1 year in, bootstrapped my online 3D design platform to $1.5K MRR. AMA!
Hey all,
I'm Augis, founder of Morflax - The easiest online 3D design platform.
How it started
A year ago, I quit my job as a full-stack developer and started working on Morflax. To work on 3D projects was my dream for about 3-4 years. I was very inspired by the well-known 3D digital artists and the whole movement that later transformed into the NFT community.
Morflax and its vision were developed back in 2018, but I have not made much progress on building the platform itself. I was just making Morflax brand identity, strategy, vision, learning 3D modeling, design, and marketing... Or in other words "Overthinking too much".
But things only started to move pretty quickly when I quit my job last year. This led me to ship things faster without thinking too much. I joined the IndieHackers community, gained few followers on Twitter, and began my journey into the world of SaaS.
An important thing that led me to join the IndieHackers way, was a video: How to Build a Startup Without Funding by Pieter Levels. Before that, I thought I needed to attract VC investors to succeed with my 3D design tools.
First money
I started getting my first huge traffic and my first money after one of my tweets went viral 👇
I made $7k in revenue (150-lifetime deals sold-out) in one month, it was just insane at that moment! More about it on my latest post on IH. Later, I started focusing on growing MRR.
How it's going
Now Morflax has reached 12k signups and generated +$17k in revenue starting from February (after the first app launch). Currently, It's at $1500 MRR without huge effort in marketing.
I'm running this project solo. That means everything from development, to design, support, and marketing was handled by me. It's hard to make everything on your own, but I’m glad I have one teammate who helps me create 3D models. Together, we are making great progress in modeling 3D models for current and future Morflax apps/art projects!
Morflax is still in its early stage, but I will try to push it even forward next year!
1 year journey:
- My first project on PH: Morflax qlo - 3D clothing mockup builder
- My first SaaS: Morflax things - 3D device mockup builder
- Went from 10 to 2k followers on Twitter
- Made my first money from SaaS
- Sold 150-lifetime deals
- Made a few viral tweets
- Reached $1.5k MRR
- Launched Morflax things 2.0
- Launched new Morflax website and dashboard
- Launched new 3D design tool (beta): Morflax mesh - 3D illustration/icon designer
What's next:
- Launch new Morflax mesh update
- Build one of the most important Morflax 3D design tools
- Build several mini tools
- Make NFT collection
- Morflax blog
- Marketing, marketing, marketing...
I've made a ton of mistakes and learned a lot about SaaS, design & marketing.
Love to share the things I've learned from my journey here with you all. Ask me anything!
Indie hackers selling to indie hackers?
An amazing achievement, best of luck on scaling it further 💪
Do you think the MRR model works best in your niche? Have you considered/tried a one-time pass or pay to download? Or is it counterintuitive and churn is not an issue?
Thank you!
Yes, I was thinking about selling one-time passes or charging for downloads. Probably I'll experiment with it in the near future or will allow users to export high-quality images for free, charging only for storage and other services.
One-time payments always work well, but the MRR model provides stability to your income.
You can always charge a LOT more for one-time downloads than on your recurring tier. So, for example, you offer unlimited stuff for $9/mo, while a one-time download (or 1 day of unlimited downloads) could be $5.
And IMHO, you should charge more 🙃 $9/mo is an incredible price for solo founders, but it shouldn't be your unlimited tier for people working in big corps who want actually to use it on an unlimited basis 🙂
Either way, you know your project better; I just wanted to encourage you not to stop experimenting and iterating, even on such scary things as pricing!
Yes, I know that I can charge $5 for a few downloads and it's not a bad idea to have a one-time pass near monthly plans. Like I said before I was thinking about it, but didn't have time to make such experiments. Now my full focus is to make the Morflax platform as good as possible in a short period of time and everything just falls into the long-term strategy.
And yes, you're right about charging more 😅 I was planning to introduce one more unlimited plan, and limit the existing $9/mo plan after Morflax mesh will get out of the beta stage.
You just said everything I thought to make soon 😅 Thanks for your advice and feedback!
Wow! I would love to know more about the development process? Like the tech and tooling in building the editor? Is everything vector?
Also followed you on Twitter and DM'd, will love to know more. Became a fan :)
The Editor is 3D-based (no vector) software made using Three.js framework together with Vue.js & Nuxt.js.
All 3D models were made using Blender 3D software.
would like to hear this
Thanks for the share! This gives me hope that solo founders can make it. I'm fired up!
I'm happy to share my story. Everyone can make it!
Nice work! Do you have an example of what you could use Morflax for? Inspiration gallery?
For now, you can find it on the landing page ("Get inspired" section) of each tool:
https://morflax.com/mesh - 3D illustrations
https://morflax.com/things - 3D device mockups
I plan to make a separate page for more use cases soon!
checking them out!
Dude, super impressed with the power of the site. Keep up the good work, and I'll definitely use it in the future!
Thanks! Be sure to let me know your feedback.
I have been following your project for approximately 6 months, I saw it by chance on Twitter, unfortunately I don't remember which account had shared it, but what you are creating seemed great.
I hope you don't give up on it ❤️
Thank you, it's very nice to hear that 😍
Congrats on pursuing your dream! I'm still deciding if I should go full-time on my project. What convinced you to go full-time?
The first reason I quit my job was the desire to leave my comfort zone. Discomfort helps you act differently, faster, and more creatively!
The second reason was that I really wanted to move this project/brand forward and I was sure I would succeed. I’m just passionate about it, about 3D, about Morflax.
This project requires a lot of my focus, it takes a huge amount of time and energy. I have no idea how I would build this while still working.
Oh man, I love this. It's going to go places. Congratulations and keep working hard on it!
Thank you very much!
Congrats! Especially as you quit your job to build fulltime instead. Its an idea I've been toying with as well.
Thank you! I have no idea how I would build it while still working an old job, it sounds insane for me 😅
This is great. Keep at it!
Thank you!
amazing numbers here, Augis. You mentioned you haven't done much marketing, are you planning to? and if so, what channels will you focus on and who do you see as your buyer?
Yes, of course! Once I reach a certain level with my software, I will move on to marketing more.
Probably, I'll focus on SEO (Morflax blog) and growing Twitter/Instagram audiences. This is great for such a business!
I see design and advertising agencies as my main client, as well as designers/founders.
Is there a way to combine the mockups and the illustrations? I want stars around the laptop screen for example.
Hey! At this point, it's not possible!
But you can export 3D icons and mockups from Morflax and add them along with Figma/Photoshop/Sketch. For now, it's the best workaround I'm using.
I just need to think about how to properly combine these two apps right now.
Congrats on all the success you have so far.
I had no idea that making mockup of UI was such a recurring need for some people that it justify a subscription. who is your typical user if I may ask ?
Thank you! My users mostly are marketing/design agencies, solo founders, and freelancers.
The subscription model on such a tool has its own problems: high churn...