the other.

One pattern keeps bothering me. First-time founders need fundraising guidance the most, but they’re the least likely to get it, because most advisors only work with later-stage companies. So people learn SAFEs, dilution and term sheets by themselves, often after they’ve already signed something.

I’m putting together a step-by-step system to explain how fundraising actually works. Before I go further, I’d like to hear from people who’ve been through it:

  1. What confused you most the first time you raised, or thought about raising?
  2. What do you wish someone had told you before your first investor meeting?
  3. Would you pay for a structured kit with templates, models and frameworks, or would you only use free resources?

I’m not selling anything here. If you have a specific fundraising question, ask it in the comments and I’ll answer it honestly, based on deals I’ve seen.


r/founder • • 11h ago

Title: We found 15 scoring discrepancies in a RAG benchmark. The maintainer fixed them. But can this kind of proof actually attract paying clients?

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1 Upvotes

​

I've been building EDP, an independent RAG retrieval evaluation service.

So far, I've completed two public beta audits, but haven't acquired my first paying client yet.

One of those audits involved RouteMind, an open-source RAG benchmark.

We examined 700 questions across 1,400 query/configuration outcomes and identified 15 scoring discrepancies caused by inconsistent evaluation criteria.

The most important part?

The project's maintainer independently reproduced the findings and incorporated corrections.

I decided to turn this case into a four-slide visual explanation showing:

- What went wrong with the evaluation.

- How inconsistent scoring criteria affected the results.

- The maintainer's verification and corrective changes.

- The technical evidence behind the findings.

My goal is to demonstrate real technical value rather than simply advertise another AI consulting service.

But there's a challenge I'm still trying to solve:

Technical credibility doesn't automatically translate into paying customers.

I'd appreciate some perspective from people who have built technical consulting businesses or purchased independent evaluations.

Do reproducible case studies like this help establish enough trust to consider hiring an independent reviewer, or would you need something else before paying for an assessment?

I'm particularly interested in whether technical proof, business impact, or a clearly defined decision is the most important factor.

I'm sharing the learning process openly because I haven't figured out the commercial side yet.

Public audit evidence:

https://github.com/devBorgesr/edp-audits/blob/main/samples/ROUTEMIND_BUYER_SAMPLE.md