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and I have created over 30 products. We recently passed the $1 million mark This is Sanskar. A few years ago, he worked the night shift at a call center. But today he manages eight different products that have collectively earned him over $1 million. We have about a thousand paying customers every month. And now our team has zero people. It's just him creating very simple applications that solve very simple problems. You see, most people think that you need one big app idea to be successful. But Sanskar proved that it is possible to succeed with a portfolio of tiny projects. Many people are watching. Very few people act. So if you are the one who takes action, you will be ahead of everyone else by default.
So I asked him to come on the channel and break down the system behind everything he does. And in this video, we'll discuss eight different products that he's built that have been successful, as well as a bunch of those that haven't, how he finds ideas that actually have a chance of making money, and the exact steps he would take if he were building a product from scratch today. This will be interesting. Let's get started. I'm Gus, and this is Starter Story. Well, Sanskar, welcome to Starter Story. I'm very happy to see you on the channel. Could you share with us who you are, what you have created and what your story is? So, my name is Sanskar. I'm from Bangalore, India, and I've created over 30
products, eight of which have generated revenue. I run this company myself, and today I want to break down all eight products, how I came up with each idea, how I built it, and where they are now. That's one of the reasons I wanted to see you on the channel, because you created and launched all these projects. That's how I found you online. So could you briefly talk about all the projects you've created, and then about the eight that you mentioned that are making money? Good. So , I created over 30 products. You can find a list of all products on my website.io/ro. My biggest app is magic slides.app. It helps convert any document, PDF file, YouTube video into a full-fledged presentation that can be exported to PPTX and edited. We
also have an editor. Number two, ask video is an app that helps you communicate with video. You can just provide a YouTube link and you will be able to communicate with him. Next, we have the Blur web app, a Chrome extension that helps people hide sensitive information with a single click. Then there is Magic Form. So, basically, I created an app for Google Sheets, which is a little bit further down, it's called Sheet AI, and its purpose is to use AI in Google Sheets. And when that happened, $2,000 MRR, we got feedback from investors, so one investor wanted me to create a pitch. And that's literally where this idea came from. When that happened, I thought, "I've covered Google Sheets, I've covered, uh, Google Slides too; should I
create something for Google Forms?" So, uh, that's when Magic Form came along. Talking PDF is another app similar to the Ask Video PDF system. And, uh, yeah, uh, then there are a few more apps, but those are the main ones. Yes, I like it. I like the idea of having just one function, like in tiny apps. I think that's very, very smart. Let's move on to, let's just talk about income. So how much money have these products brought in over time? Just give us a general idea. In total, we received about 856 thousand from these products through Stripe. Then we have over 85,000 that we got through AppSumo. And overall, speaking of which, we recently crossed the $1 million mark in total revenue over the last 6 years. When I
say this, I want to be very clear: the first two years were literally zero, and the other years were pretty slow and steady. So it wasn't always like it is now. Sunscar is proof that you can achieve success through a series of small bets. I really hope you watch this and feel inspired to start implementing your own ideas. If you need to get started, we've put together a database of ideas for side projects. This is a list of over 50 side project ideas, all of them tested and backed by real data. In this free database, you'll find a ton of information like revenue, startup costs, growth tactics, pretty much everything you need to validate an idea and
get started. So, if you want to get this database, it is 100% free. Just grab it from the link in the description. Okay, back to Sunscar. Yeah, I think it's really cool to see all the different things you've created and how they've accumulated over time. As you said, in your opinion, what is the common feature of all your projects? First of all, all of my products, literally all of them, are either Chrome extensions or Workspace add-ons, which is the Google Workspace Marketplace. So that was one clear theme: I wasn't trying to build everything from scratch, but rather looking for a platform where I could do it. Another thing is that they don't have a lot of features. I clearly understand what exactly this application does.
