$14K MRR Simple HTML to PDF Converter

PDFShift is a simple HTML to PDF converter doing $14K MRR

• 1 Problem
• 1 Solution
• 1 Founder (Developer + Marketer)

Top lesson from Cyril Nicodeme’s success?

Keep shipping - Cyril has shipped almost 70 projects, and only 4 of them have made any money.

What is PDF Shift?

PDFShift is a simple API to convert any HTML document into a PDF, Screenshot, Banner etc.

It is used by businesses for various use cases like converting invoices to PDFs, or sending reports, sharing customer data etc.

Going through the testimonials of PDFShift you can clearly see the value it provides to its users -

Initial Launch

PDF Shift was launched back in May 2018 on Indie Hackers with a simple post - “Don't be afraid! Ship it!”

That’s when Cyril built the product and announced it to the world.

Without even having a payment gateway set up.

The crucial thing is that he didn’t let procrastination or any other excuse come in the way of shipping. He kept shipping and writing on Indie Hackers after that.

4 months later PDF Shift was launched on Product Hunt. At this point it already had 1000+ registered users on the app.

With a strategic launch PDFShift ended up getting 1059 upvotes and achieved product of the day.

This was Cyril’s PH strategy -

• Newsletter to existing users
• Twitter influencers
• Facebook groups
• Articles on subreddits and Indie Hackers

Quora Marketing

The Product Hunt Launch got a lot of eyeballs for PDF Shift.

But traffic from PH dies out gradually, you can’t rely on it for the long term.

So after that Cyril started to get active on Quora to get customers. He started answering all questions around HTML to PDF conversion, adding value to the platform, and also promoting PDF Shift in a non-spammy way.

You can check out his Quora profile for the kind of answers he wrote.

Organic Growth

Most channels like Quora or Reddit gradually dry out. That’s when most indie SaaS businesses start relying on organic search.

Same for PDFShift.

According to SimilarWeb, 46% of PDFShift’s total traffic is from organic search.

(Quick Note: I’ve created a super actionable course for the members of the indie masterminds community to get stated with organic SEO. To understand the fundamentals and start getting free traffic from Google. Do join us to get the course)

Top Lessons

Top Lessons from PDFShift’s success -

1. Just ship it, don’t hold back, don’t let procrastination get better of you.
2. Solve a narrow, painful and recurring problem for businesses.
3. Build a great product that customers love using.
4. Leverage communities and forums for initial traffic
5. Product Hunt for massive spike and wide coverage
6. SEO for long term traffic and growth

Further Reading

• PDFShift on Indie Hackers
• How I Developed A $3.5K/Month Tool That Converts HTML To PDF - Starterstory

From the vault -

3 random post from the Superframeworks archives -

• 5 Micro SaaS Ideas You Can Build for Freelancers and Consultants (2024)
• $700K a Year with SEO
• 0 to 8 figure exit in 18 months

🔗 Super Links

Useful links you don’t want to miss -

• My playbook for micro SaaS startups to get to $10k/mo in 3 months - John Rush
• Lessons from hosting community co-working sessions for 5 months - me
• 20.6 Million impressions on Google in the last 12 months for Tiiny - Baretto
• 40 websites to promote your startup and get backlinks for free - Luke Miler
• How Chatbase went from 0 to $4M in ARR bootstrapped in less than 2 years - Yasser

Last week’s top link -

• The future of building SaaS - Greg Isenberg

🤗 How can I help?

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you -

• Join the tiny community of for your big dreams -
  • Feedback sessions/Demo Days to get personalized feedback 📝
  • Co-working sessions and a peer accountability group with weekly checkins 💪
  • Courses, Tutorials, Workshops on topics like SEO, Copywriting, Landing Pages, and more so that you keep growing 🚀
  • And lots more!
• We support, inform, educate and inspire each other every day. We are a tight knit group of indie hackers and solopreneurs working on our projects. We would love to have you. Entrepreneurship is hard, don’t do it alone. Come join us!
• Get Copy OS - A complete system to write high converting copy (Like a Pro!) - 800+ users and 17 5 star review!
• Make money with words: Find your voice and monetize your writing

Thanks,

Ayush 🙏