DEV Community: Valentin

A detailed breakdown of how this simple SaaS reaches $93k MRR

Valentin — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 15:58:00 +0000

When trying to achieve something, analyzing what people who already made it have done is one of the best ways to learn and improve. Starting from this idea, I analyzed SEO Bot, a SaaS in the top 10 of TrustMRR generating a stratospheric 93k MRR.

This SaaS spent 1 year after its creation at 2/3k MRR, then literally took off between 90k and 100k MRR, where it has been stable for 1 year.

I’m sharing here what I learned from this work.

The landing page :

The landing page talks very little about the product itself. The mechanism used is the following :

Promises of final value for the user, here fully autonomous SEO while seeing site traffic explode
The reader is reassured that the site delivers on its promises through social proof rather than a rational angle: it works for others, so it works, no need to understand how.

The page is very visual. Almost no block of text is longer than two lines or more than one sentence. There are lots of big numbers and graphs showing traction exploding.

The founder talks very little about his product on the landing page : almost no technical explanation. He doesn’t try to differentiate himself from existing alternative solutions. Pain points are not directly mentioned either: no need, readers already know them.

The emphasis is entirely on the final value delivered, not on how the site gets there. He doesn’t promise high quality articles but an explosion of traffic to your site.

Another interesting element, in several places on the page he shows a photo of himself, with his contact links. I imagine the goal is to reinforce the human aspect and the fact that the site is built by an indie maker.

As you scroll down the page, you find more technical information, not about how the site works, but aimed at reassuring the prospect. For example, integrations or specific supported languages. There is a fairly extensive FAQ at the bottom of the page. This probably also contributes to SEO.

Pricing is located directly at the bottom of the landing page. But only the cheapest plan is presented. Paradoxically, but probably intentionally, it is very verbose here. But it doesn’t even talk about what the cheapest plan offers, but about what the site offers overall. It does not mention the limitations of this plan.Putting that much text into what is offered is smart :

Psychologically, you feel like the subscription includes a lot of things
It contrasts with the rest of the page where there is very little text

Another very interesting point, just before announcing the price, he adds the sentence "Perhaps the best ROI on the market".

Here again, it’s clever. By mentioning ROI just before the price, psychologically you tell yourself that spending X dollars is nothing if it allows you to earn much more.

In the end, attention is completely diverted from the fact that he is trying to sell us 9 AI generated articles for 50€, per month. Because that’s not what you’re buying: it’s a promise of traction validated by social proof.

One last point I found amusing. 2 of the 15 tweets talking about the product that are highlighted come directly from the creator of the site. One of the 4 graphs he presents also comes from one of his SaaS.

The business model - pricing :

First element: the SaaS has no free feature. It is not freemium. Yet, it would be easy to imagine given what the site does: for example, by offering 1 free article per month.

Obviously, this must be strategic. The loss of prospects who will never convert if they don’t test for free must be more than compensated by the conversion of prospects who would have stayed on the free plan if there was one.

There is also no trial period or anything like that. You want to test, you pay.

Another interesting element, when you click on “Pricing”, you don’t get access to the real prices, only the cheapest price is shown, 49$, without specifying its limitations. But when you click on the CTA, the next step in the conversion funnel, the price jumps to 99 dollars !

Subtly, he reveals to the prospect that several plans exist, and that 50$ is the cheapest price. The 99$ plan being selected by default, a rushed and inattentive user might even subscribe to it by mistake.

The whole process is smart: the value that remains anchored in the prospect’s mind is 50$, not the price of the other more expensive plans.

Overall, you can see that prices are very high. Remember that, at the core, users are paying for AI generated articles. Something that, to a lesser extent, free AIs can do.

One last detail, social proofs (tweets here) are repeated on the right side of the pricing page. A detail that probably gives a small boost to conversion.

Onboarding and the paywall :

There is a “Try now” CTA in the nav bar. I tested it and there were also some interesting things.

First, you are directly asked for your email address. No payment or anything committing, just your email to be able to test. It’s smart because no matter how far you go in the sales funnel, he has your email.

Then, he asks for your website URL. The bot analyzes it in detail, and it works well, the understanding is very good. He then suggests articles, but only titles, no content. Then the paywall appears.

It’s classic, but well done. You’re only one click away from getting what you want when it blocks you.

UI and design:

A small point on that.The site has its character with a matrix style theme. Even though it’s minimalist, it feels professional while remaining simple. All the information is on the landing page. Even pricing, the button in the navigation bar only redirects to the section of the site where it is.

The navigation bar also has a link to another site for referrals, but overall, the site really only has one main page highlighted.

However, if you look in the footer, you realize the site has many pages that are not highlighted. In particular, an extremely rich blog (which makes sense given the function of the site).

They also have many pages explaining the features of the site in detail as well as technical documentation. The choice to not highlight this content at all, while still having it available, is certainly strategic.