The thing is, when you add too many features, you don't know what you're selling. Customers also don't understand what they are buying. They say, "Dude, tell me what you're offering, I came for one thing." People don't come for 10 different things, and when you start, you can't create everything. And the third thing is understanding. So I launched Magic Slides 2 years after learning how to build Send Simple App. Send Simple was an add-on for Google Sheets that helped send emails directly through your Gmail account. You had email addresses in Google Sheets and could set up sending; the point is that I knew how to build products. This gave me an advantage because I understood how long it would take to create a product. This helped
me understand what exactly to build, because people get lost when trying to build an app. You don't know how long it will take, but if you have any idea, it will help. What I like about your words is that ideas come to you immediately after doing something, talking to someone, or studying some small problem. And honestly, I think it's really cool that you were able to launch all these different applications or projects. I want to move on to your approach to creating many projects, but briefly talk about your experience. How did you get to the point where you are creating over 30 projects? Yes. I saw a video of a guy who talked about how he built a software sitting in a room and said, "I'm selling this for 1 crore," which is
hundreds of thousands of dollars. So I thought: if he could do it, maybe I can too. I made it clear to my father that I would not go to college. But nothing worked, because I didn't do anything for 2 years. I needed to do something. So I applied for a job at a call center. I worked in a call center. Then I moved on to work in sales. I worked eight months in sales, calling people, sitting all day, just reprogramming. After a while you're like, "That's not it." I'm back. I'm at zero again. I thought, "Okay, I quit my job. What, what do I do now?" I saw a guy who shared login and registration screens, 300 likes. How is that? People appreciate it, and I thought, "I want to share this too." I
created an account on GitHub, under the nickname " Indian app guy," and then I, uh, posted my own login screen. It got really good reviews, and since then I've literally been creating to share, so I tried to build something of my own. I saw levels.io . I tried to create something in the evenings and during my vacations. I launched two products. I was able to generate revenue within 2 days of launching the lifetime licenses. Uh, which I made myself. So I did it twice, and then I was finally able to quit my job, and it's been the same journey ever since, full of excitement about what to create next, what we're going to build, and it's been an amazing journey: launching over 30 products and making a million.
Yes. I like it, I like the energy with which you talk about it. I think that's really cool, and I think, yeah, I also think it's really cool what kind of environment you came from, where you had to really learn everything from scratch. So congratulations on this journey. I think that's really great. Let's change the subject a bit. So, I think, or one of the main reasons I wanted to see you on the channel, Ryan, is because you created all these projects. So Sanskar, I'm really curious, how do you come up with all these app ideas? Do you have a process you follow to come up with different ideas for apps? Today, if I were looking for ideas, this is what I would do: first, uh, the Trust MR platform that I showed you is a very
interesting place where you can see the revenues and other things of companies. Another place that works really well is Twitter. I'm very active there, and I feel like once you start liking the right posts and following the right people, you'll get a huge amount of inspiration. You'll be able to come up with better ideas and everything else if you implement them. Often people believe they have to be ready from day one with the best and most correct idea. If I tried that hard, I would never have launched 30 projects. Keep in mind that I made these 30 because I only made one in the first year and realized that I was trying to sell something that people might not need at all. So this part is very important-keep
iterating, because that's how you start to think differently and realize: maybe it's worth trying this, maybe it's worth trying that. Another way is to solve your own problem. Solving your own problems is a very interesting approach to this. Just keep in mind, I think a lot of people misunderstand this, like students or people who don't pay for things, trying to solve their own problems. Make sure there's someone to pay for the problem you're solving, because all this indie hacking only works when there 's revenue. Do other people value your product enough to pay for it? If not, you are either targeting the wrong
people or solving the wrong problem. Another thing is, um, placing buy buttons before the product is even created. This is very interesting, and to be honest, I didn't follow it for a long time myself. I am a developer. I love to create, don't you ? And when you love to create, you get too caught up in, um, details. You forget that, hey, you have to get started first. Now I can just place a "buy" button. If people buy, then I will create it. So that's another way. Whatever idea you have, literally after watching this video you'll think, "I have this idea." I wanted to create this. Maybe I should think about how to build it. No, just spend 5 minutes. Create a simple page.
Use any tool without code. Create a simple page for this. "Hello, I'm selling this." It is available for pre-order. Simply put a date between 10 and 30 days, how long you think it will take to create a minimum viable product, and say, "This will be available within 10 or 30 days of your purchase." And when you get your first sale, then start the 10-day timer, right? So, this is a very interesting way. So this is another path that I advise many people. Cool . So, I really like the idea of putting "buy" buttons and seeing if people even need it before creating anything. So let's say you have an idea that you're ready to implement. What is your development process? Tell us in general
how you do it and the tools that you.So if you want to build a web app, here's the stack that I use. I use NextJS for coding. For the backend, I use Supabase and Cloudflare. When it comes to sending emails, I recommend two different solutions. The first is Resend. Another method I use is Apps Script. But the bulk of the work is not done by me personally, but by the Clack service. Obviously you create all these products and it's really great that they exist. Just tell us in general terms how you acquire clients for them? How do you tell people about the different products you have created? I got my first sale through Facebook.
