How a Solo Founder Built a SaaS by Selling to Breweries

**Fexingo** (0:01)
So today, I want to talk about a solo founder who built a SaaS product specifically for breweries. And not the big guys, I'm talking about the independent craft breweries, the ones with a taproom and maybe distribution in a few counties.

**Luna** (0:15)
That's a pretty tight niche. How many breweries are we actually talking about in the US?

**Fexingo** (0:21)
About 9,000 according to the Brewers Association as of 2025 And the founder I looked at, let's call him Mike, realized most of those breweries were still using spreadsheets or pen and paper to track inventory, batch records and compliance paperwork.

**Luna** (0:38)
That sounds like a nightmare for a brewer who's also trying to run a business.

**Fexingo** (0:43)
Exactly.
So Mike built a simple inventory tracker first. Just one feature, log each ingredient, malt, hops, yeast, and when you use it, you put it on a free tier.
No credit card required, just an e-mail sign up.

**Luna** (1:00)
Free, one feature, no sign up friction. Classic move.

**Fexingo** (1:05)
Right. He launched on a homebrew forum and in a couple of Facebook groups for craft brewers.
Within three months, he had 200 breweries using the free version. And here's the key, he watched what they did.

**Luna** (1:19)
He used the free tier as market research.

**Fexingo** (1:22)
Exactly. He saw that the ones who stuck around were the ones who consistently logged batches. And they kept asking, can you add a way to track when a batch is ready?
And can you export this for our tax filings? So instead of guessing what to build next, he built exactly what his most engaged users asked for.

**Luna** (1:42)
That's the opposite of the build it and they will come approach. He let his users design the product roadmap for him.

**Fexingo** (1:50)
Yes. And that's how he ended up with three paid tiers.
The free version still just does inventory. The $25 a month plan adds batch tracking and a basic dashboard. The $99 plan includes compliance reports, things like the TTB formula reports for federal excise tax. That's a headache every brewery has to deal with.

**Luna** (2:13)
So he solved the boring but painful problem. That's the real moneymaker.

**Fexingo** (2:18)
Exactly.
He told me that 40 breweries are on the paid tiers right now, and the average customer stays for over 2 years. That's a 95% retention rate. So he's got about $50,000 in annual recurring revenue as a solo founder.

**Luna** (2:35)
That's a solid micro SAS. And he's doing it without venture capital, without a team.

**Fexingo** (2:42)
And here's the part one find really smart. He doesn't try to sell to every brewery. He focuses on the ones that produce less than 10,000 barrels a year.
That's about 80% of craft breweries. The bigger ones have custom ERP systems. The small ones are his sweet spot.

**Luna** (3:01)
That's a great example of knowing exactly who your customer is and who it isn't.

**Fexingo** (3:06)
And the way he acquired customers is also interesting. He didn't run ads. He did two things.
First, he wrote a free guide on how to streamline your brewery's compliance process and put it on a landing page. Second, he reached out to brewing consultants and offered them a commission for every referral. That's it.

**Luna** (3:27)
So a lead magnet and an affiliate program, both low cost and highly targeted.

**Fexingo** (3:34)
And both played to his strength.
He's a solo founder. He doesn't have a marketing budget, but he can write a guide and send a few dozen emails.

**Luna** (3:44)
It also helps that breweries talk to each other. I've seen that in other niche industries too.
Word of mouth spreads fast when the community is tight knit.

**Fexingo** (3:53)
Absolutely. And by building a product that genuinely makes their lives easier, he turned his users into evangelists. One of the things he said in our conversation, he asked his first 10 paid customers, what would you do if my product disappeared tomorrow?
And they said they'd have to hire someone part time just to handle compliance paperwork.

**Luna** (4:14)
That's the kind of dependency you want. You're not a nice to have. You're a must have.

**Fexingo** (4:19)
Exactly.
So the lesson here isn't just about picking a niche. It's about picking a niche where the problem is so specific and so painful that the customer is actively looking for a solution. And then letting those customers tell you exactly what to build.

**Luna** (4:35)
This is the kind of story that makes me think about the opportunity in overlooked industries. There are so many micro SAS opportunities out there.

**Fexingo** (4:43)
If these conversations are useful for what you're building or running, we keep the show going thanks to a small group of listeners who chip in monthly through buymeacoffee.com/fexingo. That's what lets us stay ad free and focus on stories like this one.