How a solopreneur built a simple timer app to $25,000/month

Executive overview

Most app ideas feel too simple to be worth building. Lukas Hermann built a remote countdown timer for live events — one feature, three days to MVP — and grew it to $25k MRR as a solo founder.

The key moves: validate on Reddit before charging a cent, use product-led growth so every shared link becomes an ad, and find a niche small enough that big companies won't bother.

The simplest ideas win when the niche is ignored, the pain is real, and the tool is shareable.

Finding and validating the idea

• Observed a friend in a video studio walking across the room to press a timer button — an obvious workflow problem
• Searched for the right subreddit, posted once, asked for feedback with no price attached
• Users responded with feature lists and "I've been waiting for this" — clear validation signal
• One Reddit post with 58 upvotes changed everything; no spam, one post per subreddit

Building the MVP

• Shipped in three days using only known technologies: JavaScript, Vue.js, Node.js
• First version had a single feature: click a button, timer starts on a remote screen
• Avoided new frameworks to eliminate unknown limitations and learning overhead
• Worked on it one hour per evening as a side project; took 224 days to earn first dollar

Growing to $25k MRR

• 50% of traffic from Google SEO; ~33% from word of mouth / product sharing
• Every shared link shows the logo with the domain name written inside — free brand exposure at events
• Freemium model: freelancers use the free tier, bring it to events, hit limits, convert
• Niche SEO: created documentation pages and YouTube videos for hyper-specific search queries (e.g. "countdown timer stream deck companion")
• Doubled down on content that already showed organic clicks rather than guessing

Running the business

• Wife joined to handle Google Ads, sales emails, and customer support; Lukas owns product and development
• Infrastructure and server: ~$280/month; tools and services: ~$250/month; paid ads: $1,400/month
• Profit margin: 80–90%
• 20,000 total users; 4,400 paying or previously paying; 86,000 unique monthly visitors

Advice for founders

• Observe people doing their jobs — wasted time and awkward workflows are everywhere
• There are many $1M niches with simple apps that haven't been touched yet; finding them is the hard part
• Europeans and Germans: regulation fear is overblown — just start
• Use known tools to ship fast; don't learn new tech while validating