I went into Facebook groups and found a group that had exactly the target audience for which I created the product. Now, talking about the other part, I started sharing on the AppSumo platform. So I launched there and got sales again. Then I started creating content on YouTube. Many people believe they need to be ready today to create content. This is what I looked like 5 years ago. You see, I didn't have good equipment. You see, I was completely unprepared. But I didn't let that stop me. I realized that the power of content is incredible. If you just start publishing, you will succeed. I created a separate channel for each product, you know? I created a channel for Magic Slides, for Sheetie, for everyone, and created
content around them. Because if you create one page that talks about different apps, you will simply confuse people, because my apps were not designed for one audience. They were for completely different audiences. The best part about YouTube is its longevity, meaning a video created 5 years ago can still generate sales today. Here, if you look at the oldest video, it was 3 years ago, yes, it's literally Magic Slides. Likewise, if you search for Magic Form, you'll see this, it's Magic Form, the same thing, and you'll see a metric of 145,000 views, a new channel, all of this is organic, right? Next we have SheetAIapp, as you can see, there's also about 2000, um, and if you look at the popular ones,
it's 17,000, 10,000, 7,000. This helped me grow to 2000+ monthly revenue, and all of this is thanks to creating content on YouTube. Another platform is Instagram. Nowadays, I think Instagram is a must. So Instagram gives a very good result: if you post something today, you can get it. My journey on Instagram was the same as elsewhere, and like what I did with apps. I feel like I'm not an expert on this. I know it will work. So I launched a few apps. I literally posted 10 videos at a time. It was me, just holding the phone in my hands. This
app helps you do this, that, and that. I was writing this down. I opened the editing app, the Instagram app. You just add a title, caption, and publish. I could publish 10 videos in 1 hour. Keep in mind, I did n't know exactly what would work. I was just going to post content and be active. So, this is another way. I think the main idea here is that you did a lot of different experiments. You had an idea, you implemented it, you saw what happened and what worked, and you either focused on that or you made another version. The same with content: publish 10 videos, watch which one gets the most views. The next day you do something similar. I hope someone watching this video now understands that it's not necessary to make one big bet.
You can make many small bets, as you did with both content and your projects, and perhaps this is one of the reasons for your success. So, I think that's really, really cool. Cool, Sanskar. Well, that brings us to the last question we ask everyone who comes to Starter Story. If you could give advice to yourself five or six years ago when you were just starting out, or to someone looking at us now and just starting out, what would be your top piece of advice? Advice I would give to my younger self: The biggest mistake was to keep working on one thing even when it wasn't working. I was trying to sell something I thought was great, and I thought, why are n't people using it? I think that's
great. To sum it up in one word- add more "buy" buttons online. If you don't give people the opportunity to pay, you're not even allowing a miracle to happen. I talk to people and ask: hello, how are you? For example, I want to learn something. I also want to have a part-time job. I want to earn some money. I asked myself: is there a way for people to buy something from me? The answer is always the same. So if you want to make money, if you want to generate income, close your eyes and tell me how many "buy" buttons you have. If zero, here is your answer. If there are not many, then the answer is that
they need to be increased. I would say to myself: Sanskar, stop trying to add more features. Put the "buy" button. That's very sound advice, Sanskar. Thank you for laying everything out on the shelves, telling me about your process and how you find ideas. That was really cool. Leave comments for Sanskar or any questions and we will try to answer them in the comments. If you are at the beginning of this journey and want knowledge, I document my entire journey and everything I learn every day . And if you have any questions, you can find me on Instagram, write to me, and I will definitely answer. I'm always happy to help because I know how important it can be.
Dude, thanks for joining. I appreciate it. Thank you for inviting me. It was wonderful. So, I just finished talking to Sanskar. It was a very interesting conversation. First of all, I like his energy. He's a cool guy and I really liked his passion. I hope you felt it too if you watched the entire video. But I said somewhere in the middle of the interview that my main conclusion is to conduct a lot of experiments. In one year, he launched a product that, for some reason, didn't work, so he changed his approach and started launching a lot of different things until something took off. I know there is a debate about whether to focus on one thing or work on several
different projects. You know, I, I think you can win in both cases, and we have examples of that on the channel. But the part with the experiments, I think, is the most interesting, because when he was just starting out, or if you're just starting out, you don't know, you don't know what's going to work. You don't know what won't work. So if you run a bunch of experiments, run a bunch of everything, you'll get the signal that you might need to figure out whether you should go down that path or not. And finally, apply the same approach when it comes to content. And I myself fall victim to this, when you want everything to be perfect, or feel worthless if it's not good enough. Whereas his approach was simple: I record myself, boom, boom,
publish and that's it. I do n't even think about it anymore. And he also uses it as a platform for experimentation to see what people like and what they don't. And I think that's something I'm going to try to adopt a little bit more. So yes. Hmm, that was a very interesting interview. I hope you liked it. I hope you were interested in learning about him and his methods, how he finds ideas, how he implements them. If you're ready to start creating your own projects, we have a link in the description to a database with tons of ideas that you can get inspired by, test them out, and start building yourself. So, that's all for today. Thank you very much for watching. See you in the next video. Peace be upon you.
