Founder Playbook · Starter Story
7 tactics from Mike
I Built 3 SaaS Apps to $200K MRR: Here’s My Exact Playbook
Watch the full episode“Pick an idea that's been done before. New ideas are risky, new ideas need validation. If you pick an idea that's been done before you know that people want it, you know that it works. We go and find the idea, we work out how well they're doing despite of a bad UX.”
Only Build Ideas Proven By Incumbents With Bad UX So Design Quality Becomes The Wedge
Mike refuses to validate demand from scratch. He hunts for categories where incumbents are already making money despite poor UX, then out-designs them. The bad-UX-but-paying signal is what makes him claim a zero-failure rate across five SaaS apps — design quality becomes the differentiator, not the bet.
“We will never go after an AI focused business. Too many times you have an idea that relies on something, an API that you do not control, something that you're not in control of which puts you at massive massive risk.”
Avoid AI-Wrapper Businesses Because You Don’t Own The API That Makes Them Possible
Mike's 'can't fail' filter explicitly excludes AI-wrapper businesses because they depend on third-party APIs that can change pricing, terms, or capabilities overnight. He'd rather build boring tools where he owns the full stack than chase sexy ideas that may not exist in six months.
“We always start with four co-founders. What that does is minimize founder fallout which is one of the key reasons most businesses fail. With those four co-founders we always split the company equally 25% each. We then grow the company to about $10,000 MRR which covers costs.”
Assemble Four Equal Co-Founders At 25 Percent Each As Founder-Fallout Insurance
Mike's portfolio model assembles a four-person founding team (front-end dev, back-end dev, designer, and a generalist) with equal 25% splits from day one. They only start paying themselves after the app crosses $10K MRR. The equal split is explicitly a founder-fallout insurance policy — most businesses die from team dynamics, not the market.
“Offer a lifetime deal, offer away your product for $59, $100 whatever it is for a single time payment... your aim should be to close your LTD with 100 grand in your pocket that you can use for a year or two to write more content.”
Stack Three Lifetime Deal Rounds Targeting $100K Before You Switch To MRR
Mike funds shipping with three LTD waves: a private LTD to early communities (Reddit, Facebook, X), a public AppSumo launch, and a final 'last chance' private LTD at higher prices. The goal is roughly $100K of non-dilutive cash before flipping to MRR — plus paying users who give honest feedback because they have skin in the game.
“It is never ever ever ever too early to start writing content. Start writing landing pages, start writing blog posts... write competitor pages, alternative-to pages, get it out there as early as humanly possible. The longer it's up there the longer ChatGPT, the longer Google will start indexing it.”
Write Competitor And Alternative-To Pages Day One Because Indexing Is A Long Compound Curve
Mike treats content as a compounding asset that must start ticking immediately, funded by LTD cash. He specifically targets competitor and 'alternative to' pages because they capture commercial-intent traffic from people already shopping the category he copied — and both Google and LLMs need months to index them.
“It used to be Quora that we would go out and answer questions on but more and more we're seeing Reddit as an important place to go and answer questions about your product. Scan Reddit, see who's asking for one of your competitors, answer honestly authentically on Reddit posts, look for subreddits where your customers are hanging out.”
Hunt Customers In Reddit Threads That Mention Your Competitors And Answer As The Founder
Mike has shifted his community acquisition channel from Quora to Reddit, specifically searching for threads mentioning competitor tools. The tactic is to answer authentically as the founder rather than spamming, intercepting demand right at the moment of consideration — when prospects are already shopping the category.
“never give away an account for free always charge people if people pay for it they'll use it that's key to what you want at this stage in the playbook you want people using your product you want people telling you why it's crap”
Refuse Free Accounts Because Paying Users Are The Only Ones Who Actually Use The Product
Mike refuses free accounts even in the earliest days. Charging a one-time LTD fee filters for users who will actually log in, use the product, and give brutal feedback. Free users don't activate, so they don't produce the signal you need to fix the MVP — payment is a feedback-quality filter, not just a revenue lever.