The Story
Mike is an Australian founder who built three SaaS apps that together generate $200K MRR: Senja (testimonial collection and display), Testimonial.to (video testimonials), and Clipbot (social media automation). His approach is all about building a portfolio of products rather than betting everything on one.
Mike's journey started with freelancing and consulting. He noticed that collecting and displaying customer testimonials was a pain point for many businesses. Instead of building one massive product, he created focused tools that each solve a specific part of the testimonial workflow.
The portfolio approach came from watching other founders get wiped out when a single product failed or got disrupted by AI. By having multiple revenue streams, Mike sleeps better at night knowing that if one product takes a hit, the others keep generating income.
Key Insights
The Portfolio Philosophy
- •Don't put all eggs in one basket
- •Each app should be simple and focused on one job
- •Cross-sell between products serving similar audiences
- •Diversification is insurance against AI disruption
Why Testimonials as a Niche
- •Every business needs social proof
- •It's a "boring" problem that's always relevant
- •Low churn - once integrated, businesses rarely switch
- •Multiple angles to attack the same market
10-Step Playbook for Building SaaS
- •Start with a problem you've experienced - Mike struggled with testimonials for his own projects
- •Validate with a landing page - Collect emails before building
- •Build the simplest version - One core feature that solves the main pain
- •Price from day one - Free users don't give real feedback
- •Focus on retention over acquisition - Happy customers refer others
- •Build in public - Share progress on X/Twitter for organic reach
- •Create content around your niche - SEO and social content compound
- •Listen to paying customers - They tell you what to build next
- •Automate everything possible - Time is your scarcest resource
- •Consider building adjacent products - Same audience, new revenue streams
Tech Stack
- •Next.js (frontend)
- •Node.js (backend)
- •PostgreSQL (database)
- •Vercel (hosting)
- •Stripe (payments)
- •Resend (email)
Resources
- •Follow Mike: https://x.com/mike_andreuzza
- •Senja: https://senja.io/