Indie Hacker Shares Playbook for AI App Exit

Yifan Goh, a software engineer, started *OurBabyAI* as a side project while working full-time at a Series A startup. He validated the idea for the AI baby photo generator, which he initially thought was "stupid," by building a simple landing page in a single day and getting his first paying customer on April 11, 2023. Initially, Goh fulfilled orders manually using Midjourney and email, a scrappy approach that allowed him to confirm market demand before writing any significant code. After validating the concept, he built a Node.js backend to automate the image generation and emailing process, turning the side project into a passive income stream. The service grew primarily through organic search, ranking on the first page of Google for its keywords. By September 2023, just four and a half months after launch, *OurBabyAI* was generating $1,000 per month. The project's revenue peaked at $2,900 in July 2023 and has generated a total of $12,500. The tech stack relied on a neural network to analyze parents' facial features and generate the baby images. In June 2024, Goh decided to sell the profitable micro-SaaS to focus on new projects. After an unsuccessful listing on an acquisition marketplace, he sold *OurBabyAI* for a five-figure sum to a follower who contacted him directly through a Twitter DM. The buyer was also based in Singapore, just a few streets away from Goh. Goh's journey is a prime example of the "indie hacker" ethos, which involves building and growing self-funded, small-scale businesses. Other notable indie hackers include Pieter Levels, who created Nomad List, and Arvid Kahl, who successfully exited his SaaS product, FeedbackPanda. This approach emphasizes rapid MVP development and leveraging online communities for distribution. For engineers looking to build similar AI-powered side projects, the development timeline for a minimum viable product (MVP) can range from a few days to several weeks, a significant reduction from the 8-12 weeks common in traditional development. This acceleration is made possible by AI-assisted tools that can help with everything from market analysis to code generation. Following the sale, Goh has continued to create, launching "One Page SaaS," a community and resource for building micro-SaaS businesses with minimal code. This new venture is directly influenced by the lessons he learned from building and selling *OurBabyAI*.