The main takeaways:

Highlight the final value delivered to the user, not the way you get there nor what they concretely get through your SaaS
A rain of social proof, which combined with promises creates FOMO
Little text on the landing page, numbers and exploding graphs
Nothing free, you want to try, you pay
High prices, even the cheapest plan costs 50€
Prices revealed at the end of the customer funnel. Except for the cheapest value revealed early in the journey

In the end, he’s not reinventing the wheel. I’ve already read each of these tips in many places. Yet, when executed properly and put together, it works incredibly well.

I’m going to try to learn more about his marketing. If I find interesting things, I’ll make a post about it.

How to Get Feedback on Your SaaS

Valentin — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 11:38:59 +0000

Getting honest, detailed feedback is essential when building a SaaS product. The problem is that it’s incredibly hard to get it online. When you ask for feedback on the internet, you usually end up in one of two situations:

Either your post gets flagged or removed for being promotional,
or it gets instantly buried under hundreds of other creators sharing their own projects.

You can turn to paid testing services, like UserTesting or Userlytics but those options quickly become expensive.

In this article, I want to share an effective and practical way to get feedback, without the usual frustrations and without spending money.

What if feedback worked as an exchange?

Let me start with a simple observation. Every day, you see Reddit posts like “What are you building today?”. Dozens of creators reply and present their projects, but almost no one actually looks at what others are building.

Why? Because that’s not why they’re there. They’re looking for early users and feedback on their own product, not to discover new tools.

But what if they knew they would receive feedback on their own product in exchange for giving feedback to others? Wouldn’t that change things?

Spending 15 minutes testing someone else’s product suddenly becomes a great investment if it guarantees a detailed review in return.

Introducing TestYourApp

TestYourApp.io is a new platform built around this exact idea.

The concept is very simple:

You test someone else’s app and earn a credit.
You use your credits to get your own app tested.

Feedback quality is ensured through structured testing forms and a tester rating system that discourages low-effort reviews.

The platform follows a freemium model, with all core features available for free. A premium upgrade simply removes the limitation of opening one test every three days.

TestYourApp is designed to be a smart, fair, and transparent way to get high-quality feedback without pulling out your credit card or shouting into the void on Reddit.

How it works in practice

Create an account on TestYourApp.
Submit your application and open it for testing.
Test few other apps to earn credits.
You should then start receiving feedback on your own product fairly quickly.

Once the feedback comes in, you can act on it. Fix the bug reported by one tester, improve onboarding based on another suggestion, tweak your homepage according to a third, and so on.

Then repeat the process:

Test few apps.
Receive three tests.
Fix, improve, iterate.

Keep going until your product feels stable, polished, and validated.

And there’s more

This process gives you much more than just feedback.

You’ll likely find your first real users, some of whom may even become paying customers.
You can reuse the feedback you receive as social proof on your landing page.
You’ll also discover other projects along the way, some useful, others inspiring.

Getting feedback doesn't have to be frustrating or expensive.

If you're tired of shouting into the void or paying for generic reviews, give the exchange approach a try. Test a couple of apps, earn your credits, and see what kind of feedback you get.

The worst that can happen? You'll discover a few interesting projects along the way.

What I’ve learned after one week promoting my SaaS

Valentin — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 16:25:39 +0000

It’s been a week since my project TestYourApp reached MVP stage and I started promoting it and I’ve already learned a ton.

My view on cold outreach has changed:
I used to have a very negative perception of cold outreach. To me, it felt toxic pushing a product on someone who doesn’t want it. I pictured those annoying telemarketers trying to sell you anything and everything.

But when done right, I actually find it healthy:

I only reach out to people who say they face the problem my product solves
I offer them a free solution (my product has a pretty generous freemium model) In the end, it’s a win-win: they get a solution to their problem, I get users and potentially feedback and word of mouth.

Youtube comment sections feel totally unusable:
I thought about promoting my product in YouTube comments on recent videos related to the problem I’m solving. The censorship bots are ruthless. Any comment with a link gets instantly deleted.

So I tried just mentioning the product name without a link. Same result: gone immediately. Maybe that’s for the platform’s good, but from a marketing perspective, it’s a dead channel.

Has anyone else tried this?

Reddit has been both my best friend and worst enemy:
On one hand, Reddit lets you find dozens of users struggling with the problem your product fixes. You can even post and have them come to you.

On the other hand, the platform’s mechanics confuse me. Around 90% of new posts seem to disappear into the void within two minutes of posting.

Plus, the moderation isn’t always logical. Some blatantly commercial posts survive, while harmless posts get deleted without explanation.

The hardest part isn’t conversion, it’s getting seen:
Maybe it’s just my product, but feedback has been great. People like it, and the account creation rate after contact is strong.

The biggest challenge I face is literally making people aware my product exists. That seems to be marketing’s biggest hurdle.

See you soon!

How to find beta users for your SaaS?

