My 2025 SaaS Challenge: $2,000 to $7,500 MRR by December

It's the year to reach for new heights.

Last year, I hit my revenue goal of $2,000 MRR when I grew Picture It from $900 MRR, 2.2x gain with about $50,000 in expenses. I've been inspired by Kit founder Nathan Barry's blogs to set a loftier goal and document my journey this year.

To start, I'm aiming for $7,500 MRR this year. Why this specific number? $7,500 MRR will give me a total annual revenue of $90,000, equal to the salary of my second year out of college - an adequate amount to consider taking this full-time (I'm currently growing this on the side of a full-time job).

Secondly, I'm going to place a restriction on myself, because I believe creativity occurs at the bounds of limitations - where I'll be forced to think outside the box instead of just throwing money at something.

Here are the restrictions:

• Work with only one developer by the end of April: I hired another developer at an agency to help build some larger features. Given those will all be complete in the next month or two, I'll be able to free up some capital.
• I can only invest $10,000 more into my business: Previously, I've been putting parts of my full-time paycheck into business account to fund development. By not relying on this money, I will be dependent on acquiring customers for funding.
• Cut out distractions: All time spent outside of my full-time job will be focused on building my SaaS business. Any hobbies not involving my health and fitness will be a distraction.

Now the bigger question, how do I plan to hit my goal?

Market like hell. We're already a category leader in the app store, are growing in SEO, and are "Built for Shopify", so we have an engine. We just need that extra fuel to accelerate the growth. Some things I plan to do:

• Establish partnerships: I intend on meeting more Shopify app and agency owners to see how we can co-market. I also would like to see how I can work with other artists/art sellers for content.
• Email outreach: Cold email's starting to get a bad rap because it's all automated, they get your name wrong, and have no idea what your business does. I've got hundreds of leads built up and hope to deliver the opposite of that - personalized, intimate emails that may cost a little extra time for research, but will hopefully pay off.
• Create content: We need to establish ourselves as experts in augmented reality for eCommerce by proving content on how our app improves art store conversions. I also hope to use this blog and my personal socials to reflect on what I learn as I build.

Let's check back in 2026.