Iulian Nastase

Building to $10k/month 🚀
WP dev → SaaS

💼 Job ($2k+)
🆘 (Free for makers)
💻 (building)

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

My first SaaS! 🚀

But first, a short-long story, haha :))

Well, technically, my first finished SaaS.

I actually started building another one related to X, but never finished it. Then, while following @marclou, I saw him launch Ship or Die, and something clicked.

I've always been the kind of guy who, if I need something, I'd rather build it myself. Well, mostly in WordPress, haha.

I had almost zero knowledge of Next.js, and honestly, no idea how to build a proper SaaS.

But then Codex came along. Or as I like to call him, "the boy with glasses" 🤓

That's my bro, haha. He's been helping me build things, understand the code, fix my mistakes, and learn along the way.

Watching people like Marc and @levelsio made me realize something: why not just build things I'd actually use myself?

And that's how ShipOrSleep started.

The name was partly inspired by Marc's "Ship", and the actual idea came from something I've been doing for years: tracking my work hours.

I've had a time-tracking app on my phone for years, but I always felt like it was missing something.

So I thought, why not build my own? Something better, with a few more features, a public profile, a leaderboard, and a directory where people can discover what others are building.

Sounds simple, right?

Well, here's the problem with me. :))

I start with a small idea. I build it. I think it's finally ready.

And then my brain goes:

"What if we also added this?"
"Oh, and this would be cool!"
"Wait, what about this feature?"
And suddenly I've added another 10 things, changed half the website, and I'm still not completely happy with it.
Every. Single. Time. 😂

And yes, I know we're living in the AI era, where you can write a prompt and have a website running in a few hours.

But unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?), I'm the kind of person who wants to understand what I'm building.

I want to know what's inside the files, how things work, why something breaks, and how to fix it.

Even the smallest changes. I like being involved.

I started working on ShipOrSleep back in June.

So far, I've put around 190 hours into it.

Not crazy numbers, I know, but I also have a full-time job, so most months I can only spend around 50 hours on my own projects. Sometimes 100 if I'm lucky.

Hopefully, next year I'll be working for myself again.

Before getting a full-time job, I actually spent over 10 years working for myself, building and selling WordPress themes on ThemeForest / Envato and doing freelance work.

And man, I miss that freedom. :))

Anyway, back to ShipOrSleep.

One question you might have is:

Why is almost everything free?

Well, that wasn't the original plan.

Like most people building a SaaS, I initially thought about subscriptions and paid features.

But then I started seeing how Marc was making money from advertising while offering free tools.

And then I saw @robj3d3 talking with Marc about ads, pricing, and how he made around $9k from his first ads.

I was like... WAIT, WHAT?! :))

That completely changed the way I was thinking about monetization.

What if, instead of putting everything behind a paywall, I made most features free?

Build something people actually want to use, give them reasons to come back, grow the traffic, and eventually monetize with ads.

Of course, there's also a membership with a few extra features, because hey, servers aren't free. :))

But I want the core experience to stay free.

And the more I think about it, the more I like this model.

I'm not trying to build something just to charge $19/month for it.

I want to build useful things. Things I'd use myself. Things other people might actually enjoy using too.

And if I can eventually make money through advertising while keeping most of the experience free, even better.

So yeah, expect more projects from me in the future.

Probably free. Probably with ads.

And probably with way too many features because I can't stop myself from adding stuff. 😂

Anyway, ShipOrSleep is live!

👉 https://t.co/BcUDvtqUhC

It's my first finished SaaS, I'm still learning, and I'm sure there's a lot I could improve.

If you have a few minutes, give it a try. I'd genuinely love to hear what you think, what you'd change, or what features you'd add.

And a special thanks to @robj3d3 for the inspiration!

Bro, I pretty much stole your radio section idea, haha. Sorry about that! 😂

And the site analytics inspiration too. Love what you're building, man!

That's it. My first SaaS, my first proper build-in-public post, and hopefully the beginning of something cool.

Back to building. 🚀

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@vincenzo_naked @X Always happy to meet other builders. Followed! 🤝

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

Day 4/100 of trying to grow on @X 🚀
Looking for indie hackers, SaaS founders, developers, and people building cool stuff.

Drop your SaaS, side project, or whatever you're working on and let's #connect

I'll start first, my first SaaS, and btw, ShipOrSleep is free to use. Track your work. Launch up to 3 projects for free with do follow (directory), free profile. Build in public🚀
https://t.co/BcUDvtqUhC

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@dev_bre @X Hey Andy, just followed you! 🤝

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@LeadFreshAI @X You forgot to connect on a post that's say connect :))

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@read__the__diff @X Just followed you!
You'll see a lot of SaaS projects from me in the future :))
Keep shipping! 🚀

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@builtnewai @X Thank you and good luck to you too with your project, keep shipping! 🚀

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@CleanFix_Dev Everything from scratch - every idea it's different.
Only https://t.co/LqpgayNuJ8 needs to be updated with all the themes and new design.

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@StateraPax @X It seems you are afraid of the follow button :))
Followed, let's connect! 🤝

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@FritzReigar @X Just followed you! 🚀
Also, you can add your website for free here https://t.co/WLoXpLcWLv

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@scooby_dooby07 @X Just followed you! 🤝

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@builtnewai @X Just followed you, let's connect! 🤝

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@steviee_dev @X Lovely!! Just followed you! 🤝

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@Denche2005 @X Just followed! 🙌

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@eliadeleoai @X Heyy! Just followed you! 🤝

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@tobirastudio @X Just followed! 🤝
Keep shipping! 🚀

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@Isaac_Dev0 @X Always happy to meet other builders. Followed! 🤝

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@manali_manek01 @X Just followed! 🚀

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@damitour @X Hey Dam, just followed! 🙌

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@vlinx_soft @X Just followed you. Keep shipping! 🚀

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@ZeeshhDecodes @X Thank you, Zeeshh!
Always happy to meet other builders. Let's connect! 🚀

[Iulian Nastase @iuliantenk]

@ZionE8T @X Always happy to meet other builders. Followed! 🤝