Valentin — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:58:33 +0000

How to Find Beta Users for Your Product

Congrats. After weeks (or months) of hard work, your product is finally ready to be shown to the world. Now comes the next crucial step: user testing.

The goal is simple. You want feedback on everything that matters: the problem you’re solving, your value proposition, UX, UI, pricing, business model, and more. You improve your product based on these insights. Then you iterate. Again and again. Until your product is finally ready for a real launch.

But a much harder question quickly appears:

How do you actually get those feedbacks?

Where do you find beta users?

Free Ways to Find Beta Users

Reddit is the largest forum in the world, with hundreds of millions of users and subreddits on almost every topic imaginable. At first glance, it looks like the perfect place to find your first beta testers.

And sometimes, it is. But in most cases, it’s not that simple.

Every single day, hundreds of SaaS founders and indie developers post on Reddit asking for feedback. On the other side, only a small fraction of users are actually willing to test products for free.

The result is predictable.

Dozens of projects are posted every day… and most of them get zero feedback.

On top of that, there are other issues:

Many posts containing links are considered self-promotion
Posts can be removed very quickly
The lifespan of a post is extremely short (sometimes just minutes or hours)

Finding beta users on Reddit is possible, but it’s difficult, time-consuming, and often frustrating.

Discord & Creator Communities

There are countless Discord communities today: no-code, SaaS, indie hackers, startups, solopreneurs, and more. In theory, these are great places to find your first testers.

In reality, the same problem appears:

A lot of people ask for feedback. Very few are willing to give it.

You can get some results with direct messages, but it usually requires:

A lot of time
A lot of outbound messages
A low conversion rate

It works, but it doesn’t scale well.

Friends & Family

This is usually the very first thing founders try: showing the product to friends and family.

It can be useful, but it’s extremely limited.

They are rarely your real target users
They often hesitate to be truly critical
The feedback is usually kind, but not very actionable
The number of feedbacks you can collect this way is very limited

It’s a good first step, but it’s not enough to properly validate a product.

Product Hunt, Indie Hackers & Launch Platforms

These platforms can be powerful, but only under certain conditions.

They work best if you already have:

An existing audience
Or a community ready to support your launch

Without this initial traction, your project can easily go unnoticed. You may get a few visitors, but rarely deep, structured, and actionable feedback.

Where Is Your Real Target Audience?

This is something many founders forget: the best place to find beta users is often not a generic platform, but the place where your actual target users already spend time.

A few examples:

A product for dentists → dental forums, private Facebook groups, professional associations
A tool for developers → GitHub, tech Discords, Stack Overflow, developer subreddits

Pros:

You’re talking directly to your real audience
Feedback is usually much higher quality
You can sometimes get paying users right from the start

Cons:

Access can be restricted
Self-promotion is often poorly received
You need to bring value before asking anything

The real challenge here is not finding these communities. It’s interacting with them without being perceived as spam.

The Real Problem Behind All of This

No matter the platform, the core problem is always the same:

Everyone wants feedback. Very few people want to give it.

Giving good feedback takes time, attention, and effort. Without a strong incentive, most people simply won’t do it.

Paid User Testing Solutions

Traditional User Testing Platforms

There are many professional user testing platforms today, such as:

UserTesting
Maze
TryMyUI
PlaybookUX

The model is simple. You pay, and the platform provides testers who follow a predefined testing scenario.

Pros:

Fast
Structured feedback
Ability to target specific profiles

Cons:

Very expensive (often several hundred dollars per month)
Not accessible for early-stage founders
Feedback can feel impersonal
Not always well-suited for very early products

These tools are excellent, but clearly not designed for bootstrapped creators.

Freelancers & Paid Testers

Another option is to directly hire testers on platforms like:

Fiverr
Upwork
Malt

Pros:

Human feedback
You can choose the profile
More in-depth tests

Cons:

Again, the cost
Highly variable quality
Not always representative of real users

A Different Approach: Feedback Exchange

TestYourApp

TestYourApp is a recent platform that proposes a different approach to getting feedback, based on exchange rather than money.

The concept is simple:

You test someone else’s application
You earn one credit
You use that credit to receive a test on your own product

All features are free. Only the number of feedbacks you can receive per week is limited on free accounts.

Feedback quality is ensured through:

Structured testing forms
A tester rating system
Penalties for low-quality feedback

Even though the platform is still young, this approach directly addresses the main issue found on Reddit and creator communities:

Everyone wants feedback, but very few people want to give it.

You can check it out here:

https://www.testyourapp.io/

Conclusion

Finding beta users is one of the hardest steps when launching a product. Platforms exist, but they are often saturated with requests and poor in truly actionable feedback.

Whether you use Reddit, Discord, your personal network, or dedicated platforms, one rule always applies:

You need to create a real incentive for people to give feedback.

Without that, collecting meaningful feedback will always be slow, random, and frustrating.

Exchange-based systems are probably one of the most interesting ways to make user testing accessible to everyone.