Simple App Making $8000/Month Within a Year

The app is StageTimer.io ⏱

It’s a “remote-controlled countdown timer,” mainly used by video producers and event organizers.

2-minute video demo of it here…

The founders are husband-and-wife team Lukas and Liz Hermann, who spoke about the business on a recent podcast.

Lukas got the idea for the app about 18 months ago while at a friend’s recording studio. His friend was running in and out of the studio to start/stop a timer on his laptop. 

Lukas figured he could build a timer that was remote controlled. He was sure someone would have created an app like that already, but there was nothing 🤷‍♂️

He built the first version of the app in a weekend and asked for feedback on Reddit.

Liz explains…

The initial version of Stagetimer was as simple as it gets. The layout was simple and there wasn’t even a landing page. Once you typed stagetimer.io, you would get to a simple timer that would allow you to display a message, a timer, or a combination of both. And, of course, the key element: you could share the timers with others instead of hoping that your guest presenter speaking from the other side of the world has remembered to set a timer before their presentation.

Six months later (June 2022), they launched a paid version and got their first paying customer via another post on Reddit 🥳

Lukas’ choice of subreddit was smart: he posted in r/CommercialAV, a niche community of people “interested in commercial audio, video, and control technologies in all sectors.”

~6 months after launching the paid version, Stage Timer was already pulling in $8000/month, and Lukas said on the aforementioned podcast that he believes it has the potential to reach $1 million ARR 💰

After the initial launch, SEO has apparently been their best channel for customer acquisition.

They rank well for a bunch of timer keywords, such as…

• 30 minute timer
• timer 5 minutes

More importantly, they rank well for technical articles that their ideal customer is likely to google.

For example…

• Run of Show Template & Best Practices
• Event Rundown & Show Flow Guide with Examples

💡 Lukas’ advice for finding a profitable business idea…

Everybody says “Scratch you own itch”

I say “Scratch somebody else’s itch”

You are a young developer? Chances are, all you itches have already been scratched in many ways.

Liz adds…

Lukas and I often play a game where we challenge each other to observe how things around us could be done better. We try to look for inefficiencies and problems in everyday activities, and then come up with solutions and ideas for how to fix them.

This game has given us a lot of great ideas for potential businesses.

Get 10 more business ideas in your inbox each week