Tag

#retention

2 posts tagged.

Why we killed our SaaS at $12K MRR (a post-mortem)

Cadence reached $12,400 in MRR with 140 accounts and an up-and-to-the-right graph — then the founders shut it down on purpose. This is the post-mortem of the most dangerous number in startups: too much to walk away from, too little to live on. The retention they didn't track, the customer they optimized for and shouldn't have, the fork they took too late, and the unusually honest way they ended it.

May 28, 202610 min read4

Lessons

A 90-day post-mortem of a failed AI app launch

The app worked. The demo hit 140,000 views and 412 people signed up on launch day. Ninety days later: 11 paying users, ~$209 MRR, and an $8,000 monthly burn. This is the boring middle where AI products actually die — the retention cliff the launch hid, the month spent building the wrong thing, the five user calls that came too late, and the specific trap of an AI demo that's too good to be true.

April 30, 202610 min read7