The Story
Fernando Pessagno is a 35-year-old Argentinian product designer currently based in Sweden. After running a web design studio in Argentina for over 10 years, he got bored with client work and transitioned to working at Envato in Mexico, then became head of design at an AI startup in Estonia.
Today, he runs two profitable SaaS products: aiCarousels and ResumeMaker.Online. Together, they generate over $15K/month and attract 150,000+ unique users monthly.
The story of aiCarousels is particularly remarkable. Just one day before Fernando was supposed to go on vacation, he got worrying news - his full-time job might be in danger. As a foreign worker in Sweden relying on a work visa, losing his job was his biggest nightmare.
Instead of panicking, Fernando turned to his passion for coding. He embarked on a 10-day #buildinpublic challenge on X and YouTube during his vacation. His goal was simple: create and ship something within 10 days. That "something" became aiCarousels, which now generates $5,000+ MRR with 95% profit margins.
Key Insights
The 10-Day Build Challenge
- •Started as a distraction from job anxiety
- •Built and launched aiCarousels in just 10 days
- •Launched on Product Hunt: 9th place, 154 upvotes, 64 comments
- •Got 5 paid users on launch day ($50 MRR immediately)
- •Reached 12-month revenue goal ($2,500/mo) in just 6 months
The Problem He Solved
- •Noticed carousel posts were becoming popular on LinkedIn
- •Creating good-looking carousels is time-consuming, even for designers
- •Built a tool that automates the design work
- •Users only do the minimum to get polished results
First-Mover Advantage
- •First AI-powered carousel generator in the market
- •Strong domain name and SEO from early backlinks
- •Featured on HackerNoon and Indie Hackers
- •Medium post got nearly 20,000 views
The Two Products
aiCarousels ($5K+ MRR)
- •AI-powered carousel generator for LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok
- •Helps non-designers create professional carousels
- •Features: auto-resize text, color palettes, font pairings, custom templates
- •AI Content Generator: creates content from topics, URLs, or YouTube videos
ResumeMaker.Online ($2K+ MRR)
- •AI-powered resume builder
- •WYSIWYG editor for non-tech-savvy users
- •Over 700K+ resumes downloaded
- •35,000+ newsletter subscribers
- •80,000 unique users per month
Tech Stack
- •Basic coding (no fancy frameworks)
- •Outseta (authentication, billing, customer support)
- •AI APIs for content generation
- •Focus on simplicity and speed
Customer Retention Strategy
Personal Touch
- •Responds quickly to support requests
- •Fixes issues immediately
- •Follows customers on LinkedIn, likes their posts
- •Openly communicates he's a one-person team
Weekly Updates
- •Sends weekly emails summarizing improvements
- •Written in casual, personal tone
- •Builds trust that issues will be resolved
Growth Channels
- •Product Hunt launches
- •LinkedIn personal brand (3,000+ followers)
- •Building in public on Twitter
- •YouTube videos documenting the build process
- •SEO from backlinks and strong domain
Key Advice
- •Chaos creates the muse - tough times can spark creativity
- •Ship fast, even if imperfect
- •Personal customer support builds loyalty
- •First-mover advantage matters in new categories
- •Multiple products = diversified income and lower risk
Resources
- •aiCarousels: https://aicarousels.com/
- •ResumeMaker: https://resumemaker.online/
- •Follow Fernando: https://x.com/potherca