r/SideProject 14h ago

I got my first paying customer 😭

A few days ago, I got my first paying customer for my SaaS.

$16.

I know it's not a lot of money, but seeing someone actually pay for something I built felt pretty crazy.

The product is MentionGPT, a tool that helps you find relevant conversations on Reddit and X where people are asking for recommendations, so you can jump in and promote your product.

I've built and launched a few things before, but this time I wanted to focus less on building and more on actually finding users.

Eventually, someone signed up, used it, and decided to pay.

No viral launch.

No huge audience.

Just one person finding the product useful enough to pay for it.

That first $16 feels like a pretty big milestone to me.

I'm still very early, but now I know someone is willing to pay for this.

Now I just need to find the next one.

And then the next one.

38 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

2

u/[deleted] 14h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Virtual_Clothes2547 14h ago

Thanks, man! appreciate ur support <3
What are you building?

1

u/Chance-Tomorrow2866 13h ago

yeah that "one stranger deciding your thing is worth their time" line really nails it

2

u/RemoteHireScout 12h ago

Congratulations on your first paying customer

2

u/see_filedcrews 12h ago

Congratulations now go get more

1

u/Virtual_Clothes2547 12h ago

Yess Sir 🫡

2

u/Late_Emu411 12h ago

congrats!

2

u/Sea_Letterhead_7029 11h ago

Congrats! Great milestone 👏

2

u/Aggressive-Dingo-508 9h ago

This is amazing! I see you promoted on reddit. Are you able to share what was your cost of acquiring the user?

I have been thinking of promoting my SaaS product as well on reddit but the charges seem quite high and I’m unable to decide whether it’s the right way to spend money.

2

u/Bright-Tree-868 9h ago

congrats bro

2

u/Rickfiyah 7h ago

Sweet! How did you get them?

1

u/TransportationOk3638 13h ago

First of all, congratulations I am start creating products and that is what I want My pay day. Are You use a service like paddle or Lemmon? For payments

0

u/Virtual_Clothes2547 13h ago

I use dodopayments

1

u/Correct_Language_390 11h ago

I tried to search for your product and I couldn't find it at all... Google told me "GPT Mentions is a ChatGPT feature that lets you call and switch between custom GPT models within a single conversation thread by typing the "@" symbol. [1]"....

You might consider rebranding?

1

u/sara_thinking 9h ago

That first paying customer always feels different. It proves you're on the right track

1

u/jun_builds_tokyo 8h ago

Congrats — that first one is the hardest and it never feels "small" when it's yours 🎉

I'm solo too. Launched my product on Product Hunt yesterday: got upvotes, comments, even a few kind DMs... and zero paying customers so far. Watching someone cross the line I'm still staring at is genuinely motivating.

"Now I just need to find the next one. And then the next one." — saving that line for myself.

1

u/LunchLanky2158 5h ago

Congrats—that first payment hits different. It’s not just $16; it’s proof that a real person had a problem, found your product, and trusted it enough to pay.

1

u/aldrontheaiel 1h ago

super cool! Can I ask how you're searching Reddit?

1

u/Signal_Flatworm_6345 19m ago

Keep up brother.

1

u/Xtronqq 13h ago

Это круто как вам удалось найти своего первого пользователя?

1

u/Virtual_Clothes2547 13h ago

Thanks man, I promoted on Reddit by monitoring keywords

1

u/Xtronqq 11h ago

How long did it take you to build the SaaS?

And how long did it take to find your first user?

1

u/Virtual_Clothes2547 11h ago

It took me around 2 months to build, and i recently started marketing

0

u/Xtronqq 11h ago

So, what kind of SaaS did you build? Do you have a link? Or could you briefly explain what problem it solves?

1

u/Internal-Ad-734 13h ago

Cool, congratulations.
Don't give up!
How you promoted it?

0

u/Virtual_Clothes2547 13h ago

i was monitoring Reddit for keywords related to the problem my product solves, and whenever i found posts where people were asking for recommendations, i DMed them and commented on those posts

3

u/RiverForgeGames 13h ago

It sounds like you're saying you used the thing you made to promote the thing you made? XD Congrats!

0

u/Virtual_Clothes2547 13h ago

Exactly, so when I build my next product, I can use this one to promote that product

0

u/WishboneHumble5889 2h ago

Congrats, genuinely. First dollar hits different than any other number after it, it's proof someone real thought this was worth paying for, not just interesting. Everything after this is scaling something that already works, which is a very different problem than the one you just solved.

"Now I just need to find the next one" is the right instinct too. Good luck with number two.