Trial to Paid – SaaS Journeys to $1K MRR and Beyond

Early stage SaaS founders tell their unvarnished stories of how they clawed their way to $1k MRR. What worked, what didn't, how they stayed sane.

Last refreshed: July 26th, 2025 at 6:59 PM ⓘ

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Episodes

Shervin Koushan (AnyTracker): $800 MRR from 10K Freemium Users – Time to Experiment With Pricing?

In this episode of the Trial to Paid podcast, Shervin Koushan discusses the development and success of his versatile app, AnyTracker, which allows users to track various metrics from any website. Shervin outlines his guiding principles for creating successful apps and shares how his personal coding journey from high school to studying robotics at university influenced his work. He highlights the app's broad appeal, user growth, and revenue model, while also touching on business challenges and fu...

Jul 11, 2025•34 min•Ep. 5

Martin Rue (LangSesh): From Engineering Manager to Purpose-Driven SaaS Nomad

In this episode of the Trial to Paid podcast, Rob Morgan welcomes Martin Rue, the founder of LangSesh, to discuss his journey from a lifelong passion for languages and software engineering to creating an innovative language learning tool. Martin shares his guiding principles for building products, the importance of honesty and doing meaningful work, and his unique path as a digital nomad in Southeast Asia. The conversation delves into LangSesh's development, including challenges, technological c...

Jul 02, 2025•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 4

Jerad Maplethorpe (Hypertxt): From $3K to $2K MRR and Back Again – What I Learned From Churn

In this episode of the Trial to Paid podcast, Rob Morgan chats with Jerad Maplethorpe, founder of Hypertxt, an AI-driven SEO article writing tool. Jerad shares his journey from ideating and building projects to focusing on creating profitable businesses. He delves into his guiding principles, his background in writing and web development, and the evolution of Hypertext. The conversation covers the successes and challenges Jerad faced, including targeting the right audience, pricing strategies, a...

Jun 25, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 3

Mo Rassam (LiGo): From "Chief Failure Officer" to $5K MRR Helping B2B Teams Win on LinkedIn With AI

In this episode of the Trial to Paid podcast, Rob Morgan chats with Mo Rassam, co-founder of LiGo, about the journey of building and growing AI-powered products and businesses. Mo shares guiding principles that have helped in shaping his career and startups, particularly around leveraging AI for automation and maintaining lean operations. The conversation touches upon the inception of LiGo, a full-stack LinkedIn automation tool aimed at optimizing LinkedIn content for various user segments like ...

Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 2

Bill Yang (Rybbit): From “Too Dumb to Code” to $1.6K in 35 Days

In the very first episode of Trial to Paid, Rob Morgan chats with Bill Yang, the indie hacker behind Rybbit — a privacy-focused, open-source web analytics platform that hit $1.6K in revenue just 35 days after launch. Bill shares how he went from thinking he was “too dumb to code” in high school to building a high-traffic gaming analytics site (1.5M sessions/month) and then leveraging that experience to launch Rybbit. We dive into his origin story, why he chose open source, how he engineered a vi...

Jun 12, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 1

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