How I Turned a Side Project Into a Full-Time Business in Nine Months

People ask me about this all the time, and I always end up rambling. So here is the timeline as a numbered list. The dollar amounts are real.

Month 1. Built the MVP in three weekends. Posted it on Reddit. Got eight upvotes. First user signed up. First user did not pay.

Month 2. Switched from free trial to paid-only. Lost six of the eight free users. The remaining two paid. MRR: $24.

Month 3. Wrote three articles about the problem the product solves. One of them ranked. Eleven new signups, four paid. MRR: $108.

Month 4. Hit a wall. Two churns. New signups dried up. MRR: $96. Almost shelved it.

Month 5. Doubled down on writing instead. Published twice a week. Slow grind. MRR: $190.

Month 6. One of the articles started ranking on the second page of Google for the main term. Signups doubled. MRR: $440.

Month 7. Article moved to first page. Signups tripled. MRR: $1,100.

Month 8. Added an annual plan at 20% discount. Half the new signups took it. MRR effective: $2,400.

Month 9. Quit the day job. MRR: $4,200. Runway: 14 months.

I was profitable in month ten. Comfortable in month sixteen. The product is bigger now. The mechanics are the same.