My first proper SaaS hit $5K MRR -- here's what I learned building it

About a year ago, I was working on a product and just needed a quick way to collect signups for it. So I threw together a simple waitlist tool and figured I'd move on.

Then people started using it. Now it's at $5K MRR with users collecting anywhere from hundreds to 10,000+ signups for their launches.

Here are some things I've learned along the way.

• Your first pricing will be wrong. Iterate.

• Distribution matters more than your product, especially early on.

• People tolerate small bugs if the value is there.

• Great support is a growth channel — the people you help fast are the ones who buy, review, and tell others.

• Launching isn't a one-time event. Keep launching, again and again.

• Free users complain. Paying users are usually the nicest.

• SEO is the highest-intent traffic you can get.

• Talking to users beats guessing what to build, every time.

• Nobody cares about your product as much as you do.

• You'll overestimate what you can do in a week and underestimate what you can do in 6 months.

• It's okay to get stuck sometimes. Just don't stay stuck.

Honestly, the best part is seeing someone actually got results from something I built myself, from scratch.

The app is called Waitlister. Happy to chat if you're building something too.