How I Built It: $23K/month micro-saas

Andy Cloak

• Founder of Data Fetcher, a solo founder based in London
• Studied engineering at university but never loved it; taught himself to code
• Worked as a freelance React developer in London while launching side projects
• First successful side project: a TikTok influencer directory (scraping TikTok, selling data as SaaS)
• Sold the TikTok directory after it reached a few thousand dollars per month in MRR
• Used proceeds to buy time off to work on something more sustainable
• While trying to launch an IPOs newsletter, pulled financial data into Airtable to manage it
• This experience seeded the idea for Data Fetcher

Data Fetcher

• Airtable extension that lets users connect to any other platform via APIs
• Automatically schedules data fetching into Airtable databases
• Highly flexible tool with diverse use cases: marketing data (Facebook ads, Google Analytics), operations workflows
• Continues to surprise Andy with new use cases even 5 years in
• Currently at 600 paying customers and $23,000/month recurring revenue

Revenue Journey

• First customer acquired after a few days (benefit of early marketplace positioning)
• 1K MRR after a few months through content marketing
• 3K MRR after one year
• 10K MRR after first year after building no-code integrations
• 20K MRR after 3 years
• Currently at 23K MRR

Growth Strategy

• Identified a proven add-on pattern from an established platform (API Connector for Google Sheets had 100,000 users)
• Validated the idea by checking Airtable forums for pain points
• Content marketing around popular integrations (blog posts, YouTube videos)
• Built no-code integrations to serve less technical users
• Continuous customer feedback loop: talking to users, building improvements, then telling people about it

Platform Opportunity Framework

• Step 1: Find a growing platform using tools like Exploding Topics
• Step 2: Find a pain point on that platform through forums, Reddit, Twitter
• Step 3: Borrow a proven add-on or pattern from a more established platform (including UX)
• Step 4: Check if you can integrate (public API, marketplace, extension SDK)
• Step 5: Do napkin maths on opportunity size (platform users, problem commonality, willingness to pay)
• Step 6: Assess platform risk—will they build this natively? Check roadmap and support forums

Recommended Platforms to Build On

• Notion: Still growing fast, relatively new API, opportunities in automation, reporting, and data movement
• Figma: Opportunities around exporting to Webflow, Framer, and other CMS tools
• Avoid building on ChatGPT or Claude due to extreme competition

Tech Stack

• Extension: TypeScript, React, Airtable extension SDK
• Backend: TypeScript, PostgreSQL, GraphQL, Node.js
• Frontend (marketing site): Next.js, Tailwind, ShadCN
• Hosting: Heroku (API, database), Hetzner (workers)
• Support: Help Scout
• Email: Fastmail, MailerLite
• Analytics: Plausible, ChartMogul
• Operations: Airtable for product roadmap and content pipeline

Costs and Margins

• Hosting: $2,500/month
• SaaS tools: ~$1,000/month
• Co-working space: $150/month
• Total margin: 85%

Lessons and Advice

• Focus over shiny objects: Wasted 6 months on side businesses when growth slowed and got bored; now uses Claude as a “business coach” to stay accountable and focused on what’s working
• Do proper user testing early and often: Spent almost a year without speaking to users; one afternoon of user interviews revealed UX issues that increased revenue, usage, and engagement almost overnight
• Platform risk is real but manageable: Airtable sits between scripting and no-code imports, making it unlikely they’ll build a direct competitor
• Benefits of building on a platform: Distribution through marketplace, qualified leads who trust platform-approved tools, perfect indie hacker opportunity size (not too big to attract funded competitors)