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HelpKit is a simple Notion based micro SaaS doing $10K+ MRR
- Solo founder + bootstrapped
- 400+ customers including universities and enterprises
- Built while traveling the world as a digital nomad
All without any paid ads.
What is HelpKit?
HelpKit is a tool that transforms your Notion workspace into a professional help center or documentation website.
Instead of using clunky traditional knowledge base software, teams can write in Notion's intuitive editor and HelpKit automatically creates a beautiful, searchable help center.
The genius is in the simplicity - companies already using Notion for internal documentation can instantly publish that same content as customer-facing help centers. No migration, no learning curve, just instant documentation websites.
Use cases include:
- Customer support knowledge bases
- Product documentation sites
- Developer API docs
- Internal company wikis
- FAQ sections
Origin Story
Dominik Sobe, a self-taught developer from Austria, stumbled into building HelpKit while creating a mobile app. He needed a help center for the App Store listing but found existing solutions frustrating and overly complex.
Already using Notion for his own notes, Dominik had an insight: "What if I could use Notion's amazing editor to create a professional help center?"
After searching for a solution and finding nothing, he built it himself.
The MVP was born from personal frustration - the best kind of startup origin story.
Dominik launched while living as a digital nomad, coding from cafes and co-working spaces around the world.
Growth Strategy Highlight: Engineering as Marketing
One of HelpKit's most successful growth tactics was building free tools for the Notion community.
The star example: the Simple Notion Table Generator.
Notion users desperately wanted simple tables but only had access to complex database views.
Dominik discovered a workaround using LaTeX code - powerful but impossibly technical for most users. So he built a free visual table generator at helpkit.so/simple-notion-table-generator.
The tool went viral in Notion communities.
Users could visually create tables and get the code to paste into Notion.
At the bottom, a simple CTA: "Using Notion? Your company might need a help center built on it."
This single free tool drove consistent traffic and leads for months, ranking well in search and getting shared across Reddit and Facebook groups.
Core Business Principles
"Swim with the current" - Dominik learned this lesson from a chance encounter on a boat in Lisbon. Instead of trying to educate the market about new concepts, HelpKit built on two existing trends: companies needing help centers (proven market) and Notion's explosive growth (rising tide).
Do things that don't scale - In the early days, Dominik sent hundreds of personalized emails, hopped on demo calls, and manually onboarded every customer. This hands-on approach provided invaluable product feedback.
Value-based pricing - Starting at just $19/month, HelpKit learned to price based on value delivered, not costs. When customers replace $299/month help desk software with HelpKit, even $99/month feels like a bargain.
Long-term Growth Strategy: Building in Public
Dominik embraced radical transparency, sharing revenue numbers on Twitter from day one. This strategy delivered multiple benefits:
- Created accountability and motivation
- Attracted early customers who wanted to support the journey
- Built credibility in the indie hacker community
- Generated word-of-mouth as people shared his updates
He strategically stopped sharing exact numbers at $10K MRR when copycats started duplicating his entire landing page.
The building in public approach had done its job - HelpKit had momentum.
Top Lessons & Takeaways
- Manual outreach wins early - Your first 50 customers come from grinding, not growth hacks
- Price higher than comfortable - Dominik was shocked when companies paid $1,000/year upfront
- Use value metrics - HelpKit limits articles per plan, naturally growing revenue with customer success
- Skip freemium for B2B - A 7-day trial creates urgency without giving away the product
- Build where demand exists - Don't educate markets; serve existing needs with better solutions
- Free tools acquire customers - Engineering as marketing works when tools genuinely help your audience
- Expansion revenue is gold - Growing with your customers beats acquiring new ones
Further Reading
Read the HelpKit journey on Indie Hackers -
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