Sold His Simple AI Tool For $30K After 10 Months

Shahryar RajabpoorFounder of Summify $40,000 estimated total revenue Published August 5, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

Shahryar Rajabpoor (@devhe4d) tweets…

I just sold my first-ever startup, Summify, for $30,000

Summify is an AI tool that helps you “transcribe and summarize videos in only a few seconds”

Shahryar writes…

Summify started as my weekend project last October. I only knew how to code and nothing else. But I wanted to be a solopreneur….

I didn’t do any validation ( I didn’t even know what validation is ) I built Summify because I needed it myself – Scratching my own itch.

I just built it and shipped it and posted it on Reddit. I hope for the best.

Three days after launching, I sold my first subscription  

This was a good sign that people wanted my product.

Although Shahryar knew how to code, he had “no marketing skills” and struggled to spread the word…

It took Summify three months to reach $500 MRR…

After eight months, Summify hit $2,500 MRR and then settled around $1,500 MRR.

To get that initial $500 MRR, he notes…

Reddit, Linkedin posts helped a lot.

I ran 3 iterations of Google Ads campaign for Summify, each 2 weeks that drove good traffic into Summify.

You can see Shahryar’s Reddit posts here, and his launch announcement for Summify on Linkedin

Also, at least one of his Google ads can still be seen here.

Last words from Shahryar…

Looking back, selling my first indie project was a dream I didn’t know I could achieve in the first year.

Now, I’m more eager than ever to keep building and learning new things.

This is a good example of someone learning a ton by shipping a real product, getting feedback, and constantly trying to make it better

Shahryar ultimately got paid something like $40,000 (app revenue + the sale price) to learn how to ship and market a product.

Also, it’s not like his idea was super-unique. Product Hunt is filled with doppelgangers

As Derek Sivers once wrote…

Ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.

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