Pre launch / Idea Validation
Reddit niche community
Found a small, niche subreddit for video production professionals and posted a single feedback-request post with a link to the free tool. No pricing was shown on the site to avoid appearing salesy. Limited to one post per subreddit to avoid spam perception.
→ 58 upvotes, detailed feature request lists from commenters, confirmed product-market fit
MVP Build
Organic direct
Built MVP in 3 days using known stack (JavaScript, Vue.js, Node.js) with a single feature: click a button and a timer starts on another screen. Deliberately avoided new technologies to ship fast.
→ Working MVP shipped in 3 days
First Revenue (~224 days after launch)
Organic direct
Continued iterating on the product evenings (~1 hour/day as a side project) after the Reddit validation post. First dollar came 224 days after first commit.
→ First paying customer acquired
Early Growth – Product Led Growth / Free Tier
Product-led growth
Built the product logo and domain name (stagetimer.io) directly into every shared timer link/view. Freelancers using the free tier would pull up the timer at client events; attendees would see the branded interface and later sign up themselves. Free tier acts as a trojan horse into paid events.
→ ~1/3 of all traffic now comes from word-of-mouth/referrals
Scaling – SEO via Niche Integration Content
SEO — niche content
Identified niche keywords by observing what users were already doing (e.g., using Stream Deck devices). Created dedicated documentation pages and YouTube videos showing exactly how to use Stagetimer with those integrations. Targeted low-volume but high-intent keywords where searchers have a concrete problem and are ready to buy.
→ ~50% of traffic now comes from Google search
Scaling – Content Iteration Loop
Seo content optimization
Published documentation and articles, then monitored with analytics to see which pages users actually clicked on. Doubled down on content that showed organic traction rather than guessing keywords upfront.
→ Compounding SEO traffic contributing to 86,000 unique visitors/month
Scaling – Paid Ads
Google Ads
Wife (co-operator) took over Google Ads management after joining the business. Spend is $1,400/month against $25,000 MRR, keeping margins at 80–90%.
→ Contributing to overall growth; exact isolated outcome not stated
Operations Scale – Team Structure
Other
Hired wife to handle Google Ads, sales emails, and all customer support after reaching $3,000/month. Lucas retained product, development, finance, and strategic direction. Division of labor allowed both functions to run professionally without hiring outside the family.
→ Business scaled from $3K MRR (quit job threshold) to $10K MRR by Sept 2023, then $25K MRR
MRR $25k Users 20k users