DEV Community: Krzysztof

Stripe charges up to $2 just to send an invoice email… so I built my own tool

Krzysztof — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 19:34:22 +0000

I haven’t posted here in a while, but I’m back to share a new project I’ve been working on.
While working on a few projects using Stripe, I noticed something frustrating.

When you receive a payment, Stripe already takes ~2.9% + $0.30 in processing fees.

But if you want to send the customer an invoice using Stripe Invoicing, they charge an additional 0.4% per invoice sent (max $2) - just to generate the PDF and send the email!!!! 🤯

Example:
$100 payment
~ $3.20 processing fee
~ $0.40 invoice fee

It doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up really quickly.
If you have 100 customers and send 12 invoices per year, that's 1,200 invoices.

At up to $2 per invoice, that can be $2,400/year just for sending PDFs, separate from transaction fees 🤯

So I built a small tool that generates invoices directly from Stripe payments without using Stripe’s invoicing system.

There’s very little competition in this niche, but most existing tools don’t properly handle European tax regulations. And if you’ve ever dealt with bureaucracy in Poland or the EU, you know it’s a completely different level compared to the US 😅

One thing that makes this tool stand out is that it’s EU VAT compliant, including:

Automatic reverse charge for EU B2B
Export notation for non-EU customers
Domestic VAT handling for local sales
For me this is also a weekend project that solves a real problem I personally had, but maybe it will help others too.

The MVP took about 3 days to build while I was on vacation in Riyadh (and during Ramadan there isn’t that much to do anyway 😄)

My goal for March is to get the first 5 customers, and then try to start scaling it from there.

Keep shipping 🚀🚀🚀🚀

i made a free list of 100 places where you can promote your app

Krzysztof — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:54:06 +0000

I recently shared this on another reddit and it got 500 upvotes so I thought I’d share it here as well, hoping it helps more people.

Every time I launch a new product, I go through the same annoying routine: Googling “SaaS directories,” digging up 5-year-old blog posts, and piecing together a messy spreadsheet of where to submit. It’s frustrating and time-consuming.

For those who don’t know launch directories are websites where new products and startups get listed and showcased to an audience actively looking for new tools and solutions. They’re like curated marketplaces or hubs for discovery, not just random link dumps.

It’s annoying to find a good list, so I finally sat down and built a proper list of launch directories: sites like Product Hunt, BetaList, StartupBase, etc. Ended up with 82 legit ones.

I also added a way to sort them by DR (Domain Rating) basically a metric (from tools like Ahrefs) that estimates how strong a website’s backlink profile is. Higher DR usually means the site has more authority and might pass more SEO value or get more organic traffic.

I turned it into a simple site: launchdirectories.com

No fluff, no paywall, no signups just the list I wish I had every time I launch something.

Thought it might help others here too.

I built a free global VC directory (1,500+ firms, no signup)

Krzysztof — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 14:45:05 +0000

Hey everyone 👋

I wanted to share something I built recently vcdir.com a global directory of venture capital firms that I put together in just 3 days.

The goal was to make something simple, fast, and open a place where founders can easily discover investors, and VCs can get more visibility and inbound deal flow.

Most VC databases I found were either outdated, overly complex, or hidden behind a paywall.

So I decided to make one that’s:

Free to browse — no signup or paywall

Lists over 1,500+ verified VC firms from around the world

Lets you filter by country, continent, investment phase, and market focus

Each firm has a dedicated page with portfolio links, website, and SEO structure

Includes categories, breadcrumbs, and a bookmarks for easy navigation and browsing

I wanted a better domain, but everything decent was taken or insanely priced so vcdir.com it is 😅

This isn’t meant to be a massive SaaS or paywall product just a useful, open directory that can grow organically and maybe make VC discovery a bit easier for everyone involved.

Would love feedback from this community.

What kind of data, filters, or features would make a VC directory genuinely helpful?

Thanks for reading 🙌

i made a free list of 80 places where you can promote your app/starup

Krzysztof — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 13:00:35 +0000

I recently shared this on reddit and it got 500 upvotes, so I thought I’d share it here as well, hoping it helps more people.

It’s annoying to find a good list, so I finally sat down and built a proper list of launch directories: sites like Product Hunt, BetaList, StartupBase, etc. Ended up with 85 legit ones.

I turned it into a simple site: launchdirectories.com

No fluff, no paywall, no signups.
Just the list I wish I had every time I launch something.

Thought it might help others here too