A SaaS Solopreneur's Toolkit: sharing my tech stack ($5.3k MRR)

[johnnyrockets]

Hi r/entrepreneur! Quick intro– my name is Jen and I'm the company of one (engineer, designer, support and all-around solopreneur) behind Lunch Money, a personal finance and budgeting web app. The product was launched back in late Aug 2019 (approx. 1 year and 4 months ago). Today, it has ~830 paying users and ~USD$5.3k in monthly recurring revenue.

I get asked a lot what Lunch Money's stack is so I finally took time to jot everything down. Excited to share with this community, of which I've mostly been a lurker.

Legend:[OSS = Open source][B = Bootstrapped]

Technology (all OSS)

• Node.js
• React
• Jekyll
• PostgreSQL
• Redis
• Typescript

Platforms

• Heroku
• Netlify

APIs

• Plaid
• Zabo
• Fixer.io
  [*]Twilio
  [*]Postmark
  

Utilities (all OSS)

• Bull
• Mocha
• passport.js
• svgo

Services

• Github
• CircleCI
• Sentry [OSS]
• Logentries
• Cloudflare
• Stripe
• EmailOctopus
  [*]Taskforce
  

Apps

• Atom [OSS]
• Postico
  [*]Postman
  [*]Loom
  [*]Slack
  [*]ImageOptim [OSS]
  [*]CopyClip
  

Design

• Semantic UI [OSS]
• Chart.js [OSS]
• Sketch
• ColorSlurp
  [*]CloudApp
  [*]Stockio
  

Productivity

• Noteplan 3
  [*]Daily
  [*]Harvest
  [*]1Password
  [*]Google Docs/Sheets
  [*]ClickUp
  [*]Gmail
  [*]Streak
  [*]Forestry
  

Business

• Transferwise
• Google Forms
• Email Meter
  [*]ProfitKit
  [*]Google Analytics
  [*]Ahrefs
  

Hardware

• Apple Macbook Pro 15"
• Nexstand Laptop Stand
• Goldtouch Bluetooth Foldable Keyboard
• Asus 24" Monitor
• AverMedia Microphone
• ISM Bag
  

Thanks for reading! If you're interested, the full list is further compiled here with links and description on how I use each item. And feel free to let me know if you have any questions!

Edit 1: Wow! I've been on reddit for over 12 years and this is the first time I've ever received awards. Thank you, kind strangers!

Edit 2: I am humbled by the response to this post! Thanks to everyone for the kind words. I'm based in Taipei these days so it's bed time now and I will get back to replying to comments in the AM!

Edit 3: Really feeling the love & support everyone, thank you! I'm in it for the long haul with Lunch Money and I'm looking forward to continuously sharing and learning with this community!

 

[believeinmiracles]

@johnnyrockets What’s your exprience been woth Heroku? Is it a good and affordable devops platform?

 

[johnnyrockets]

@believeinmiracles It's been great for me as someone who would rather not focus too much time on the devops side of things. It definitely gets more expensive at scale as mentioned in another comment but the trade-off is worth it for me right now. Maybe down the line I will take the time to migrate over to AWS or GCP.

 

[jcn]

@johnnyrockets Dockerize that where and when you can. It will make the move to AWS a piece of cake. We moved from heroku to AWS in the early days and haven’t looked back.

 

[unclefester]

@jcn Do you have any resources to share on using Docker and AWS? I have been trying to get my Django/React app on AWS for a while but always hit a wall somewhere. Would love some advice.

 

[jcn]

@unclefester Yeah! It’s been a bit. I’ll gather what we’ve used and get back to you. Don’t let me forget

 

[ablooeyedangel]

@unclefester As we have also been experiencing this lack of available, easy to digest knowledge. Maybe there is something we are missing?

 

[unclefester]

@ablooeyedangel There are plenty of AWS docs, but none of them seem to work for me. I follow the directions, and then get some esoteric, nondescript errors with no ways to figure them out. In the meantime I’ve been using Render, since it’s incredibly easy - but it’s also a lot more expensive.

 

[ablooeyedangel]

@unclefester Yeah, there is market in solving this I believe. Not for me though

 

[johnnyrockets]

@jcn Awesome, thanks for the tip!

 

[613jono]

@believeinmiracles I scaled my startup to $25mm ARR on Heroku Enterprise before bothering to move off of it. The extra cost was worth it for years compared to hiring a small devops team. Lets you build web scale apps without the complexity of AWS. And we achieved SOC 2 Type II compliance on it. It’s easy to move to AWS eventually if you dockerize your deployments early on

 

[ess99]

@613jono What was your startup? Or can you could describe it in words if you don't want to share the URL.

 

[613jono]

@ess99 Reflektive - HR performance management software. Still going strong! But I left recently to work on other things

 

[johnnyrockets]

@613jono Thanks for the insights! I definitely appreciate Heroku for doing the devops heavy lifting and will look into dockerizing.

And oh hey, small world! I've crossed paths briefly with Erick way early in my career. Congrats on all the success and wish you all the best in your next endeavours

 

[613jono]

@johnnyrockets Oh cool - was just in a zoom with him today. Best of luck in your project

 

[idarville]

@613jono Good point in that the extra cost was worth it instead of hiring a team.

That's essentially it; we're just trading money to give us more time, take the hassle off our shoulders of learning a platform like AWS, etc.

If we don't have the budget, then we're usually just trading our personal time because we have to learn these services.

 

[khazarian1]

@believeinmiracles To start yes and I developed on it.

 

[missymomof3ky]

@believeinmiracles

affordable

Most people I know who use it say it's expensive at scale.

 

[rblazer]

@believeinmiracles For anyone reading, there are two good PaaS alternatives to Heroku now as well. Render.com and Digitalocean App Platform.

 

[dragondriver]

@johnnyrockets I love these kinds of posts. Stack sharing gives a great insight into how you build your web app and SAAS.