Michael Gerogiannis

Trying to escape the 9-5

Building $0/mo

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

I'm a software engineer.

So when marketing scared me, I shipped a feature.

Scared again? Another feature.

Almost 8 months of this.

Now I have a gorgeous padel club management SaaS and zero customers.

Started sending some DMs over the past weeks.

Most get ignored. 😮‍💨

Hardest thing I've done. Should've started on day one.

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

Apparently my job title is becoming less useful than my AI personality. 😅

The real question now is:

am I prototyping, building, sweeping, growing... or just maintaining my coffee intake?

[Brett Calhoun @brettcalhounn]

My favorite founders all have one thing in common: they refuse to quit.

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

@TheSpacerr Thanks man much appreciated! I'll definitely try it out 😊

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

A couple of months ago, a newsletter platform approached me offering to market my saas on their feed for €2,000.

Having 0 paying customers,
I told them it was out of my budget and that I'd revisit it later.

Fast forward to today... I'm wondering:

Did I make the right call, or was I too cautious?

Curious what you'd have done 👇

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

@SimonHoiberg I liked the "university" part I think my product desperately needs it 👌

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

@Joelpillar1 Definitely the marketing part!

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

@marclou @trust_mrr It would be interesting if we could see revenue distribution per domain/market

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

@LoganTGott I got it completely wrong! 😂

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

@AdityaShips It seems this is the way to go! I have already 3 projects that actually solve problems I face myself which I am about to share the journey

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

@indiesoftwaredv What kind of services do you freelance?

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

@pmitu Did Claude ask the person?

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

@RatheeJaisal Congrats 👏 did you change something on what's offered on the plan?

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

Thanks for this 🙏

Here's exactly what I tried for my padel club management saas:

Instagram → Posting features. Sending DMs. I actually had a few phone calls with the club manager in which I was trying to book a demo of the app. Most of the DMs were simple ignored.

Facebook groups → Checked some padel communities. I realized that are more for padel players who want to engage with each other. So not my audience.

Cold email → Pitched club owners on "manage your club better." I tried to personalize them by checking which are the tools the club already uses and tailor my message based on their painpoint.

In every attempt that I mentioned I was trying actually to solve their painpoints instead of selling.

I actually offered to some of them 6 months of free trial just to get familiar with the app!

The thing that kinda worked for me was to travel myself to padel clubs with my laptop and show direclty a demo of my app to a manager (if I was lucky enough to find a manager at the time I got there) but that's not feasible from my side.

The problem I realized I have is that I find it very hard to get to show a demo of what the app does to potential customers and convince them that I am trying to solve their problems.

Based on all the above, I would genuinely love your feedback. What's worked for you? 🚀

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

I’ve tried almost everything to get my SaaS in front of the right people.

❌ Instagram
❌ Facebook groups
❌ Cold email
❌ Reddit

None of them really worked.

So I’m trying something different.

Starting today, I’m going to distribute my content on LinkedIn too.

Let's see if that sticks.

I'll share the results publicly. 🚀

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

@danielba777_ Great that worked for you 👏
I'm trying to figure it out for my business too

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

OpenAI shipped GPT-5.6.

Half an hour later, Anthropic posted this 👇

As a solo builder, I don't care who wins. I just enjoy the crossfire. 🍿

[ClaudeDevs @ClaudeDevs]

We've reset 5-hour and weekly rate limits for all users.

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

@i_mika_el Indeed 😂

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

I posted on LinkedIn to promote my padel SaaS.

> 1,510 impressions
> 1,065 people reached
> 11 reactions
> 4 comments
> 1 follower

Then I read the audience breakdown:
→ 25% software developers
→ 15% IT services
→ Top job title: "Software Engineer" (15%)
→ Padel club owners? basically 0%
I was pitching a padel club management tool to a room full of… engineers. My exact peers. Nobody who'd ever buy it.
But here's the part that actually made me laugh:
One of the 4 comments was an automated one from a bot account belonging to a company that builds THE EXACT SAME PRODUCT I do.
A competitor's growth-hack bot came to farm engagement on my post, in front of my audience of engineers, on a product neither of us is reaching the right buyers for.
Building in public means watching your distribution problem unfold in real time.
Lesson: reach ≠ relevance. 1,000 wrong people are worth less than 10 right ones.

[Michael Gerogiannis @michaelg_me]

@danielba777_ How is it going with tiktok as marketing channel?